Will Trump be a friend to workers?

When Teamsters president Sean O’Brien chose to speak at the Republican Party’s presidential-nomination convention this summer, the response from critics in the labour movement was acidic. Although O’Brien didn’t ultimately endorse Donald Trump – and indeed his union decided to sit out the presidential race altogether – many Teamsters and others in organised labour still decried his move.

‘It is unconscionable for any labour leader to lend an air of legitimacy to a candidate and a political party, neither of which can be said to have done, or can be expected to do, anything to improve the lives of the workers we are pledged to represent’, wrote one Teamsters local vice-president at-large. ‘It’s disappointing to see a national labour leader speak like that at the GOP convention’, Matthew Biggs, president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, said.

At one point, the Teamsters’s official X account even tweeted out a message in protest. ‘Unions gain nothing from endorsing the racist, misogynistic and anti-trans politics of the far right’, the post said, before it was quickly deleted.

But in the face of all these protests, it appears that O’Brien had the last laugh. Following a public campaign in favour of her nomination by the Teamsters, Oregon Republican congresswoman Lori Chavez-DeRemer was picked by president-elect Trump to be his labour secretary.

Chavez-DeRemer is part of a rare group of congressional Republicans who has been friendly to organised labour. As one example, she was one of just three House Republicans to back the Protecting the Right to Organise (PRO) Act, a labour priority that would comprehensively strengthen union rights from coast to coast. During this year’s election campaign, she won the backing of more than a dozen unions. She herself is the daughter of a Teamster.

The response from organised labour to her nomination is cautiously optimistic. The National Education Association, the powerful teachers union that has frequently clashed with Republicans from coast to coast, praised her record. ‘During her time in Congress, Lori Chavez-DeRemer voted against gutting the Department of Education, against school vouchers and against cuts to education funding. She cosponsored the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, the PRO Act and other pro-student, pro-public school, pro-worker legislation’, it said in response to Trump’s choice.

It remains to be seen what happens from here. Chavez-DeRemer still has to be confirmed – although, barring any major scandals, it’s unlikely that her nomination will be blocked. If confirmed, she would still serve at the pleasure of the Trump administration. She won’t have the same leeway on public policy that she did as a member of Congress. But her selection does suggest that the Teamsters in general and O’Brien in particular bet correctly about this year’s presidential election.

For decades, organised labour has been thoroughly partisan. While unions will sometimes support Republicans at the local level, it is rare to see them engage with Republicans at the presidential level in the way that O’Brien chose to.

The thinking among many in labour is that such engagement is fruitless. Giving a speech at the Republican National Convention or traveling to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump’s ring just makes you a token. And we all know that Trump takes glee in the idea of firing striking workers, so what’s the point?

But it’s a misread of Trump to look at him as identical to the many conservatives who’ve made fighting unions a cornerstone of their ideology. Trump is perhaps the least ideological Republican president in American history. Trump’s operating system isn’t based so much on Ayn Rand as it is The Art of the Deal.

He is, above all else, a transactional person and dealmaker. If he sees that a union is willing to play ball with him, he’s willing to play ball with them. He was, after all, the president who, in his first term, renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) – the trade deal signed by Bill Clinton in 1993, which was loathed by organised labour.

Yet in Trump’s first term, most of the American left chose to instead treat him as a form of American Hitler, someone who they need to ‘resist’ at all costs. This resistance strategy no doubt mobilised millions of dollars towards progressive causes, filling the offers of organisations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). But it also shut down the possibility of negotiating with Trump on most major issues, essentially closing the door on progress on a wide range of issues for four years.

As the left and labour lick their wounds and plot the way forward following the Democrats’ defeat, they could do worse than learn from O’Brien’s example. By reading Trump correctly and seeing him as fundamentally a pragmatist who is willing to work with anyone, O’Brien ensured that organised labour has a real seat at the table in this administration.

Does this mean that labour will get everything it wants? Of course not. Most Republicans serving in Congress and throughout Trump’s administration still adhere to Reaganite ideology that sees organised labour as an annoyance to their mission of winning as free a hand for business as it wants.

But if the GOP will ever be brought back to the centre of these issues, it’s clear that it will be thanks to the savvy moves from the O’Briens of the world, not the hysterical denunciations made by his critics.

Zaid Jilani is a journalist and communications consultant based in Atlanta. Follow him on X: @ZaidJilani.