Hoffa Slams O’Brien for Teamsters’ Shocking Snub of Harris: Leadership Failure Exposed!

The past long-serving president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, James P. Hoffa, publicly criticized his successor, Sean O’Brien, last Thursday due to the influential union’s decision to abstain from this year’s presidential election by not endorsing either Kamala Harris or Donald Trump.

“This is a grave mistake and frankly, signifies a leadership deficiency on Sean O’Brien’s part,” Hoffa stated. “This election is too significant for our union to ignore its responsibility. We should take a stand for the American workforce. There is only one contender in this race that has consistently supported laboring families and unions, and that is Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Prior to stepping down as the Teamsters’ leader in 2022, Hoffa—who is the son of the famous union leader Jimmy Hoffa, who vanished under mysterious circumstances in 1975—held the position of president for over twenty years. O’Brien, known for his bold demeanor and widely critiqued for his speech at this year’s Republican National Convention, succeeded Hoffa as Teamsters’ president the same year he retired.

“In the Teamsters’ tumultuous handling of a presidential endorsement, O’Brien has seemed feeble, myopic, and ineffectual.”

On Wednesday, as reported by Common Dreams, the Teamsters declared they would not endorse a candidate after a survey of its members indicated that neither Harris nor Trump had overwhelming support.

However, due to Trump’s overt and sustained opposition to organized labor and allegiance to the corporate sector, most major unions have viewed his potential re-election as a dire threat to the American workforce and their families.

As experienced labor journalist Steven Greenhouse wrote this week for Slate:

Trump is undeniably an anti-union candidate. He once stated he would sign a national right-to-work law, he’s denounced respected labor leaders like UAW president Shawn Fain, and he’s supported vehemently anti-union business figures including Elon Musk. Trump recently launched an attack on the core of organized labor by commending the notion of firing striking employees (which is illegal under federal law). Three days after O’Brien—uncharacteristically for a union leader—spoke at the Republican National Convention, urging the GOP to be more accommodating towards labor, Trump derided unions during his acceptance speech by ridiculing the United Auto Workers.

Following the announcement made by the Teamsters’ national leadership, numerous Teamster locals across the country, including in pivotal battleground states, promptly released their endorsements for Harris.

“Teamsters regional councils—representing hundreds of thousands of members and retirees—in Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, and western Pennsylvania—endorsed Harris” just hours after O’Brien’s announcement, reported the Washington Post’s labor correspondent Lauren Kaori Gurley.

“In addition,” Gurley noted, “influential local Teamsters unions in Philadelphia; New York City; Long Beach, Calif.; and Miami—as well as the union’s National Black Caucus and a group of retirees—have endorsed Harris and encouraged members to vote for her.”

In his statement supporting the Democratic ticket, William Hamilton, president of the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters, commented: “In the 45 years the PA Conference of Teamsters has existed, it is extremely rare to have a pro-labor candidate for president and a pro-labor candidate for vice president running concurrently. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are exactly that team.”

Greenhouse found the nature of the Teamsters’ internal survey, which did indicate significant support for Trump, to be indicative of what Hoffa labeled a “failure of leadership” on O’Brien’s part. He wrote:

The internal poll showing a significant number of Teamsters backing Trump highlighted something: The union’s leaders must have done an appalling job informing and educating regular members about Trump’s intense anti-union stance and how fiercely anti-union and anti-worker Trump’s first administration was (and his appointees were). Furthermore, Teamster leaders seemingly failed to elucidate to regular members that Harris has championed policy after policy strongly supported by the Teamsters and other unions, including the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, the labor movement’s top legislative priority which would make it significantly easier for the Teamsters and other unions to organize. Trump is against the PRO Act. Harris also backed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, which collectively will generate hundreds of thousands of well-paying union positions for Teamsters and other union members. Unlike Trump, Harris also supports raising the woefully low $7.25-an-hour federal minimum wage to at least $15.

“When Sean O’Brien campaigned to be president of the powerful Teamsters union, he vowed to be a formidable leader,” Greenhouse concluded. “However, in the Teamsters’ chaotic management of a presidential endorsement, O’Brien has seemed indecisive, lacking foresight, and ineffective.”

Importantly, he added, O’Brien “failed to provide strong leadership in one of his most crucial tests: to persuade his union’s regular members and board to reject the anti-union Trump” and support Harris, the manifest pro-worker candidate in the race.

If Trump ultimately prevails, Greenhouse stated, the slight of Harris may be something O’Brien and the Teamsters “end up regretting because a second Trump administration will likely be even more dangerous to unions (and democracy) than the first one.”