From today’s The Guardian:
The Teamsters’ social media account attacked its own president on Wednesday, saying “unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right,” two days after Sean O’Brien addressed the Republican national convention in Milwaukee.
O’Brien spoke at the convention on Monday night in Milwaukee, becoming the first leader of the union to appear at the convention in the union’s history.
O’Brien’s meeting with Donald Trump and his convention appearance have angered some Teamsters and others in the labor movement. Joe Biden has touted himself as the most pro-labor president in American history; Trump, in contrast, has been heavily criticized by unions for his administration’s anti-labor record. Anti-union groups have also criticized O’Brien’s appearance at the convention.
The union is facing a backlash from members and progressive groups over O’Brien’s appearance and the union’s consideration of abstaining from making an endorsement in the 2024 presidential election, including from the union’s social media manager.
In a now deleted tweet, the Teamsters posted a response to O’Brien retweeting an op-ed by the Republican senator Josh Hawley, in which O’Brien wrote: “Hawley is 100% on point.”
The deleted social media post said: “Unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic, and anti-trans politics of the far right, no matter how much people like Sen Hawley attempt to tether such bigotry to a cynical pro-labor message.
“The message this sends to Teamsters of color, Teamster women, and LGBTQ Teamsters is that they are not welcome in the union unless they surrender their identity to a new kind of anti-woke unionism. You don’t unite a diverse working class by scoffing at its diversity.”
Read the complete story here.