Teamsters President Endorses Transphobic Article by Josh Hawley
In a now-deleted tweet, the Teamsters' official account criticized union President Sean O'Brien for appearing to condone anti-trans rhetoric.
The official X account of the Teamsters Union clapped back at its president Sean O’Brien in a now-deleted post that criticized him for endorsing an article that took a swipe at the transgender community.
O’Brien made history — and headlines — by speaking during the first night of the Republican National Convention on July 15, marking the first time a Teamsters Union President had ever done so.
While that move attracted criticism, O’Brien sought to take advantage of the Republican Party’s recent shift towards more populist policies toward the Republican Party.
O’Brien previously told Fox News in March that Biden is “very strong on a lot of our issues” and “has proven he’s done a lot of hard work on behalf of unions.”
However, the powerful and influential union has not made an endorsement in the presidential race.
Instead, O’Brien has claimed the union is “not beholden” to any particular political party and has sought to reach out to Republicans to push through pro-union legislation at the federal level. O’Brien has also requested a speaking slot at the Democratic Party convention next month.
O’Brien’s RNC speech — which The Nation‘s John Nichols, in an MSNBC appearance, characterized as ‘harder-core, progressive, pro-labor speech on economic issues” than historically would have been given at either of the two major parties’ conventions — has been interpreted as giving more conservative, blue-collar union members an implicit blessing to vote Republican up and down the ticket this year, regardless of the flawed records of many Republicans, including party nominee Donald Trump, when it comes to promoting pro-labor policies.
O’Brien then caused more controversy when he tweeted support for an article that Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley wrote for the right-wing populist magazine Compact.
In the article, Hawley attacked Republican elites for adopting policies that have been too friendly to big business and hostile to labor unions and hourly-wage workers. Hawley couldn’t resist taking a swipe at diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives that have been embraced by some corporations in recent years.
“The C-suite long ago sold out the United States, shuttering factories in the homeland and gutting American jobs, while using the profits to push diversity, equity, and inclusion and the religion of the trans flag,” Hawley wrote. “Once upon a time, the head of General Motors could say, with an entirely straight face, ‘What’s good for GM is good for America.’ Those days are long over.”
In response, O’Brien posted on X: “[Hawley] is 100% on point.”
While O’Brien defenders are correct that most of Hawley’s article did take a more populist stance on labor issues, the dig at DEI, and particularly at the transgender community, angered pro-LGBTQ union activists.
Replying to O’Brien, the Teamsters official X account posted a statement that read, “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.”
The post was swiftly deleted, prompting one pro-labor LGBTQ user to comment, “Salute to whichever brave union sibling of mine managed to go rogue and get this up on the national Teamsters twitter before it got deleted for going too hard.”
“If you’re a Teamster of color, are LGBTQ+, Sean O’Brien has just said he doesn’t give a fuck about you,” a post by the Daily Union Elections account read.
“We get it. [Trump] promised you Secretary of Labor,” transgender writer Parker Molloy responded to O’Brien.
We get it. He promised you Secretary of Labor.
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) July 16, 2024
As transgender advocate and journalist Erin Reed noted on her Erin in the Morning Substack, “O’Brien’s support for a senator’s explicitly anti-diversity and anti-LGBTQ+ views runs contrary to Teamsters Union’s official documents and policies.”
As Reed notes, LGBTQ workers are right to be skeptical about labor leaders’ overtures to, and seeming eagerness to align with, right-wing populists like Trump and Vance who either exhibit autocratic inclinations and have expressed desires to impose a right-wing social agenda on American politics and society at large, with the LGBTQ community being a prime target.
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