A Teamster posted images of a fund raising letter they received from President Sean O’Brien on r/Union (warning: reddit link).
In the letter, Sean O’Brien claims that Trump is creating a new ‘Worker First’ republican party, and implores the reader to donate as much as they can to the Teamster ‘TEAM Fund’, which will be used to:
- Support Trump’s ‘Pro-Worker’ initiatives, like ‘strategic’ tariffs
- Financially back incumbent ‘pro-worker’ republican candidates for the House and Senate
- Identify pro-labor legislatures in key states and support their campaigns
Sean then introduces the next part of the letter; a message from Josh Hawley, a Christian Nationalist and Trump loyalist state senator who fist pumped the Jan 6th rioters in support.
In the letter Hawley claims Trump has eliminated the “country club elites and business tycoons” from the republican party, as well as ending the “Woke DEI agenda”.
If there was ever any doubt about O’Brien, he’s certainly showing his true colors now, bending the knee to the fascists in power and even going so far as to fund raise for them.
The letter itself:
Yeah, this is pretty old news at this point, because he came out as pro-Trump over a year ago. I wonder what he thinks now.
AFAIK he wasn’t so explicit in his endorsement until now, but I haven’t kept up with everything he’s said.
I wonder what he thinks now.
This letter is a few days old. So it appears he’s fully committed to colluding with fascists.
I kind of think it’s been official for longer than that, but it certainly undeniable. This guy is pulling a right-wing grifter turn and it’s extremely obvious. I’m sad that so many people are falling for it, but they’re getting taken and he’s going to laugh all the way to the bank.
I’ve worked in three union shops in my life. The majority consistently vote against their own interests. I don’t think this guy is grifting; I think he’s got a ton of Teamsters telling him this is what they want.
I work in a teamsters shop, and the amount of rightwing absolutely bonkers shit is way higher than I’d like. I blame shitty news and shitty podcasts for brainwashing the masses. It’d be nice if the masses stopped for even 10sec to think about the shit they’re hearing though.
I’m also a Teamster (school bus driver). 90% or more of my colleagues are trumpers and it sucks. Ironically, in my district drivers do not have to join the union because a very liberal leftist old Democrat colleague successfully sued the district for the right not to join (I still don’t know why he did this, he’s not been able to explain it coherently). Most of the drivers who haven’t joined the union are anti-trump. If you want me to explain this state of affairs, I can’t.
60% of Teamsters voted for Trump in the last election. Unfortunately a tremendous number of their membership is likely only in the union for personal benefit, and do not understand whatsoever class conflict or have enough altruism to see or care about the bigger picture, and are easily exploited via culture war tactics.
Be sure to participate in any elections to replace O’Brien (I guess Richard Hooker’s Fearless Slate is one of the better options? I’m not a Teamster, so you’ll have to research further), and consider Dual-Carding with the IWW if you can.
(Over, please) (Next page, please)
Does he think the people reading this have never dealt with multi-page publications before?
Teamsters should be quarantined. Zero cooperation or assistance from any other union until this abomination is removed.
Republican strategists figured out neither party is the worker’s party, so in order to be the party workers vote for, you just have to say you’re the party for workers the most.
And since Democrats barely know how to interact with the public, it works.
And since Democrats barely know how to interact with the public, it works.
they’re feckless, but honestly: who has a solution to this problem? It’s gish governance - they trot out a new, more horrible, more inconceivable lie every day so there’s never a pushback on the madness because every day is a new emergency.
sure, if we had checks and balances this could be fought, but the gop is literally bought and sold.
This goes back to how Nixon exploited the Hard Hat Riot. Working class union men started to resent leftist anti-war college students due to their negative stance on veterans. The Hard Hats were motivated by a simplistic patriotism for veterans, since many of them had family in the armed forces.
Republicans saw an opportunity to exploit that cultural difference, and began to pretend to care about unions while shitting on the new left to sway the more conservative unions to switching.
Democrats enabled this shift by being neoliberal corporatists with a pinch of welfare. Corporate lobby money is too good to resist for them.
The new flavor is to appeal to racist protectionism and the conservative culture war to win over conservative unions.
60% of Teamster membership voted for Trump in the last election, making them the most susceptible to being tempted and destroyed by republicans in sheep’s clothing. O’Brien is only too willing to facilitate that destruction, and ultimately will dance to whatever tune will keep him elected, which in this case is appealing to the conservative values of 60% of his base. Slugs voting for Salt.
Reactionary nonsense from a class traitor.
Is that why my and others rural UPS terminals are getting shut down with a loss of local jobs & drivers having longer days? Kind of funny because the the UAW didn’t do that and also they won agreements to grow jobs.
This surprises me absolutely not at all. Even in the Vancouver film industry where I make my living, one of the most queer friendly left leaning places in Canada, the Teamsters are often ridiculously right wing and pro Trump.
Less so maybe now that the leopards have actually started gnawing on their faces directly but the die hards are still at it. Riding swamper with them is often an exercise in extreme patience as they have swallowed racist, sexist, transphobic garbage without realizing the extent of the contents.
Literally had one tell me verbatim the opinions of a white south African doctor who claimed the inclusion of black Doctors during their desegregation ruined everything as anecdotal evidence that DEI was bad. (When I pointed out that was maybe not the best example to prove his point I got called racist 😅)
Teamsters tends to be the only union with viability in deep red culture areas of the country. If the union is Teamsters, usually the alternative is no union. I always try to calibrate for the fact they’re usually representing some deeply red workers in deeply red areas of the country. The message is at very least pro-worker and corporation-critical.
But even so Hawley isn’t exactly the fuckin’ guy, unless maybe this is a mailing from within Missouri or something.
Source: former Teamster in a deep red district of a deep blue state.
Ultimately though there has really got to be better alternatives for unions to start backing, even in the most right-wing pockets of the country. Just pick or find an independent that isn’t dogshit Sean.
The military teaches you leadership is convincing others to accomplish what they other wise would have not. Sorry but this letter is not what a union leader should be sending, regardless of who he represents.
wealthy elite
President is a billionaire
Country Club elites and business tycoons
President literally owns a country club and had a TV show due to his “business empire”
It’s a bit out of date, but it gets the point across
Ally with the people who never worked a day in their life, it’s a bold move, Cotton.
Traitorous POS
Fucking traitor. The mental gymnastics he goes through to justify siding with trump to help “blue collar workers” what a fucking joke
Wait. The head of the teamsters is corrupt?
There’s cool Teamster corruption and there’s this
Muppet.
