Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is awfully proud of how the Faster Labor Contracts Act (FLCA) passed in the U.S. House by a 230 to 193 vote. On his union’s website, he praised the “Teamsters-led bill,” which he called a “significant milestone for millions of American workers.”
As we have explained in a new research report, the FLCA is based upon a false myth and aims to fundamentally change how first contracts are negotiated. This process would take away workers’ ability to vote on ratification in many cases, but this isn’t the first time, nor will it be the last time, that O’Brien’s actions don’t match up with his claimed values.
Let’s look at his bouts of hypocrisy from the past few years, and surely there will be more examples in the future:
His pouting over the DOL secretary switcheroo:
The fiction: O’Brien was asked by NBC about the resignation of scandal-embattled Lori Chavez-DeRemer as DOL secretary. In response, he groused, “I was getting criticized because ‘this is Sean O’Brien’s labor secretary,’ blah blah blah blah blah.” He appeared to feign cluelessness on why his name had been dragged into the subject.
The fact: In 2024, O’Brien penned a column, “The Pro-Worker Choice for Labor,” in which he said of Chavez-DeRemer, “I wholeheartedly endorse her.” He apparently felt this way because Chavez-DeRemer is the daughter of a Teamster, and as such, she “is the exact type of champion for the American worker that Republicans should get behind.”
His UPS members left holding the bag on a contract and buyouts:
The claim: Currently, the Teamsters are pointing to an upcoming August wage increase and COLA raise for UPS members who have completed progression as evidence that the 2023 contract is delivering positive results. O’Brien had celebrated that contract as “historic” and pointed to higher wages as proof of Teamsters winning at the bargaining table.
The truth: UPS announced roughly 12,000 job cuts after the 2023 contract dramatically increased labor costs with $170,000 salaries for drivers. The contract also created new tiers for part-timers and specified lower salaries for drivers hired after Aug. 2023, but O’Brien wouldn’t discuss those points. When a Teamsters member asked for answers on those subjects, he power walked away while insisting that he had a plane to catch.
The claim: When UPS launched its Driver Choice Program (DCP) offering $150,000 voluntary buyouts, the union called it illegal. After losing that fight, O’Brien participated in a settlement that he called a victory. He celebrated that buyouts were capped at 7,500 and, as he claimed, based only on seniority: “Union seniority and the rights of all our members will be honored.”
The truth: The Teamsters made promises to members that the settlement language did not support, and the union won nothing that UPS hadn’t intended and made clear. Although O’Brien assured members that seniority mattered most for approval, the DCP’s fine print gave UPS’s Workforce Transition Governance Committee discretion on buyout eligibility based on business needs. As UPS confirmed in its own April 5 statement, approvals would be partially based on seniority but, more importantly, the needs of the business “as originally planned.” This was news to drivers who received denial letters.
O’Brien’s political swing dancing:
The claim: O’Brien has insisted his relatively recent political outreach across the aisle is for workers, and he declared, “’I’ll be honest with you, I’m a Democrat but they have f*cked us over for the last 40 years.” This was how he explained his new political strategy after nearly three decades of Teamsters endorsing Democratic presidential candidates in every election cycle while aligning with the overall labor movement’s stance.
The truth: O’Brien has done a 180-degree turn. He delivered a speech at the RNC and pulled a non-endorsement stunt, which led Teamsters predecessor Jim Hoffa to call this move a “failure of leadership.” O’Brien then had a private meeting with Trump and declared himself a friend of former foe Sen. Markwayne Mullin, who he subsequently endorsed for Homeland Security secretary. Additionally, O’Brien’s “star turn” in a Senate hearing was down to his heavy-handed involvement in the FLCA, which, as mentioned above, will take away worker choice in contract negotiations.
This political retooling prompted challenges to O’Brien’s reelection platform ahead of this year’s Teamsters international officer elections.
Conclusion
The main consistency in Sean O’Brien’s recent record is his willingness to be inconsistent. Stay tuned on how his joint tenure Secretary-Treasurer Fred Zuckerman fares as convention season continues, although apparently, he’s keeping his job for another five years.
