E536 Teamsters President Sean O'Brien

Summary

Podcast Summary: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von – Episode E536 Featuring Teamsters President Sean O'Brien

Release Date: October 7, 2024

In this engaging episode of "This Past Weekend with Theo Von," host Angie Hicks sits down with Sean O'Brien, the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. As a fourth-generation Teamster from Boston, O'Brien provides an insightful look into the current state of labor unions, the challenges they face, and their pivotal role in shaping American industry.

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Introduction to Sean O'Brien and the Teamsters Union

Sean O'Brien begins by explaining the evolution of the Teamsters Union. Originally representing traditional truck drivers pulling horse-drawn buggies, the union has expanded to encompass a diverse range of professions, from airline pilots to zookeepers. Today, the Teamsters boast over 1.3 million members nationwide, with 340,000 employees at United Parcel Service (UPS), marking UPS as the largest employer within the union.

Sean O'Brien [02:21]: "Teamsters started out as traditional trucking truck drivers... We've evolved into representing everybody from airline pilots to zookeepers and everybody in between."

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The Importance of Unions in Shaping Labor Standards

O'Brien emphasizes the foundational role unions have played in establishing critical labor standards, including the 40-hour workweek, overtime pay, and weekend compensation. He underscores that these benchmarks benefit not only union members but also non-union workers, highlighting the broader societal impact of collective bargaining.

Sean O'Brien [04:15]: "Unions, 40-hour work week... Even non-union people benefit when you organize."

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Current Challenges: Deregulation and Corporate Greed

A significant portion of the discussion focuses on the detrimental effects of deregulation, particularly in the trucking industry during the 1980s. O'Brien recounts how the deregulation led to the loss of 400,000 Teamsters members, bankrupt companies, and weakened pension funds. He attributes this decline to political decisions that favored corporate interests over workers' rights.

Sean O'Brien [05:04]: "We built the middle class, we built America... When they passed trucking deregulation, we lost 400,000 members."

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Strikes and Unionizing Efforts: Longshoremen and Amazon Workers

O'Brien highlights ongoing strikes, notably among longshoremen, who are essential to the supply chain but face oppressive demands from shipping companies. He passionately defends the workers, arguing that these strikes are not mere political stunts but necessary actions against corporate exploitation.

The conversation shifts to the union's efforts to organize Amazon delivery drivers, who currently operate as independent contractors with limited benefits compared to their UPS counterparts. O'Brien contrasts the secure, unionized positions at UPS—offering up to $50 per hour, full medical coverage, and pensions—with Amazon's $20 per hour pay and lack of long-term security.

Sean O'Brien [07:06]: "Our members are direct employees at UPS... Amazon hides behind an independent contractor model."

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Political Endorsements and Challenges with Politicians

A contentious topic arises around the union's decision not to endorse a presidential candidate for the first time in decades. O'Brien explains that extensive polling revealed a divided membership, with 44% favoring Biden and 36.3% supporting Trump. This division led the Teamsters to refrain from a unified endorsement, allowing local unions and councils to make individual endorsements.

O'Brien criticizes both major political parties for neglecting workers' interests, accusing Democrats of being influenced by big tech and Republicans of superficial promises to the working class without substantive support.

Sean O'Brien [43:27]: "There's a divide... both candidates, Harris and former President Trump, didn't answer specific questions of what was important to us."

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The Future of Work: Technology, Automation, and Job Security

The duo delves into the looming threat of artificial intelligence and automation, particularly in sectors like transportation and longshore operations. O'Brien raises concerns about autonomous vehicles potentially displacing millions of jobs, arguing for a balance between technological advancement and job creation.

He advocates for policies that preserve employment opportunities, ensuring that technology complements rather than replaces human workers. O'Brien envisions a future where unions play a critical role in negotiating the integration of technology in a manner that safeguards workers' livelihoods.

Sean O'Brien [16:57]: "We gotta slow this thing down. Let's figure out an opportunity to keep these jobs... create jobs as a result of technology."

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Union Growth and Organizational Strategies

O'Brien shares optimistic news about the Teamsters Union experiencing significant growth, with 50,000 new members in just two and a half years. The union is actively expanding into emerging industries such as cannabis, aiming to organize the 425,000 W2 employees nationwide. This strategic expansion includes investing in sectors the union represents to ensure job stability and fair compensation.

Sean O'Brien [94:33]: "We have organized 50,000 new members... We're organizing in traditional industries as well as emerging ones like cannabis."

