CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — The president of the Teamsters Union will speak at the Republican National Convention next month as Donald Trump looks to chip away at President Joe Biden’s support among workers who are expected to play a key role. in the general election, especially in crucial swing states in the Midwest such as Wisconsin and Michigan.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said O’Brien had “accepted my invitation to speak at the RNC convention in Milwaukee.”
Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz said Friday that O’Brien had requested speaking engagements at both major party conventions and accepted Trump’s invitation to the RNC, marking the first time a Teamsters president would speak at the GOP event. DNC officials did not immediately respond when asked whether O’Brien would speak at their event.
Trump has sought to boost Biden’s support among organized labor heading into the general election as he works to win over the workers who helped drive his 2016 victory. Union members typically vote Democratic, with AP VoteCast reporting 2020 56% of members and households support Biden.
In September, as his Republican rivals met for a debate, Trump traveled to Michigan and tried to win over auto workers by criticizing Biden’s electric vehicles in the middle of a strike. During his speech, Trump urged the United Auto Workers to support him, appealing directly to the union president Shawn Fain – even though he was speaking from the shop floor of a non-union auto parts factory.
Fain instead called Trump a “scab,” a derogatory term for workers who cross union lines and work during a strike, as he endorsed Biden. In January, Trump called on UAW members to oust Fain after the group endorsed Biden.
O’Brien, meanwhile, met Trump privately at his Mar-a-Lago club, where the two discussed issues including right-to-work laws that allow people in unionized workplaces to opt out of paying dues and reimbursements. After a roundtable with Teamster leaders in January, Trump called the event “a very productive meeting,” acknowledging that the union generally supports Democrats but referring to the possibility of an endorsement: “Stranger things have happened.”
O’Brien later described the roundtable with Trump as “pleasant” and “direct,” but said the union was far from making a decision. After meeting with Biden in March, O’Brien said the president has been “great” for workers but emphasized that “there’s still a lot of work to be done” to strengthen unions.
Biden — who has long portrayed himself as the most labor-friendly president in history, even going so far as to show up on the picket line during last fall’s auto workers’ strike in the Detroit area — already has significant support from organized labor received, with early expressions of support from the AFL-CIO and others. But Trump hopes to undermine that support by casting himself as pro-worker and exacerbating divisions between union leaders and some rank-and-file members.
The Teamsters union represents 1.3 million workers, including UPS drivers, film and television workers, trucking companies, members of law enforcement agencies and other government employees.
It backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, though O’Brien has stressed the union is open to endorsements this cycle. The group generally waits until after both parties’ summer nominating conventions to make a formal endorsement, and will “most likely” do so again this year, once it has surveyed its members, solicited input from its constituents and retooled its leadership team. has convened. O’Brien said.
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Associated Press writer Linley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP
