Posts tagged GOP
New Jersey’s GOP congressmen make rare break with Trump on collective bargaining
December 15, 2025 // New Jersey is one of the nation’s most heavily unionized states, and the state’s powerful unions frequently support politicians of both parties. Smith and Van Drew have received backing from the New Jersey AFL-CIO in recent re-election campaigns; during Kean’s 2024 campaign, meanwhile, the AFL-CIO chose to stay out of the race, which was seen as a victory for the congressman in a district that Democrats hoped to flip. Notably, though, none of New Jersey’s Republicans were part of the original effort to bring today’s collective bargaining bill to the floor in the first place. A discharge petition to force a vote on the bill got signatures from every House Democrat and five Republicans, but Kean, Van Drew, and Smith did not sign on.
Op-ed: Democrats Caved in the Shutdown Fight. Unions Let Them.
November 13, 2025 // The main rationale provided by AFGE president Everett Kelley was that his members were suffering economically from the shutdown. There’s no doubt that this hurt is very real, and I do not doubt the sincerity of Kelley’s commitment to his membership. But AFGE’s leadership could have decided to pressure Republicans rather than Democrats to end the shutdown. That was a political choice. Rank-and-file AFGE members this morning released an open letter calling on their national leadership to oppose the deal. As one rank-and-file AFGE member wrote to me last night, “Many of us are furious at AFGE leadership
Commentary: Trumpworld thinks overturning this Biden labor rule gives GOP a double-digit midterm elections boost
October 29, 2025 // Only 22% of respondents in Fabrizio’s poll supported the NLRB’s 2023 rule “that allowed unions not to use secret ballots,” with 64% opposed. Fabrizio wrote that Republican Congressional candidates “would benefit significantly from supporting overturning this unpopular rule.” “The initial generic ballot is a statistical dead heat, 44% Democrat – 43% Republican (D+1), but if the Republican candidate supported overturning the NLRB rule so workers could once again rely on secret ballots when voting to unionize, the Republican pulls into a 47% – 36% (R+11) lead, a 12-point shift,” the memo reads. “Among Swing voters, the Republican goes from 1-point ahead to 17-points.”
Republicans invite Teamsters president to testify on labor laws
October 5, 2025 // Cassidy’s invitation comes after the Teamsters’ decision in September 2024 not to endorse a presidential candidate – the first time the union did so since 1996 – and follows O’Brien’s remarks at last year's Republican National Convention, the first time in history that the organization’s leader addressed the RNC. The hearing, which is set to take place next Wednesday, as well as O'Brien’s invitation to it, is emblematic of the GOP’s slow crawl toward embracing parts of a working-class union message that would have turned heads even half a decade ago.
Op-ed: A GOP-Teamsters Alliance Makes No Sense
August 24, 2025 // Republicans getting on board with these ideas aren’t just awkward—they’re incoherent. There’s little evidence that endorsements from Teamsters executives move the needle in general elections, for parties or for candidates. Can Republicans credibly argue that filling the Teamsters’ coffers (and campaign-donation kitty) will result in the sort of political realignment some hope for, or even a lasting political windfall? The only guaranteed outcome is more power for the Teamsters and other unions over U.S. labor relations. If these overtures to the Teamsters backfire, Republicans can’t say they weren’t warned. As one GOP politician running for Missouri attorney general tweeted in 2015, after labor-aligned Republicans derailed state right-to-work legislation, “time for an end to union-backed candidates in GOP.”
Op-ed: Reject The Rail Crew Mandate And Embrace Deregulation
June 24, 2025 // This destructive, union-backed rule undermines voluntary labor-management agreements that already govern crew sizes in a more flexible and effective manner. The Center for Transportation Advancement points out that rigid staffing mandates override productive negotiations and mimic the failed "full crew" laws of the early 1900s—laws long since repealed because they served union interests, not public safety.
Commentary: The Flight of the Unions from the DNC
June 18, 2025 // Only a few short months ago, Weingarten and Saunders both enjoyed plum speaking spots on the stage at the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating convention. There, along with ridiculous figures like the National Education Association’s Becky Pringle, these labor officials presented a united front against Donald Trump’s GOP. Today, they are defenestrated — either by their own hands or Martin’s. Why?
‘Now hold up’: MSNBC host stunned by GOP senators pulling support for Trump nominee
February 9, 2025 // Referring to a report that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has claimed he thinks at least 15 GOP senators will not vote to confirm the nominee, Steele made a point about the hypocrisy involved in the confirmation process. With Paul stating Chavez-DeRemer won't get his vote and telling reporters, "I’m the national spokesman and lead author of the right-to-work bill. Her support for the PRO Act, which would not only oppose national right to work but would pre-empt state law on right to work — I think it’s not a good thing," Steele reacted to "The Weekend' co-host Alicia Menedez's reporting.
Teamsters president said address to GOP convention was to highlight workers, not to endorse Republicans
September 3, 2024 // When asked on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” if he spoke at the convention because he feels former President Trump has been more pro-labor than any other GOP candidates, O’Brien said, “No, not at all.” “I spoke there because it was the ability to highlight how important we are. It was the ability to call out the people, the corporate elitist who forget who built this country, the American workers,” O’Brien continued. “You know, people like to, you know, have their own opinions on why we were there, but I was there to talk about the American workers.”
OP-ED: GOP convention is no place for union leaders
July 15, 2024 // Most of these justices have been appointed by the same Republicans who will be at this convention. This court just overturned the decades-old Chevron decision, paving the way for corporate challenges to rules adopted by administrative agencies like the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Labor Relations Board, the Environmental Protection Agency and others responsible for protection of the environment and workers’ safety and rights. That ruling will open the door for judges who have corporate backgrounds and biases to substitute their opinions for the expertise of these government agencies. It will allow employers to bring meritless but endless lawsuits, effectively tying up the agencies’ efforts to prevent union-busting and the weakening of safety rules and environmental protections. Is O’Brien going to confront Donald Trump and his Republican Party for continuing to support right-to-work legislation across the country? Republican governors in red states have openly and publicly opposed the unionization drives at Volkswagen and Mercedes Benz, going as far as to threaten to withhold state subsidies if employees exercise their democratic and legally protected right to vote by secret ballot to form a union.