“Today, the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party,” Teamsters International President said to the crowd at the Republican National Convention on Monday night.
O’Brien made history as the first Teamster ever to speak at the convention. In his lengthy, 16-minute speech, the Teamsters president praised former President Donald Trump for opening the doors to the RNC to the union.
“I don’t care about getting criticized,” he insisted, somewhat acknowledging the union’s long track record of Democratic support and the blow back he had already received for accepting the RNC’s invitation.
“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,” he continued, vowing to “create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition ready to accomplish something real for the American worker.”
Rather than outright throw Teamsters’ support behind the Republican Party, O’Brien tried to find a middle ground. While he praised several GOP leaders, including Senator Josh Hawley, his main message to the audience was that union support is bipartisan.
“Remember, elites have no party. Elites have no nation,” he said. “Their loyalty is to the balance sheet and the stock price at the expense of the American worker.”
He added: “The Teamsters are not 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?”
Democrats are sure to take note of O’Brien’s speech at the RNC, which comes after the Teamsters donated to the Republican National Committee for the first time in decades earlier this year. The union gave $45,000 to both the GOP and the Democratic National Committee, though the latter is a common occurrence.
His appearance also comes just one day after he addressed more than 2,000 members of the Teamsters Motion Picture Division in a town hall on Sunday as their negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reach the last week of scheduled bargaining.
While the union is aiming for a deal by Friday, there is still a large bridge to gap when it comes to wage increases for several categories of workers, Deadline understands. The Teamsters’ current contract with the studios expires on July 31, and they have said they are unwilling to extend it past that date.
The Teamsters represent one of the most powerful unions in the U.S. with more than 1.3M members. In his speech, while unprecedented in its venue, O’Brien drove home that point as he has many times before.
“Never forget, American workers own this nation. We are not renters. We are not tenants. Wut the corporate elite treat us like squatters, and that is a crime. We’ve got to fix it,” he said.
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