Conventional political wisdom dictates that Republicans have no shot at securing the support of the vast majority of labor unions. But a few cracks are starting to appear in the union love affair with the Democratic Party and offer the GOP a unique opportunity.
This week, Axios reported that the political action committee associated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the nation’s largest labor unions, had donated $5,000 to Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO). The donation came just a few months after the union made a stunning donation of $45,000 to the Republican National Committee in January, the union’s first such donation in 20 years.
This shift in posture is due to several reasons. First, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has shown a willingness to engage with the GOP that his predecessor did not. Second, the membership of the Teamsters is largely made up of working-class voters without a college degree, a demographic that is rapidly moving to the Republican Party. Third, Hawley and a handful of other members of the GOP have shown a willingness to buck their party’s aversion to labor unions and have joined workers from the Teamsters and the United Auto Workers on the picket line. The union even met with former President Donald Trump about a possible endorsement.
For an organization that has long been a staple of the Democratic Party machine, the willingness of the Teamsters to engage with Republicans offers the party a unique opportunity to pull this organization into the party’s electoral coalition. But this will require a shift in thinking and policy for a party that has historically opposed unionization and made the practice more difficult.
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As Hawley and his colleague Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) have done, the GOP must recognize that strikes are generally not a greedy cash grab and are sincere efforts to secure better treatment for workers. The Teamsters are a private sector union that gives workers a voice against the corporations they work for. And, as last year’s strike by the UAW against the major auto manufacturers proved, there is still a significant role for unions to play in negotiating working conditions and compensation.
This is what the Republican Party must recognize and support if it is to cut into the Democratic Party’s monopoly over organized labor. The GOP is the party of the working class, and more politicians such as Vance and Hawley are going to continue filling the ranks of the party’s elected officials. Instead of fighting unions whose membership is naturally disposed to support the GOP, Republican politicians should aim to solidify the support of the groups that vote for them and advocate their favored policies. After all, that is what a representative is supposed to do.