PBD Podcast - Teamsters Union President Targets Amazon - Sean O’Brien | PBD Podcast | 665
Episode Date: October 11, 2025Patrick Bet-David sits down with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien in a fiery conversation about unions, capitalism, and the future of American workers. They debate corporate greed, 1099 jobs, small ...business realities, and Sean’s shocking take on Amazon, Uber, and Karl Marx. Plus, the viral Senate fight, Trump call, and RNC speech that made headlines.------👕 GET THE LATEST VT MERCH: https://bit.ly/3BZbD6lⓂ️ PBD PODCAST CIRCLES: https://bit.ly/4mAWQAP🍋 ZEST IT FORWARD: https://bit.ly/4kJ71lc 📕 PBD'S BOOK "THE ACADEMY": https://bit.ly/41rtEV4🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON SPOTIFY: https://bit.ly/4g57zR2🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ITUNES: https://bit.ly/4g1bXAh🎙️ FOLLOW THE PODCAST ON ALL PLATFORMS: https://bit.ly/4eXQl6A📱 CONNECT ON MINNECT: https://bit.ly/4ikyEkC👔 BET-DAVID CONSULTING: https://bit.ly/3ZjWhB7📰 VTNEWS.AI: https://bit.ly/3OExClZ🎓 VALUETAINMENT UNIVERSITY: https://bit.ly/3BfA5Qw📺 JOIN THE CHANNEL: https://bit.ly/4g5C6Or💬 TEXT US: Text “PODCAST” to 310-340-1132 to get the latest updates in real-time!ABOUT US:Patrick Bet-David is the founder and CEO of Valuetainment Media. He is the author of the #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Your Next Five Moves” (Simon & Schuster) and a father of 2 boys and 2 girls. He currently resides in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Who is the enemy?
The enemy now is corporate America.
People are sick of the corporate greed.
They're sick of being victim to the bottom line of a balance sheet.
They are despicable on what they do to work in people.
That's a little crazy.
No, it's not crazy.
Tell me more.
It's not crazy at all because, look, think about it.
Unions built this country.
And more importantly, union jobs have better productivity than non-union.
You know, Sean, you're pushing me so much where you're not thinking about...
I don't know.
I don't agree with that.
I know you don't agree with that.
What I'm saying to you is, if we go to a hotel,
that's union, it is a pain
and he has to work with them.
Well, I got to control the narrative to make sure it's right.
I totally get it, but you're also control guys.
You are, I can tell right now.
We are, of course.
I'm not denying it.
That's why they're all signing union cards out here.
My mother calls me up and she says,
oh my God, I saw you on TV today.
You were fighting with that senator.
You stand your butt, oh, hold it.
Stop it.
Is that your solution?
No, no, sit down.
I don't like you because you described yourself.
Hold it.
And she goes, oh, it's real, real nice.
real nice, Sean.
I go, why?
What do you mean?
She goes,
you just got us all
fucking audited.
Like, seriously.
Can you behave?
Handshake is better than anything I ever signs, right here.
You are one of one?
My son's right there.
I don't think I've ever said this before.
Sean O'Brien, how are you?
I'm doing well, sir.
How are you?
Fantastic.
It's the youngest teamster boss.
We like to not use the term boss.
I'm a union leader.
You speak like a boss.
I try and be a boss.
I was brought up by a boss, my mother.
Oh, your mother?
She's a boss, you know, straight up boss.
Well, I want to hear all about it.
For me, the most interesting thing about this is,
normally when you hear union,
you hear, you know,
they're the enemy of the capitalist, right?
They're the enemy of the business owner.
However, this time around, in 121 years' first time,
the president of Teamsters speaks at the RNC,
and you guys offered to speak at the DNC,
but they didn't give you the invite.
How do you go first time on 121 years?
that the president of the Teamster speaks at the RN.
How does that happen?
Well, I mean, think about it this way.
You made a good point.
You know, times have changed.
Our membership is very diverse.
Political positions historically with Democrats.
I'm a Democrat, but, you know, I'm not a, you know,
far-left Democrat.
And our members have been changing political affiliations.
So our goal was always to work bipartisan across the aisle.
to get some things done in this country.
And that's why we spoke at the RNC.
They invited us.
I would have gave that same exact speech at the DNC if we were invited.
It wasn't a partisan speech at all.
It was about American workers and how valuable we are.
But you made a good comment earlier about, you know,
capitalists always, you know, kind of shied away from us.
And, you know, we were an impediment to what their agenda was.
I don't look at it that way now.
I look at it as where their conscience moving forward.
You know, they're making a lot of money.
They don't reward the people that make them the success they are.
So I look at us with their conscience now, not an impediment.
Let me ask you this.
Do you believe a capitalist can do anything to never need a union?
No, there's always a need for a union.
There's no doubt.
It's just a matter of, you know, the capitalist society looks as unions as, you know,
where are the checks and balance?
right so if we're in the middle and we're negotiating a contract we're representing their
workers their control freaks for the most part and they don't want to have to answer to
anybody but themselves and their stockholders capitalists capitalists 100% and you know they're going to
fight and kick and scream to keep us out but you know we've proven we've organized 90,000 new
members in three years my union alone and it's because of you know people are sick of the
corporate greed they're sick of being you know victim to the bottom line of a
balance sheet. And, you know, I tell you, during COVID, you always look for a positive situation
that comes out of a bad situation, right? And COVID, especially in the team station, in my union,
we're 1.3 million members. We represent everybody from airline pilots to zookeepers. And through
the pandemic, we provided goods and services through this country, whether it was delivering packages,
medical supplies, whether it was flying medical supplies all over the country. Whatever the case was,
teams says, we're in there, picking your trash up. So we were deemed
essential workers. And we were deemed as heroes during that time. You know, we love the
Teamsters Union. We love our UPS driver. We love, you know, our trash people. We love the people
that are stock in the shelves. As soon as COVID was over and these corporations made record
profits, you know, they forgot about how they made those record profits. They forgot about the people
that provided the goods and services that risked their health and the well-being of themselves
to provide those services. And we've done a great job of, of reminds us.
reminding corporations and America on how valuable the American worker is, how valuable the unionized
workforce is. And I'm excited. I'm proud. And, you know, we have done a lot of good work in
this country. We're going to continue to do a lot of good work. And you're always going to get people
that disagree with you that don't like what you're doing. But that's, that's an insecurity on that
part. You know, they should embrace the reality. We're not going away and we're going to be around
forever. And it's interesting when you say insecurity, because for you, the story I hear,
And I'd love for you to validate the story is when you guys first gave the story to the R&C,
what speech you were going to give, they came back and they said,
hey, these couple things are not going to work.
You could say, I'm not going to do it.
Yeah, so what happened was, you know, preparation for R&C, and I'm going to tell you, like,
it was all new to me, right?
So my team, myself, we worked on the speech for about six weeks prior to the actual week
before the R&C when you had to submit your speech.
And, you know, we were working on a four or five hours a day.
a control freak. You know, I need to know exactly
what's going on. I'm like, that does not sound like
me. We're taking that out. So when we get the final
draft done, we send it over to the RNC,
and they come back with all these edits. And I'm like,
we're reading and my team and I, we're going through it.
And I'm like, I'm not giving that speech. And then we're making suggestions
too on like what we should be saying and not saying.
So I reached out to
Susie Wiles at the time, and I said, look,
I'll be honest with you. I appreciate the invite, but I am not going to
say something I don't mean. And I,
And she's like, what are you talking about?
I said, they want me to change my speech all around.
She goes, Sean, you know what?
Just call, uh, call Trump and tell him what's going on.
So I called Trump and I said, look, all due respect, I'm not changing my speech.
He's like, this is exact word, Sean.
I don't give a fuck what you say.
Say what you want.
And I'm like, all right.
And that's a true story.
And I, uh, I went there and I delivered the speech.
And it was funny when you're delivering the speech, you know, you're talking to,
a crowd that really hasn't embraced us and you know i went up there originally and it was like two
days prior to that he got shot and so my initials are s o b sean o'briyan s o b wow son of a bitch
or however you want to say it and so i'm walking up to to to give the speech and i'm like i got
i got to start this off right and i said whether you like him or you don't like him there's no denying
the fact of what he went through the past 48 hours he's one
tough SOB.
Stand in ovation.
Everything's good.
And then I start whacking capitalism.
I start whacking corporate America.
You're funny.
Right?
So then you win them over first.
Yeah, win them over.
Bring them in, give them a hug and then slap them.
Right.
And so what I'm watching the dynamics and, you know, the opening statement that I'm
getting all these claps and accolades.
And then after I start whacking, you know, some of these corporations and all this stuff,
like they were looking around.
They were confused whether they should be clapping or not clapping.
But it was actually pretty comical, but all in all, I mean, I had a blast.
I had a blast.
Who'd you run into there?
Like, who came to you and said, great speech, Sean?
Like, actually, like, capitalists?
Oh, there was corporations there that we deal with that, you know,
we have good relationships with, like, United Apostle Service was there.
McDonald's, for instance.
They're big, big supporters of Republican Party.
But we have a huge presence of delivering and supplying McDonald's.
So they came like, hey, that was a great speech.
you know and there's a lot of responsible people that were there but you know there's some people
that were giving me the stink eye the next day you know walking around in wisconsin so i so i got
i want to go a completely different direction with this interview you know of course i want to know
you know all the other stuff because i know the story it's an incredible story remarkable story
but uh you know i've had a lot of mobsters on the podcast i've had sammy de bole frank calada
Michael Francie's, you know, Philly and Eddie,
Ralph Natal, John Alit, I've had all these guys.
I've had John Gotti Jr. on.
We just had dinner a couple months ago.
A couple weeks ago in Boka.
I've had those guys.
I've had the business guys.
I've had the politicians, right?
And I kind of watch everybody.
And I watch you, and I ask the question,
I'm like, this guy is a president of the Teamsters,
okay, youngest.
Your father was a member of Local 25.
your fourth generation, if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, sir.
Right?
And so, and you have a very high level of admiration for your father.
You wanted to be your father, do what he did.
You said there was a best friend relationship between the two of you.
And so how much of you doing this was because your family was a part of it?
Well, it was so prevalent in my life.
I mean, where we grew up, you know, four generations, three generations of a team,
so it was while we were kids.
Everything in our life, every situation,
involved the teams' union somehow, some way.
If you went to a birthday party,
chances are you're going,
you're friends with my father's friends,
their kids, you're at a birthday party.
You're talking about the teamsters union.
You go to a wedding,
talking about the teamsters union.
You go to wakes and funerals.
You're talking about the teamsters.
And I've got to be honest with you,
my father was a die-hard, die-hard union man,
which I am as well.
He never held off as he worked a rank-and-file job
every single day,
but he was so passionate and committed to the organization,
taught us about loyalty.
I have two brothers
and my mother
is probably the rock
of the family
and where we grew up
you're either going to be
Teamsters
cops, Firemen
or Longshoremen
and so
you know
it was just so prevalent
in our neighborhoods
in our communities
and that's all I ever
wanted to do in my life
I loved it
I loved the organization
I loved the camaraderie
and I love the fact
that through the good times
and the bad times
growing up
that organization
never waive it
the Teamsters
community never waive it
on us
my family
the community so I'm like this is this is what I want to do this is who I want to be who
was the enemy who is the enemy or was the enemy well there's a lot of enemies out there I mean
I'm talking specific to a teamster president or member who's the enemy so when I was growing up
the enemy in 1980 was the legislatures who introduced and passed bipartisan deregulation of the trucking
industry that's the 400 000 jobs yes so that was the enemy back then and it was
funny people weren't calling out politicians back then you know they weren't calling anybody out it was
like these are the most powerful people they get to do what they want my thought process is we're the
most powerful people we provide the goods and services we keep america moving and had if we if i was
able to roll this i don't want to wish my life away but had i been in a position i was now in 1980
when that happened i would have been fighting and kicking and screaming in the streets about
how bad this is for working people, how bad it was for the team.
At who? At who? At Congress, at the Senate. I mean, they introduced this legislation.
I mean, the Kennedy is so prevalent in Massachusetts. Ted Kennedy introduced a bill,
bipartisan bill. Joe Biden was the senator, signed off on it. You know, and so that was,
my opinion back then, that was the enemy. The enemy now is corporate America,
and not all of them, but, you know, the corporations like Amazon. Amazon, for instance, I mean,
And they are despicable on what they do to work in people.
They're despicable how they treat their people.
And, you know, that's probably the biggest enemy we have right now.
So today your number one enemy would be Amazon.
100%.
And what would you like to see with Amazon?
Because I know Amazon was trying to go to New York.
They were going to bring 25,000 jobs and an average salary of 150.
AOC wasn't for it.
DeBlasio wasn't for it.
Andrew Cuomo was like, listen, guys, let them come here.
Eventually, Bezos backed out and took those 25,000.
thousand jobs to a different place so but those 25,000 jobs aren't real jobs they're not careers like
you look at a company like uPS which we fight with constantly but you know we we have a collective
bargaining relationship but there's 340,000 people that work at uPS that do the same job as all
these people in amazon you start out part-time then there's an opportunity to go to full-time
you're getting free health care because we negotiated pensions you're getting the opportunity
to a career path at amazon there's 150 percent turnover
ratio. So those 25,000 jobs on career jobs. Are these W-2 jobs with Amazon or 1099 jobs?
Well, if you're part-time working inside the facility, you're a W-2. Right. But if you're
outside delivering packages, you're a 1099 independent contractor. That's how they're hiding behind,
you know, us going into organizing. But we've had some success organizing the third-party
leasing arrangements, which are the independent contractor model where Amazon says, hey, we have
nothing to do with the drivers, but, you know, they'll mandate that the contractors who hire
these drivers, wear the uniforms, buy the vehicles, follow the policies and procedures. So
we got a very favorable decision recently in California that recognize that they are. There
is a direct relationship. So let me, let me unpack this. So Facebook hired a company that
moderated, that watched what people were posting online. And anytime something would come out
and they would say, that wasn't really us. It's the company that we hired to moderate, right?
And they're the ones that are watching the conversations.
You're saying Amazon hired another company that they gave them the drivers,
almost like a Walmart hiring a transportation company that does the loads.
So it's not their own.
I'm just speculating if they did that.
You're saying those guys should be treated on W2 standards, even though they're 1099.
Yeah, absolutely.
Why do they say that?
That's a little crazy.
No, it's not crazy.
Tell me more.
It's not crazy at all because, look, think about it.
You know, you have these Amazon.
They make you buy the vehicle from them.
Yeah.
They make the contract, they make the drivers wear their uniforms.
They make you buy the vehicle from Amazon.
Absolutely.
Okay.
You have to lease the vehicle from Amazon.
You have to fall the policies and procedures that Amazon puts forward.
You have to wear the uniform.
You have to basically do everything they tell you.
But you're not getting a W-2 from Amazon.
You're getting 1099 from wherever it's coming from.
X-Y-Z.
X-Y, yeah, whatever that LLC is at that time.
And it's just a scam to keep the union out.
And protect against liability as well.
Okay, so are you saying the 25,000 jobs in New York
were those jobs?
Or you're not sure what those jobs were?
I mean, they probably could have been corporate jobs.
Right.
Which, you know, doesn't help us at all.
Why is that?
Well, because, I mean, you're going to put 25,000 management people there,
they're not going to be unionized.
I mean, I think what they were trying to do at that time
to make Amazon a major,
and that's where they would develop all their strategies
and technologies and everything else.
So, you know, I think that's why there was a push
by the AOCs of the world and saying,
we don't want them in here because they're really not real jobs
for the constituents we represent.
Got it.
So then let's go to the conversation with Uber and Lyft.
I don't know if you remember, I don't know how long ago this was.
This could have been six years ago, five years ago, four years ago,
where there was talks about trying to get Uber drivers
Lyft drivers to get benefits and get paid by the hour, and then, you know, they went all the way out.
I don't know how far along, Rob, if you want to zoom in, I don't remember the exact details.
I mean, you know, Sean, Uber and Lyft had recently agreed a landmark California deal that
allows their drivers to unionize a significant departure from their previous stance to fight unionization.
So in this part, what did you guys want to see happen with Uber and Lyft?
Because I know you had an opinion about this as well.
Yeah, we weren't in favor of this because it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's,
It's a masquerade.
I mean, it's really not a union.
They don't have a collective bargaining agreement.
And these people are independent contractors.
Now, Uber and Lyft, when they came into the world,
was it, you know, they eliminated basically cab drivers, right?
When they came in, their biggest play has been all along.
They want autonomous vehicles.
So at some point in time, you know,
with all these Gavin Newsoms of the world
and all these people that are supposed to be helping work in people,
vetoing human operators,
and vehicles, you're going to see at some point,
those jobs are going to go away if they're allowed to, you know,
use the Waymo's of the world.
And I think Waymo just recently partnered up with Uber or Lyft on one of them.
I just saw Waymo the other day.
It's a very weird seeing Waymo's.
Yeah, I think there was some sort of collaboration, right,
with the apps or whatever it is.
Yeah, there you go.
So it's a collaboration and partnership in Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta.
Right.
So you see Waymo, you see it in San Francisco, no drivers.
I mean, if they're allowed to do this,
they can say they're unionized,
they can say they provide an insurance,
but there's no real collective bargaining agreement
and who are you negotiating with.
Like when I negotiate a contract,
I negotiate with UPS or Cisco or anybody.
I'm sitting across from the table with the employer.
These people are still 1099 independent contractors.
Who am I sitting across the table
from negotiating these contracts?
Who's going to be paying for these benefits?
And if you talk to any of these Uber or Lyft drivers,
which I do all the time,
They'll tell you how bad it is as far as the split, you know, as far as they used to get 75% of the trip.
Now they're like 60, 40 in some cases or 50, 50.
So each year, they just keep chipping away at the profits that these independent contractors are making.
And, you know, it's a race to the bottom.
And I don't see how we negotiate or who we negotiate with.
Got it.
So your, what do you think should happen to a 1099,
Uber or Lyft driver?
Well, I think Uber and Lyft should make them direct employees, right?
That would be tough.
No, they get plenty of money.
I mean, Kamala Harris's brother-in-law, what's he, like the general counsel there?
Tony West?
I mean, he's a big union guy, supposedly.
He's a big for workers.
Mandate that these people are direct employees.
And then, you know, you look at it, you can have a continuity of the workforce if you make
them direct employees.
How do you do that, though?
Walk me through how you do that.
All they do is have to purchase the vehicles off the people that are on the Uber.
are up right now, make them direct employees, sit down and bargain.
Right, but let's just say if I'm somebody that wants to Uber for one hour a month.
Well, you can always negotiate the terms and conditions and the schedules and everything else.
You're talking about the flexibility?
Yeah, no, what if I, I don't want to be under a union?
What if I'm a driver and I don't want to be controlled by a union?
I don't want, I want to be able to do whatever I want to do.
I don't want a W2 salary.
I want it to be 1099 because a lot of people also don't want to,
be part of it, right? The counter
argument to it is because I think in certain places
it's very effective
union, but I think in certain
places it can be a disruptor as well
where it causes the business to say
you know, Sean, you're pushing
me so much where you're not
thinking about... I don't know. I don't agree with that.
I don't. I know you don't agree with that. What I'm saying to you is
make the... So do you think 1099 should exist at all?
No, there should be no 1099. There should be no 1099.
No, why? Are you kidding? Well, let me ask
some. You're 1099. You're 1099. You're 1099. You're 1099.
So how does that work in real estate?
Well, you got all these, look at real estate, perfect example.
Look at, by the time a real estate agent gets paid after you're paying up or everybody's taking their fee,
what are they actually doing?
What are they getting?
I mean, your average person that works for a century 21 or whatever, you don't think they would benefit from having continuity,
having known exactly what they were going to make.
I mean, I get the 1099 argument, and this is just my opinion.
I think if I'm working, providing a service, I should be getting paid by an employer.
Yeah. Then what if a business owner, so, okay, so then put the argument into a small business owner.
I open up a small market, liquor store, okay? Should I be guaranteed a salary by the government as well?
I don't understand what you mean. Okay, so exactly. So what I'm saying is, like, if you're saying a 1099 realtor put 60 hours a week for a year, he sells three properties, I'll let you say he makes $38,000, first year.
second year he goes he puts 80 hours a week works nonstop for the year makes 220 second year
third year he goes does the same thing makes a half a million dollars 1099 not w2 so he's making
whatever he's making another guy that's there it's kind of lala gagging doesn't make the calls
doesn't drive as much as he wants you know and he doesn't make it in real estate he's filtered
out goes through a different business and ends up becoming an employee not a 1099 I don't
I don't think 1099 is for everybody.
Business owner.
So what is the risk to a business owner?
Who has more risk?
The business owner or the W2,
the business owner or the 1099.
What is the guarantee for the business owner?
It doesn't exist.
Well, everything's negotiable.
I mean,
for the business owner.
Well, the business owner,
I mean, I'll tell you this, it's funny.
A lot of these business owners and small businesses,
we deal with a lot of small businesses
all over the country,
and we recognize, you know,
I think there's a misconception in society that we come in there
and we want to hurt businesses.
That's furthest from the truth.
We actually want to help grow.
I think that exists, though, that's...
No, not really.
It's, you got a lot of greedy employers that say,
when you're chipping into their profits,
they take it so personal.
Like, why are you coming after me?
And nine out of ten times, and this is the truth,
we don't solicit people to join the union.
We wait for people to come to us saying,
I'm having a problem, my employer,
they're making all this money,
they're treating us horrible.
That's when we'll go and get involved.
So, you know, people can say whatever they want.
They can have their narrative.
But unions built this country.
Unions are responsible for the bridges, the roads, all the infrastructure.
And, you know, it's proven.
And there's statistics out there that union jobs are more productive than non-union.
Union jobs are more safe than non-union.
And more importantly, union jobs have better productivity than non-union.
So there's a lot of value there
When people push back so hard
Like the Amazon's of the world
And you know
I'm not talking about Amazon
No but I'm saying I'm using that as an example
Right
There's a reason why they're pushing back
They do not want to lose control
They do not want to have
They don't want their workers to have a voice
They want to be able to dictate
How people act
They want to control them
And they they employ by fair
They employ by fair
If you don't do this you're fired
If you don't do this
You're suspended
You know, when you have a union contract, you have just cause language, you have grievance and arbitration, dispute resolution.
Why do you think the employee takes the job, though?
If it's so bad, why do they, why do they, why do so many people to work there?
Some people have no choice.
You know, Amazon, you know, they focus on distressed communities.
Can't they go work for UPS instead?
Because you guys are in the argument, you guys took the salary from 145 to 170, right?
And then you also challenge UPS to hire an additional 22,000, right?
I think that's the number.
If I'm mistaken, correct me.
22,000 is jobs that will, you know, people that retire or leave.
They have to, they have a commitment to fill 22,000 those jobs.
But we also negotiate.
Not new.
It's to refill.
Refill.
So we maintain.
But we also created 7,500 new jobs in the last year of the contract by combining two part-time jobs
into one full-time job.
So, you know, anybody that's a part-time will have the ability to secure one of those jobs.
So you count, if I have 10 part-timers, you count that as five employees.
five full time.
Right.
Would that count it that way?
Right.
Okay.
So go back to where I'm going with this because you sound like a, your, the part that
makes you interesting is my, I'll tell you, well, my biggest concern is that we can come
back to this, and I really want to hear your thoughts on this, because I think I want to
know what leaks business owners have that they should be thinking about.
And that is, you're seeing the price of home going like this, right?
But the income is not increasing at the pace.
And there is a disparity on what's going to be.
causing this? Is it the fact that we went off the gold standard and a wealthy was able to print
money the way they were and it's easy to make money because you have access to a lot of debt?
Is it that fact that we became a debt society so the rich knows how to, the rich kept getting
richer and richer and richer and they're able to buy up a bunch of properties and maybe it makes
it tougher for a middle America guy. I'm a guy that my dad was a 99 cents store cashier.
So you see that how I joined the army. I was going to do 20 years in the army and then I got
out, it was going to be a bodybuilder, then I got introduced to a girl who worked on
Morgan Stanley Dean. I went into the finance business. Then I went into the business. Then I made
money. Then I made real money. Then I made real money, right? In the business. But for me,
a part of this when we're going back to the union side, the small business owner, stay on that
one for me. If you're saying W2 should be protected by union, fine. Because I know 10%
the workforce in America's union, if I'm not mistaken, some number like that.
1099, okay, you have an argument.
I have my own argument why I think 1099
needs to kind of be left alone.
Some places there's abuse with 1099.
I don't think everywhere.
But if you want to protect the 1099 and the W2,
but the business owner that takes money off their mortgage
to start a business or takes all their money out of their 401K,
they pay the additional early distribution fees
and all that other stuff, they risk it all.
They work seven days a week for five years to make that,
business work for no guarantee. What protection do they have? Isn't that the hardest thing to do in
America? Look, I think there's risks versus reward with everything we do. And that's small
business that takes a risk, you know, kudos to them. And it's great. The last thing you want to do
is hurt a small business. And I understand that. But, you know, the reality of it is, you know,
the 1099 has a lot of flaws in that because there's a lot of wage and hour violations. There's a lot of
taxes that I'm being paid back to the states and the federal government.
So although it might sound great because, you know, hey, I remortgage my house, started this
small business. I'm 1099 in people. I'm avoiding taxes. There's a lot of, there's a lot of
accounting problems with that as well. And I'm not saying that, you know, people, you know,
that start a small business, you know, we don't want to see them lose it. I mean, we represent
a lot of small businesses. We partner up with a lot of small businesses. We know what they can afford.
we know what they can't afford and that's all negotiations um but some people just uh you know want to
bastardize the system and the system's broken right now i mean look at all these corporations that
file bankruptcy right they'll file bankruptcy and bankruptcy reform hasn't been touched in 30 years
like for us you have companies that borrow a lot of money right and and all of a sudden like
yellow freight for instance 22,000 teams this we
gave back $5 billion in concessions from 2009 all the way up until they shut the doors.
They were into Apollo for $600 million, right, the private equity firm.
The government gave a $700 million loan under the first Trump administration as a defense
contractor.
And prior to them shutting the doors, they gouged all the big weeks, gouged all their money,
they took their bonuses, and then filed bankruptcy.
and those workers, my members, that work there because of bankruptcy is so convoluted
and, you know, pro-employer that we're still fighting today to get pension contributions
to get, you know, paid time that's owed to our members.
The laws are so antiquated and corporate friendly that we're the last line in creditors.
So, you know, when we talk about small businesses, we talk about 1099, we've got to talk
about corporate America as well as being deceitful and taking advantage of antiquated systems.
