Why a Prominent Labor Union President Spoke at the RNC

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

67% : More likely, O'Brien has done Trump a huge favor by seemingly giving his union's seal of approval to the GOP -- helping Trump woo blue-collar workers, a pivotal voting bloc that could help ensure a Trump victory, especially in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
61% : His focus seemed to be on flattering Trump with the hope that Trump, if elected, would be nicer to the Teamsters and to all of labor.
46% : "O'Brien -- a combative former Boston truck driver who became Teamsters president in 2022 -- certainly knows that during his four years as U.S. president, Trump and his administration repeatedly undermined the interests of workers and unions.
43% : Trump rolled back regulations that protected coal miners and farmworkers.
36% : But it roared with approval when he lauded Trump, saying, "President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud, and often critical voices, and I think we all can agree, whether people like him or they don't like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough S.O.B."In his speech, O'Brien also praised Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican representing Missouri, noting that Hawley had walked on several Teamster picket lines (just as Biden joined a United Auto Workers picket line last fall).
36% : On Monday morning, O'Brien spoke to Republican delegates from Massachusetts and criticized Biden for failing to deliver on some things, such as the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize.
35% : Early this year, O'Brien began flirting with Trump, having invited him to speak to the union's executive board.
34% : Trump once said that if Congress passed it, he would sign a National Right to Work Bill, a move that would badly weaken unions by letting workers opt out of paying union dues.
33% : Many Democrats are no doubt fuming that O'Brien is playing footsie with Trump even though Trump and his party opposed what was long the Teamsters' No. 1 legislative priority, the Butch Lewis Emergency Pension Relief Act, a bill that devotes $86 billion in federal funds to rescuing the pensions of over 2 million union members, including over 400,000 Teamsters.
33% : In what seems like wishful thinking, O'Brien dismissed suggestions that it would be impossible to pass the PRO Act with Trump in the White House.
32% : Some Teamsters slammed O'Brien's plan to appear at the convention; they feared that he was unwittingly letting the Trump campaign turn him into a show horse, a trophy that they could hold up to make the case that Trump and the Republican Party have the Teamsters' seal of approval and are thus true friends of America's workers and unions -- despite the Trump presidency's many anti-worker and anti-union moves.
31% : Not stopping there, Trump once urged union members not to pay union dues -- how can a union survive and fight for higher wages if its members don't pay dues?
30% : Trump didn't raise a finger to increase the abysmally low $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage.
30% : James Curbeam, chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, denounced O'Brien's move and called Trump "a scab masquerading as a pro-union advocate after doing everything in his power to destroy the very fabric of unions.
29% : After the Democrat-controlled House passed the bill in 2019, Trump and the GOP-controlled Senate did nothing to advance it.
27% : He seemed to dream that he could somehow persuade Trump and the GOP to stop being fiercely anti-union and often anti-worker as well.
25% : Trump appointed fiercely anti-union officials to the National Labor Relations Board, who moved in many ways, large and small, to make it harder for workers to unionize.
24% : If Trump wins and if his coattails bring GOP control of the House and Senate, that, despite O'Brien's wishes, could be a disaster for labor unions.
20% : She noted that the union has held "member roundtables" with Trump and Biden and conducted town halls at roughly 300 local unions to discuss issues and candidates.
19% : The vast majority of the nation's major unions have endorsed Biden, and it would be a sizable blow to him if the Teamsters make no endorsement or back Trump.
17% : Trump fought hard to repeal Obamacare, a move that would have pushed up medical costs and taken away health coverage from millions of working families.

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