Kamala Harris to meet with Teamsters leaders, including president Sean O’Brien

Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris will meet with the Teamsters president Sean O’Brien and the union’s leadership on Sept. 16, the Teamsters said Thursday, after O’Brien told CBS News’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” he was holding off on an endorsement because he hadn’t yet met with Harris.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is one of the largest unions in the country, and the only one of the 10 largest unions that has not endorsed Harris. O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention in July, the first time in the union’s 121-year history that its chief addressed the RNC. 

Harris committed to meet with O’Brien, union members, the Teamsters general executive board and general secretary-treasurer Fred Zuckerman, the Teamsters said Thursday. 

O’Brien told “Face the Nation” Sunday that “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.”

“Our union is a lot different than most unions,” O’Brien said. “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.”

O’Brien said he had asked to address both the Democratic and GOP conventions, but only the Republicans accepted. Although he did not endorse Trump, he praised him as a “tough SOB” following the attempt Trump’s life a few days before the convention and characterized him as a “candidate who is not afraid of hearing from new, loud and often critical voices.” 

But O’Brien also delivered an anti-big business message, blasting large corporations and saying “working people have no chance of winning this fight.”

At the time, President Biden was still at the top of the Democratic ticket, and the speech was seen as a blow to his union credentials. Last year, Mr. Biden became the first president in history to join a picket line when workers from the three major auto companies went on strike. United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain spoke at the DNC, wearing a tee shirt that said “Trump is a scab.” 

Other labor unions also received prime billing at the DNC. 

Aaron Navarro and

Patrick Maguire

contributed to this report.