- Teamsters President Sean O’Brien speaks at the RNC — a first for the union.
- O’Brien’s message was aimed at encouraging bipartisan cooperation toward labor goals.
- Critics argued that O’Brien’s speech legitimized Trump’s anti-union record.
Even before Teamsters President Sean O’Brien took the historic step Monday of becoming the first union president to address the Republican National Convention, other members were upset about his cozying up to Donald Trump.
In a scathing opinion piece published July 10, Teamsters Vice President John Palmer said O’Brien’s appearance “regardless of message, simply normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and President I have ever seen in my lifetime seem acceptable.”
And in January, when O’Brien met with Trump, James Curbeam, the national chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, called the former president a “traitor masquerading as a union supporter,” The New York Times reported.
Amid scrutiny from his union members and some right-wing anti-union groups at the RNC, O’Brien explained that his goal in speaking at the convention was to encourage bipartisan cooperation in achieving the labor movement’s goals.
“The Teamsters are here to say that we are not beholden to any person or party,” O’Brien declared on stage before hundreds of delegates and the former president himself.
While O’Brien may have good intentions in trying to uphold his union’s interests, national radio host and Teamster Rick Smith said O’Brien is “a dancing horse that Republicans will ride into the general election.”
Smith told Business Insider that he agreed with much of O’Brien’s onstage remarks: In a room full of conservatives, the union boss slammed the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and The Business Roundtable, “corporatists,” and “greedy businessmen.” But O’Brien also praised Trump, calling the former president “a candidate who is not afraid to hear new, loud and often critical voices.”
“The problem is that no one in the room cared,” Smith said. “They knew why O’Brien was there. He was there to legitimize Trump’s bad record.”
Smith said O’Brien also sent a message that “neither party cares about workers,” which Smith said is not true. He pointed out, for example, that Biden is pouring billions of dollars into Teamster pension plans in 2022.
“To go into the RNC and say ‘everyone sucks and everything is bad’ is like a slap in the face, considering Joe Biden saved the Teamsters pension fund, considering Donald Trump’s track record is terrible, and Joe Biden’s track record is great,” Smith said.
O’Brien and the Teamsters continued to defend his decision to speak at the right-wing convention.
“Teamsters members have never been afraid of democracy, but self-interested ideologues — on the left and the right, inside and outside the union — are afraid of democracy,” Teamsters spokeswoman Kara Deniz previously told the Times.
Smith said that in the case of bipartisanship, “every time we have bipartisanship, it’s the workers who pay the price.” In contrast, he said, O’Brien’s appeal to Republicans will divide workers.
“At a time when we have unprecedented interest in people joining and forming unions, this kind of division in the labor movement, I don’t think it’s helpful. Giving this kind of platform to someone who is destructive is not helpful,” Smith said.
The Teamsters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
