O’Brien’s excuses ring hollow when Harris has been clear labor booster
The excuses that Teamsters president Sean O’Brien makes for the union’s making no presidential endorsement ring hollow (“Teamsters boss defends decision: O’Brien blames Democrats for no Harris endorsement,” Page A1, Globe, Sept. 24). The Biden-Harris administration has widely been called the most pro-union since FDR. Meanwhile, Donald Trump and the Republicans are likely to try to cripple unions.
Harris has long been a supporter of the middle and working class, and the Biden administration has turned Republican trickle-down economics on its pointy head, with legislation aimed to help the common people, not just the wealthy.
O’Brien’s explanation, as paraphrased by reporter Jon Chesto: “Neither candidate would confirm that they would not intervene in the event of an imminent work stoppage under the Railway Labor Act.” Well, it would be political suicide to commit ahead of time to support a strike that could cripple the US recovery. Meanwhile, as Chesto noted, the 70,000-member Teamsters Rail Conference itself endorsed Harris and running mate Tim Walz.
Then O’Brien came up with this doozy: “Our membership obviously has taken a shift to the right.” The union cited three polls taken of the membership on who they supported for president, at least one of which appears to be junk. But the larger point is, he’s the leader of the union — he needs to lead, especially when the choice is between Harris, who has consistently supported unions and working people, and Trump, who has consistently been antiunion and who, in his business dealings, has been accused repeatedly of having ripped off workers and small contractors.
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Fortunately, Teamsters locals across the country have come out for Harris-Walz. Their supposed leader should have done so too.
Michael Frandzel
Portsmouth, N.H.
The writer is a former union steward with the Dover Teachers’ Union, NEA-NH.
Union boss is right: Democrats have taken working people for granted
I was happy to see that under president Sean O’Brien the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, in not endorsing either candidate for president, withheld support for Vice President Kamala Harris. But I question O’Brien’s perspective on the decision. He said his membership “obviously has taken a shift to the right.” That’s not it. What’s really the issue is that the Democratic Party has taken a huge leap to the left. I agree wholeheartedly with O’Brien’s additional point that the Democrats have “taken the working men and women for granted,” just as they have taken other constituencies for granted.
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Richard Tormey
West Newton