I fully agree on the part that we used to have pension plans. We used to have a lot of
retirement plans for companies. And fortune did a story about 22 years ago, 23 years ago,
about the fact that we went from having God knows how many, Rob, can you pull up the number of pension
plans by year? The amount of declined is massive. And there was a story in 2003, 2004,
about what United Airlines did with their pension plan.
Catastrophic to the people that were working there.
So part of me, and by the week...
And we represent 10,000 of those mechanics at United.
Oh, okay.
And again, I believe there is abuse in certain areas.
Go up a little bit, Rob.
Could you go a little bit up to see what it says right there?
So I want to know the date of where was that.
So I think a part of what you're saying is true
where some guys are abused.
But let me ask you this.
Sean, what do you think about Karl Marx?
When you think about Karl Marx, Communist Manifesto,
what does the union think about Karl Marx?
I mean, we don't focus on that.
We don't focus on that subject matter.
We're focusing on, you know, organizing new members, right?
Negotiating the strongest contracts
and also negotiating pensions into those.
The Teamsters' pension plans are solving throughout the whole country.
We've got the majority of our members are in defined benefit plans.
And the reason why employers were able to,
to, again, get out of their obligations
is because of the weak bankruptcy laws.
Like, you brought up United.
Those folks lost their pension.
I know they did.
Right?
Yeah, I remember that.
And they're not the only ones.
There's a lot of companies out there
that, you know, did the same thing.
But my point to all this is
when there's no consequences
in the bankruptcy laws, that's what people lose, right?
And pension funds are guaranteed,
whether the economy's strong,
whether the economy's weak.
401K, no one has ever successfully retired
off of a 401.
K. No one. I mean, I know people in 2009, when the crash happened, they retired from
Polaroid. They had $500,000 in their 401k or a million dollars in 401k. Within a day, their net worth
wiped out, 33% in the net worth. Guess what? People that retired thinking they were going to be
able to live off that million bucks had to go back to work. But what 401K is an added benefit.
Well, it's a supplemental benefit. Yeah, if companies, some companies do it right. Some don't
match at all. Some do match. If a company's matching you, you know, you put 400 bucks a month. They match
you, you know, 4%, 100% of it. That's free money. Take it because you're not going to get it
on a different place, right? There's some benefits to it. But that alone is not enough. I do believe
there needs to be additional added stuff for people. So I got a better, bad idea, right? That's my
podcast. I know that, right? So what we do is we negotiate the pension. Okay. In most of our major
contracts and we also have a 401k that's voluntary but our goal is to not have our members take
any money out of their pockets to invest in their retirement our goal is to work with the employer
negotiate a contract and have the employer pay into that pension fund on behalf of the people
that are making their company a success and I'm a prime example okay so I went to work
an apprentice, Teamsters Local 25 for a crane and rigging company.
We had a pension and we had an annuity, okay?
And I never ever had to worry about taking five, six, seven percent of my money
out of my pocket to invest because I knew that the union negotiated a pension and a
annuity in that contract.
Why do you think 90% of people don't want union?
For example, I don't know if 90% don't want union.
It's a big percentage that are not union, but I'll give you an example.
Look, there are some employers out there.
I will that treat their people right.
And that's where I'm going with this.
I guess where I wanted to go with this because, you know, I do events.
We've been doing events the last 20 years.
Sean, we probably spend somewhere between $50 to $80 million on events,
just events every year.
Okay?
So audio visual, $2 million, you know, staging, you know, seats and lighting and all this stuff.
You spend a lot of money.
Hotel, rooms.
I got to tell you, if we go to a hotel that's union, it is a pain in the ass to work with them.
It is super difficult to work with them.
And the hotel will say, by the way, wink, wink, we're non-union, we're easy to work with.
And they'll say, like, let you say your X, Y, Z hotel, he's ABC Hotel, and you're non-union.
He's union.
They'll use that as a way to say, look, we're non-union.
If you want to work with us, we're easy to work with.
those three hotels you're looking at,
we know how they are at their union.
Here's what they're going to do to you.
Here's what they're going to do with this.
Here's what they're going to do with this.
And then you'll say, okay, well, I'm going to go here
because this guy's got more space and he's got a bigger name.
Then you go to me like, man, this guy was right.
I should come back here.
Don't get me wrong.
Not all hotels who are union are abusive.
I can't wait to do another event at a union hotel after this.
They're going to be looking at you.
I know they are.
But what I'm trying to tell you,
and the union have relationships with me.
I openly talk about this all the time.
It's not something I'm comfortable with.
Yeah, but I mean, you think about this.
There's some areas that are densely unionized and it's embraced and it's part of the culture, right?
You go all the parts of the country where they don't have unions, it's cheaper.
I mean, I get that argument, but to say like, hey, wink, wink, no, no, then non-union, we're going to get better service.
I disagree with that.
We're in the trade show business.
We work with Freeman decorating, GES, some of the biggest and best in the business.
and the opinion on most people
when they come to these trade shows
or go to these trade shows
is, again, my point,
our work is a train better,
our productivity is much better,
and there's less
stress put on the event
because you've got professionals doing it.
You know, I don't buy into like, oh, it's cheaper.
And your workers work as hard as you do
or your...
Yeah, the majority of them do.
You know, you've always got, in any industry,
you've always got that 5%
that have the same
5% of the problems, not showing up for work, being late.
That's always going to be that.
Yeah, I think 95% of our members go in there every single day and they give it 110%.
Man, listen.
Look, I'm a, me, I'm a perfect example.
I was the biggest advocate, and I'm always going to be an advocate for working people,
and I was a shop steward.
But you're a work.
I never went to work late.
I never called in sick because you've got to set the example.
Oh, let me put it to you.
And I would tell members that were going down a bad path.
Listen, we retain the business.
the employer is just you know the the broker that when we go out there to provide a service
the people are going to rehire us because of us not because of anybody else you're an honorable man
though so so to me 95% of the people are honorable no what i'm saying i'm not saying they're not
listen i i'm a guy that came up with the working i'm not a guy that's not connected to you know
this business has been around this entire business you see here from day one we started 2013 until
today you know how much money i've taken off the table this whole thing this much i don't pay
myself a penny per year. I've never paid myself anything from this. If I go to a speaking
gig, they pay me $3.50 for an hour, nothing comes to me, goes all into the business. I don't
take anything out. I pay our guys well. I know. They're all telling. You know what we're doing
right now? What it is? The whole staff was signing recognition to the teams. They're going to join. They're
going to join right now. He's laughing. You are so funny. But let me tell you, one guy, one of my guys
is like, show, what if over here people team up and they want to do this and they want to do that? So, listen,
The way I see it is a complete different way.
If I take care of you, and we talk business openly with numbers,
and you see how it works, and you're involved in the equity,
you're involved in the upside of the business,
you're involved in the, you know, an L-Tip,
you're involved with Forewink, you're involved with profit sharing.
You're getting paid as if you're a business owner.
Why would you not be happy about it?
So our philosophy's always been the other way around,
but I want to put it on you a little bit.
Let me see that paper for a minute.
I'm not going to read your writing, all right?
I do this all the time.
when we're talking to when we're talking to people that want to join a union and they'll have questions yeah
and people want information they have questions and they'll say why should i join a union i said are you
getting a guaranteed raise every year no do you does your health care costs go up every year yes
do you have a pension no does your job ever get threatened yes okay my employer's telling me i
don't need a union because you know we're all family and we don't need an intermediary to talk about
our disputes. I said, that's all well and good. Do yourself a favor. Marktown five things
in a piece of paper. Guarantee wage increase per year. Affordable health care with no rising
costs, right? A pension that I can, you know, retire on. And for job security. And put a
signature page, an agreement between you and the employer, and give this your employer, see if he
signs it. If he signs it, you don't need us. If he refuses to sign. It's a sign.
you need us because he's not going to live up to those four.
So let me flip it on you, Mr. putting stuff on the paper.
Let's put it on you.
Mr. Sean O'Brien, Mr.
you know, tough guy, teamster, you know, my kind of guy.
Here's a question for you.
This is not a birth defect.
I earned it.
I earned it.
By the way, it's so funny because you, Dana and another guy named Sean Mike,
and of course, Dana's, you guys are similar.
Yeah, I know Dana.
Dana's a tough guy himself from it.
Dana's the right guy for the job that he has.
that's a whole different conversation.
I'm not going to go there,
but let's stay over here because UFC definitely doesn't want the union
to go after, you know, do what they're doing there.
Well, I mean, they've been clear.
I think they, it's like boxing and everybody else.
These boxers, these UFC fighters, you know,
they're all considered independent contractors.
That's right.
Okay, but again, you know, let's take boxing, for instance.
You know, boxing, you had the promoters making all the money.
He looks like your cousin.
You guys look like you're related.
He is from Boston.
I know he is.
That's what I'm saying.
I think we're at the same age, too.
I know Dana pretty well.
Dana's a good guy.
Good.
You were making your point.
Boxing.
You'll see you were going to make the point of.
All right, you look at pro sports.
You look at the NFL.
