Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris will meet with the Teamsters president Sean O’Brien and the union’s management on Sept. 16, the Teamsters stated Thursday, after O’Brien advised CBS Information’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” he was holding off on an endorsement as a result of he hadn’t but met with Harris.
The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters is likely one of the largest unions within the nation, and the one one of many 10 largest unions that has not endorsed Harris. O’Brien spoke on the Republican Nationwide Conference in July, the primary time within the union’s 121-year historical past that its chief addressed the RNC.
Harris dedicated to satisfy with O’Brien, union members, the Teamsters normal govt board and normal secretary-treasurer Fred Zuckerman, the Teamsters stated Thursday.
O’Brien advised “Face the Nation” Sunday that “beneath our management, we introduced each single candidate to the desk in entrance of our rank-and-file members and our normal govt board, and we’re ready on Vice President Harris to commit to return meet with us.”
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“Our union is rather a lot totally different than most unions,” O’Brien stated. “We symbolize 1.3 million members. Half of our members are Republicans, half of our members are Democrats, so we’ve got to serve all of our membership equally. Look, all people has a unique model of management. We would like the chance to take a seat down with Vice President Harris.”
O’Brien stated he had requested to deal with each the Democratic and GOP conventions, however solely the Republicans accepted. Though he didn’t endorse Trump, he praised him as a “robust SOB” following the try Trump’s life a couple of days earlier than the conference and characterised him as a “candidate who is just not afraid of listening to from new, loud and sometimes important voices.”
However O’Brien additionally delivered an anti-big enterprise message, blasting massive companies and saying “working individuals haven’t any likelihood of successful this combat.”
On the time, President Biden was nonetheless on the prime of the Democratic ticket, and the speech was seen as a blow to his union credentials. Final yr, Mr. Biden turned the primary president in historical past to be a part of a picket line when staff from the three main auto corporations went on strike. United Auto Employees president Shawn Fain spoke on the DNC, carrying a tee shirt that stated “Trump is a scab.”
Different labor unions additionally obtained prime billing on the DNC.
Aaron Navarro and
contributed to this report.
