Just In: Teamsters' President Sean O'Brien will address the Republican National Convention Tonight at 9 PM CT
In a blow to Biden's re-election campaign, the union may not endorse either Trump or Biden.
By Peter List, Editor | July 15, 2024
In a move that has divided some union rank-and-file members and union officials, Sean O’Brien, the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, will be speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee later this evening, and may not endorse any candidate in 2024.
According to the Teamsters on LinkedIn, Mr. O’Brien will be taking the stage at 9 p.m. central time (or 10 pm eastern).
“Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien will address the American worker — and the nation — in primetime at 9pm CT tonight,” the Teamsters announced. “Teamsters labor, and Teamsters votes, will not be taken for granted. Tune in. You don’t want to miss it!”
The controversial move was announced in June by former President Donald Trump on Truth Social, following Mr. O’Brien’s request to speak at the both the Democratic and Republican conventions.
O’Brien’s “flirtation” with the Republican Party has caused a backlash from members of the Teamsters.
“We will not allow the working-class labor movement to be destroyed by a scab masquerading as a pro-union advocate after doing everything in his power to destroy the very fabric of unions,” James Curbeam, wrote in a blistering letter to Teamsters members after Mr. O’Brien announced a meeting with Mr. Trump earlier this year, reported the New York Times. Curbeam is the national chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus.
“The Teamsters have never been afraid of democracy, but self-interested ideologues — on the left and the right, within and outside the union — are terrified of democracy,” stated Teamsters spokeswoman, Kara Deniz, last week.
This is not the first time the Teamsters union has broken with traditional union loyalty to the Democratic Party.
In 1980, following President Carter’s signing of the Motor Carrier Act—which deregulated the trucking industry and devastated hundreds of Teamster-represented companies—the Teamsters endorsed Ronald Reagan for President. Then, in 1984, the union endorsed Reagan’s re-election campaign.
Following the 1984 presidential election, however, relations between the Teamsters and Reagan soured after the Department of Justice sued the union under RICO for its ties to organized crime.
In 1989, the Teamsters entered into a consent decree on the eve of a federal RICO trial against its officers.
Following the settlement, as part of the consent decree, the Teamsters had a federal monitor overseeing the union’s efforts to rid itself of the mob for 25 years.
Now, in a divisive blow to the Biden re-election campaign, it is being reported that the Teamster may not endorse any presidential candidate for 2024.
“President Joe Biden is on the brink of failing to win a key labor endorsement as leaders of the 1.3 million-member Teamsters union consider backing no candidate at all in the U.S. presidential race, according to two people familiar with the matter,” Reuters reported on Monday afternoon.
A Teamsters endorsement for Republican candidate Donald Trump appears unlikely, sources say, but deep internal divisions mean the union may not back any candidate at all. That would mark the first time since 1996, according to news reports.
While no one know what Sean O’Brien will say on the podium this evening—except Mr. O’Brien—once again, he takes the stage at 9 PM central, 10 pm eastern.
