Transcript: Teamsters president Sean O’Brien on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan,” Sept. 1, 2024

The following is a transcript of an interview with Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Sept. 1, 2024.

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NANCY CORDES: We turn now to Sean O’Brien. He is the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, and he joins us this morning from Boston. President O’Brien, thank you so much for being with us on this Labor Day weekend. I want to start out by asking you about endorsements, you lead one of the 10 largest unions in this country, and I want to put this graphic up. Take a look. The other nine have all issued their endorsements for President of the United States. They’ve all endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz. It is now September 1. Where has summer gone? When do the teamsters plan to announce who they are endorsing?

SEAN O’BRIEN: Well, I think historically, the teamsters have always endorsed after both respective conventions. This is a little different. This time, under our leadership, we brought every single candidate to the table in front of our rank and file members and our general executive board, and we’re waiting on Vice President Harris to commit to come meet with us.

NANCY CORDES: And I believe her campaign- campaign says they are working with you to figure out a date for that. You know, her policies are more or less in line with the current President, who you did sit down with when you thought that he was going to be the nominee, when we all thought he was going to be the nominee. Are there any concerns that you have about Harris possibly being less pro labor, less pro union than the current President?

SEAN O’BRIEN: So our union is a lot different than most unions. We represent 1.3 million members. Half of our members are Republicans, half of our members are Democrats. So we have to serve all of our membership equally. Look, everybody has a different style of leadership. We want the opportunity to sit down with Vice President Harris. I mean, I said to someone the other day, you don’t hire someone unless you give them an interview. And you know, this is our opportunity to ask her about Teamster specific issues and also labor issues. So until we have that meeting, you know, obviously we will wait to make that determination.

NANCY CORDES: Very quickly, you didn’t endorse anyone back in 1996, is that- is there a possibility that could happen again?

SEAN O’BRIEN: Look, we want to make sure we make the best decision and endorse the best candidate for labor. You know, 1996 was a long time ago. It’s all going to be driven by our rank and file members and our leadership. We’re a very, very Democratic union.

NANCY CORDES: Got it. Sean O’Brien, stay with us. We’re going to have more questions for you after the break. We’ll be right back.

NANCY CORDES: Welcome back to Face the Nation. We continue our conversation now with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. Mr. O’Brien, thanks so much for sticking with us. One of your fellow unions, the United Auto Workers, filed federal labor charges against the Republican nominee Donald Trump after he seemed to celebrate the notion of firing workers who go on strike. That happened in a conversation that he was having with Elon Musk. Are you with the UAW on this? Do you support the action they took?

SEAN O’BRIEN: Look, I support anybody that attacks labor, they should be held accountable, and any organization that’s going to hold them accountable. I can’t speak for the UAW. But if you recall when those remarks were made by former President Trump, I was the first union to call them out, call the administration out, and call, quite frankly, Elon Musk out. I’ve been fighting corporate billionaires in greed for the last two and a half years. And you know, UAW feels they have a right to file a NLRB charge, that’s their right. I’ve got a right to call out former President Trump or anybody else that attacks labor.

NANCY CORDES: Yeah, if I’m remembering correctly, you called it economic terrorism. How did it go over with your members?

SEAN O’BRIEN: Look, our members love the fact that they have a voice, that they have the ability to stand up and fight corporate America. It’s been a long time coming. Over the last two and a half years, the Teamsters union has had 226 strikes. We’ve grown more than we ever have. So there is a great appetite for the fight with our rank and file members, and our rank and file members enable us to fight for them day in and day out.

NANCY CORDES: That’s a perfect segue into my next question, which is about union membership in this country. It is Labor Day weekend, after all. So let’s take a look at the state of union labor in this country. About 10% of the US workforce are union members, down from about 20% in 1983. A majority of Americans say that’s bad. That decline is bad for working people. Is the decline irreversible in your view?

SEAN O’BRIEN: The decline is definitely irreversible. Now let’s look back, you know, to 1983 that’s when a bipartisan congressional bill was passed, trucking deregulation, and we lost 400,000 members. A lot of companies went bankrupt. So you know, although there’s a lot of politicians taking credit for the labor movement of the last couple of years, they’re the same politicians that caused this problem that we face today. But to answer your question, I think we are definitely on the upswing. We have proved how valuable the American worker is to this country, especially through one of the biggest crisis we faced was a pandemic, and that has obviously incentivized workers to form unions, and we’ve got to work collaboratively with both sides to make sure that people be able to organize without retribution or retaliation moving forward, and that’s up to politicians, whether an R or D or I.

NANCY CORDES:  5:37  

You know, you shared that message at the Republican Convention, a move that some members of Teamsters leadership did- did not approve of. They were pretty vocal about that. It appears that it also cost you a speaking slot at the Democratic Convention. Did the Democrats ever tell you why they didn’t give you a chance to speak?

SEAN O’BRIEN: No, they didn’t. And look, I’m going to say this, whatever the critics out there, and they’re very few, in the leadership. Whenever I get an opportunity to highlight the American worker, especially the Teamster worker, I’m going to take any and all venue. We asked both conventions, respectively, at the same time, and the Republican National Convention immediately responded to us. Didn’t try and edit any of our messages, and I was hopeful that the Democrats would do the same, but they didn’t. I’m not upset about it, but I can tell you this, my rank and file members, who have been lifelong Democrats, are not happy about it.

NANCY CORDES:  6:32  

I know there were some members of the union who spoke, but that’s not the same as having the leader of the organization speak. Very quickly, did you choose to speak at the Republican Convention, which is a pretty unusual move for a union leader, because you feel that Trump has been more pro labor than past Republican nominees?

SEAN O’BRIEN: No, not at all. I spoke there because it was the ability to highlight how important we are. It was the ability to call out the people, the corporate elitist who forget who built this country, the American workers. You know, people like to, you know, have their own opinions on why we were there, but I was there to talk about the American workers. It wasn’t an endorsement for any and all Republicans. It was strictly a message about how important and how valuable we are, and to let the people know that fight us every day, that we’re not going away.

NANCY CORDES: Understood. Sean O’Brien, president of the Teamsters, thanks so much, and we’ll be looking forward to hearing who your union eventually endorses. Thanks for being here, and we’ll be right back.