![\"Is](\"https:\/\/peoplesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Teamster-OBrien-960x540-1.png\")
\t<\/p>\nSean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, speaks during the Republican National Convention, July 15, 2024, in Milwaukee. | AP\/Julia Nikhinson<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
BOSTON\u2014Is Sean O\u2019Brien, elected as an insurgent as Teamsters president almost four years ago, the favorite union leader of Republican President Donald Trump these days? The question becomes increasingly relevant as more and more of Labor takes a leading role in the fight against the MAGA movement.<\/span><\/p>\n The extent to which O\u2019Brien\u2019s union is behind him on his closeness with Trump is, of course, open to question. His speech at the Trump-run Republican convention last year has already drawn one potential challenger for the union presidency. His frequent ties with Trump dismay progressive elements in the union..\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAnd O\u2019Brien\u2019s alliance with Trump hinges on only a small section of the union\u2019s membership, the movie industry,\u201d comments a veteran progressive Teamster activist in Iowa.\u00a0\u201cA large section of Teamsters members reside in [the] trucking, warehouse, and service sector,\u201d he adds. Teamsters in the movie industry are happy with Trump\u2019s placement of high tariffs on and attempts to end the bringing in of foreign films.<\/span><\/p>\n The question of O\u2019Brien\u2019s allegiance, and that of the nation\u2019s 1.2 million Teamsters, is important both within the union movement and in the broader political arena. The Teamsters have swung inordinate political clout for years, and O\u2019Brien\u2019s predecessor in the leader\u2019s chair, Jim Hoffa, used it. He liked to say labor had no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.<\/span><\/p>\n Gone their own way<\/b><\/p>\n And the Teamsters have often gone their own way within organized labor. That includes co-leading the Change To Win unions\u2019 walkout from the AFL-CIO 20 years ago. Change To Win has since fizzled. But there\u2019s other evidence of the Teamsters\u2019 marching to a different drummer. Consider:<\/span><\/p>\n Her \u201cmoderate\u201d voting record there, her willingness to work across the aisle, and her co-sponsorship of labor\u2019s top legislative priority, the Protect The Right To Organize (PRO) Act, also enhanced her prospects with Trump. That\u2019s even though she didn\u2019t back it until after a Senate Republican filibuster threat had effectively killed it.<\/span><\/p>\n O\u2019Brien and the union\u2019s board took that stance, but three major bodies, including the entire West Coast region and the union\u2019s biggest local, in New York City, immediately declared afterwards they endorsed Harris. The regions and locals, not the international union, provide the people power that the Teamsters\u2014or any union\u2014depend upon during election drives.<\/span><\/p>\n Besides, a Teamsters pre-endorsement decision survey of more than 100,000 members showed 59% support for Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n O\u2019Brien used his convention address to point out he was the first union leader to speak to the GOP. Then he lambasted the party, however, for its reflexive anti-unionism and for its catering to the corporate class while writing off workers. The delegates didn\u2019t listen, and Trump didn\u2019t care what O\u2019Brien said.<\/span><\/p>\n After all, O\u2019Brien fits Trump\u2019s stereotype of a union leader: A middle-aged white guy with a Boston accent and not a college graduate. O\u2019Brien\u2019s visual presence on the GOP convention stage helped validate Trump with the older white men, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, whom the Republican cultivated. Trump, remember, is locked in on TV and video appearances.<\/span><\/p>\n O\u2019Brien explained the speech in an interview with the <\/span>Boston Herald<\/span><\/i> in April. He stated the Democrats \u201clost the working class\u201d and just \u201csit on the sidelines and throw rocks.\u201d The \u201clost the working class\u201d quote often comes from labor\u2019s longest supporter in Congress, however, Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ind-Vt.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe Teamsters applaud any elected official\u2014Republican, Democrat, Independent\u2014who\u2019s willing to fight for American workers,\u201d O\u2019Brien and his union\u2019s Motion Picture Division President, Lindsay Dougherty of Local 399, said in a joint statement after Trump\u2019s tariff announcement.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe look forward to continuing to work with the administration to build a trade agenda that benefits our members and workers throughout the American motion picture and TV industry.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Added IATSE President Matthew Loeb in a statement after a joint entertainment union letter to Trump:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>American film and television workers have faced unprecedented job losses due to aggressive overseas incentives and economic uncertainty. The federal government must provide a balanced, comprehensive response to level the international playing field and support American jobs. These measures will help bring work back home, strengthen local communities, and maintain our global leadership in entertainment production.