Union president Sean “Militant” O’Brien’s bad look – after dashing away from questions about broken promises to UPS workers – has worsened with recent developments. We will add a few not-so-embarrassing Teamsters updates, but give him time: O’Brien could muck those up, too.
Changing of the guard, with a kicker: The Amazon Labor Union (ALU) followed up its recent Teamsters affiliation with officer elections, which did not go well for human money pit and ALU co-founder Chris Smalls, now an outgoing union president. In an election funded by the Teamsters, Smalls was replaced by ALU’s Democratic Reform Caucus’ Connor Spence, an ALU co-founder and a dissident leader who hopes to take the union beyond a lone victory at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island.
The possible twist: Spence has been vocal about his awareness of a potential Teamsters affiliation brewing, but Smalls and O’Brien were the sole parties in an agreement “hashed out behind closed doors.” He was elected on a reformer platform, so will Spence’s president-to-president relationship with O’Brien be cooperative or less so? We’ll be watching.
A disastrous gamble: For unknown reasons, O’Brien decided it was a fine idea to deliver a GOP convention speech in which he called Trump “a tough SOB,” which happens to be an abbreviation that O’Brien has also leaned into, given his initials. Why did O’Brien address this audience, with which unions do not generally side in elections? Some wonder whether he is angling for a Secretary of Labor appointment.
Yet the fallout of O’Brien’s speech cannot be overstated. His appearance on the convention roster was immediately divisive among other union leaders, including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. The aftermath among Teamsters members has also not been pretty, with Teamsters VP At-Large John Palmer calling O’Brien’s move “unconscionable.” Additionally, a rogue Teamster tweeted a scathing rebuke (which has since been deleted) from the union’s main account on X, and a lengthy Reddit thread, entitled “Sean O’Brien is a spineless union president,” goes to town on his speech with apparent union members piling with hundreds of disapproving comments.
Meanwhile, O’Brien would prefer that everyone focus on these updates instead:
Hollywood Squares: Teamsters and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers finally cut a deal mere days before their July 31 contract expiration date, thereby averting a strike that could have shut down film and TV productions, and associated industries, for a second consecutive year. Sticking points included significant wage increases along with guidelines against using driverless trucks.
It’s a small world, after all: 14,000+ Disneyland cast members, represented by the Teamsters, SEIU, and UFCW, ratified new three-year agreements in which their minimum base wage rises to $24.
A warehouse wake-up: 250 Teamsters-represented Costco warehouse workers in Norfolk, Virginia, authorized a strike after unsuccessful contract negotiations for a first contract. This group of employees previously received an introspective response from CEO Ron Vachris, who called their unionization an eye-opener for leadership.
The Teamsters’ national contract for 18,000 Costco workers expires on January 31, 2025. O’Brien is expected to ”lead the charge” on these national negotiations. Given how much he has disappointed members lately, his union’s reaction could be interesting.
