Union leaders need Trump more than he needs them

Credit where credit is due, Teamsters President Sean O'Brien faced a tricky tightrope walk when he spoke before the Republican National Convention Monday evening. He managed to pull it off. O'Brien stood before a potentially hostile audience and nevertheless found common ground with the Republicans, even getting cheers, without actually endorsing GOP nominee Donald Trump's candidacy. That's a guy who knows how to work an audience.

O'Brien's goal was clearly to make in-roads in the GOP establishment and nudge them closer to the labor movement. He had no illusions that he could do it all at once, but he saw the value in laying the groundwork, especially now that a second Trump administration looks increasingly likely. "As a negotiator, I know that no window or door should ever be permanently shut," he told the convention.

The Teamster boss's speech was part of a broader effort by the union movement to build renewed support on the right following decades of tightly aligning itself with the Democrats to little avail. Labor leaders like late AFL-CIO presidents John Sweeney and Richard Trumka fought to build up a Democratic majority in Washington strong enough to re-write laws like the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). They wanted Washington to make union organizing easier, if not automatic. Unions are shrinking and are now just 10 percent of the overall workforce, down from 20 percent in President Reagan's days. They need to reverse that before they dwindle to irrelevance.

Yet even when Democrats held a majority in both Houses of Congress, such as during Barack Obama's administration, the lawmakers shied away from the more radical measures unions wanted such "card check." That would have eliminated secret elections in union organizing drives. Workplaces would have been organized based on a union's claim that it has the support of a majority of workers, with no mechanism to actually verify this. Enough moderate and/or pro-business Democrats were rightfully concerned about card check that it died in Congress. Instead, unions have had to content themselves with Democratic administrations installing labor allies in the Labor Department and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). But those gains are usually temporary. Any rules or policies put in place by those appointees that favor unions can be undone by the next GOP administration.

Leaders like O'Brien have learned that that approach is not working and hope that a broader base of support may instead get them long-term policy wins. Trump presents a rare opportunity for them. The Teamster boss's speech showed just how much Trump's "make America great again" rhetoric overlaps with traditional union "we stand for the working man" speechifying. "No other nominee in the race invited the teamsters into this arena," O'Brien told the convention.

O'Brien praised Missouri Senator Josh Hawley for opposing "right to work" laws, touting the lawmaker as a man willing to stand up for working folks. O'Brien, as is typical for union leaders, left out the part about what specifically the laws do: they prevent workers from being forced to join or otherwise supporting a union if they want to keep their job. In short, O'Brien was praising Hawley for making it easier for labor leaders like him to tell workers "fall in line or lose your job."

Collective bargaining is a right and workers should be supported in it when that represents an honest expression of their collective will. It's part of the First Amendment's right to "peaceably" assemble. However, that's not the same thing as accepting the claims of leaders like O'Brien that they need more leverage to pressure workers into joining unions for their own good. Workers can make their own choices. O'Brien spoke to the GOP convention in part because many of his own members are already Trump supporters and he needed to demonstrate to his folks that he's willing to at least talk.

Trump has thus far avoided catering to union leaders and has instead talked directly to the workers. It has worked for him too, getting the Teamsters boss to sing his praises. In short, O'Brien needs Trump more than Trump needs him.

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