Can the Republican Party make inroads with organised labour?
Al Jazeera
While pro-worker rhetoric has become more prevalent in the party, support for unions is in shorter supply.
When Sean O’Brien, the leader of the Teamsters union in the United States, took to the stage at the Republican National Convention (RNC) on Monday evening, some scratched their heads: what was the leader of a union with 1.3 million members hoping to accomplish with his speech to the Republican Party, traditionally hostile to organised labour?
In his unprecedented address at the gathering of what has historically been the US’s pro-business party, the labour boss made clear that his union was not wedded to the Democrats, a party it has endorsed in every election since 1996.
“We are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien said in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the same day that Donald Trump was formally nominated as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate for the November election.
“The Teamsters are not interested if you have a D [Democrat], R [Republican] or an I [independent] next to your name,” he added. “We want to know one thing: What are you doing to help American workers?”
O’Brien’s speaking slot was the latest sign that the conservative party is trying to pitch itself as a champion of the beleaguered working class after several decades of hewing to a pro-business agenda centred on tax cuts and corporate deregulation.
