A short time ago, Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) raised eyebrows by becoming strange bedfellows with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. This partnership included Hawley authoring an op-ed, “The Promise Of Pro-Labor Conservatism.” He also collaborated with the Teamsters on a framework that proposes the following EFCA throwback provisions : (1) Ban so-called “captive audience meetings”; (2) Mandate quickie union elections within 20 days; (3) Require employers to enter contract negotiations within 10 days of a union win.
Fast forward a month, and Hawley, who remains socially conservative as expressed on his Senate.gov webpage, is further entrenching himself with Big Labor and recently criticized Ford for ending its Jack Cooper transport partnership, potentially causing job losses for union members.
Now, some clarity is emerging. Maybe?
In a new Real Clear Politics interview, Trump pollster John McLaughlin wondered aloud whether union members who switched course to embrace Trump 2.0 would stick around in the future. Hawley said he asked other GOP lawmakers whether they want union support “to begin and end with Donald Trump.” Hawley also plans on introducing legislation – which hasn’t surfaced yet as a proposed bill – to make his “pro-labor” framework official, particularly regarding that proposed 10-day negotiations deadline.
More quotes from Hawley from that interview provide food for thought:
- “As conservatives, who are now benefiting from the support of working people, it’s time we deliver for them and bring into actuality this Trump realignment, this working-class realignment of the Republican Party. This is my project.”
- Hawley fears “the political wilderness,” which he describes as “reverting to the days where we are a wholly owned subsidiary of these mega-corporations.”
Reportedly, Hawley has support from at least two Democratic senators, Cory Booker and Gary Peters, for this legislation. Obviously, the Teamsters are also in favor, even though it seems clear that Hawley is unabashedly pandering to union voters. For example, Hawley was criticized for abruptly switching sides on Right-To-Work laws, for which he had previously expressed vigorous support. He also picketed with Teamsters last year.
As noted above, Hawley has insisted that the GOP must embrace unions, but that stance appears muddled in light of Trump’s recent labor moves, including a Monday Massacre at the NLRB and those planned tariffs, which sent both employers and workers into confusion. Yet Trump also nominated Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who favors the PRO Act, for labor secretary. O’Brien supports Chavez-DeRemer, and perhaps her nomination was a side effect of O’Brien’s embrace of the GOP at the RNC.
If there is a takeaway here – and labor policy changes are coming so fast lately that this could change at any moment – it’s that employers cannot look towards one political party and seek guaranteed outcomes on labor disputes. Like most other politicians, Hawley is concerned about his career longevity, and he has been pandering to unions within Missouri, where Republican voters have felt surprisingly positive about O’Brien.
If Hawley can persuade more GOP senators to help pass his legislation, this would signal a significant shift from Republicans. Will it happen? Nothing is predictable in D.C., but staying prepared is always a wise course to take.
