International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien made a splash Monday night with his remarks during the Republican National Convention.
Given the closing speech of the convention’s first day, O’Brien did not endorse former President Donald Trump, but thanked him for the opportunity to speak and made it known he is breaking from his union’s recent history of throwing its full weight behind Democrats.
“Today, the Teamsters are here to say that we are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien said. “We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker.”
O’Brien later lashed out at corporate welfare, nationless elites, and “economic terrorism,” remarks that drew a decidedly less enthusiastic response. But perhaps more notable than anything he said was the simple fact that O’Brien, leader of a 1.3-million member union that endorsed both Hillary Clinton and President Joe Biden, was speaking at the RNC at all.
He claimed to be the first Teamsters president in the union’s 121-year history to speak at a a Republican National Convention.
Labor unions traditionally back Democrats with endorsements and millions of dollars in campaign donations. Biden launched his last campaign at a union hall in Pittsburgh and often calls himself the most pro-union president in history. The Teamsters are one of the only non-law enforcement unions that has not backed Donald Trump, a fact O’Brien proudly pointed out.
“The Teamsters are not interested in whether you have an ‘R’ or a ‘D’ beside your name,” O’Brien said. “We want to know one thing — what are you doing to help American workers?”
O’Brien has also requested a speaking spot at next month’s Democratic National Convention, and Reuters reported earlier Monday that the Teamsters were unlikely to endorse either candidate. Nonetheless, the outlet described the news as a “blow to Biden.”
The Teamsters, whose union members include truckers and UPS drivers, have a largely male, non-college membership that leans more Republican than unions representing teachers or service workers. The group endorsed Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush in days gone by but has backed the Democrat in each of the last two elections.
Dan Bowling, who teaches labor law courses at Georgia State University, said he wasn’t surprised to see O’Brien speak and predicted that most Teamsters members will vote for Trump.
“Trump does have a pro-working class message much more so than Biden,” he said. “I talk to working-class people a lot, I talk to labor people a lot. They are almost unanimously pro-Trump.”
Bowling was surprised by some of O’Brien’s more traditional union talking points, saying at times he sounded “like Jimmy Hoffa on a box outside a warehouse somewhere.”
Nonetheless, his presence represents an opportunity for Republicans. Both Trump and Biden are intensely focused on winning the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and any shift in blue collar voters in those states could decide the election.
Ahead of O’Brien’s speech, Biden campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez issued a statement slamming Trump’s union record.
“More than 30 of the nation’s largest unions have Joe Biden’s back because they know Joe Biden will always fight for working people,” she said. “Joe Biden knows unions built this country and the middle class. He is the most pro-union and pro-worker president ever, defending more than 1 million pensions, creating nearly 16 million jobs, fighting for workers over big greedy corporations, and is the first president to join workers on the picket line.”
Trump, of course, argues otherwise, pointing in particular to the Biden administration’s heavy electric vehicle push as a sign that the president is out of touch and pushing policies that will lead to less unionized jobs in order to build products that the working class cannot afford.
Earlier in the evening, self-described lifelong Democrat Bobby Bartels spoke about Trump visiting a union work site before his days in politics, saying “this union democrat will be voting Trump.” Cameras cut to attendees inside Fiserv Forum wearing hard hats while he was speaking.
Trump’s selection of Sen. J. D. Vance (R-OH), whose working-class background became the subject of a best-selling memoir and a Netflix film, can also be seen as a nod to the Rust Belt thanks to his blue collar bonafides and populist persona.
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Cameras cut to Vance at several points during O’Brien’s speech, with the Ohio senator clapping and smiling at his remarks.
“When President Trump invited me to speak at this convention there was political unrest on the left and on the right,” O’Brien said. “Union groups demanded the president rescind his invitation, and the left called me a traitor. This is precisely why it’s so important for me to be here today.”
