[[{“value”:”
By Reid Jackson
Boston, MA – On April 23, 2025, IBT International President Sean O’Brien tweeted a New York Post article attacking democratic socialists Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as the duo continue to draw tens of thousands to their “Fighting Oligarchy” tour.
O’Brien sharing anti-socialist smears is just the latest in a series of steps rightward taken by the leader of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which began cementing with O’Brien’s appearance as a speaker at the Republican National Convention in 2024. He followed that high-profile platform with a succession of Fox News appearances and Republican Senator podcast guests, revealing a new direction for a leader of a union embedded in the strategic logistics industry through 1.5 million rank-and-file members.
O’Brien has repeatedly touted an apolitical attitude towards politicians, press, and workers themselves, but in the era of rising fascism, apolitical means collaboration. O’Brien’s rise to power was paved by Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a rank-and-file reform caucus within which many socialists are embedded, which organized for his victory. But while O’Brien has hired organizer after organizer, beefing up the organizing department of the Teamsters to take on Amazon and other behemoths, the union president has also swung sharply to the right. O’Brien oversaw the mass firing and “public humiliation” of Black and brown staff organizers, 16 of 20 of total staff dismissed by the union, before bragging about it in an Oxnard union hall. That was before he began cozying up to the Right in appearance after appearance.
Workers and their families are feeling the squeeze of capitalistic greed now more than ever, with rent soaring in every local and anti-union activity rising across society, while one of the most important worker leaders sits side by side with the capitalists busting unions and raising rent. O’Brien using his incredible position of influence as a labor leader to field podcast episodes with adversaries of the labor movement like Josh Hawley, one of the people pushing anti-worker legislation in Congress, is wasteful and harmful.
Sean O’Brien’s impact as a labor leader remains largely to be seen. However, already, there are signs that his turn to the right may have corrosive effects on both the labor movement itself and the rank-and-file membership of the IBT.
O’Brien’s Impact on the Labor Movement
O’Brien’s political leadership could signal to other labor leaders that collaboration is acceptable as long as they employ the framework of “reaching across the aisle” and “finding common ground.” United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain also met with boss-friendly Hawley in February 2025, possibly as a result of O’Brien’s repeated encounters with the Republicans. Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, has begun entertaining guests like Charlie Kirk from conservative think-tank Turning Point USA. Kirk has played a prominent role in radicalizing young men to the far right, including substantial numbers of workers. If this is the start of a growing trend of playing nice with the opposition party, O’Brien’s participation is an embarrassment.
Does O’Brien’s failure of optics directly translate to a failure as a union leader? Does the average Teamsters member care where O’Brien is appearing on TV next as long as their contracts are being accepted? One New England member of the Teamsters reported anonymously to Working Mass:
Sean is really great at the local stuff… he used to show up to all these different sites, help us secure contracts and enforce them, but lately he’s been on this odd media crusade. Spending all this time with Republicans is helping no one … speaks to a very out-of-touch relationship with national leadership.
The rank-and-file Teamster cited the current political climate and the growing pressure that unions and their members face every day in the workplace as reason enough for any union president to buckle down and get to work.
However, there are rising examples of other labor leaders with constituencies similarly numbering in the millions of workers not named O’Brien pivoting towards defense against the Trump Administration. For example, SEIU International has joined their Local 509 in fighting to bring union member Rümeysa Öztürk back from ICE detention. The president of the largest private sector union came out to a rally on April 2nd in downtown Boston to call for her release and spoke to thousands of union members and supporters. This kind of solidarity is what is necessary from labor leadership at this time of capitalist attack.
O’Brien’s Impact on the Rank-and-File
When asked if they would support O’Brien, the Teamster said:
I probably will still campaign for him, he’s done a lot of great things for us in labor as a leader. But these stunts with Fox News and the like are upsetting to the people like me who helped him get elected. If he keeps it up, he’s probably going to lose a portion of his volunteer base.
O’Brien argues that his political approach is mirrored by the membership of the Teamsters itself and will not be punished by membership. So far, that has remained true. The Teamsters’ internal survey shows that almost 60% of Teamsters supported Trump in the 2024 election. Statistics like these can be confusing as well as depressing, but it’s important to note that even if support for Trump is a widely held sentiment for the Teamsters, that doesn’t mean that fighting for progressive causes is hopeless in the organization. The Teamsters for a Democratic Union remain highly active organizing for progressive reform at every level of the Teamsters’ structure. However, they do so far without any public opposition to O’Brien’s from the TDU.
If one anonymous New England Teamster who spoke to Working Mass is to be believed, that’s not likely to change:
If there was another candidate to come out in the next election for President [of the Teamsters], it would likely be a moderate urging the union to return to more conservative policy… so even given his current attitude towards Republicans, it’s not worth abandoning O’Brien over.
However, O’Brien’s status as unassailable at the helm of the Teamster rank-and-file movement also means members are robbed of the necessary leadership they need in the face of the Trump Administration. His shift to the Right normalizes the Right within a union of over a million. While organizing may increase, and the relationship between the Teamsters and the Democratic Party at last severed, the cost is a leader who will not defend members from abduction.
Sean O’Brien’s continued support for Republicans in the face of their egregious anti-worker attitude does not signal that Republicans are secretly a good party for labor movements, but that Democrats have hopelessly lost their labor messaging. O’Brien’s collaboration with the Right, including its organized forces and institutions, is a consequence of a true vacuum in the political space. There remains no substantial labor party grounded both in labor and mass organizations capable of representing workers as political subjects.
The task remains: build the workers’ party.
Reid Jackson is a contributor to Working Mass and a former member of the YDSA at the University of Rhode Island.
“}]]