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Maintaining Unity and Inclusiveness within the Union

Maintaining a unified front is crucial for the Teamsters, especially amidst internal political divides. O'Brien attributes the union's resilience to transparency, inclusiveness, and direct engagement with members. By being present on work sites and fostering open communication, the union ensures that all members feel represented and heard.

Sean O'Brien [88:49]: "We are actually out three, four days per week in work sites all around the country... representing workers is the most important thing."

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Closing Remarks and Vision for the Future

In wrapping up the episode, Sean O'Brien reiterates the union's commitment to fighting for workers' rights, fair wages, and comprehensive benefits. He calls for continued solidarity among union members and stresses the importance of collective action in overcoming corporate and political challenges.

Sean O'Brien [121:50]: "You can't survive as an American worker... Let us fight for you. Let us take on the grievances at work."

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Notable Quotes

• Sean O'Brien [02:21]: "Teamsters started out as traditional trucking truck drivers... We've evolved into representing everybody from airline pilots to zookeepers and everybody in between."

• Sean O'Brien [04:15]: "Unions, 40-hour work week... Even non-union people benefit when you organize."

• Sean O'Brien [07:06]: "Our members are direct employees at UPS... Amazon hides behind an independent contractor model."

• Sean O'Brien [43:27]: "There's a divide... both candidates, Harris and former President Trump, didn't answer specific questions of what was important to us."

• Sean O'Brien [16:57]: "We gotta slow this thing down. Let's figure out an opportunity to keep these jobs... create jobs as a result of technology."

• Sean O'Brien [94:33]: "We have organized 50,000 new members... We're organizing in traditional industries as well as emerging ones like cannabis."

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Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive overview of the current landscape of labor unions in America, focusing on the Teamsters' endeavors to protect and expand workers' rights amidst evolving industrial and political climates. Sean O'Brien's candid discussions shed light on the critical issues facing unions today and the strategies employed to navigate and influence the future of American labor.

For listeners seeking to understand the dynamics of modern labor movements and the intersection of politics, technology, and workers' rights, this episode provides valuable perspectives and actionable insights.

Transcript

[Angie Hicks]

Hi, I'm Angie Hicks, co founder of angie.

[Sean O'Brien]

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[Angie Hicks]

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[Sean O'Brien]

Home project, leave it to the pros.

[Angie Hicks]

Get [e-mail] I have some new tour dates to tell you about this week. I'll be in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, La Crosse, Wisconsin, Green Bay, Wisconsin and Moline, Illinois, Colorado Springs, Casper, Wyoming, Billings, Montana, Missoula, Montana, Bloomington, Indiana, Columbus, Ohio, Champaign, Grand Rapids, Lafayette, Louisiana and Beaumont, Texas. All tickets through TheOvaughn.com TOR and thank you for your support. Today's guest is the president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He's a fourth generation Teamster himself and he's from Boston. I'm really excited about spending time today with Mr. Sean O'Brien.

[Sean O'Brien]

Shine that light on me I'll sit.

[Angie Hicks]

And tell you my stories.

[Sean O'Brien]

Shine on me and I will find a song I've been singing.

[Angie Hicks]

I never been in a union, I don't think.

[Sean O'Brien]

What about SAG after you did some acting?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, that's right. I had to get in SAG after one time.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. So I guess I was in that union. We try to. I used to work at a pizza joint and one guy was getting fired and we're like, you can't fire. If you fire him, you got to fire all of us.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, that's what it's all about.

[Angie Hicks]

And the guy, he just fired all of us. Yeah. And he was right. Actually, Mr. Wayne, he was the owner and he was right there. We were horrible workers. We was drinking and just deep frying everything in there.

[Sean O'Brien]

That shouldn't be a terminable offense.

[Angie Hicks]

I like your attitude. We needed you. Sean O'Brien, you're president of the Teamsters Union, right?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yes, sir.

[Angie Hicks]

Is that the term?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yes, it's International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay. And what is a Teamster?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, Teamsters started out traditional trucking truck drivers. They were horse and buggies back in the day and then evolved into trucking. And then we've evolved into. We represent everybody from airline pilots to zookeepers and everybody in between. So it's not just a trucking union. Our largest employer is United Parcel Service, represent 340,000 Teamsters nationwide.

[Angie Hicks]

United Parcel Service?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, UPS.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay, UPS.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, we do all the. Provide all the transportation needs for motion pictures, trade shows, public sector. We're pretty diverse in large union, 1.3 million members nationwide.

[Angie Hicks]

And in Canada in the Teamsters Union.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yes, sir.

[Angie Hicks]

And so they got. So it was a team of horses. That's why the name is.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, horses.

[Angie Hicks]

Buggies.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They had teams pulling horses and buggies. We've been around since 1903.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay.