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Voiced the more common view<\/b><\/p>\n By contrast, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler recently voiced the more common union view of Trump\u2019s tariffs. Shuler, too, is more symbolic of today\u2019s union movement: half women and with rising shares of workers of color and young workers.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>Unions have always seen tariffs as one of the tools in our trade policy toolbox,\u201d Shuler told a recent D.C. symposium. \u201cWe should not see trade as a binary of free trade versus protectionism, but rather we should ask: \u2018What is trade in service to? To whom is trade in service?\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA tariff alone cannot grow jobs long-term without investments. Currently, this [Trump] administration has not said anything about making investments in critical industries like steel and auto\u2026Creating these tariffs without making the right investments and choices here at home is like putting the car in neutral, then stepping on the gas.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n O\u2019Brien told the <\/span>Herald <\/span><\/i>he\u2019s been on the phone with Trump several times a month.<\/span><\/p>\n All this has drawn flak\u2014and a potential foe in the next Teamsters presidential election.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201c<\/span>In speaking with fellow rank & file members, I can tell you that the members I speak with are very concerned about the \u2018cozy\u2019 relationship that O\u2019Brien has with Trump.\u00a0 Fighting for good jobs and the right to organize is what Teamsters are wanting their union to fight for, not hanging out with Trump,\u201d said the veteran Teamster activist in Iowa. His efforts to reform the union date back to the work he did in Ron Carey\u2019s campaigns late in the last century.<\/span><\/p>\n John Palmer, a Teamsters vice president at-large, plans to challenge O\u2019Brien. He laid out his reasons after O\u2019Brien\u2019s Republican convention speech. For Palmer, it was the last straw.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis has all culminated in his presence at the anti-union, anti-worker Republican national convention, kissing the ring of a man\u201d\u2014Trump, again\u2014\u201dthat scabbed a picket line, fails to pay workers, discriminated against people of color as a landlord, falsely accused five Black men in New York of murder, orchestrated an insurrection against the United States, dodged the draft, and appointed union busters from the Jones Day law firm to create the most anti-union Labor Board in history,\u201d Palmer wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n One union-buster was a National Labor Relations Board member during Trump\u2019s first term. He hailed from an anti-worker law firm that calls itself the nation\u2019s leading \u201cunion avoidance advisor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n O\u2019Brien\u2019s also met with another top anti-worker right-wing politician, GOP Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, to lobby for state tax credits for movie filming in Texas, the <\/span>Herald <\/span><\/i>reported.<\/span><\/p>\n All this leaves one not-so-wild card: Teamsters for a Democratic Union, the decades-long insurgent movement that eventually brought first Ron Carey and\u2014almost three decades later\u2014O\u2019Brien and Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman to the union\u2019s top two jobs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In one-Teamster-one-vote union presidential races, Zuckerman had narrowly lost the Teamsters presidential race to Hoffa four years before their joint ticket clobbered Hoffa\u2019s picked successors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite O\u2019Brien\u2019s budding alliance with the GOP, Teamsters for a Democratic Union announced in April that it\u2019s endorsing the duo for re-election next year. Nominations for top jobs, including union board members, will occur at the Teamsters convention in Chicago on November 7-9, with the election in the weeks to follow.<\/span><\/p>\n As with all news-analysis and op-ed articles published by People\u2019s World, the views reflected here are those of the author.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n We hope you appreciated this article. At\u00a0People\u2019s World<\/i>, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading\u00a0People\u2019s World<\/i>\u00a0and the stories we bring you, please\u00a0support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today<\/a>. Thank you!<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n
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CONTRIBUTOR<\/h2>\n
![\"Mark](\"https:\/\/peoplesworld.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/09\/200x262shearon.jul10-200x200.jpg\")
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