Posts tagged Sean O’Brien
California and Georgia Truck Drivers Petition for Votes to Remove Teamsters Union Bosses
December 11, 2024 // Efforts come in the face of Teamsters-backed Biden-Harris Labor Board rule designed to disenfranchise workers
Teamsters union calls for Amazon to set bargaining dates after Thanksgiving strike
December 9, 2024 // Amazon workers decided to strike through Cyber Monday citing poor working conditions and low pay as reasoning. The strike, called “Make Amazon Pay,” was organized by UNI Global Union and Progressive International. The e-commerce company said operations have not been impacted by the protests but did say their employees and partners were inconvenienced by the strike.
Will Trump’s Labor Secretary Pick Be a Big Win for Public Sector Unions?
November 22, 2024 // Politico reported earlier this week that Chavez-DeRemer was "in the mix" to run the Labor Department, and she has the backing of some high-profile labor union leaders including Teamsters President Sean O'Brien. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), tweeted approvingly of Chavez-DeRemer's consideration for the job on Thursday. The outpouring of support for Chavez-DeRemer from labor unions probably reflects her record as one of the most pro-union Republicans in Congress. She's one of three House Republicans to endorse the Protecting the Right to Organize Act (PRO Act), a grab bag of big labor agenda items that would extend some of California's awful independent contractor regulations nationwide, abolish so-called "right to work" laws in the 27 states that have passed them, and expand the powers of the National Labor Relations Board, among other things.
Congresswoman Chavez-DeRemer is not qualified to be Labor Secretary
November 22, 2024 // Chavez-DeRemer represented her northwestern Oregon district for a single term before narrowly losing her re-election bid this year. Prior to that she was a mayor of a town of 25,000 people for eight years. She has no particular background in union-related activity as a worker, activist, or attorney aside from serving on the Education and the Workforce Committee during her single term in Congress. During that brief period, she did not distinguish herself on labor-related issues. She is, in short, not qualified for the position of Labor Secretary.
COMMENTARY: You Can’t Support Trump and Government Unions
November 21, 2024 // Trump and his allies have talked endlessly about the need to take on the “deep state” or “drain the swamp” in Washington, D.C. Sometimes such talk veers into conspiracy-theorizing, but it’s certainly true that many federal bureaucrats are opposed to Trump and their obstruction can prevent him from governing as he was elected to govern. For years, conservatives have been raising the alarm about the constitutional problems that an entrenched, unelected administrative state presents when it hinders the elected leaders from making decisions. Government unions stand in the way of making many reforms to the civil service that Trump would like to see.
Op-Ed: Follow Trump 45 Labor Policy, Not the Teamsters Union
November 21, 2024 // By pushing Rep. Chavez-DeRemer for secretary of labor, O’Brien is essentially asking the winner of the 2024 presidential election to concede to the loser on one of the most important pieces of domestic legislation after the winner has already won in exchange for nothing. Rather than taking labor policy advice from a union boss, President Trump would do much better to follow the example he himself set in his previous term.
Top 3 Ways Teamsters Boss Sean O’Brien Stabbed President Trump In The Back
November 21, 2024 // More than $2.6 million in Teamsters political donations went toward registered Democrats and Democratic campaign arms. The Teamsters also funded anti-Trump activist groups like the ACLU that plan to bury a second Trump term in litigation. This should come as no surprise. When Trump was in office, the Teamsters worked to sabotage passage of the Trump Tax cuts and prevent confirmation of Trump’s Supreme Court picks. 94% of Teamsters political spending has gone to Democrats since 1990. The Teamsters rank-and-file voted for Trump because he supports worker freedom.
COMMENTARY: Don’t Let the Teamsters Pick the Labor Secretary
November 20, 2024 // It’s not as though congressional Republicans don’t have an alternative. The Employee Rights Act would protect secret-ballot elections, independent contracting, and franchising and prohibit union intimidation and the collection of personal information, while continuing to allow states to enact right-to-work laws. It has 84 Republican co-sponsors, and the latest two were added within the last week. Yet rather than support that bill that would build on conservative labor-policy successes, Chavez-DeRemer was one of only three Republicans who supported the PRO Act instead.
Opinion: Unions should be about employees, not about politics
October 30, 2024 // In August, National Education Association President Becky Pringle told WHYY, Philadelphia’s NPR affiliate, that membership was “nearly evenly split between Democrats, Republicans, and independents.” Yet she drove her union — the country’s largest union, public or private — to endorse Harris. The Teamsters and IAFF demonstrate that the NEA and other unions can simply decline political endorsements that divide their members. After all, members don’t want a union focused on politics, but on core collective bargaining activities. Gallup polling reveals the top reasons employees join a labor union are “Better pay and benefits,” “Employee representation-Employee rights,” and “Job Security.”
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien eviscerates the Democratic Party: ‘They have f**** us over for the last 40 years’
October 8, 2024 // 'I'm a Democrat but they have f***** us over for the last 40 years and for once we're standing up as a union saying what the f*** have you done for us?' O'Brien said in scathing remarks. 'I'm getting attacked from the left you know and since I've been in office over two and a half years we've given the Democratic machine $15.7 million. 'We've given Republicans about $340,000 truth be told, so it's like you know people say the Democratic party is the party of working people, but they're actually bought and paid for by big tech,' O'Brien explained.