Photograph Source: Vateamster – CC BY-SA 4.0
Soon after Donald Trump announced that he was going to propose a one percent tariff on films produced in “foreign lands,” Teamsters’ General President Sean O’Brien rushed to Fox News and proclaimed his eager support. Striking a jovial pose, he was fawned over by America Reports hosts Sandra Smith and John Roberts, who feigned surprise at his support for Trump. They threw softball questions at O’Brien, who said he was working “bipartisan for the betterment of the American worker.”
Fox News programs, whatever time slot, is a peculiar forum to decry “greedy corporations,” outsourcing union jobs and weakening unions, given that Fox News is a notorious right-wing anti-union, international corporate Goliath. Run by the on-going soap opera known as the Murdoch family—mocked by the popular series Succession—Fox News is also pretty upfront with its lurid racism. But, O’Brien is also well aware that Fox is generally, despite some rocky moments, Trump’s favorite media outlet.
O’Brien’s support for Trump’s new round of tariffs follows a now familiar pattern for the media-loving Teamster leader. Whether it’s campaigning for Trump’s picks for Secretary of Labor—who supports right-to-work laws—or OSHA, a former UPS and Amazon executive, both companies have terrible health and safety record. (He even went so far as to say that right-to-work laws, an anathema to U.S. labor, were appropriate in some states, which was gleefully posted by the National Right-to-Work Committee). O’Brien was quick to take to Fox to boast of the Teamsters’ alleged political influence.
You wouldn’t know from his many media appearances and his podcast that for all of his talk of advocating for the “working class,” that we are living through the worst assault on the working class in one hundred years. But, it gets worse. O’Brien has also took to X (formerly Twitter) to mock Alexander Ocasio Cortez’s (AOC) and Bernie’s popular “The Fighting Oligarchy” tour and allowed disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to red-bait his emerging rival for the Democratic nomination for Mayor of New York City.
At the same time, Trump’s eager hatchet man, Nazi sympathizer Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has slashed and burned union jobs and vital services for the working class, the elderly, and veterans without a word of criticism from O’Brien. If this strikes you as doing the dirty work for MAGA in the trade unions, you wouldn’t be wrong.
However, just two years ago, Sean O’Brien and his “Teamsters United” slate were hailed by the broad labor-left in the United States as the vanguard of a new militant Teamsters. On the eve of expiration of the national Teamster-UPS contract in 2023, O’Brien said was prepared to wage an historic strike at UPS that would transform the labor movement. He toured the country with Bernie Sanders and Flight Attendant union President Sara Nelson that culminated in a huge outdoor rally at the Teamsters City, the aging headquarters of many Teamster local unions on Chicago’s West Side.
Yet, two years after O’Brien declared an historic victory at UPS, the situation at UPS is pretty dire for the membership. UPS has announced that it will slash 20,000 jobs and close over seventy hubs across the country. The Teamsters largely have been bystanders to this attack but it hasn’t stopped him from posting his now familiar bloviating memes. Recently, O’Brien announced his support for tax incentives for Hollywood studios. The figure of $7.5 billion has been floated by California Governor Gavin Newsome. Whatever happened to fighting “greedy corporations?
At the recent Teamsters Unity Conference in Las Vegas, the Teamsters United Slate for the Teamsters 2026 election was announced. There have been a few changes but nothing substantial. Sean O’Brien and Fred Zuckerman will run for reelection for the two top spots. No opposition slate was announced in Las Vegas, though there is some expectation that one could emerge. Meanwhile, the left inside the Teamsters appears to be in a shambles. The Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), for example, the former reform group, has found a comfortable niche in the O’Brien administration.
As many of us grapple with the reality of an aggressive authoritarian Trump presidency, the largest transport union in the U.S.—and the country’s most iconic union is controlled by a close ally of the current administration to the detriment of us all. The leadership and direction of the Teamsters has to change.
