Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien used the first speech by a Teamster at a Republican National Convention to discuss bipartisanship, Amazon and labor reform.
O’Brien’s speech Monday night was an unprecedented exercise in bipartisanship by the Teamsters. He also plans to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. The union has not yet made an endorsement for president this election year.
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace called the speech “partisan and divisive,” releasing a statement slamming the Teamsters president.
Bipartisanship
The union has endorsed Democratic candidates for president since 1992. While O’Brien didn’t say the “e” word at the Republican convention Monday night, he did express a willingness to cross party lines for the sake of workers.
“Today, the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien said in his televised speech at the convention.
The move has drawn some controversy. Teamsters Vice President At-Large John Palmer wrote an opinion piece criticizing O’Brien for planning to speak at the Republican event. But the union president said he didn’t care about being criticized.
“It’s an honor to be the first Teamster in our 121-year history to address the Republican National Convention …,” O’Brien said. “The Teamsters are doing something correct if the extremes in both parties think I shouldn’t be on this stage.”
O’Brien praised former President Donald Trump for “having the backbone to open the doors to this Republican convention.” He also applauded Trump’s grit after the Republican presidential nominee survived an assassination attempt on Saturday.
“President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud and often critical voices,” O’Brien said. “And I think we all can agree – whether people like him or they don’t like him – in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough SOB.”
O’Brien recognized Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, among others, as elected officials who have stood with workers.
“The Teamsters and the GOP may not agree on many issues, but a growing group has shown the courage to sit down and consider points of view that aren’t funded by big-money think tanks,” O’Brien said.
Amazon
O’Brien called out large corporations for “waging a war against labor by forming corporate unions of their own.”
“We need to call the Chamber of Commerce and the business roundtables what they are,” O’Brien said. “They are unions for big business.”
One specific corporation he called out was Amazon, which he argued didn’t have American workers’ interests at heart.
“Amazon is valued at over $2 trillion,” O’Brien said. “That makes it the 14th-largest economy in the world. What is sickening is that Amazon has abandoned any national allegiance. Amazon’s sole focus is on lining its own pockets. Remember: Elites have no party, elites have no nation. Their loyalty is to the balance sheet and the stock price at the expense of the American worker.”
Labor reform
O’Brien said that while the stock market, housing market and corporate salaries are booming, inflation has reduced the income of everyday Americans.
“This has got to change,” O’Brien said. “Never forget: American workers own this nation. We are not renters, we are not tenants, but the corporate elite treat us like squatters and that is a crime. We’ve got to fix it.”
The Teamsters president challenged lawmakers on both sides of the political spectrum to stand up for workers.
“It needs to be easier for companies to remain in America,” O’Brien said. “We need legal protections that make it safer for workers to get a contract. We must stop corporations from abandoning local communities to inflate their bottom line. We need meaningful bankruptcy reform. Today, corporate vultures buy up companies like Yellow Freight with the intent of driving them into bankruptcy and feasting on their remains.”
Business coalition responds
The Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which represents more than 500 major business organizations including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, National Small Business Association, National Restaurant Association, National Retail Federation, National Association of Manufacturers and American Trucking Associations, slammed the Teamsters president’s remarks in a statement released afterward.
“Sean O’Brien chose to use his opportunity to speak at the Republican National Convention to give a partisan and divisive speech that targeted specific companies and denigrated workers who do not wish to associate with a union,” the statement read. “Despite his smoke and mirrors, Teamsters members, who now are equally as likely to identify as Republican as they are Democratic, may want to look into how much of their dues are spent on left-leaning causes, politicians, and entities.”
The group said that “In O’Brien’s ideal world, all workers would be forced into unions, whether they want to be represented or not, while businesses would be prohibited from joining together to limit the reach of their voice. The hypocrisy is remarkable.”
Disclosure: JD Vance is an investor in FreightWaves SONAR through the Rise of the Rest fund.
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