Sean O’Brien, president of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters, mentioned Sunday he hasn’t endorsed within the 2024 presidential race but as a result of he hasn’t but met with Vice President Kamala Harris, and “you do not rent somebody except you give them an interview.”
The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters is likely one of the 10 largest unions in the USA with 1.3 million members and the one within the group of 10 that hasn’t endorsed Harris, the Democratic nominee.
The Teamsters have traditionally endorsed a presidential candidate after each the Democratic and Republican conventions, however O’Brien mentioned this election cycle is totally different. O’Brien already turned heads when he spoke on the Republican Nationwide Conference in July, the first chief within the group’s 121-year historical past to deal with the RNC.
“This time, below our management, we introduced each single candidate to the desk in entrance of our rank and file members and our common government board, and we’re ready on Vice President Harris to commit to return meet with us,” O’Brien mentioned on “Face the Nation.”
O’Brien mentioned the Teamsters, not like different main unions, have a cut up in political affiliation, which heightens the necessity for sit-down conversations with all presidential candidates. Teamsters met with Harris’ GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump, as nicely President Biden earlier this yr.
“Half of our members are Republicans, half of our members are Democrats. So we’ve got to serve all of our membership equally,” O’Brien mentioned. “And , that is our alternative to ask her (Harris) about Teamster particular points and in addition labor points. So till we’ve got that assembly, , clearly we are going to wait to make that willpower.”
The Harris-Walz marketing campaign mentioned earlier than the DNC that Harris has agreed to a roundtable with the Teamsters.
“VP has acquired and gladly accepted an invite by IBT management to take part in a candidate roundtable to debate her file of preventing for Teamsters and their households and to focus on her imaginative and prescient for the longer term. The marketing campaign seems to be ahead to scheduling the roundtable within the close to future,” a marketing campaign spokesperson mentioned.
On the RNC in July, O’Brien delivered an anti- huge enterprise keynote speech.
O’Brien’s speech displayed the seen shift inside the GOP since Trump’s election in 2016, transferring from a company, Wall Avenue-focused message towards a extra worker-friendly tone.
“At the moment, the Teamsters are right here to say we aren’t beholden to anybody or any social gathering,” O’Brien mentioned in the course of the July speech. “We’ll create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition, prepared to perform one thing actual for the American employee. And I do not care about getting criticized.”
O’Brien mentioned on “Face the Nation” that he requested to talk at each the Republican and Democratic Nationwide Conventions, however that solely the RNC responded. United Auto Staff president Shawn Fain addressed the DNC in August, in addition to a number of different union leaders.
“Every time I get a possibility to focus on the American employee, particularly the Teamster employee, I’ll take any and all venue,” O’Brien mentioned Sunday. “We requested each conventions, respectively, on the similar time, and the Republican Nationwide Conference instantly responded to us… I used to be hopeful that the Democrats would do the identical, however they did not.”
When requested if he appeared on the RNC as a result of he feels Trump has been extra pro-labor than previous Republican nominees, O’Brien mentioned, “no, in no way,” though Trump gave O’Brien a standing ovation and O’Brien known as him a “powerful SOB” in his speech. O’Brien on Sunday insisted the aim of the speech was to focus on American employees and to not sign an endorsement in anyone path.
“It wasn’t an endorsement for any and all Republicans. It was strictly a message about how essential and the way worthwhile we’re, and to let the folks know that battle us daily that we’re not going away,” O’Brien mentioned.