International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Sean O’Brien plans to speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee next month, a rare appearance by a high-profile labor leader at the party’s fourth annual convention.
Former President Donald Trump announced the news on Friday on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying O’Brien “accepted my invitation.”
“Sean, I look forward to seeing you represent the Teamsters in Milwaukee,” Trump said. “Together we can make America great again.”
A Teamsters spokesperson confirmed the scheduled appearance via email and said O’Brien had been asked to speak at the Democratic and GOP national conventions.
“This is truly unprecedented, as this is the first time a Teamsters General president has addressed the RNC,” the spokesperson said. “Our 1.3 million members represent all political backgrounds, and their message must reach as wide an audience as possible, and that includes all political candidates running for elected office.”
Most major unions are openly opposing or distancing themselves from President Trump. extremely hostile To organized labor. The Teamsters supported President Joe Biden during Trump’s 2020 presidential run, but so far the union has refused to endorse either candidate for the 2024 presidential election.
In the meantime, O’Brien seems happy to hear what Trump has to say. He and other senior team members met with the former president in January to assess members who strongly oppose Trump’s return to the White House.
O’Brien, who takes over as union president in March 2022, said it was important to talk to all candidates.
“There are always threats to union organizing, so we want to be proactive and make sure not only President Biden but all candidates understand how important our issues are,” he told POLITICO in March.
When Trump was president, he wasn’t very friendly to organized labor. He appointed members to the National Labor Relations Board, made it more difficult for workers to organize unions, and rolled back several workplace regulations intended to improve safety and raise wages.
Upon arriving in the White House, Biden eliminated several Trump-era changes and made the NLRB its most pro-union form in decades. He also signed a coronavirus relief package that provides $86 billion in funding for troubled union pension funds, the biggest beneficiary of which is the Teamsters plan.
The AFL-CIO labor federation, which includes 60 unions but not the Teamsters, has already endorsed Biden’s re-election. The same goes for the United Auto Workers Union, whose president Shawn Fain declared in a January announcement that Trump is a “scab.”
