Posts tagged Sean O’Brien
Workers Voted on Decertifying Unions 1,600 Times in the Past Decade. Teamsters Are the Most Common Target.
May 5, 2026 // Dozens of union decertification elections are held in workplaces across America every year, according to data collected by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The Teamsters are often the target. Of the 1,620 decertification elections that the NLRB tracked between 2016 and 2025, more than 23 percent sought to end Teamsters representation. The 373 decertification petitions targeting the Teamsters during that period were more than twice the number filed against the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which had the second most.
Acting Labor Sec. Sonderling likely to move up to top job
April 28, 2026 // Sonderling, 43, is a veteran of Trump's first administration, in which he served as acting administrator of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division and later as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The West Palm Beach attorney and grandchild of Holocaust survivors has been widely considered a voice for conservatives within the Labor Department. This contrasts with Chavez-DeRemer, who was appointed largely due to support from Teamsters union President Sean O'Brien and drew criticism on the right for her past opposition to right-to-work laws.
Opinion– Editorial Board: Why the Republican-union alliance never works
April 22, 2026 // "The new acting secretary, Keith Sonderling, is a more conventional Republican choice for the job. Respected by conservatives, he would sail through the Senate confirmation process if nominated. He has already been competently running the department as deputy secretary, as it has advanced deregulation and protected independent contractor status for 11.9 million workers"
Opinion GOP’s fatal attraction to unions is the start of a bad romance
April 21, 2026 // Instead of offering flowers and chocolates, they aim to impress labor by slicing up the PRO Act and feeding it piecemeal to the rest of the GOP. The Faster Labor Contracts Act, sponsored by Hawley and Rep. Donald Norcross (D-NJ), is the first portion. It would allow federal mediators to essentially write union contracts for newly organized workplaces, if businesses and unions can’t agree on terms within four months of a union’s workplace-election win.
Teamsters Secure UPS Buyout Cap; NLRB Calls Amazon to the Bargaining Table
April 9, 2026 // Under the Driver Choice Program (DCP), UPS employees can opt to receive a $150,000 payment to accept early retirement from the company. The severance package would also include retirement benefits earned over their tenure, including pension and healthcare... The NLRB and Amazon have had an ongoing feud as unionization efforts across the company have popped up. In a separate complaint filed in September 2024, the Seattle-based Big Tech firm alleged that the NLRB improperly influenced the 2022 Staten Island election, and said the board’s structure was unconstitutional. That suit is still pending.
Teamsters still bankrolling Democrats, including Jay Jones, despite openly flirting with Trump and GOP
April 9, 2026 // “As for whether the Teamsters is compatible with the GOP, the union officialdom isn’t,” Mike Watson, an organized labor expert and director of research at the Capital Research Center, told the Washington Examiner. “The members are more open to the GOP for social-issues reasons, but the staffer class and officers are largely committed Everything Leftists.” “Everything Leftism” is a turn of phrase used to describe the tendency of some liberal staffers and activists to adopt causes seemingly unrelated to their primary area of focus;
Opinion: Unions are on a comeback. Americans are paying the price.
April 2, 2026 // So far, the union comeback has mostly been confined to courthouses and state legislatures. Membership hardly budged last year, rising from 9.9 percent of U.S. workers in 2024 to 10 percent in 2025. Yet if more states continue to mandate collective bargaining for public-sector workers — or decide to repeal right-to-work statutes for the private sector — rates can be expected to rise in those jurisdictions. If workers at a unionized shop are forced to pay dues regardless of their membership status, more will opt in as the financial incentive to remain unorganized slips away.
Commentary: Trump’s labor agencies get to work for independent workers
March 12, 2026 // Calming fears that appointing a pro-union Labor Secretary meant the Trump administration would side with Big Labor rather than American workers and businesses, the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board are taking steps to protect independent workers and business relationships outside Big Labor’s orbit.
Commentary: Sean O’Brien sold workers and unions out to Trump—these Teamsters are running to oust him.
March 5, 2026 // As general president of the union, Sean O’Brien has operated with a “Teamsters vs. Everybody” mentality, especially when it comes to dealing with President Donald Trump and embracing the MAGA right. But now, 14 months into the second Trump administration, the labor movement and the entire working class—Teamsters members included—is under attack. In this episode of Working People, we speak with veteran Teamsters Richard Hooker Jr. and John Palmer, who are running to oust O’Brien from leadership in the upcoming union election.
Former IBT Vice President Charged with Corruption
February 17, 2026 // The report will now be reviewed by General President Sean O’Brien and the General Executive Board who have 90 days to take action. The IIO report documents luxury meals, featuring top-shelf liquor and wine of $300-$400 a bottle, with one $890 bottle going on the union tab. Members’ dues money paid for extravagant meals not just for officers but for their family and friends. In all, the IIO investigation found that over a five-year period, Griswold used the union credit card to spend at least $51,261.38 for unauthorized expenses that had no union purpose and that Harren did the same to the tune of $82,681.