New. York
CNN
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Teamsters President Sean O’Brien will converse to the Republican Nationwide Conference in Milwaukee in July, an indication that former President Donald Trump’s marketing campaign is hoping to peel off the assist of union members from President Joe Biden.
However in contrast to different audio system on the RNC, O’Brien’s look doesn’t symbolize an endorsement of Trump, in line with Teamsters union spokesperson Kara Deniz. O’Brien has requested the chance to additionally converse on the Democratic Nationwide Conference in Chicago in August. The DNC has but to simply accept that request, Deniz stated.
Trump posted the announcement Friday afternoon on his Fact Social platform.
“Our GREAT conference will unify People and exhibit to the nation’s working households they arrive first,” Trump wrote. “When I’m again within the White Home, the hardworking Teamsters, and all working People, will as soon as once more have a rustic they’ll afford to dwell in and be revered all over the world. Sean, I stay up for seeing you symbolize the Teamsters in Milwaukee. Collectively we are able to Make America Nice Once more.”
Deniz stated in an e-mail that the union was glad Trump prolonged the invitation.
“That is actually unprecedented since it will likely be the very first time a Teamsters Normal President has addressed the RNC,” she stated in an e-mail. “Our 1.3 million members symbolize each political background, and their message must be heard by as broad an viewers as attainable, and that features all political candidates operating for elected workplace. We respect former President Trump’s openness to inviting a labor chief to talk on behalf of working households.”
“We sincerely hope the DNC may even reply to our request with an invite,” she stated.
Trump and O’Brien met on the former president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in early January. Trump then met with the union’s management on January 31. Another union leaders objected to the conferences, with John Palmer — the group’s worldwide vice chairman at-large — writing a letter at the moment denouncing Trump as “a recognized union buster, scab, and insurrectionist.”
“We should always by no means entertain dialogue with a candidate with such an anti-union report,” he wrote.
Biden has a really pro-union report. He turned the primary sitting president to appear on the picket line to assist strikers through the United Auto Staff union’s strike in opposition to the nation’s three unionized automakers. He has commonly voiced assist for unions and has appointed a really pro-union management to the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, which has been a lot friendlier to union positions throughout his administration. He additionally met with the Teamsters leadership in March.
However up to now, the Teamsters have endorsed neither candidate, in contrast to the AFL-CIO and lots of highly effective unions, such because the UAW and the Nationwide Schooling Affiliation. And the union’s political arm gave similar size donations of hundreds of thousands of dollars to committees of each the Democratic and Republican events earlier this yr.
O’Brien has had his personal harsh criticism of another Republicans, if not Trump. At a Senate listening to in November, he and Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, each stated they have been prepared to engage in a fist fight in the midst of a listening to till Sen. Bernie Sanders, the committee chair, ordered them to cease.
The DNC stated it has but to choose its set of audio system for its conference in August.
“We’re constructing a conference in Chicago that may inform our story to the American folks, together with the tales of labor and union leaders and employees that President Biden has been delivering for as probably the most pro-union president in fashionable historical past,” stated DNC spokesperson Matt Hill.
– CNN’s Gregory Krieg and Kristen Holmes contributed to this report