Posts tagged Sean O’Brien
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.
OPINION: Teamsters boss’ RNC speech reveals his precarious hold on members’ loyalty
July 11, 2024 // A March poll from Quinnipiac showed Biden with a mere 9-point lead among Michigan union households, a far cry from his 25-point lead there in 2020. The Teamsters union has had a front-row seat to this transformation. While the party affiliation and preferences of its members aren’t publicly available, the union represents a wide variety of working-class voters — the type of workers who have suffered greatly under Bidenomics, hit hard by soaring inflation and slow wage growth. On the other hand, these workers fondly remember the Trump boom years, which were the direct result of policies that the Teamsters’ leadership opposed, including the 2017 tax cuts and regulatory reforms that gave workers and job creators more freedom.
EXCLUSIVE: ‘Two-Faced’: Billboards Outside RNC Slam Teamsters For Liberal Spending Record
July 10, 2024 // Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is slated to speak at the convention as he seeks to build a closer relationship between the union and Republicans. Former President Donald Trump invited O’Brien to speak at the convention in June after the union leader requested a speaking slot earlier in the month. “O’Brien and the Teamsters want to fool the public into thinking they are a bipartisan organization,” CUF communications director Charlyce Bozzello told the DCNF. “In reality, 99% of their advocacy dollars go to left-wing causes. Workers deserve to know the truth: the Teamsters aren’t bipartisan. They have made it clear they only care about one side.”
Opinion: Trump, Republicans Must Resist Dem-Funding Union Leadership’s Attempt To Con Them
July 3, 2024 // A new report from the Center for Union Facts, first reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation, shows that the Teamsters spent $9 million on politics between 2019 and 2022. Of that, a staggering 99% funded Democrat-aligned groups and anti-Trump media outlets. 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 that plan to bury a second Trump presidency in litigation. Given that nearly all of the Teamsters political spending went to Democrats and far-left causes, it would be reasonable to assume that rank-and-file union members uniformly vote Democrat. That is not the case: In 2020, 40% of households with a union member voted for Trump.
OPINION: Republicans Don’t Need to Embrace Union Leaders to Win Union Workers
July 1, 2024 // Republicans should appeal directly to union members with commonsense policies. Working-class Americans are among the hardest hit by Bidenomics and its painful inflation. Republicans should reach them with policies that will reduce the cost of living and increase job opportunities. The GOP should simultaneously and forcefully oppose the union-backed demands with a message of spending restraint. Additionally, the GOP should extend the 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of 2025 — spurring a new era of job creation and wage growth.
Labor’s GOP flirtation heightens Democrats’ 2024 election nerves
June 20, 2024 // In February, the Teamsters made its first major donation to the RNC since 2004 after its president, Sean O'Brien, met with former President Trump the previous month. O'Brien has since requested speaking slots at both the Republican and Democratic conventions. Another sign of a potential shift: The United Auto Workers — a powerful force in battleground Michigan — waited until January to endorse Biden amid tensions over electric vehicles. The Biden administration has enacted policies strengthening unions, with the president also taking the unprecedented step of visiting a UAW picket line last September before winning the group's endorsement.
Amazon Labor Union members vote overwhelmingly in favor of an affiliation with the Teamsters
June 19, 2024 // John Logan, a labor history professor at San Francisco State University, said teaming up with an established union was like a “lifeline” for the independent ALU because the group is “going nowhere at the moment.” “Doing it independently is just so difficult when you’re up against a company like (Amazon), which is big, wealthy and is determined to defeat the union,” Logan said. The Amazon Labor Union’s 2022 victory in Staten Island remains its only election win to date. Yet the group is the only labor organization to pull off the feat at an Amazon warehouse in the U.S., in part due to opposition from the company and the sheer size of many of its facilities.
Teamsters president seeks speaking slot at both party conventions
June 11, 2024 // Our thought bubble, from Axios' Nathan Bomey: Although the leadership of unions like the Teamsters and the UAW have historically been progressive, many of their members are conservative. Case in point: The UAW has endorsed Biden for reelection but has acknowledged that about a third of its members voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Amazon Labor Union moves to affiliate with the Teamsters union amid struggles
June 5, 2024 // If ratified, members of the Amazon Labor Union, which belong to one warehouse located in the New York City borough of Staten Island, will essentially join the Teamsters as an “autonomous” local union with the same rights and duties as a standard chapter, according to the agreement. The Teamsters said its board has already unanimously approved the affiliation, a step that will bring them closer to their goal of unionizing Amazon's non-corporate workforce.
Teamsters Memo Signals Rift Between Major Unions
June 4, 2024 // In 2013, several years after the Teamsters left the AFL-CIO, the union tried to raid bargaining units at American Airlines and then-U.S. Airways, which later merged with American. The mechanics at U.S. Airways were represented by the IAM. At the time, the IAM accused the Teamsters of “dividing already unionized employees with hollow promises.” The Teamsters and the IAM later reached a peace. They even announced in 2022 that they would work together to organize a broad swath of workers at Delta alongside the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. The Teamsters were to represent the airline’s mechanics, the IAM Delta’s ramp and cargo workers, and the AFA Delta’s flight attendants.