Why on Earth did Teamsters boss praise anti-union Republicans at their convention? | Opinion

International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien’s speech to the first day of the Republican National Convention should leave union and non-union members alike feeling confused, if not totally betrayed. O’Brien said all the right things to all the wrong people.

His militant and very fiery rhetoric was indeed an indictment of corporate America — the same corporate America that owns and operates the Republican Party. The same corporate America that writes the policies, funds the agenda and orchestrates the tyranny against working-class people worldwide. For these and a variety of other reasons, O’Brien’s words should arouse the passions of working people everywhere — everywhere except in the halls of the Republican National Convention, the very purveyor of this tyranny. Where with a wink and a nod, maybe even a smile, his words rose like lead balloons.

In an effort to justify his remarks to this audience, O’Brien has reminded us that many of our Teamster brothers and sisters are supportive of Republicans — which may be the reason he was asked to speak. As a decadeslong Teamster and union activist, I believe that if working class people are so confused as not to know whose side they are on, then O’Brien did nothing but make matters worse. His very presence perpetuated deceptions that have been planted in members’ minds. The idea that the Republican Party has ever or will ever care about working people is demonstrably false.

The AFL-CIO keeps a list of Donald Trump’s catastrophic and devastating anti-labor track record. If that is not enough to convince you of his and his party’s anti-worker campaign, then a quick glance at Project 2025 — the road map for a possible second Trump term unveiled by the Heritage Foundation — leaves no doubt. The AFL-CIO has dissected this 920-page document, which includes the return of employer-controlled “company unions,” child labor and no overtime pay. O’Brien’s tough labor talk might suggest or imply that real populist principles were welcome at the RNC. Don’t even think it.

O’Brien embraced Sen. J.D. Vance, the party’s vice presidential nominee, as a guy Teamsters can work with. Wrong answer. According to the AFL-CIO, Vance has voted with working people 0% of his time in the Senate. O’Brien praised Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley as well, but the best that can be said is that Hawley’s AFL-CIO scorecard is a tad higher than Vance’s at 11%. Nevertheless, such flattery prompted Hawley to pen an op-ed, “The Promise of Pro-Labor Conservatism,” in this month’s Compact Magazine. There, he envisioned himself as a born-again labor advocate with visions of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan (!) dancing in his head. If, in fact, Hawley expects working-class Americans to buy any of his illusions, then he assuredly believes that we were all born last night.

After careful consideration of Trump’s abominable presidential record, Vance’s absolute 0% batting average for labor, Hawley’s supposed “pro-labor” conservatism, or the nightmare that is Project 2025, I can safely conclude that this authoritarian wrecking ball would, if successful, destroy the American working class that we have taken for granted for generations.

We have long been engaged in a class war. Whether or not we realize it does not matter — but I can assure you that O’Brien knows it. His embrace of these characters and their policies of destruction does not represent the sentiments of his union’s membership. Speculation about his motives could be as simple as betting on both Republican and Democratic horses, if he’s invited to the DNC, too. Putting money on all the horses might assure a victory, and could seal the deal on O’Brien getting the secretary of labor Cabinet post.

But win, lose or draw, Sean O’Brien’s GOP gambit might just forever lose his respect in the annals of Teamster history, and in the labor community at large.

Michael Savwoir is a retired member of Teamsters Local 41 in Kansas City and longtime member of Teamsters for a Democratic Union.