[Sean O'Brien]

So you can see how transportation and has changed over the years. But, you know, it's a great organization for. I'm fourth generation teamster.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Oh, so you're. And are you the first president of your family that was ever in?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. All my family members, just rank and file members went to work every day. I started out in a construction Y out in Boston, a rigging company hauling cranes around. And I just moved up the ladder, became a shop steward and became a business agent for Local 25 in Boston and just kept moving along.

[Angie Hicks]

Nice, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

And a union is what a union is.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, we represent working people. We make certain. We collectively bargain for our members. We make certain that we protect them in the workplace, process all their grievances, but more importantly, organize workers throughout the country that want to be unionized. And we've been. Been very successful doing that. And we just want to represent working people. We know 1.3 million right now. Hopefully we'll be 2 million in the near future.

[Angie Hicks]

Amen. And yeah, because I know unions are responsible for the work week. Right, right.

[Sean O'Brien]

So unions, 40 hour work week. Look, the unions have set the bar. Even non union people benefit when you organize. And you know, we've organized in every industry, but we're responsible for overtime, we're responsible for the 40 hour work week, we're responsible for the weekend. A lot of people don't know that, you know, so.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, you know, thank you.

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, but if we do have to work the weekend, we're gonna get double time.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

I mean.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. And now, didn't they just make a law that it's gonna be over, it won't get taxed?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, that's a campaign promise from President Trump, I believe.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh. So it's just. It's not so, you know, as you.

[Sean O'Brien]

Know, promises sometimes don't come to fruition, so.

[Angie Hicks]

But.

[Sean O'Brien]

But it is recorded, so we'll use it against whoever said it.

[Angie Hicks]

How pivotal is our unions in the American industry?

[Sean O'Brien]

Look, we built the middle class, we built America. Unfortunately, as you know, once big business gets involved, private equity of the world or there's big money to be made, everybody forgets they get amnesia on who actually is responsible. And there was such a decline in the 80s because, you know, politicians put in some bad regulation. I mean, I can speak for the teams because they passed Trucking deregulation. And if I could put the numbers to it, we had 400,000 members alone, just in the freight industry. And when they passed trucking deregulation, we lost 400,000 members. Companies went bankrupt and pension funds took a hit.

[Angie Hicks]

So what happened though, like when you say deregulation, what do you mean by it?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, you know, the whole industry was regulated, so every company had rates that they had to adhere to.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay. Had to follow a certain set of rules.

[Sean O'Brien]

And then once deregulation passed, it was a race to the bottom. And you know, unfortunately, that hurt us over three or four decades. And now there's such a, there's such a opportunity because there's so much corporate greed out there where these white collar crime syndicates known as corporate America, all they care about is the bottom line of their balance sheet. And we've been fighting hard for the last four or five years to expose how greedy these CEOs, these corporations are, but also how corruptible the political system is. It's funny, before you always had Democrats fighting for working people and you know, Republicans. Now we kind of see a switch where working people feel like, number one, they've been left behind by the Democratic Party. Two, you know, the Republicans say they want to be working class, represent the working class. They have an opportunity to do it. But, you know, I think we've got a huge opportunity to organize and we've been exposing them and we've been fighting and you know, our biggest, our biggest opponent right now is Amazon and we're going to crush them.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, because Amazon, my mom drives, is an Amazon worker, is she? Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

So she's an independent contractor. If she drives for them.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah, she delivers stuff for Amazon, so.

[Sean O'Brien]

So I'll tell you the difference. Right.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay.

[Sean O'Brien]

You look at our UPS drivers. We just negotiated the largest collector bargaining agreement. UPS is the largest teamster contract in the country and they're a very difficult company to deal with. However, our drivers are direct employees. Our members are direct employees at UPS. And once you're through a four year progression as a driver, you're making almost $50 an hour, full medical and a pension that you could actually retire off of. And Amazon hides behind an independent contractor model where they pay their drivers about 19, 50 to $20 per hour. That's the difference.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh yeah, my mom's asking me for.

[Sean O'Brien]

Allowance, what we're doing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, as she should.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

She brought your ass into this world.

[Angie Hicks]

You gotta pay the tariff.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, you don't wanna piss your mother off. Believe Me, I got a strong Irish Catholic mother who brought up her three younger brothers in a housing project in Boston. Then she had three just like me. Oh, and you know, she's the toughest, toughest one I know. That's the only person I'm afraid of or really, to be honest with you.

