Someone Should Tell Teamsters Prez Sean O'Brien He's Doing A Bad Job Of Explaining Himself
Someone Should Tell Teamsters Prez Sean O'Brien He's Doing A Bad Job Of Explaining Himself
Or not.
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has, for incomprehensible reasons, decided that he should go from network to network awkwardly trying to explain why the Teamsters decided not to endorse either Harris or Trump. So far, it has not gone well!
YESTERDAY:
On Thursday night, he swung by CNN to chat with Dana Bash, who came prepared with a laundry list of the incredibly shitty things Donald Trump did to labor while he was president — which O’Brien responded to by more or less saying that he was just trying to helpfully provide a teaching moment for both parties.
Transcript via Mediaite:
BASH: If it is accurate, it would mean that almost 60% of your members do prefer former President Trump over Vice President Harris. But I just want to give a small sample of Donald Trump’s record on union issues. He appointed Supreme Court justices that were part of major decisions going against unions. He appoints to the NLRB people who consistently rule against labor. He visited a nonunion auto plant while the UAW was striking and encouraged union members to boycott their dues. And you, of course, remember last month when he was on with Elon Musk praising Musk for firing striking workers. You called that economic terrorism. And you do have, I understand that there is some split, but you do have people like James Curbeam, who is the head of the Teamsters Black Caucus, saying that what you have done is chosen not to stand up to a bully and an anti-union candidate in not endorsing Kamala Harris.
O’BRIEN: Yeah, James Curbeam, you know, he represents a certain group that’s not affiliated directly with the Teamsters Union. And, you know, look, I criticize President Trump. I’ll criticize anybody that attacks labor across those picket lines or whatever else. And this was not an endorsement for the Republican Party. This is a wake up call that the system is broken. It’s far too long that the Democratic Party — and I’m a Democrat — has just got their way. We need to hold them accountable. But this is an opportunity as well for both parties to take a hard look. The Democrats refocus and say something’s wrong. We’ve got to recapture American workers. What do we need to do? And this is an opportunity for Republicans who claim they want to be the working party for American workers to prove that they can do that by supporting the PRO Act, and passing the PRO Act, and help develop a PRO Act.
So, first of all — the Teamsters Black Caucus is absolutely affiliated directly with the Teamsters, as they are a group within the Teamsters. The group was formed to pressure the union to stop excluding Black people from high-earning leadership positions and to ensure that they have a voice in the union. That is exactly what they are doing now.
Second, if it had been literally any time from NAFTA to 2017, I would have said “You know what? Harsh, but fair! Maybe Democrats do need a little bit of a wake-up call here.” Because, you know, let’s be real — Dems very much neglected unions and progressive voters during those years in a bid to be perceived as economically moderate by voting blocs they considered more aspirational, like “soccer moms.” But in 2016, they got a pretty huge wake-up call when Trump won Michigan and, frankly, when Bernie Sanders did a hell of a lot better than he was “supposed” to do and would have done if left-wing economic policies were anywhere near as hideously unpopular as many believed.
Since then, things have not been perfect, but they’ve certainly gotten a lot better, and Joe Biden deserves a lot of credit on labor, with regard to policy, appointments, and his support for unions (with that one exception, but the rail workers did, ultimately, get their sick days). Culturally, there’s been a massive sea-change in terms of people’s general awareness of unions, union activities, and the benefits of unionizing their workplaces. I also cannot recall the last time I heard anyone say “Unions were a good idea to start, but now they’re all just corrupt,” which used to top the list of bullshit things people repeat in order to sound like they’re well-informed while not actually having to be informed.
Note that you will not see me criticizing the Uncommitted movement for deciding to only endorse voting against Trump but not by voting for third party candidates instead of directly endorsing Harris, because Harris has not given them a reason to do so. That makes sense, on that particular issue, even if some people don’t like it. But as far as labor is concerned? It’s not remotely a “lesser of two evils” situation where the bar is set at “being slightly less harmful.” It’s not just that Donald Trump has done things that harm labor, but that Biden and the Democrats have done positive things for labor and Harris plans to continue on down that road as well. As an example from just this week, the Teamsters were able to protect the Amazon drivers they organized from being fired explicitly because the people Biden appointed to the National Labor Relations Board determined that Amazon was, in fact, a joint employer of the drivers — whereas those Trump appointed had made a new rule determining that they were not.
What O’Brien is doing is not going to provide a “wake-up call” to anyone. Republicans only want the endorsement so they can rub it in the faces of Democrats and there is no goddamned universe where any of them would support the PRO Act, because right-to-work is still their gospel. They love the aesthetics, they love the idea of getting to rub it in Democrats’ faces that the unions love them best, and they love pretending that they’re for the working class while pushing economic policies that benefit billionaires.
And Sean O’Brien, clearly, doesn’t have much of a problem with that.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
So why is Sean O’Brien doing this? Is he bought and paid for by the Republicans?
Ta, Robyn. It's O'Brien who needs a wake up call, sooner rather than later. Our union (1199) endorsed Harris-Walz, and sent busloads of people to PA last weekend to knock on doors for Democrats. Solidarity forever.