Teamsters Boss Rips Into Yellow, Amazon in Senate Hearing

The #hotunionsummer that seeped into the fall months of 2023 made its way to Capitol Hill Tuesday as top labor champions argued their case for unions in front of a committee chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Two labor leaders who recently spearheaded successful contract negotiations for their respective workers—Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien and United Auto Workers (UAW) president Shawn Fain—testified during the hearing alongside Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America (AFA-CWA).

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O’Brien, whose Teamsters union won a new five-year deal for 340,000 UPS workers in July, had a laundry list of areas where Congress could rein in “corporate greed.” One involved standing with workers on picket lines, while another involved clamping down on runaway executive compensation.

He also called on Congress to end business models that “encourage a race to the bottom on labor standards” like Amazon’s delivery service partner network. O’Brien advocated for Congress to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and fully fund the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“American workers want unions,” O’Brien said at the hearing. “They have a right to join or form a union. But as we witness every day, employers will try everything they can to deny that right to working people. When corporate executives have friends on Capitol Hill who help them get away with it, the potential for workers to get ahead in this country further disappears…We have to really fight for them. And it can’t just be the Teamsters doing the heavy lifting. We need your help. We need our elected officials to do more, and to do what’s right.”

Committee ranking member Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) questioned O’Brien about the bankruptcy of Yellow and the ensuing loss of 22,000 Teamsters jobs, suggesting that the Teamsters’ avoidance of a possible restructuring “brought a company under.”

O’Brien called Cassidy’s description “inaccurate,” repeating that the union had conceded $5 billion in wages and benefits since 2009.

“This company was awarded under the Trump administration a $700 million loan, and the company’s just been mismanaged,” O’Brien told the committee. “Early on, we tried to work with them and find solutions to the problem. After their initial meetings, they told us they’d be out of money by August, and if we didn’t help them, they’d go under. All the while they were taking their executive bonuses and CEO pay. They can blame everyone they want.”

The outspoken labor chief has previously called on Congress to reform corporate bankruptcy laws after Yellow’s collapse.

During the hearing, Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) touched on the need for worker safety, saying “unions still have to fight for basic worker protections,” mentioning the Teamsters win in securing air conditioning in all UPS trucks this summer.

In response, O’Brien called out Amazon as the best example of current worker safety concerns, pointing to its repeated OSHA violations and saying that a collective bargaining agreement would go a long way to alleviating these concerns.

“It’s not just a union vs. non-union issue,” O’Brien said. “We set the standard in this last agreement where we think every employer should adopt the policies and procedures that we were able to negotiate in this industry.”

The hearing got contentious when Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) read some of O’Brien’s tweets before challenging the Teamsters president to a fight.

“You want to run your mouth? We can be two consenting adults. We can finish it here,” Mullin said to O’Brien, who replied, “Okay that’s fine, perfect…I’d love to do it right now.”

After Mullin told O’Brien to “Stand your butt up,” the outspoken union head responded with the same quip—prompting the senator to get out of his chair.

Sanders quickly intervened when Mullin stood up, shouting “No, no, sit down! You’re a United States senator!” before Mullin and O’Brien traded several more barbs.

“This is a hearing. And God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress, let’s not make it worse,” Sanders said.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) said she is working on legislation that would require the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to consider the impact corporate mergers have on workers. She said Wisconsin union employees from battery company Rayovac and padlock manufacturer Master Lock—both of which were acquired by other businesses—lost their jobs due to outsourcing.

“We need more oversight over these mergers to make sure that we keep these jobs in America,” O’Brien agreed. “More importantly, we’ve got to minimize any types of damages or attacks on these workers for their ability to join a union as well.”