In an unexpected political convergence, Teamsters union president Sean O’Brien announced he had met privately with Donald Trump, raising questions about where Teamsters will be The question of who to support in 2024 has drawn the ire of progressive members of the union.
The meeting comes as Joe Biden and his Republican challengers, led by Trump, are trying to appeal to workers and labor groups. The move comes three years after Biden and his administration announced they would provide workers with the most pro-union presidency in U.S. history.
The Teamsters, a union with 1.3 million members in packaging, trucking, manufacturing and logistics industries, promoted the meeting on its official channels, thanking Trump “for taking the time to listen during this private meeting.” A top priority for the Teamsters Union,” and announced an upcoming roundtable with former presidents and rank-and-file union members. In a separate statement, Trump shared a photo of himself and O’Brien giving a thumbs up at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort.
But left-wing Teamsters leaders said the meeting caught them off guard. When O’Brien was elected as union leader in 2021, it was in part because of the support of the Progressive Labor Alliance, which saw O’Brien as a promising alternative to union conservatives, notably Hoffa. The union, an affiliate of the family controlled by the Hoffa family, once known for its militancy, ushered in an era of corruption and scandal. O’Brien Slate promises to restore Teamsters to fighting union.
“I still can’t believe it,” said Richard Hooker Jr., financial secretary of Teamsters Local 623 and vice chairman of the Philadelphia AFL-CIO board of directors. “As leaders, we must do a better job of explaining to our members that a vote for Trump is a vote against your pension, a vote for Trump is a vote against organized workers, a vote for Trump is a vote against the working class.”
On this week’s special Martin Luther King Day podcast, Hook discusses the photo with Chris Silvera, secretary and treasurer of New York Local 808. “They’re not Republicans anymore — they should throw that name away,” Silvera said of the former Trump administration. “They are Confederates.”
Jess Lister, a store attendant in Georgia and a member of the Teamsters LGBTQ Caucus who helped lead a campaign to organize part-time UPS workers, called the meeting “a kick in the pants.” slap”. Lister added that she was not endorsing any of the leading candidates or Biden, but she found Trump’s meetings particularly galling because he had packed the courts with anti-union judges and oversaw the National Labor Relations Board that issued the ruling. Board (NLRB) makes it harder for workers to organize.
“He has a long history of racism, hatred towards women, minorities, LGTBQ people – he doesn’t accept other people,” Lister said. “Our union president should not even consider the idea of a meeting. This should not even be on the table.”
The Teamsters Association has issued an open invitation to presidential candidates to meet with their members and leadership. But Trump was apparently the first real contender to accept their offer — previous contacts include hopefuls Asa Hutchinson, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Marianne Williamson, Cornell West and Dean Phillips.
Union votes are coveted and can help determine election outcomes, especially in relatively union-heavy swing states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. In 2016, Trump gained unexpected support from some Teamster members who had historically voted Democratic.
Teamsters union spokesperson Carla Deniz said she has not heard from members who are concerned about Trump’s meeting and said the candidates’ meeting represents a good-faith effort to inform members about candidates for public office.
“Ignoring the front-runners on the Republican side would be harmful to our members,” Deniz said. Biden also agreed to meet with the unions, according to Deniz.
The Teamsters Democratic Union (TDU), a left-leaning rank-and-file caucus that has historically supported O’Brien’s campaign, did not respond to a request for comment.
The Teamsters leader broke away from most major labor groups in his meeting with Trump, many of which rejected Trump’s third bid outright.
The UAW elected union leaders like O’Brien last year promising to bring democracy and militancy to the union, but declined an offer to meet with Trump during this fall’s strike, saying The possibility of a second Trump would in turn be a “disaster.”
“I don’t think there’s any point in meeting with him because I don’t think this guy cares at all about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for,” said UAW President Sean Fein. Instead, Trump met with non-union auto workers during the strike, telling the audience that the UAW must “support Trump because if they don’t, what they’re doing is committing suicide.”
The United Auto Workers union has also not endorsed Biden so far.
“We’re going to earn recognition,” Fein told CBS’s “Face the Nation” in September. “No matter who the politician is, we know that very well.”
On September 26, Biden joined the UAW picket line in Michigan in a historic effort to gain support from the union.
Unions can play an important role in elections, providing resources and support for labor-friendly candidates and often becoming a key component of Democratic coalitions. Biden has vowed to make himself the “most pro-labor president” in U.S. history, and his administration has achieved some success with the National Labor Council’s ruling, expediting union representation elections and increasing penalties on employers who break the law during union elections. Sanction intensity.
At least 13 member unions of the AFL-CIO, the largest labor federation in the United States, have renewed their support for President Biden through 2024. The federation condemned Trump in a statement in September, calling his record “disastrous for workers.”
“We cannot afford four more years of Trump’s corporate agenda, stripping us of our hard-won gains and destroying our unions,” they wrote.
