Teamsters President Sean O’Brien and UAW President Shawn Fain are both union leaders. Unfortunately for America’s unionized automotive workers, that’s about all the two men have in common.
O’Brien, a tough as nails leader who prefers to be known by his initials SOB, knows how to negotiate sweetheart contracts for his members and respects their preferences regarding presidential endorsements. The Teamsters a year ago negotiated a lucrative contract with UPS providing significant pay raises and other benefits for its members, as well as the creation of more full-time union jobs. The Teamsters didn’t have to call a strike to get a contract that engulfed UPS’ unionized workers with joy and good vibes.
O’Brien has another impressive skill, one that should be the envy of the legacy media, particularly ABC News’ teleprompter readers David Muir and Linsey Davis. He knows how to wrest policy specifics from Vice President Kamala Harris, and when meeting with her O’Brien didn’t like what he heard.
“The Teamsters thank all candidates for meeting with members face-to-face during our unprecedented roundtables,” O’Brien said in a news release. “Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business. We sought commitments from both Trump and Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries—and to honor our members’ right to strike—but were unable to secure those pledges.
“Our mission as union representatives is clear: to be honest and upfront, to be inclusive and, above all, to be transparent with our membership. As the strongest and most democratic labor union in America, it was vital for our members to drive this endorsement process. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents proudly call our union home, and we have a duty to represent and respect every one of them. We strongly encourage all our members to vote in the upcoming election, and to remain engaged in the political process. But this year, no candidate for President has earned the endorsement of the Teamsters’ International Union.”
Trump victory of sorts
Although Trump failed to win the Teamsters’ endorsement despite personally inviting O’Brien to speak during prime time at the RNC’s convention, it’s still a victory of sorts given that the Teamsters typically endorse Democrats, including Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Harris’ campaign handlers were reportedly miffed that O’Brien addressed a gathering of Republicans and declined to give him the same opportunity at the DNC convention. That possibly cost Harris some critical rank-and-file labor Teamsters support.
O’Brien professes transparency, and he made good on his word. In a separate news release, he shared the Teamsters’ internal polling data.
From April 9-July 3, nearly 300 Teamsters local unions nationwide conducted first-of-their-kind Presidential town halls, soliciting endorsement preferences from members via straw polls. The in-person voting was held prior to Biden’s withdrawal from the race. The Teamsters’ polling data shows members backed Biden 44.3 percent to Trump’s 36.3 percent.
Following the Republican National Convention and Biden’s campaign exit, the Teamsters commissioned a national electronic poll of its 1.3 million members, overseen by an independent third party. During a voting window from July 24-Sept. 15, rank-and-file Teamsters voted 59.6 percent for the union to endorse Trump, compared to 34 percent for Harris.
In the past week, following the Democratic National Convention and recent Presidential debate, the Teamsters commissioned independent polling firm Lake Research Partners to conduct the union’s final national survey. In the poll ending Sept. 15, Teamsters selected Trump by 58 percent for endorsement over 31 percent for Harris.
Nevertheless, the Washington Post reported that a wave of local and regional Teamsters union branches in battleground states rushed to endorse Harris after O’Brien disclosed the union wouldn’t endorse a presidential candidate.
Fain’s self-promotion
Harris also boasts the endorsement of the UAW, but that’s hardly worth bragging about given the lack of respect Fain commands with the Detroit 3 automakers and even with a growing number of his own union members. While Fain has done an impressive job garnering legacy media applause and generating uniformly positive coverage about himself and his “Eat the Rich” antics, UAW members are fast learning the “historic” contract Fain negotiated last year was a Pyrrhic victory, resulting in thousands of job losses and the Detroit 3 moving more jobs to Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere.
Fain is threatening another strike against Stellantis, claiming the Europe-based company reneged on promises to reopen a plant in Illinois and maintain production of the Dodge Durango full-size SUV in Detroit. In possibly yet another sign of how little respect Stellantis has for the UAW, Fain claims Stellantis advised the UAW last month it was planning on moving Durango production to Windsor, Canada, where the company is building a massive battery plant.
Windsor is practically in spitting distance from Detroit, approximately 13 miles from the Jefferson Avenue plant where the Durango is currently assembled. If Stellantis moves Durango production to Windsor, unemployed UAW members could easily drive across the border and watch their Canadian counterparts performing their jobs and then sample some the city’s excellent Chinese restaurants. Those who endorse the UAW’s anti-Israel boycotts might also want to visit the University of Windsor, where they likely would be embraced by the school’s administration.
