There is a good chance that, given Donald Trump's popularity among working-class voters, come November more members of the Teamsters union will vote for the former president than for Joe Biden.
Teamsters President Sean O'Brien recently invited Trump to the union's D.C. headquarters for a conversation similar to the one he had today with President Joe Biden.
After the Trump meeting, O'Brien and two Teamsters approached a gaggle of reporters who immediately asked about the discussion they'd had with the Republican candidate for president.
Their response was quick and to the point. The most important issue to them was "Right to Work."
Like virtually all his fellow union bosses, O'Brien is desperate to put an end to state Right to Work laws so that unions can force workers across the country to pay dues. That is why he's suggested to Trump that if he opposes Right to Work, an endorsement might be possible.
So far, Trump hasn't taken the bait. Instead, he's simply making the case that O'Brien should endorse him because life was better for all workers under his administration.
That instinct to appeal directly to workers, even when doing so angers union elites like O'Brien, has served Trump well.
After all, 8 out of 10 Americans oppose requiring workers to pay union dues in order to get or keep a job. That number includes a majority of union households.
Anyone suggesting Trump should support forced unionism to compete for the Teamsters' endorsement should rethink the premise that union bosses truly "represent" the rank-and-file of American workers.
Shortly after the meeting with Trump, news broke about the Teamsters' PAC donating $45,000 to fund the Republican National Committee's convention. There were gasps around Washington and outrage among some of O'Brien's more militant followers.
Most media reports about the Teamsters' RNC donation failed to mention that the same Teamsters PAC also sent checks to the Democratic National Committee's convention fund, the DNC Legal Fund, DNC Building Fund, and to both the Democrats' House and Senate campaign committees.
That is no surprise given that in 2020 the Teamsters PAC gave 98 percent of its contributions to Democrats. Nowhere near 98 percent of union members are Democrats, but union leadership clearly feels free to ignore the regular workers it supposedly "represents."
This problem goes beyond candidate endorsements. The Teamsters hierarchy is actively fighting to change state and federal laws to give union bosses more control over rank-and-file workers, which often means overturning Trump administration policies.
Teamster officials support the Biden Labor Department's push to overturn Trump-era independent contractor rules and create a regime modeled on California's infamous "AB5" standard.
In California, AB5 created a crisis for independent truckers who own their own rigs and can contract with multiple companies. Under the Trump standard, those drivers couldn't be required to accept union representation or be forced to pay dues—so union officials want to overturn the Trump rule and nationalize California's regulations.
Union officials also support the Biden administration's current attempts to repeal the Trump Labor Board's "Election Protection Rule" that prevented union lawyers from using underhanded tactics to block rank-and-file workers' right to vote out unions that a majority do not want.
At the press conference following his meeting with Trump, O'Brien was asked how his apparent willingness to consider a Trump endorsement could be squared with the obvious differences between the Trump and Biden administrations' labor policies.
O'Brien's response was telling: "look, there's no question that the Biden administration has been great for unions, but again, sometimes dialogue helps formulate difference of opinions that will be favorable to unions and positions moving forward."
Despite his awkward wording, it's clear what O'Brien intends to accomplish by "formulating difference of opinions." By dangling a potential endorsement in front of Trump, he hopes the former president will endorse unpopular ideas like a Right to Work repeal.
Right to Work is immensely popular, but union-label politicians like Joe Biden have to oppose it because that is the price of a union endorsement.
That's not a price Donald Trump, nor any elected official, should be willing to pay.
Mark Mix is President of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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