You look at NHL.
You look at Major League Baseball.
They're all under a collective bargaining agreement.
They all have, you know, checks and balances,
health insurance.
They've got pensions if you trigger a certain amount of games and or years.
Those folks retire young.
33 and they've got to work and some of them have debilitating medical conditions as a result of
their sports that they played I mean you know the same as in boxing in UFC but you know they've
been considered independent contractors what was that right or wrong I mean I don't know I don't
I don't know much about the sport but I know when you're talking about pro teams like NFL
NHL major league baseball there've been unions in there for since the inception for most parts and and the reason
is because, you know, there's terms and conditions and negotiations, there's retiring, medical.
And be a collective bargaining, all this other stuff.
But then they have their side deals. Right, right. You got the collective bargaining agreement
that is basically has to be followed and then. Can I follow up on this with you? Sure.
Absolutely. Yeah. Nowadays, more than ever, the brand you wear reflects and represent who you are.
So for us, if you wear a future looks bright hat or a value taming gear, you're telling the world,
I'm optimistic, I'm excited about what's going to be happening, but you're a free thinker, you question things,
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Tell the world that you believe the future looks bright.
So, Sean, let's flip it on you, okay?
you're running a good business, okay?
I think you'd be one hell of a business owner
if you ran a business.
And you said something.
You said those capitalists are all about control.
They are, they are.
And then three minutes later,
you said when I'm speaking on stage at the R&C,
I'm all about control.
I got to control the narrative to make sure it's right.
I totally get it, but you're also control guys.
So both sides, you know.
We're all control.
I understand.
Not everybody.
You are.
I can tell right now.
No, no, we are.
Of course.
I'm not denying it.
I'm just,
I'm not.
That's why they're all signing you.
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We'd love to talk, business.
It's so funny, but going back to it here with you, you're running a business, okay?
You have the knowledge that you have of being on business.
the opposite side as a team sub-president okay representing a lot of your members 1.3 million members
one of the biggest unions in america and they love you right and they love you and we love the fact
there's somebody that some of them most of them do there's a couple that don't you know but going back
to this year if you ran a business you're running a business i do right now i know but what's your
margins what is the priority of margins to stay in business so we don't look at it margins like so
we run a big organization 1.3 million members since we took over three and a half years ago we just
surpassed $1 billion in assets, okay, which is pretty, pretty big. We have a $370 million
strike and defense fund, right? I want you to think about it in a different way. I'm thinking,
but I want you to hear it my way. I know exactly we are going. So we have a completely
unionized workforce that works in Washington, D.C. I'm going to tell you how we do. I want to hear
it, Sean. All right, go ahead. All right, go ahead. Go ahead. No, no, go ahead. I want to hear it.
We go into negotiations with the union that represents our, our employees. And so, like,
To your point, now I've got to put on my employer hat.
Not employer.
I want you to put a founder hat on.
Okay, found a hat.
So put a founder hat on.
Founder hat, right now take $100,000 out.
Let's you say you and your wife have had a job for 20 years.
Right.
And you got 220 in your 401K and you got $300,000 of equity in your home.
And you say, babe, I want to start a business.
You take $200,000 out of your home, line of credit, and you start a business with it.
Okay.
Choose whatever business.
you want to be in. Construction, transportation, finance, real estate, whatever it is that you want
to get into, okay? How do you structure your business at the beginning to be able to manage the
fact that you only have $200,000 start a business to make it grow and attract people and keep
them, knowing another big company can afford to take 100% of your guys away from you because
it can pay better than you? Well, you don't bite off more than you can chew. I mean, it depends
with business you're going to be in. Okay, so if I know I got $200,000 and I want to be a construction
business, I'm not going to go try and build a skyscraper in Boston, right, with $200,000. I'm
going to start out small, like a lot of my friends have done, start out small, like remodeling
bathrooms, remodeling kitchens, and build the business and stay within my means and stay within my
cost structure. As you grow that business, you're going to need more employees. As you need more
employees, your projects are going to get bigger. Your profit margins will get bigger. It will expose you
to the ability to borrow more or more money. Some of these people that, you know, remorgeted their
house to start a business. They start a business. They don't realize that you're going to have to
work that business 24-7. You're going to have to sacrifice, to your point, your own wealth or your
own paychecks to make sure the people that are helping you build this business, the employees.
Some people make the mistake of, you know, watching TV.
at two in the morning, have a better bad idea. Let's take an equity loan on my house at 12%.
I'm going to start this major business, and they're out of business in six months.
I think like anything else, people need to be reasonable, people need to have reasonable
expectations, and have patience and the will to work to build this business up.
And as you get bigger, how hard you do you think is? How hard you? It's very hard because I have a
friend of mine, and I'll tell you, is named Salopoli. Went to Northeastern University,
played football came from no means at all his parents took a $30,000 equity line of credit on
his house for him to buy a pizza shop in Boston, sells pizza. And this guy bought one pizza
shop, got it set up running, paid his parents off, then started parlaying this into more
and more pizza shops. And he had direct employees. And then he started getting into real estate. And he
started developing real estate. And this guy has built a empire, a unionized workforce as well,
and that all parlayed off a small business. Is it a 100% union or is it a percentage union
percentage? No, no, all his projects he does, construction-wise. He's a second. He's a second lead
in developer in the city of Boston. But he didn't just, he didn't just open one pizza shop
and say, I need a $500 million loan because I'm going to do all these projects. He systematically
and methodically built his businesses and palated into an,
another venture. My point to all this is, you know, it can be done the right way, but some people
think, you know, hey, I want to own my own business. I'm going to get rich. It doesn't work like that
for 90% of the people. You know why I'm asking the question for me? I'm not trying to get you
caught off card. I'm asking the question because I think you know how hard it is to run a
business on the opposite side. To me, the problem here becomes the following. I think it's great
for people to, like when you're talking to talents,
like, look, here's the offer, go talk to your lawyer,
come back to us and let our lawyers speak to each other.
And then I'll never forget when I'm trying to sell my business,
my, the guy that was buying my business,
the insurance company, complete different business that I bet.
We grew it from zero to 60,000 agents
and we sold it for $250,000 years ago.
The buyer came up to me, and he says,
Pat, this process is going to take three to four months.
We're going to experience a moment
where the lawyers are going to cause this deal to fall through.
Let's make sure when that happens
We get on a call together
I said no problem
Two weeks before the deal closes
There's a massive war going on
We have a lawyer on our end
His name is Chris
I don't even have to talk to this guy
Explain how this guy was
He is
We paid this guy half a million dollars
For three, four months
He's won the
Biggest
Pitbull
MF
Just think about
Whatever lawyer you're thinking about
times 10. On every call, it's a fight with this guy. Then they had a guy on their side.
My guys are calling me saying, hey, your lawyer is about to screw it up. And they said,
their lawyer is going to screw it up. So he and I get on a call together. And then we talk.
He says, what's going on? It's a great. Do you have a problem with this? No. Similar to how
you know, you call Trump and Trump's like, I don't care what you say. I don't give a, you know,
go, say whatever you know. And then we were able to get the deal going. The part that I have
with the concern here is the following one. Like when you're going through this, give a raise every year,
We don't just give a raise every year.
We give a raise above and beyond
because our terms, the way we have it's structured,
I can clearly explain to you how it is.
Oh, we'll do that when we negotiate.
No, when you and I sit down and when you see it,
but I'll show it to you.
I want you to actually see it.
No, no, when we need to be.
I want you to, it's too small of a membership for you right now,
but we'll have the conversation.
We'll take them all.
But I want you to go through this year.
Go with the first one.
Go to the second one.
The second one is what?
Affordable health care.
For health care.
Okay.
So what do you do with a small business owner in 2000,
whatever the year was,
12, 2011, when Obamacare comes out,
and then all of a sudden the premium for the small business owner
spiked up 40%.
So do you know that, and that's a great point,
do you know that we run the majority of our own health
and welfare funds nationwide
and we have tremendous buying power
where a small business like you
are going to get hit with double-digit premiums every year, right?
Increases, we control the cost
because of the amount of lives that we have
and we provide the benefits.
So when you're talking small business,
we've had situations where small businesses have come to us
when I was running Local 25 in Boston
and say, hey, I really want to unionize.
You know, the health care is killing me to your point.
What are your rates and what can you charge
and how long are they projected out?
Yeah.
And we get the best care.
So that's an example of an employer coming to us saying,
hey, I can't afford the sustainability of this health insurance.
And, you know, we've had a lot of success on that as well.
For sure.
For every one story, there's also horror stories.
What it also does is the business model sometimes of the union is pinning the employee against the employer.
And then you coming as the hero.
And then afterwards, everyone walks on eggshells of driving the company.
There is that part where some people are like, when I talk to some guys, I'm like, hey, you're part of union.
How does it work?
We like it.
What do you don't like?
I don't like this about it.
Okay.
How about you guys?
We can't stand it.
Why I wish it would have never done it.
Boom.
So there's the good stories.
There's the bad stories.
The good stories, there's a partnership, right?
And it works out.
