It was a very lefty kind of speech. He talked about “corporate vultures” ruining the US and demanding change.
UPDATE: Text of speech in block of this realclearpolitics article, but the video (below) is better.
PBS piece with video: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-teamsters-president-sean-obrien-speaks-at-republican-national-convention
From the article and speech:
“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?”
“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.
see also: https://www.axios.com/2024/07/16/teamsters-sean-obrien-trump-rnc-speech
He’s not wrong, but the RNC is a convention of Elites.
I suspect he is anticipating a Trump presidency and wants to counteract the “UAW is a bunch of socialists who stumped for Biden” rhetoric.
He knows that Biden and democratic policies have been good to unions, heck the teamsters pension fund was even bailed out by them in 2022, preventing large pension cuts to 350,000 union workers.
Going to be a real leopard ate my face moment if Trump wins and fills the national labor board with anti union officials again.
It’s especially inexplicable because in straw polls Biden has a clear lead in support among teamster members.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/11/us/politics/teamsters-trump-biden.html
“But you know,” Mr. Palmer added, “you can pick up a snake and play with it, but if you play with it enough, it’s going to bite you eventually.”
Maybe he hates his job
Watch the video. I also linked to the speech as transcribed by realclearpolitics (though I think there’s a couple errors in there).
We need corporate welfare reform. Under our current system, massive companies like Amazon, Uber, Lyft, and Walmart take zero responsibilities for the workers they employ. These companies offer no real health insurance, no retirement benefits, no paid leave, relying on underfunded public assistance. And who foots the bill? The individual taxpayer. The biggest recipients of welfare in this country are corporations, and this is real corruption.
He said some pretty uncomfortable things to some of that audience. In his recent article, Cory suggested that if there is a way to break the Trump voting block it’s to highlight the irreconcilable contradictions between the people in it. I had an initial knee jerk reaction to the news about this speech, but after listening to it, I think O’Brien did exactly that.
I agree! I was squirming a bit at the beginning when he was graciously thanking the hosts and individuals who have been pro-union, but once he got to the meat of the matter, he was scathing!
– And if anyone is wondering which article you mean, I have the link: https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/14/fracture-lines/#disassembly-manual
Yeah, I came in prepared to hear shameful bootlicking and I came out pretty good about what he did there. Still a bit controversial but I think positive on the whole. Especially for someone who’s trying to get the best deal for his union members.
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Watch the video before you say that.
Working people know our system is broken. The elites are not laboring on behalf of workers. There is a political caste system that prevents citizens from accessing their representatives to hold them accountable. For a moment in time, working people in America were seen as essential. Sadly, it took a global pandemic for political and corporate elites to notice this fact.
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Yours is a thoughtful and well reasoned take. I didn’t think it was trying to soften anyone. I thought it was making a call for more workers to unionize with a list of corporate horrors as the thing to unite against. That said, I do agree that having that message set in the RNC may be a permission structure for moderates. Moreover, I’m certain they let O’Brien speak as a means of wooing low-info voters, but I’m not sure how that’d work since those people aren’t going to hear any of it.
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Look at all those maga people nodding their heads to those “dangerous sodalist” ideas. Its almost like as people we have the same basic needs and beliefs. “Workers own this nation” “Cheers Yeah!” Politicians looking slightly nervous… “this is um, good?”
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Watch the video.
We need corporate welfare reform. Under our current system, massive companies like Amazon, Uber, Lyft, and Walmart take zero responsibilities for the workers they employ. These companies offer no real health insurance, no retirement benefits, no paid leave, relying on underfunded public assistance. And who foots the bill? The individual taxpayer. The biggest recipients of welfare in this country are corporations, and this is real corruption.
Why did the RNC invite a union president to speak in the first place? Seems very out-of-character especially considering what he said on stage
O’Brien asked to speak and it was approved! My guess is: the party figured that Trump voters aren’t going to switch sides no matter who says what, but maybe they can attract a few from the center or left if they allowed a pro-Union speech.
