Why I Took the Teamsters' Fight for American Workers to the RNC ...
The following is an address delivered by Teamsters President Sean M. O'Brien to the 2024 Republican National Convention.
Greetings, delegates and guests. I'm Sean O'Brien, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.
First, I want to thank the hardworking Teamsters and union members here in Milwaukee who play vital roles in the building and operations of this convention.
I also want to thank President Donald Trump for opening the RNC's doors to the Teamsters Union and inviting me to speak before you.
I travel all across this country and meet with my members every week. You know what I see? An American worker being taken for granted. Workers being sold out to big banks, Big Tech, corporatists, and the elite.
I'm not the only one who sees this. Everyday families see it. The American people aren't stupid. They know the system is broken. We all know how Washington is run. Working people have no chance of winning the fight.
That's why I'm here today. Because I refuse to keep doing the same things my predecessors did. Today, the Teamsters are here to say we aren't beholden to anyone or any party. We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker. I don't care about getting criticized. It's an honor to be the first Teamster in our 121-year history to address the Republican National Convention.
Several months ago, I asked the RNC and the DNC for the opportunity to speak. To be frank, when President Trump invited me to speak at this convention, there was political unrest—n the Left and on the Right. Anti-union groups demanded the President rescind his invitation. The left called me a traitor. This is precisely why it is so important for me to be here today. The Teamsters are doing something right if the extremes in both parties think I shouldn't be on this stage.
President Trump had the backbone to open the doors to this Republican convention, and that's unprecedented. No other nominee in the race would have invited the Teamsters into this tent. Have whatever opinion you want, but one thing is clear. President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud, and often critical voices. You can feel any way you want about the former President, but in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough S.O.B.
When I won the presidency of the Teamsters in a national election two and a half years ago, we started reaching across the aisle. In the past, the Teamsters have endorsed GOP candidates—including Nixon, Reagan, and George H.W. Bush. But over 40 years, the Republican Party has rarely pursued strong relationships with organized labor. There are some in the party who stand in active opposition to labor unions. This, too, must change.
At the end of the day, the Teamsters aren't interested if you have a D, R, or an I next to your name. We want to know one thing: What are you doing to help American workers?
As a negotiator, I know that no window or door should ever be permanently shut. Early in my administration, the Teamsters reached out to eight Republican Senators who stood up for Railroad Teamsters in our fight for sick leave. Josh Hawley was one of them. We started talking. Senator Hawley changed his position on national "right to work." Then we started walking. He walked a Teamsters picket line in St. Louis and a UAW picket line in Wentzville, Missouri. More than that, I want to recognize Senator Hawley for his direct, relentless, and pointed questioning of corporate talking heads, lawyers, CEOs, and apologists. He has shown he is not willing to accept their pillaging of working peoples' pocketbooks and individual rights.
I know from a career in negotiating that you get nowhere by slamming your fist on the table. The first step is to listen.
The Teamsters and the GOP may not agree on many issues. But a growing group has shown the courage to sit down and consider points of view that aren't funded by big money think tanks.
Senators like J.D. Vance and Roger Marshall, and Representatives Nicole Malliotakis, Mike Lawler, and Brian Fitzpatrick, are among elected officials who care about working people. This group is expanding, and it is putting fear into the those who have monopolized our very broken system in America today. There are far too many people on both sides of the aisle still caught up in knee jerk reactions to unions, who subscribe to the same tired claptrap that American unions destroy American companies.
Take a moment to consider United Parcel Service. UPS is the world's largest private sector logistics company, and it's been unionized for more than 100 years. More than 350,000 Teamsters make it run. We work for good middle class wages, quality health care, and secure pensions. There are work rules that ensure fairness and due process for both sides. UPS is the most efficient package delivery company in the world. Never forget that UPS doesn't provide great wages and benefits out of the kindness of its heart. UPS does it because the Teamsters fight for it—all 350,000 of us.
Corporatists hate when working people join together to form unions. But for a century, major employers have waged a war against labor by forming corporate unions of their own. We need to call the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable what they are—they are unions for Big Business.
Here's the fact: against gigantic multi-national corporations, an individual has zero power. It is only when Americans band together in democratic unions that we win real improvements on wages, benefits, and working conditions.
Companies like Amazon are bigger than most national economies. Amazon is valued at over $2 trillion. That makes it the 14th largest economy in the world. What's sickening is that Amazon has abandoned any national allegiance. Amazon's sole focus is on lining its own pockets. Remember: elites have no party. Elites have no nation. Their loyalty is to the balance sheet and to the stock price at the expense of the American citizen.
I can see the United States Capitol Building from my office. I see well-intentioned people arrive in Washington and get eaten up by an unforgiving system. The responsibility to average Americans takes a backseat. The objective becomes survival. Fundraiser after fundraiser, corporate consultants hedge every initiative. The Hill crawls with lifers bouncing from government jobs to corporate jobs and back again. We can all agree D.C. is a treacherous area. Most legislation is never meant to go anywhere. It's all talk. And in America, talk isn't cheap. It's very expensive, and it comes at the cost of our own country.
Working people know our system is broken. The elites are not laboring on behalf of workers. There is a political caste system that prevents citizens from accessing their representatives to hold them accountable.
For a moment, working people in America were seen as essential. Sadly, it took a global pandemic for political and corporate elites to notice this fact. But ask yourself, since the end of the pandemic, when was the last time you heard major news outlets regularly refer to workers as essential? The men and women who provide goods and services, deliver packages, stock grocery shelves, care for patients, and keep our communities safe are taken for granted.
The stock market booms, housing prices hit record highs, and corporate salaries skyrocket. But the incomes of everyday Americans are shrinking in the face of inflation—at the gas pump, at the grocery store, on the electric bill, and with their car insurance.
This must change. Never forget: American workers own this nation.
We aren't renters. We aren't tenants. But the corporate elite treat us like squatters. That's a crime.
We've got to fix it.
To paraphrase Senator Markwayne Mullin: it's time for both sides of Congress to STAND THEIR BUTTS UP. We need trade policies that put American workers first. It needs to be easier for companies to remain in America. We need legal protections that make it safer for workers to get a contract. We must stop corporations from abandoning local communities to inflate their bottom line. We need meaningful bankruptcy reform. Today, corporate vultures buy up companies like Yellow Freight with the intent of driving them into bankruptcy and feasting on their remains. The courts leave workers begging for crumbs as third-tier creditors. Labor law must be reformed.
Americans vote for a union but can never get a union contract. Companies fire workers who try to join unions and hide behind toothless laws that are meant to protect working people but are manipulated to benefit corporations. This is economic terrorism at its worst. An individual cannot withstand the assault. A fired worker cannot afford corporate delays—and these greedy employers know it. There are no consequences for the company—only the worker.
We need corporate welfare reform. Under our current system, massive companies like Amazon, Uber, Lyft, and Walmart take zero responsibility for the workers they employ. These companies offer no real health insurance, no retirement benefits, no paid leave. Workers are left relying on underfunded public assistance. And who foots the bill? The individual taxpayer.
The biggest recipients of welfare in this country are corporations. This is real corruption. We must put workers first. What is more important to the security of our nation than long-term investment in the American worker?
In 2021, Teamsters nationwide elected me to fight for them. And that's precisely what I'm doing. Something is wrong in this country, and we need to say it out loud. I will always speak up for America, and for the American worker, both union and nonunion. I challenge each and every one of you—and especially my friends on the Democratic side—to embrace cooperation. To truly collaborate to achieve meaningful and productive change. To ensure we make the greatest nation in the world BIGGER, FASTER, AND STRONGER!
I love this country. The Teamsters love this country. Our 1.3 million members move America—on the roads, in the ports, on rail, and in the air. If the powers that be stop me from raising my voice on behalf of American workers, I won't have a single regret. I still carry my commercial driver's license. I still have my place on the union seniority list. You'll find me back in Boston, driving a tractor-trailer, delivering heavy equipment for Shaughnessy and Ahern.
Because I have the protection of a union contract that gives me the freedom to speak my mind. And to fight like hell.
Thank you.
Sean M. O'Brien is the General President of the Teamsters Union.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