The bad stories are sometimes it drives a wedge between the two.
Like the feeling I get of what's happened with America since 2020.
You brought up COVID, right?
Since 2020 till today.
From 2020 till today, you know, it was almost like, you know, a number came out today.
Rob, you saw the chart I sent you today?
Sean, they came out with a study.
Rob, what time did he send you this chart?
This morning.
What time?
9.01 a.m.
Were you on the clock?
I'm always on the clock.
Oh, you're something else.
I love what I do.
But let me tell you what happened here.
So this guy, they do an article on CNBC, okay?
On the CNBC article, it states, what are Gen Z men?
Gen Z men, what are their top ten priorities?
Okay.
You know what men had as number one?
No.
What do you think it is?
I have no idea.
Having children.
Okay.
Do you know what, this is Gen Z.
Gen Z is 13 to 28.
So think like when you're that age.
Young men today, between 13 to 28, their number one was having children.
You know what it was for women?
What was it?
Number 10.
Really?
Number 10 is for women and number one is for men.
So boys, young man.
And Rob, I'm sure you, yeah, I think it's going to be somewhere on the chart as you go through it.
Is that the one?
No, it's a go a little bit lower, you'll see it.
So to me, a part of it is, yeah, look at that right there.
Male voted for Trump, number one, having children, female voted for Harris.
Okay, go a little lower, go a little lower, look at number 10.
Keep going, maybe not even number 10.
11 being married.
Oh, 12 is children.
So not even 10.
So to me, I think what happened the last five years, it was painting,
everybody against everybody. It's kind of like the story you told when Kamala Harris came to your
team and they pointed a finger at you and what do they say? They said, hey, Sean, you know,
you better support us or else. So there was two occasions. She went up to one of my vice presidents
who was at an Emily's list event. And Joan Corey, she's one of our vice presidents. Very classy
woman. Said, oh, I'd love to get a picture with you. I'm Joan Corey. I'm vice president.
for the team's union she turns get stern and you better get on board your organization better
get on board how can she say that it's truth so this lady joan core is probably one of the most
honorable people in the world she comes back and tells us this whole story so i call and we were
still going through our polling this was early on i call the i call maudy walsh who's a good friend of
mine who was the labor secretary and then took a job with the n hl plays association he wasn't the
labor secretary time I go you think this is a problem or no he's like oh you know I'll find out
I'll see what it is nothing gets done with it then she comes to our roundtable which every single
candidate came to and long story short you know that was a nightmare dealing with her that
administration as far as getting her to the table in front of our rank and file members and what
she did was at the end because she really didn't answer any of the questions and they weren't
negotiating with us she's only going to answer three questions
and these are the questions she's going to answer.
And I'm like, no, absolutely not.
All the other candidates answered these questions.
They didn't give us the answers we wanted consistently,
but everybody else did.
No one's getting any special.
Wait, at the 16, she didn't answer three of them,
or she only wanted to answer three of them?
Only wanted to answer three of them.
Why is that?
Did they give me the explanation?
No, it's just, they were very difficult.
I'll tell you, it was her campaign, like,
all the other candidates were easy.
Biden was difficult.
We had him in before he dropped out.
But at the end of her, in matter of fact of her,
I'm asking her questions, and my chief of staff slides over a piece of paper,
and it says, this will be the last question, right?
I'm like, you're going to be kidding me.
So, all right, whatever.
And it was like 25 minutes left of the time frame.
So then she's giving summing up, and at the end, she looked right at me and my board,
and she says, listen, we're going to win with you or without you.
Like, who says that?
When you're asking for their endorsement.
You think?
So you spend one-on-one time with it?
You had time with her?
I had time with every single candidate.
How different were some of the candidates privately than publicly?
I mean, privately, most people were, you know, they were fine.
They were, you know, respectful.
Who did you like?
That didn't win, obviously.
But who was, who did you say?
I really like it.
You know who we had a philosophical difference of opinion with was, I think it was Asa Hutchinson.
he matter of factly you know stated why he was running for president he was a republican right
and he was a perfect gentleman he said look i don't agree with a lot of things that you know
your platform is however i do value american workers i do value unionized workers there's some
difference of opinions he was great um he did a great job um i mean joe biden came in uh right then
and there you could tell he lost his fastball
Uh, one-on-one, nice man, nice elderly man.
Um, but, you know, it was a shame on what his party put him through.
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I, I, I looked at that and I'm like, you know, he's a nice man, public service his whole life.
Like, why are they allowing him to go out this way?
And, you know, to your point, one-on-one, great guy.
When we were asking him questions, you know, he was saying a lot of the right things and then, you know, he'd get confused a little bit.
But all in all, everybody was respectful through the process.
What did you like most about Trump?
Look, he's crazy.
I mean, you know, you never know what's going to come out of his mouth.
What I liked most was the process.
When we made the invite, I think it was 2024, to all the candidates.
He was the first one to respond.
Absolutely, love to do it.
I'd love to do it at the building.
We never had any presidential candidate at our building in D.C.,
meeting with our executive board and rank and file members.
from across the country.
He was one of the first ones to commit and schedule.
I mean, his campaign team was on point.
Mostly all the candidates were on point, but Trump,
and when he came in, look, we gave him 16 questions
a couple weeks in advance.
None of them answered the questions how we wanted them.
Some of them were stronger on certain issues,
some of the weaker.
I mean, Trump's whole focus was with us was on immigrant workers,
is taking American jobs and working for less money.
The 1099 issue came up.
They're not getting benefits.
They're not getting wages.
They're taking your job.
So he focused a lot on that.
And he focused a lot on just talking about him himself.
And, you know, I think at the time the Democrats were so focused on the social justice platform
that that's where they lost a lot of our members because a lot of our members were
focused on inflation,
focused on more money and their paychecks,
focused on, you know, the issues that we weren't aligned
with the social justice platforms that were out there.
I mean, look, the reality of its teams
has been around since 1903.
We have negotiated the strongest contracts,
representing workers.
We satisfy a lot of those social issues
by having strong contracts, high middle class wages,
and the ability to retire.
So our members weren't like buying into that rhetoric.
And, you know,
I think people,
People were sick of the, and Trump was saying a lot of the things that were resonating with our members.
And that's why, you know, a lot of our members, when we polled them, 65% of them were liking what they were hearing.
65% were for Trump.
Right.
And what percentage of your members are Republicans versus Democrats?
I don't have that figure offhand, but I would say it's still the majority of our members are probably still slightly blue.
And it depends where you live, right?
It depends. You know, you get the gun issue. You've got a lot of those issues that our members identify with.
What are your biggest states? Biggest states and members.
Oh, we have California is probably our biggest state.
Number one. Yeah, we have about 150,000 members there. New York, we have a high density. Chicago, all the big major cities.
You know, but we do have a presence in every single state. We represent Canada, Guam, Puerto Rico, as well as, you know, the United States.
So we have members in all 50 states. We have members of Portland.
Puerto Rico, Guam, and we have about 130,000 in Canada.
Sean, what is the profile of a Teamster boss?
Leader.
Teamster leader.
Teamster leader.
Teamster president.
Yes.
What is the profile of somebody that becomes a Teamster leader?
Is there a pattern?
Because the local 25 is a very well-known one.
It's not like it's just a regular one, right?
You've had, I think you replaced Jaffa's son or grandson.
No, internationally.
I replaced Hoff his son, the original.
Internationally, you replaced his son.
His son, yeah, local 25.
I was the youngest president.
I've elected.
We had 12,500 members in that local.
So I was the youngest.
I think I was elected at 33 years old.
So what gets the crew to say, that's our guy?
What do they look for?
Is there an element of toughness willing to fight for me?
Is it, because there has to be a pattern, right?
where you, you know, when you look at somebody that becomes a point card or a quarterback
or there's certain profiles you look at, what is it for this position?
Well, the position is, it's simple.
I mean, I held every single position in the union at Local 25.
I started out as a shop steward, representing work is on the shop floor,
making sure that the employer followed the contract, making sure our members follow the contract as well.
And then I just rose up through the ranks.
But what qualified me or what the attraction was from our members for me to lead them
was my passion to make sure that members were taking care of,
my passion to make sure that they were represented
in the workplace, and it was a progression.
It's not something I just woke up one day and said,
oh, I don't want to drive a tractor trailer anymore,
hauling heavy equipment, I want to be the team's to president.
It doesn't work that way.
And some small locals, you may get a shot at that,
but where I came from, it was just a progression.
I held every single job in that union demonstrated
to the membership that,
I was going to give it 110%.
I was going to work 24 hours a day,
you know, seven days a week.
Did you want that job?
I wanted that job since I was eight years old.
Get out of here.
Absolutely did.
Get out of you.
Absolutely did.
Oh, my God.
I used to go to union meetings with my father.
And I would look up on the stage.
I would look up on the stage and I'd see Billy McCarthy,
who later became the general president out of my local.
And he signed my union card when I first got in the union.
But I would look at these men because of predominantly men back then.
And it was like looking at the president.
