A Union Boss Comes to the RNC
It was a historic first, but does Donald Trump need an endorsement from Sean O’Brien and the Teamsters?
Teamsters President Sean O'Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention Monday in a historic first. No union boss had ever addressed the RNC, and it’s obvious that Donald Trump wants to broaden the tent in a bid for the votes of blue-collar workers.
Despite the United Auto Workers endorsing EV-pushing, open-borders Joe Biden in January, Trump hasn’t given up on the idea of a union shift toward the GOP.
Most labor unions have been Democrat strongholds for decades. You could argue that unions were the original super PACs, using the dues of their members to donate heavily to Democrats and Democrat causes. Yet as I wrote in February, a crack in that façade appeared in the form of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters giving $45,000 to the Republican National Committee.
Monday’s speaking slot for O'Brien was clearly an expression of appreciation for that support and an indication of Trump’s effort to woo the Teamsters for an endorsement.
O'Brien has called Biden “definitely the most pro-labor president we’ve ever had,” but the Teamsters have yet to endorse the incumbent, and the Democratic National Committee has yet to reply to a request for O'Brien to speak at the DNC in late August. “At the end of the day, the Teamsters are not interested if you have a D, R, or an I next to your name,” O'Brien said during his RNC speech. “We want to know one thing: What are you doing to help American workers?”
The Teamsters endorsed Ronald Reagan twice and then George H.W. Bush before backing every Democrat since Bill Clinton in 1992. An endorsement for Trump or no endorsement at all are both in the cards this year.
What price would O'Brien extract for his endorsement?
Trump clearly has the support of a lot of blue-collar workers, something he brought to the GOP in 2016 and 2020. Does he need the endorsement of a union boss to solidify the rank and file? Probably not, though union workers will play key roles in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, all states Trump won in 2016 and would like to win again.
O'Brien’s call to “put workers first” drew loud cheers from the RNC floor. He complained, “I see American workers being taken for granted, workers being sold out to big banks, big tech corporations, the elite.” Such sentiments resonate with workers who are overwhelmed by four years of Bidenomics and Bidenflation.
But O'Brien is a contract negotiator, and if Republicans expect his support, they’re going to pay up. In the sentences just before he said party affiliation doesn’t matter, he said party affiliation does matter. “There are some in the party who stand in active opposition to labor unions,” he said. “This, too, must change.”
He called on the GOP to support the Democrats’ Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which boosts workers’ ability to organize into unions. Nearly all Republicans opposed that bill in 2021. He demanded an end to Republican support for right-to-work laws, which in 27 states allow workers to get jobs without being forced to pay union dues (that end up going to Democrats) in order to do so. The PRO Act would weaken right-to-work.
Democrats and union bosses pretend to stand for workers and couch every one of their laws and policies as doing just that. Conversely, they routinely smear Republicans as being for corporate fat cats instead of workers. The irony is that Democrat policies have hurt workers the most, especially in the last four years, while corporate bosses have utterly succumbed to the radical Left’s agenda in nearly every way.
The Washington Post offers “analysis” that Republicans are “try[ing] to square pro-worker rhetoric with anti-union policies,” but that’s not the correct framing. GOP policies of low taxes and reduced regulation, not to mention secure borders to protect jobs and wages, help workers far more than the latest cockamamie socialist program offered by the Democrats. Tariffs are another matter, costing Americans more money, but labor unions typically support protectionism, as do both Trump and Biden.
Trump need not be directly antagonistic toward O'Brien or other union bosses, though he can thank them for their time and move right on to speaking directly to workers. It’s clear that American workers and their families faired better under Trump than under Biden. There’s no guesswork here, just competing four-year records. The choice is not O'Brien’s but that of the workers he claims to represent.