Stellantis, whose PR people of few words I regard as more credible than their counterparts at GM and Ford, denies the company has reneged on promises it agreed to when it signed the UAW contract. A spokeswoman said the contract had a provision that the company could delay some of its investment commitments if market conditions went south, which is the case for Stellantis. The company’s Chrysler, Dodge, and Jeep vehicles are piling up on dealers’ lots and some of them are among the slowest selling in America.
“Simply not true“
“The UAW agreed to language that expressly allows the company to modify product investments and employment levels,” Stellantis spokeswoman Jodi Tinson told the Detroit News. Therefore, the union cannot legally strike over a violation of this letter at this time.” As for Stellantis confirming to the UAW that it plans to move Durango production to Windsor, the company told the Detroit News that Fain’s claim was “simply not true.”
Regardless, Stellantis’ disrespect for Fain and his members is readily apparent. After signing last year’s labor agreement, Stellantis immediately moved to fire thousands of temporary UAW paying workers, using automated calls to notify them.
The company last month announced plans on Friday to lay off as many as 2,450 workers later this year at a Warren truck plant near Detroit, and Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares warned that at least one Stellantis North American factory was operating at an unsatisfactory level.
Fain last week staged a protest rally outside Stellantis’ Warren plant, which the World Socialist Web Site, a vociferous critic of Fain’s leadership, said was mostly boycotted by workers and that the hundred or so persons who attended were primarily lower and middle level union members.
“At the rally, Fain touted the UAW’s “Keep the Promise” campaign supposedly aimed at forcing Stellantis to honor commitments made in the 2023 contract,” WSWS reported. “In reality the 2023 contract was a sellout. The UAW leadership knowingly gave Stellantis, as well as Ford and General Motors, the green light to carry out a massive restructuring for electric vehicle production on the backs of workers.”
Rodney Dangerfield treatment
Stellantis, Ford, and GM haven’t shown much respect for the Biden administration’s EV initiatives, despite billions in taxpayer largesse the automakers have received. The Department of Energy, headed by former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm, awarded Stellantis $335 million to restart the Belvedere factory and President Biden in his State of the Union address earlier this year suggested the plant’s reopening signaled a larger manufacturing and middle class comeback in America.
Ford has delayed the opening of an EV truck and battery plant in Tennessee for at least two years and indefinitely delayed the opening of a battery plant in Kentucky. Granholm gave Ford a controversial $9.2 billion below market loan to finance its EV projects from a fund that was earmarked to support innovative projects that couldn’t qualify for traditional financing.
Ford, which claims on its website that it is “All In On America,” has confirmed that it will continue building its next generation electric Mustang in Mexico, and Reuters reported that Ford plans to resume manufacturing operations in India for export purposes, although the automaker hasn’t yet provided any details.
GM plans to build its electric Cadillac Optiq in Mexico, where it also builds its electric Equinox and Blazer models that are eligible for lucrative tax subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act, which Kamala Harris said she helped Biden champion. GM also has delayed the reopening of the suburban Detroit plant where the company previously built its electric Chevy Bolt vehicles.
More mega millions for GM
Nevertheless, Granholm a few weeks ago showered GM with an additional $500 million to retool a Lansing, MI, plant for electric vehicles at some time in the future. Granholm awarded the taxpayer giveaway despite GM spending $16 billion on stock buybacks to boost its under performing shares.
Although the Biden/Harris administration’s EV mandates and economic policies have cost thousands of UAW members their jobs, Fain wholeheartedly endorsed Biden’s reelection, and immediately moved to support Kamala Harris after Biden was forced to step aside because he wasn’t as fit as a fiddle as the media reported and Harris repeatedly assured.
Biden last month imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese-made vehicles, a policy Trump first proposed and Biden initially ridiculed. Yet Fain has continuously trashed Trump, calling him a “scab” and other derogatory names that likely won’t serve the UAW well if Trump gets reelected. Trump has publicly called Fain a “dope.”
The Teamsters’ O’Brien didn’t secure any concessions or commitments from Trump or Harris, which is why neither candidate secured his union’s endorsement. One must admire the SOB for his transparency and resolve.