President of the United States and just seeing the camaraderie and seeing, again, we were very,
very strong in Boston and they were, Billy McCarthy was like Bobby Orr and Larry Bird in the
city of Boston. Everybody knew who he was. Everybody knew who the teamsters were. And it was just
something I was attracted to. I loved, I loved the discipline. I loved the ability to help people
that weren't as fortunate as you are. It was something I mean, I tell the story all the time. I went to
Catholic school. And, you know, there was some rich kids from, when I say rich kids, they lived
in a better neighborhood. They lived in the Lawrence Estates. And I lived over in Boston Ave near the
railroad tracks in the Mystic River. And, you know, there was a divide. And they'd be like,
Johnny would be like, I want to be a lawyer like my dad. Mary would be like, I want to be a nurse like
my mother. And I'd be like, I want to drive a truck for the team since the local 25. Like I knew right
down and there. That's what I wanted to do. Mystic River. What a movie, by the way. Oh, by the
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I fell on that river.
It was like falling in maple syrup, so polluted.
How old were you when you fell?
I'm probably like seven or eight.
It was right down the end of my street, you know?
We used to, it was awful, but it was fun.
Best place to grow up.
So you're seeing, at eight years old, you want to be this, 25 years later.
Now, have you told anybody at eight years old?
Like, did you tell your parents?
I should tell everybody.
I used to tell everybody.
I want to drive a truck.
I want to be a team stuff.
And I didn't even understand the, you know, structure of it.
But I just knew.
that everything we had because my father would say everything we have is because of the
teams of his union you know and i just that just resonated with me and it was it stuck with me
for life and look i'm a loyal guy whether we're going to win or lose i'm with you i'm not leaving
your side unless you're a rat or a pedophile or a rapist i'm done with you but you know
i'm loyal to the organization i'm going to give this law organization everything i have because
it's giving me everything i have how much how much of the mindset because you know how you always
when you hear the stories
I've had friends these Sammy hey who killed Jimmy Hoffa
well the mob was involved with this
I've had plenty of guys I've asked Jimmy Hoff a question
I'm sure you've been asked this question all the time
so I'm not even going to go there
but how much
how much of
back in the days
of course not today and I'm not even
talking about because the last time
would have been one 80s right
70s where the mob was still around
why was there such a connection between the two
why do you think the two
had relations together the mob and
unions? Well, I think it was, you know, big projects, big money. You know, the unions had pension
funds that funded a lot of projects around the country. I mean, the team's pension fund built
Vegas back in the day. So I think there was always that, you know, relationship. But, you know,
organized crime nowadays, you know, that has no presence in our union. You know, those two guys
you reference, like I said, I don't, if I do something wrong, it's because of a decision.
I made and I got to face those consequences.
I don't glorify people that, you know,
prayed on the week and then when they got caught,
they told on, they told everybody, told on everybody.
I don't like that.
But getting back to why there was a relationship,
it was big money, it was power.
And, you know, a lot of these pension funds,
not just the teams is pension fund.
You know, they funded a lot of these major buildings
and major cities where there was a stronghold
in, you know, a lot of these major cities
and that's how the relationship was.
but, you know, thankfully it's not like that anymore.
Are you a movie guy?
I watch movies, yeah, I do, yeah.
It's your favorite movie of all time?
My favorite movie of all time...
I'm trying to guess if I can get at least one of them.
All right, so I've got probably a top three or four,
but my favorite movie of all times
was all the right moves with Tom Cruise.
All the right, out of all the Tom Cruise movies.
Yeah, I mean, it was football.
I love football.
It was filmed in Pennsylvania, grimy,
Yeah, it was a great, great movie.
I liked Uncommon Valor with Gene Hackman.
Okay.
Did you ever see that movie?
No, not that one.
Great movie.
Can you pull that up?
Because I know Uncommon.
Uncommon Valor.
Gene Hackman is one of a kind actor.
It was phenomenal.
Okay, so.
Of course, you know, Platoon was great.
Phenomenal.
Full metal jacket.
Wow.
Yeah.
I mean, those are all great movies, you know.
I mean, everybody loves Goodfellas, Casino.
Godfather
You know what's funny
And I have people out there
That'll attest to this
I never watched
The Godfather until
About four months ago
Stop it
I swear to God
Why is that
I just never really never
I was never really into it
No everybody would say
You gotta watch
You're gonna watch
But I watched it on a plane
I was coming from the
Going from
filming my podcast on the West Coast
To coming back
And I'm like
All right
And you know yourself
When you're on planes
You're doing most of your research
right for your show or I'm doing research for work or whatever I'm like you know what I want to watch
a movie so I had I had three hours or more on the plane so I'm like I don't have three hours when
I'm home let me watch this and I finally watched it like four months ago did you finish all three or
just one I just watched the first one but I'll tell you I was what a cast of characters in there
and you know what amaze me like not like today when you watch TV or movies even regular TV
I didn't hear and maybe I missed it I didn't hear any
swearing at all yeah and uh it was it was i'm glad i watched it that's cool you know i asked
dana what's your favorite movie of all time you know what he said do you know his favorite movie no
vision quest oh yeah yeah yeah have you seen vision quest oh yeah i've never seen vision quest so i come
home he says pat whatever you do watch it tonight i watch vision quest i'm like and i watch it with
my oldest son so what a great movie so um what's her name in the movie yeah she was she was she was
You know who she ended up Mary in, right?
You know the story of her?
Listen, I know her personally.
Okay.
So, funny story, right?
She's got a good story.
Linda Fiorentino, right?
Funny story.
I'm at Alain's in New York.
Yeah.
In like 2000, I don't know, seven or eight.
And, you know, we're in the motion picture business as well.
The Teamsters, because we provide all the transportation on the movie sets.
So she's there.
And I met her through a bunch of guys from Chicago that she did a movie with.
and you know she's talking to us regular person
and then I hired her stepson
Carson to work for me as an intern
when I was running Local 25 and this kid was hilarious
he was great so she was she actually had like
a little bit of a relationship with us where I do this huge
fundraise every year for autism so she would show up
she was a great person but we're at Alain's when we first meet her
and there's this guy sitting over in the corner
and myself and one of the guys that worked me
he said well we got to go back to the hotel
he gives us a ride
and I don't even know who he is
and he's chirping lights going through
like putting lights on he was an FBI agent
that's right and I'm like
wait you're a cop he's like
FBI agent I'm like stop the car
I do not want to be seen with an FBI agent
right long story short
he gets in trouble yeah right
that whole thing but it was
just amazing you look back but
yeah she was that was a good movie
another funny story she's at one of our events
for the autism event
I used to raise a million dollars a year for autism
and it's still carrying on right now
with the new leadership of Local 25 but
she's in the room and my buddy he was crazy
he died, a kid from Charlestown, Shane Noon
he goes, I loved your movie
she goes which one? Vision Quest
and she goes well what was your favorite scene in the movie
he goes well the laundry basket she goes you know I wasn't even in that
scene oh wow but it's just funny
she was good personality you know yeah well I mean listen
it's it's the movie that young
boys would watch and fantasize about.
And I think she played it very well.
Sure.
She played it very well.
You said autism.
Why autism?
Well, because, you know, again, we talked about health care, right?
Health and welfare, when I first took over Local 25, you know, my responsibility also was
managing a health and welfare fund.
And we were looking at the costs.
What's costing the most amount of money and why?
And there was such a spike in the mid-2000s of diagnosis.
of autism through our membership and also a lot of retirees were reaching out saying hey my
grandchild was born they have autism you know and it was like a pandemic but no one talked about it
back then and so i'm like our charity choice at the time was diabetes right and i being ignorant i'm like
diabetes all people have to do is stop eating donuts lose 100 pounds and you know they're controlling
it. Well, I didn't know there was a type one and a type two. So this is ironic. I flipped the
charity. We jump in with both feet. We start raising. We became the second largest, largest
fundraiser in the country for autism in 2007. I partner up with Bob Wright, who used to be
the CEO of NBC, and we are crushing it, like just crushing it, raising money awareness.
So lo and behold, three years after the charity's up and running, my nine-year-old son
gets diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. Stop it. Swear to God you can't.
can't make that up nine years old nine years old and i didn't know there was a type one i knew there
was type two type one but you know it was ironic where i took the position you know being ignorant
i'll just stop eating lose 100 pounds and get some exercise and you can control it and then we
want to focus on autism because there's no cure there's no services provided to these families
and lo and behold three years later my oldest son uh he's 24 now and he's doing great uh was diagnosed
for type one.
Wow.
And what does he do right now?
He's a union plumber.
He went to trade school.
He's a union plumber.
He's laid off.
But he's an aspiring comedian.
So he is doing stand-up comedy.
Yeah, it's funny.
I mean, I'm the blunt of all his frigging jokes, you know?
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How good is he?
He's good, no.
He's good, no.
I tell you my dad.
You know, it's funny, like he's a...
What's his name?
Sean O'Brien, Jr.
