The Teamsters are among the most effective unions in America, and for years they’ve backed the Democratic Party’s candidates for president. They have yet to back a prospect for 2024, however just recently they’ve raised some eyebrows by getting comfortable with previous President Donald Trump.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien met Trump two times in January, consisting of a personal check out to Mar-a-Lago, after which the union published a picture of the set. News came out that the Teamsters contributed $45,000 to the Republican National Committee’s convention fund — the optimum quantity permitted from the union’s political action committee. It seems the most substantial contribution that the Teamsters have actually made to the RNC in 20 years.
What’s going on?
Organized labor specialists state that O’Brien seems tactically placing himself, both for internal political factors and since he might be attempting to put a recommendation in with Trump in case he wins the election. That maneuvering raises 2 worrying concerns. One, is a significant union playing footsie with Trump since it sees President Joe Biden as especially weak in this election cycle? Second, might this procedure lead to the union efficiently pushing some on-the-fence union members and their neighborhoods to consider Trump as anything however the opponent of labor he actually is?
O’Brien rubbing elbows with Trump as a tactical maneuver might be pricey.
The Teamsters are an enormous, politically varied union, with 1.3 million members, consisting of UPS chauffeurs and numerous other type of transport employees. Nelson Lichtenstein, a labor historian at UC Santa Barbara, approximates that around 40%-45% of its subscription leans Republican. The Teamsters have, like other labor unions, mainly backed Democrats throughout their history, they were among the couple of unions to back Ronald Reaganand the just significant labor clothing to support George H.W. Bush in his 1988 project. This political spread is partly why it makes good sense that the union interviews political prospects throughout the political spectrum. The Teamsters have held roundtable conversations with inde