The Teamsters have yet to endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election, but the powerful union’s president sent a strong message by delivering a speech at the Republican National Convention on Monday. Sean O’Brien delivered an impassioned address about how big business and corporate lobbying groups are “waging a war against American workers” to a room full of people who worship Donald Trump — who wants to lower the corporate tax rate to 15 percent.
O’Brien’s turn at the RNC was not appreciated by everyone at the Teamsters. The union’s official Twitter account bashed him on Tuesday after he shared a piece about his speech by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). The piece, titled “The Promise of Pro-Labor Conservatism,” begins by suggesting that American workers are getting screwed because companies are using profits to “push diversity, equity, and inclusion and the religion of the trans flag.”
“Unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right, no matter how much people like Sen. Hawley attempt to tether such bigotry to a cynical pro-labor message,” the Teamsters account wrote on X, adding: “You don’t unite a diverse working class by scoffing at its diversity.”
The Teamsters’ X account also shared a post from The Nation which said, “Despite Sean O’Brien’s support for Trump at the RNC, let’s be clear: A second Trump term would not be a win for the labor movement.” The account separately shared an X post asking: “Did anyone ask Sean O’Brien if he read the part in Project 2025 about Republicans wanting to end overtime pay? Do his union members know about this?” (Project 2025 is conservative groups’ controversial policy agenda for a second Trump term.)
Neither post currently appears on the Teamsters’ feed.
The Teamsters’ social media manager wasn’t the only pro-labor party miffed by O’Brien’s speech. The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that White House aides were “furious” over the appearance given President Biden’s embrace of the labor movement. The Teamsters might not endorse anyone in the presidential race, but the United Auto Workers endorsed Biden in January, and its president Shawn Fain has been fiercely critical of Trump. “Joe Biden bet on the American worker while Donald Trump blamed the American worker,” Fain said while endorsing the president.
O’Brien himself acknowledged what Biden has done for the labor movement this week. “He is definitely the most pro-labor president we’ve ever had,” he told CNN.
The Teamsters have tried to spin O’Brien’s appearance at the RNC as a means of “exposing” the “corporatists” at the RNC, as spokesperson Kara Deniz put it in a statement provided to the Post. “The Teamsters refuse to be pressured to fall in line by those who continue to applaud a broken system,” she added. “We will continue to participate in the political process at all levels on behalf of working people.”
O’Brien also insisted in the speech that the Teamsters “are not beholden to anyone or any party.” He praised Trump during the speech, as well, calling him “one tough SOB.”
O’Brien wants to have it both ways, but the labor movement is skeptical, as is his own union — as evinced not only by the rogue post on X, but what its vice president at large, John Palmer, wrote last week ahead of O’Brien’s appearance at the RNC: “It is unconscionable for any Labor leader to lend an air of legitimacy to a candidate and a political party, neither of which can be said to have done, or can be expected to do, anything to improve the lives of the workers we are pledged to represent.”
