Trump voiced labor-friendly views in meeting with Teamsters before union president spoke at RNC

(NEW YORK) — Vice President Kamala Harris has received endorsements from most of the nation’s top labor unions, with a key exception: The International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who leads the union of 1.3 million members, drew attention last month when he spoke at the Republican National Convention, praising former President Donald Trump as “one tough SOB.”

The speech followed a visit by Trump to Teamsters headquarters in January, but little has been known about what Trump told some union members, the executive board and O’Brien at the meeting months before the RNC.

Details about Trump’s visit, first reported by ABC News, reveal an effort to woo meeting attendees with labor-friendly views and a promise of political access if the Teamsters went on to endorse him, according to an account published last month by the Teamsters in the union’s quarterly magazine.

“Before departing the union’s headquarters, the former President directly told those in attendance that the Teamsters would have a seat at the table if a potential endorsement was made for a second administration,” the Teamsters magazine said.

Speaking with Teamsters members at its national office in Washington, D.C., Trump described union contracts as an effective means of winning wage gains amid high inflation, the union said. Trump also said he agreed with attendees who voiced support for antitrust policy and who described the strong potential for growth in the U.S. labor movement, according to the union’s account.

Trump appeared to voice views friendlier to unions than he has shared in some other appearances on the campaign trail. Some positions he offered up with the Teamsters stood in contrast with stances his administration took while he was in office.

“The former President often pointed to persistent inflation as a detriment to any marginal gains achieved by workers to increase their wages but acknowledged that union workers like Teamsters were much more likely to get ahead thanks to strong collective bargaining agreements,” the magazine said.

The Teamsters did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did the Trump campaign.

In response to a previous request for comment, Teamsters Assistant Director of Communications Kara Deniz told ABC News the Teamsters has traditionally endorsed a candidate for president after the party conventions. 

“We are on our timeline and continuing to engage our members in this process,” Deniz added.

To be sure, the magazine sent by the Teamsters to its members included accounts of roundtables held with President Joe Biden, as well as third-party candidates Robert Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West. Last month, the Teamsters invited Vice President Kamala Harris for a discussion at the union’s headquarters, the union said in a post on X. The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the invitation.

The Teamsters is currently carrying out a vote among its members on who the union should endorse, the union said in a post on X last week.

During the roundtable discussion in January, which the union said lasted more than an hour, Trump declined to offer a firm view on potential legislation enshrining “right to work” nationwide, the union said. Rather, Trump said, such legislation should be left up to the states to decide for themselves, according to the union.

Currently, 26 states have enacted right-to-work laws, which allow workers to opt out of membership in a union at their workplace. The laws are widely opposed by unions in part because studies have shown that states with right-to-work laws have lower unionization rates.

In declining to support a nationwide right-to-work law, Trump bucked the position of more than half of the Republican members of Congress, who’ve signed onto such a measure introduced last year.

As president, however, Trump voiced support for right-to-work laws. 

“The president believes in right to work,” then-Press Secretary Sean Spicer said at a White House press conference in February 2017.

More generally, the favorable attitude toward union contracts that Trump expressed in the meeting contrasts with efforts taken by the Trump administration that made it more difficult for workers to form a union.

Trump appointees at the National Labor Relations Board, a federal agency that sets labor rules, for instance, expanded the length of time between when a union files for representation and when an election takes place. That additional time affords greater opportunity for anti-union employers to dissuade workers.

At the meeting, Trump also told Teamsters members that he felt public sector workers should have the same rights as union members at private companies, according to the account published by the Teamsters last month.

However, the Trump administration filed a brief in support of plaintiffs in a 2018 Supreme Court case that struck a major blow to public sector unions.

In Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Trump-appointee Neil Gorsuch cast a decisive fifth vote that made it illegal for public sector unions to charge so-called “fair share fees” to workers who opt out of belonging to a union at their workplace.

Labor unions widely condemned the decision, saying it would deny unions crucial funds that allow them to advocate for all workers at a given employer.

The remarks made by Trump at the meeting with the Teamsters sounded a more positive tone toward unions than he has expressed in some other settings during the campaign.

In an interview on Monday with billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, Trump praised Musk for what he described as a willingness to fire employees who go out on strike. Federal labor law prohibits the termination of workers for engaging in a collective labor action, such as a strike.

“They go on strike. I won’t mention the name of the company but they go on strike and you say, ‘That’s OK. You’re all gone. You’re all gone. Every one of you is gone.’ You are the greatest,” Trump told Musk in an interview broadcast on X.

O’Brien sharply criticized the comments on Tuesday. 

“Firing workers for organizing, striking, and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism,” O’Brien said.

The United Auto Workers filed federal charges against Trump and Musk on Tuesday over the remarks, alleging that the comments amounted to threats that workers would be fired for going on strike. Musk did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

At multiple fundraisers this year, Trump urged CEOs to make large donations because unions are giving significant funds to Democrats, the The Washington Post reported last month.

Art Wheaton, the director of labor studies at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in Buffalo, New York, said the comments made at the Teamsters meeting appear to be in keeping with efforts Trump has made to woo other constituencies.

“He likes to speak to whoever the audience is and say good things about them,” Wheaton told ABC News. “With this audience, he did not want to appear anti-union.”

“He seems to pander to his audience, which is not unusual for a politician,” Wheaton added.

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