He's an old soul.
he's a great kid and um yeah that's it go down a little bit around go down to see what
yeah there he is right there in the middle that's him and he's a comedian he's a comedian yeah and
uh he's he's got a great way about him he's he's in with a lot of uh that that whole comedy circle
is very very tight yeah he's crazy is that him with theo vaugh yeah yeah so i love it yeah so we did
i did theo vaughan last summer yeah and he came down to uh sean loved him came down to the
when we filmed it and um theo vaughan let me tell you something about theobon he's phenomenal he
says to uh he says to uh my son you know i understand you're a comedy here's my cell phone number
right gives it to my 23 year old son at the time and i'm saying don't be fucking calling him
when you're drunk and shit in front of your friends right and uh so ironically last summer he's
going to nashville and he's like hey dad i'm going to go down to nashville and you think i should
reach out to Theo. I said, yeah, he gave his number, to reach out to him. I said, he probably
won't get back to you. They're busy. And I saw Theo not too long ago before that. He
texted Theo, and Theo hooked him up with three non-paying comedy jobs. But he said to Sean,
hey, you know, your comedy might be doing well in Boston, but, you know, you're going to try it out
in other areas. He hadn't, he didn't have to do that. And what a solid guy. So I text them
every once in a while. Good for him. Theo Vaughn's a good guy. I think Theo Vaughn's a good guy.
I think Theo has got such a unique way of interviewing people
that I think every presidential candidate has to go through Theo.
He is that unique of a guy the way he does it.
When he got J.T. Vance, when he told the cocaine thing,
he said, you know, I just, I feel like, you know, things have changed with cocaine?
J.D., could know.
Have he seen this clip?
Oh, yeah.
And then he also, he also said, someone asked him,
what was your drink a choice?
He said, cocaine.
Yeah.
Yeah, he is, at any point, he could say any,
Is this it, Ryan?
Yes, sir.
Let me see this one.
I don't know if I'd be sober if the stuff weren't killing people, to be honest with you.
I know that's sad to say.
But that keeps me out of the risk of it, you know, it just makes it too...
Makes it a little scarier.
Yeah, that's a thing.
It makes it scarier.
Yeah.
But it's also sad that somebody, I mean, this is ridiculous to say, probably that somebody can't, you know,
you can't even do cocaine in this country anymore, you know?
And that seems like a crazy thing to say.
Don't say that.
Don't say that.
I said it.
But yeah.
But don't say that anymore.
I'm going to steal that long.
He didn't like cocaine.
He just liked the smell of it.
Yeah.
That's right.
He just liked the smell of it.
That's funny.
So last thing here before we wrap up.
I feel like I have to react to this with you.
It's too funny for me.
So your, what hearing is this?
I don't know where it said.
Rob, go on this clip with, because you tweeted something, calling somebody out, right?
and then they're sitting right in front of you.
I think I just saw my Charlie Kirk's Memorial, by the way, the other day, if I'm not mistaken.
Do you know which one I'm talking about?
Mark Wayne Mullen?
Yes.
Badfrette.
He's going to be on my podcast on Monday.
Stop it.
Yeah, about a bad idea.
Stop it.
So we have to play this clip.
Go ahead, Rob.
I kind of had a back and forth.
I appreciate your demeanor today.
It's quite different.
But after you left here, you got pretty excited about the keyboard.
In fact, you tweeted at me one, two, three, four, five times.
And let me read what the last one said.
It said, greedy CEO who pretends like he's self-made.
Sir, I wish you was in the truck with me when I was building my plumbing company.
Myself and my wife was running the office because I sure remember working pretty hard
in long hours.
Pretends like he's self-made.
A clown.
Fraud.
Always has been.
Always will be.
Quit the Tough Guy Act
in these Senate hearings.
You know where to find me.
Any place,
any time, any time,
cowboy.
Sir, this is a time,
this is a place.
You want to run your mouth.
We can be to consenting adults.
We can finish it here.
Okay, that's fine.
Perfect.
You want to do it now?
I'd love to do it right now.
Well, stand your butt up then.
You stand your butt up.
Oh, hold on.
Oh, stop it.
Is that your solution?
Every poll.
No, no, sit down.
Sit down.
You're a United States Senate.
Sit down, please.
Yeah, he was fired up on that one.
Hold it, hold it.
If we can't, no, I have the mind.
Just look at the other people on the panel.
They were horrifying.
Can I respond?
No, you can't.
This is a hearing.
God knows the American people have enough
contempt for Congress.
I don't like drugs and bodies.
I don't like you, because you described yourself.
Hold it.
You have the mic.
You have time.
All right.
What happened afterwards?
Well, that was the second round.
There was round one where it was my first ever hearing, testifying, and he attacked me with some, you know, you do opposition research.
And, you know, he starts hitting me with all this shit that wasn't true.
And I'm like, the only one I didn't have any opposition research on was this guy.
I never heard of him.
And so, like, he starts attacking me.
So I started attacking him back.
And then it popped off.
And we were screaming and yelling.
other then we leave there and you know media I didn't think it was a big deal and then
the media you know starts jumping on all this stuff I mean they were doing clips all
over the world and then so we start going back and forth on social media him and I
and uh you know it was pretty funny and then ironically I have to do another
hearing but after the first one my mother calls me up and she says oh my god I saw you on
TV today and I'm like what are you talking about and she said yeah you you were fighting with that
senator and i'm like oh yeah that guy whatever and she goes well that's real real nice real
nice sean i go why what do you mean she goes you just got us all fucking audited like seriously
can you behave and and uh so ironically we have round two and then you know what um his chief of staff
got with mine they're like look this isn't this is getting out of hand and i actually met with
them and we had a lot of confidence good conversation and we agreed to disagree on on some things um
but i'll tell you what he's a good guy by the way he's not a bad guy like
Like, honestly, I've become friends with them.
You know, we work together.
And look, we're working together on this bipartisan legislation
that's going to be called the Faster Labor Contracts Act,
bipartisan support.
And I believe he's going to support it.
We've had some conversation.
And it's going to be good for the American worker.
So, again, like we talked about earlier,
something good came out of something that was bad at first.
You know, so now we have a friendship.
We have a working relationship.
And, you know, we just got to build upon.
And you know what? I even said to him, we've got to be better than this. You know, we've got to be better than this. You know, you're a U.S. Senator. I run one of the strongest, most powerful labor organizations in the world. Although people like the show, what did we rarely accomplish then? What do you say? He laughed, but I did say to him, you still think you can beat me. He's not laughing. He's an M.MA guy. He's got cauliflower in it. So it would actually be a good fight. I might have to bring a weapon, you know.
Yeah, I think he knows how to fight. I think he knows how to fight. I think he knows. Yeah, yeah. But you're a Boston guy. Yeah, we all, we all. I don't. I
tell people it's for me like they were saying it's good cauliflower is you know that m-ma fighter i'm like
yeah i know irish karate just put your head down and keep going until you can't go anymore right
so monday he's going to be on your podcast monday he's going to be on better bad ideas yes so we are
going to put your this is the podcast here yes yes better bad ideas uh with sean o'brien rob let's put
the link below as well uh mr leader president of teamsters i want to say that correctly it's been a pleasure
having you on. Thank you so much, sir. Really looking forward to the follow-up and
absolutely. I respect the way you lead. I respect the way you lead. I respect the fact that
this is a very monumental moment for, I believe, for the Republican Party and what the president
has done to bring this relationship of employer-employee that's like this to more here
to have the president of Teamsters at RNC. I think that's a massive statement to America.
Americans that we can find ways to work together. I think it's very, very important.
There's two things I just want to cover when you just prompted a thought. So Republicans
through the whole election were saying how they want to represent working people and they want
to be the party for working people. They've got to stand up and support some of our agenda,
like the Faster Labor Contracts Act. Democrats have some penance that they need to pay to American
workers who fail to have been abandoned by them. So I think it's a good time, especially in light of what's
been going on, but it's not just on, you know, the president of the United States. It's not
just on working people. To actually be the representative of working people, you know, we've got to
focus and echo our thoughts to the leadership that's in charge now in the House, the Senate,
you know, the Senate is important, Congress is important. And I always tell people the Senate,
the Congress, Senate, and President, I look at it as three stops on the MBTA in Boston.
Congress, you get something passed there, you work bipartisan, get it done.
The last stop, if you've got collaboration and a good sense of something that's going
to help people, then the last stop should be signing off on all this stuff.
And we're going to be looking at the leadership in both those House and Senate to actually
deliver on what they said on behalf of the party.
They want to represent working people.
We'll now at the time support this legislation, demonstrate.
Fantastic.
Fantastic.
I think it's going in the direction where.
you're probably closer, especially the people
that you have that are working on this with you. I think Holly's
a part of it, right? Yeah, Holly's a part of it.
And Cory Booker
is the Democratic sponsor as well.
But we've got...
Doesn't get better than Holly, by the way.
Holly's a quality guy.
That guy's... Never met him. I just like his style.
Yeah, he's non-corruptible
and he's got an unbelievable moral compass and he does
the right thing. I feel that way about him.
Thank you, sir. I appreciate you.
Thank you, brother. Take everybody.
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