[Angie Hicks]

Really? In Boston?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

It's like, oh, some of the women in Boston, dude, I got a. Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

But my mother's like petting a python. You know, you give a moment, she's going to squeeze the life out of you. But I love and respect her and.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh for sure she's the best. And if a mouse goes missing around her.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, you get the head nod. The problem, you know, you get the head nod from my mother. It's like she'll go, oh, nice head. Not done. You're done. That's it, you're done. Yeah, it's like someone put a hit on you.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, my mother. Yeah, she delivers for am. Yeah. I don't know how many hours a week she works, but she delivers for Amazon. How hard is it to get a group of workers to unionize like at a company that's already like pre existing like that?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, we're doing it right now. Like so Amazon hides behind this bullshit independent contractor model so they'll third party leasing arrangement with a company, probably what your mom's working for. And they try and say that they're not employees. We just want a big case in California where it's called joint employer, where it's a masquerade where Amazon controls the other company. Amazon dictates the rules. Amazon dictates where you buy your vehicles and everything else but they don't take any responsibility when the shit hits the fan. So we actually that case recently and we're organizing all over the place. But what we're doing is we're striking for recognition. We're going in there, getting the majority of authorization cards signed by folks like your mom and then we just strike them and hold them out and it's working. We've got, because of that victory we had with exposing Amazon with the independent contractor scam, we get the potential to organize your mom and 300 other thought. 300,000 other people. Wow. So we're, we've, we've allocated tremendous funding to do this. And look, Amazon, the one thing about the Teamsters union and us, we're not good looking, clearly. Right. Well, but you know, we don't, we don't have the, some cultures we don't have. Yeah. We don't have the deep pockets, but we got, we've got, you know, fight. We've got intestinal fortitude. And we're not afraid. We're not afraid to lose because we're supposed to lose anyways. Right? When you're not afraid to lose.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. You got nothing to lose.

[Sean O'Brien]

Nothing to lose. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And it's important because we set these industry standards negotiating these contracts so people like your mother, people that aren't organized will see the value of becoming a union member. And look, there's always people that have something to say no matter what, you know, you know, you're doing great, you have a great show, you tremendous success. There's going to be someone that is jealous and doesn't, you know, just wants to attack you.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And we're trying to change that philosophy. We're trying to change that image. And look, we're out there just want to help people. We want to take on schoolyard bullies and we want to put them on their knees, you know, oh, I hope.

[Angie Hicks]

You take the kneecaps off some of these perverts, dude. Yeah, you know, that's how I really feel. And also a lot of these, like, a lot of the tech industry came along and just because they're an app or they're a website, they act like they're not an employer, I guess.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, that's the biggest scam in the world. You got Uber, you got Lyft, you've got Google, you've got all these tech companies. And the sad part is, you know, these politicians that claim to be out there fighting for work and people bought and fucking sold by these companies.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, it's crazy.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's disgusting. I love it. Because my, my job is. And again, I'm wearing the shirt, right? Because we are fucking fighting with everybody. Yeah. And we have to, because, you know, we have to be someone's conscience and that's. We're going to be their conscious. These big, big tech companies.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. How does the Teamsters afford attorneys and stuff to be able to fight those battles?

[Sean O'Brien]

Like, well, we, you know, we have members pay dues.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay.

[Sean O'Brien]

So, you know, the dues, the dues money obviously finances a whole operation. And, you know, we are financially secure. We have $400 million in a strike and defense fund, which means that we can strike and you know, we can support a long term strike but also defend against any threat to the organization. That all comes from dues money.

[Angie Hicks]

Hell yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And, you know, that's how we afford it.

[Angie Hicks]

It's like newsies you ever seen newsies?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I won't tell anybody.

[Angie Hicks]

Don't tell anybody. We saw it, but. We saw it, but it was about a strike.

[Sean O'Brien]

I just don't want to admit it.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, I feel. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's like a cup.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's like a couple of those, you know, ABC after school specials. Yeah. You watch, but you don't want to admit you watched and liked them.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

We're supposed to have. We're supposed to have a big, tough attitude as teamsters, so.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, for sure, dude. Speaking of strikes and stuff, recently they have. So right now they are. The longshoremen are striking. Right.

[Sean O'Brien]

They are on the. From the top. Top of Maine, I think, to the foothold in Texas.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay. And what is that about?

[Sean O'Brien]

It's about, you know, it's like anything else. You know, the longshoremen provide goods and services, so imports and exports coming in. They work in the.

[Angie Hicks]

They work on the docks.

[Sean O'Brien]

They work in the ports and the docks.

