July 16, 2024

In a stunning move of betrayal, Teamsters President Sean O'Brien spoke Monday night at the RNC convention in Milwaukee. It is safe to say he did not come to bury Felonious Caesar but to praise him:

"President Trump is a candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud and often critical voices, and I think we all can agree, whether people like him or they don't like him, in light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough S.O.B.," O'Brien said.

That "S.O.B." line sparked resounding applause and cheers from the convention hall.

O'Brien then made a remarkably stupid comment about how the Teamsters didn't care about the party, but which candidate would be best. He followed it up by bragging about how they endorsed Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush - a crook, a union buster, and a corporate stooge. That's not exactly a record to be proud of.

O'Brien wasn't done beclowning himself by giving credit to Republican lawmakers for helping to settle the railroad worker's strike in 2022. However, the Teamsters actually credited President Joe Biden - who is decidedly not a Republican - for working with O'Brien himself in getting the job done.

All O'Brien really managed to do on Monday night was remove any doubt that he was a scab and a sellout. But that's not something that other Teamsters didn't already know. Even before O'Brien spoke at the RNC, other union officers were telling him to stand down:

John Palmer, the Teamsters' vice president at large, wrote in an op-ed in New Politics earlier this week that O'Brien's scheduled appearance at Donald Trump's invitation "only normalizes and makes the most anti-union party and president I've seen in my lifetime seem palatable."

"Does O'Brien intend to remind the anti-union delegates that labor unions exist to ensure that workers—regardless of their race, sex, gender, gender identity, or religion—equally enjoy the security and fairness that a written labor agreement provides?" Palmer asked. "Is he going to state the obvious fact that unions' ability to achieve these goals is being stripped away by the current overzealous Supreme Court? The majority of these justices have been appointed by the same Republicans who will be at this convention."

[...]

"We will not allow the working-class labor movement to be destroyed by a scab masquerading as a pro-union advocate after doing everything in his power to destroy the very fabric of unions," James Curbeam, national chairman of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, wrote in a letter to Teamsters members after O'Brien announced a meeting with Trump earlier this year.

Even other unions are calling bullshit on the whole idea that Felon Trump is a Friend of Labor:

I certainly hope that the Teamsters' Board does the only sane thing and expels the scabby rat before he does any further damage to their union.

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