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Teamsters President Sean O'Brien addresses the Republican National Convention

SACHA PFEIFFER, HOST:

In recent history, unions have overwhelmingly backed Democrats. And President Biden calls himself the most pro-union president ever. But at last night's Republican National Convention, for the first time, the head of the Teamsters had a prime speaking slot. NPR's Don Gonyea reports.

DON GONYEA, BYLINE: The Teamsters, with 1.3 million members, are one of the country's largest and most iconic unions. Teamsters president Sean O'Brien's presence at a Republican convention is story enough. Then he said this.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

SEAN O'BRIEN: President Trump had the backbone to open the doors to this Republican convention, and that's unprecedented.

(CHEERING)

GONYEA: What followed from O'Brien was a call for both parties to support labor.

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O'BRIEN: American workers own this nation.

(CHEERING)

O'BRIEN: We are not renters. We are not tenants. But the corporate elite treat us like squatters, and that is a crime.

GONYEA: O'Brien did point out that decades ago, the union did endorse Republicans Nixon, Reagan and George H. W. Bush, but more recently, every Democratic nominee since Bill Clinton has won their backing. According to labor analyst Harley Shaiken, O'Brien's speech ignored the history of Donald Trump's shortcomings with labor.

HARLEY SHAIKEN: To court workers is very different than being pro-labor.

GONYEA: For example, during the big United Auto Workers strike last year, Trump gave a speech near Detroit ostensibly in support of the strikers, but he did it at a nonunion auto plant.

SHAIKEN: The rhetoric comes easy, and the rhetoric can sometimes be appealing. But when there's no follow-through, it's very damaging.

GONYEA: While O'Brien's speech did not include an actual endorsement, Shaiken says it sent a clear message to his members...

SHAIKEN: If you're leaning toward Trump, go right ahead and push the button.

GONYEA: ...Especially when O'Brien praised Trump after the events of this weekend in Pennsylvania.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

O'BRIEN: In light of what happened to him on Saturday, he has proven to be one tough SOB.

(CHEERING)

GONYEA: In the spirit of working with both parties, Sean O'Brien has also asked to speak at the Democratic National Convention next month, but he says he's not yet heard back on that request. The Biden campaign did send out a reaction via email saying, quote, "Donald Trump does not care about workers or their families, and he never has."

Don Gonyea, NPR News, Milwaukee.

(SOUNDBITE OF VIBESMENT'S "ROADTRIP") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

You're most likely to find NPR's Don Gonyea on the road, in some battleground state looking for voters to sit with him at the local lunch spot, the VFW or union hall, at a campaign rally, or at their kitchen tables to tell him what's on their minds. Through countless such conversations over the course of the year, he gets a ground-level view of American elections. Gonyea is NPR's National Political Correspondent, a position he has held since 2010. His reports can be heard on all NPR News programs and at NPR.org. To hear his sound-rich stories is akin to riding in the passenger seat of his rental car, traveling through Iowa or South Carolina or Michigan or wherever, right along with him.