“You can have whatever opinion you want, but one thing is clear: President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid to listen to new, loud and often critical voices,” O’Brien said to loud cheers.
O’Brien’s appearance marks an extraordinary turnaround for one of the country’s most powerful unions, which has supported Democrats for decades, at a time when the GOP is divided over whether to support a move toward more populist right-wing politics.
The union president from outside Boston also criticized big business, including Amazon, Uber and Lyft, in his speech for selling out American workers and heaped praise on Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in particular for his willingness to question corporate power.
O’Brien, who was invited to speak by former President Donald Trump, has used the union’s support as political leverage in Washington. Most major unions have thrown their weight behind President Biden, whose administration has done everything it can to support unions.
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O’Brien has also requested to speak at the Democratic National Convention in August, but has not yet received an invitation, Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz told The Washington Post.
The Teamsters, which has about 1.3 million members, many of whom come from key states, will not declare their support until after both conventions, Deniz said last week.
O’Brien explained his decision to wait this year to declare his support as an attempt to carefully assess the union’s options, saying his members’ votes “will not be taken for granted.”
Some labor experts say O’Brien may feel pressure to accommodate members’ diverse political leanings, since he won the union’s top office in 2021 after running as a reform candidate who promised greater member involvement in union decision-making. O’Brien is also aware that many rank-and-file Teamsters are Republicans — and Trump supporters, experts say.
Trump’s run with O’Brien began earlier this year, when the two met privately in January at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate. The meeting infuriated some left-wing leaders and union members, with one board member calling Trump a “known union buster, strikebreaker and insurrectionist.”
The Teamsters president and rank-and-file members met with Trump and Biden on separate occasions at the union’s Washington headquarters. The union donated $45,000 to the RNC convention fund this year, its first major donation to the GOP in decades.
Last December, $135,000 was also sent to the Democratic National Committee, plus a $15,000 donation in March.
Trump’s announcement Monday that he has selected Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio as his running mate marks another notable step toward embracing a more right-wing Republican Party. populist agenda that combines a conservative stance on culture war issues with economic nationalism aimed at protecting American workers from free trade policies and deindustrialization.
Vance joined an auto worker picket line in Ohio late last year — even though he opposed pro-labor legislation. And Hawley joined picket lines with auto workers and Teamsters. In return, the Teamsters sent $5,000 to Hawley’s re-election campaign this year.
Trump has called himself “pro-labor,” trying to portray himself as a defender of the working class, but he has supported numerous policies that have limited the power of the working class. As president, he installed a leader at the National Labor Relations Board whose policies and statements weakened workers’ rights. Trump has received little union support outside of law enforcement.
Biden, the self-described “most pro-union president in history,” has meanwhile made major strides forward for unions. Many of his policies have benefited the Teamsters, including his nearly $36 billion pension bailout in 2022, part of the American Rescue Plan that restored the retirement accounts of some 350,000 Teamsters members.