The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act that Teamsters president Sean O’Brien said stood in the way of his powerful union endorsing a presidential candidate this year wasn’t really the deal breaker he makes it out to be, at least in the case of Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
O’Brien told Fox host Neil Cavuto that his organization couldn’t endorse former President Donald Trump or Vice President Harris largely because they “couldn’t get solid commitments” from either candidate “on our core issues, like the PRO Act, like the vetoing national right to work [an anti-union agenda], and staying out of labor disputes and not trying to force any contracts on us like what happened to our brothers and sisters in the rail industry.”
[NOTE: President Biden signed a bill in 2022 blocking a rail industry strike, hobbling the negotiating position of the union.]
.@TeamsterSOB to Neil: “No endorsement, I think sends a message to both parties…nothing is given, it is earned.” pic.twitter.com/BhqQLHIjw6
— Neil Cavuto (@TeamCavuto) September 18, 2024
O’Brien told Cavuto that neither candidate would commit to the PRO Act, though in fact Harris had committed to signing the PRO Act if it got to her desk.
This is in contrast to, as Wonkette points out, the Trump administration circa 2020, which specifically opposed the PRO Act, with the Office of Management and Budget issuing a statement proclaiming its opposition to the legislation.
The Trump administration contended that the PRO Act would “kill jobs and destroy the gig economy” and also “violate workers’ privacy,” among other objections.
Meanwhile Harris, while implicated in Biden’s move to step in on the rail strike — yet also aligned with the President when he walked the picket line in support of the UAW — gave notice in public that the PRO Act would receive her greenlight.
Axios Houston reported in July: “In a keynote speech to American Federation of Teachers delegates at the George R. Brown Convention Center, Harris pledged to sign the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act if it reached her desk.”