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Froma Harrop
How is it possible that the Teamsters still haven’t made an official presidential endorsement? Will they really choose Donald Trump, who led them to believe he would help save their pensions? Or Kamala Harris, whose boss Joe Biden actually did that – to the tune of $36 billion? That doesn’t sound like a difficult decision to me.
I used to be a Teamster, joining as a requirement for a job as a bus tour guide. As a former badged member, I was stunned to see Teamster President Sean O’Brien kiss Trump’s butt at the Republican National Convention.
O’Brien said the union is not automatically supporting Biden because it must first do its “duty of care.” Oh? Was a closer look needed after Biden signed a bill saving the pensions of 350,000 retired Teamsters?
O’Brien’s subservience was impressive.
“President Trump had the backbone to open the doors to this Republican National Convention, and that is unprecedented,” O’Brien roared as Trump beamed. The Teamsters boss clearly didn’t have the backbone to tell Trump to go to hell for ignoring his promise to save the Teamsters’ main pension fund.
“I basically look at Sean O’Brien as Donald Trump’s dancing show pony,” said Rick Smith, a Teamster who hosts a talk show about unions, on his podcast Working People. “He let himself be taken advantage of.”
A number of Teamster retirees actually had the courage to ignore their supposed leadership and show up at the Democratic National Convention to voice their support for Harris. Teamster Vice President John Palmer immediately announced that he would challenge O’Brien in the 2026 election to become the union’s new president.
The decision of who a union supports should not be based on whether you like the Democrats or the Republicans. It should be based on the self-interest of the members. When Trump promised a group of tech billionaires that he would support policies that would make them richer, they flocked to his side. If the Democrats offered the same, the brothers would be there. In Trump’s world, workers have no economic self-interest. The shenanigans of the culture war are enough for them, and they cost nothing.
We understand that MAGA preys on the fears of non-college-educated workers, which is the vast majority of Teamsters. We understand that cults create community.
Yet Trump has spent his life abusing his workers and opposing unions. A month after the Republican convention, he praised Tesla CEO Elon Musk on X for firing striking workers. “You’re the biggest cut-throat worker,” Trump said admiringly to Musk. “I look at what you do. You come in and say, ‘You want to quit?’ I won’t name the company, but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s OK. They’re all gone.'”
The United Auto Workers (UAW) considered this a threat to Tesla workers who might want to join a union. The UAW had no qualms about supporting Harris.
What Biden did for the Teamsters’ pension fund was not without political risk. Bailouts are not very popular, especially for underfunded pensions. A 2022 Wall Street Journal editorial criticized this, complaining that Democrats opposed cuts to pension payments and “rushed through a bailout” instead.
For the Teamsters president, a pat on the head from the MAGA king seemed reason enough to applaud the man who didn’t lift a finger to help his members, even though he had the power to do so.
“One thing is clear,” O’Brien praised the former president. “President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid to hear new, loud … voices.” Especially when he can ignore them.
— Froma Harrop is a syndicated columnist at Creators.