[Angie Hicks]

Like James J. Braddock, like that.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely. And, you know, they work. Their contract expired the other night, but they've. Their last contract was settled in October of 2018. So, you know, they worked through the pandemic. There's longshoremen that lost their lives, these longshoremen that can never go back to work because of the ill effects of COVID But they were out there in the trenches providing goods and service when supply chain was basically almost coming to a stop. And all these shipping lines, like all these big corporations benefited.

[Angie Hicks]

Just benefited off them being there.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. And it's like, let's reward the people that made us a success. Let's reward the people that provided goods and services country. Let's reward the people that risk their lives and the safety of their families to go to work so that we all have everything. And now it's their time. Their contract expires. These shipping lines are making gazillions of dollars and they want what's due to them. And it's funny, you see this criticism online. Social media is great, but it's just a lot of fake shit's on there. I'm reading it this morning and looking at it this morning, and they're attacking the longshoremen for striking. People are saying, well, they're going to drive up inflation. They're going to cause all the supply chain problems. They are. But do you want these greedy corporations to keep making millions upon millions of dollars? But the biggest threat right now is artificial intelligence to the longshoremen. If you look what they're Doing in the ports in China. Everything's automated, there's no jobs.

[Angie Hicks]

These are semi automated at least.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, These are legacy industries that provide. They're 130 year industry where provide middle class jobs to people. And they're getting attacked because people are getting a little inconvenienced. Well, you know what a little inconvenience. Maybe it'll give some to these workers and you know, hold the people accountable that caused this strike. Everybody says, oh, the ILA is striking. No, the shipping lines that don't want to protect the jobs, that don't want to reward these people that made them a success chose to strike themselves.

[Angie Hicks]

Right, right. They chose it.

[Sean O'Brien]

Right.

[Angie Hicks]

They could have made a. Yeah, everybody says they're the one striking. No, it's this other group that's not choosing to pay, not choosing to come to the table, not choosing to share like the. Yeah, like you said, not choosing to share with the people that have made, made it happen.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, they're making billions upon billions of dollars. You know, so I mean, it's like, you know, there's not, not a whole lot of sympathy from us. Yeah. As far as corporations and these shipping lines go.

[Angie Hicks]

And so is that a lot of what the ILA strike is over? It's, it's obviously the fears of automation.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, it's fears of automation's everywhere. I mean, that's a huge, huge threat to the ila. But also, I mean, look, you know, everybody's saying, you know, there's people, criticisms online and oh, Longshore will make $140,000 a year. That might be true, but when you start out, you're starting out with $20 per hour. Right. And you look at $20 an hour today, what that gets you, that's nothing. And then, you know, if they're making 140,000, they're working 70, 80 hours per week. So you know, there's not a whole lot of, you know, quality time at home with your family. They have to work. And $140,000 is a great income. But you put two kids, you get college, you've got a mortgage, it doesn't go a long way. So, you know, it's time that, you know, we close that gap between, you know, the CEO's pay and in this case the long traumas pay.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah, I think, because what I don't understand is at what point is tech valuable to us as a society? It's like, do you want, like I don't want to be a society that there's 11 people watching some robots do stuff, that's what it feels like we're headed towards. It feels like at a certain point you would stop some technology because it doesn't, it kills your society, society. It kills like the part of you that goes to work, the part of you that comes back, that supports your family, that gives inspiration to your kids because they see their parents working. It's like, it's almost crazy to me sometimes how we keep pushing our, our society towards advancement. If it's not, if we'll no longer be a society then. Does that make any sense?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, it's a society of convenience. That's the problem, you know, and people don't realize the consequences of technology at some times. You know, I mean, look to your point, you know, your product, your environment, if you have a hard working mom and dad that get up every day and go to do a middle class job, that's, that's what you want to do, that's what you want to aspire to do. This technology, although you know, we, we know technology is coming, we know technology is relevant. Yeah, we got enough in certain arenas, but there's still, there's still a lot of value to the best computer in the world. That's a human's brain and you know, your instinct and you know there's gotta be an opportunity, even if technology comes in to a certain extent, to create jobs as a result of technology. Those 11 people you reference watching robots, well, at some point in time the technology gets so good that those 11 people will be out of a job as well. So it's like, come on, let's slow this thing down. Let's figure out an opportunity to keep these jobs and give people an opportunity that may not have an opportunity to go to college, that may not have the ability to be proficient in technology, but have a great work ethic and got a moral compass that wants to go in and give a hard day's work for a fair day's pay. So, you know, that's the stuff we've got to look at. And you know, as a country, we're so short sighted on the damage of technology. I mean, when you talk about autonomous vehicles, do you want a commercial vehicle, £80,000 going down the street next to your family of four with no human drive? A present.

[Angie Hicks]

Yes. Some guy just. Yeah, an indie or something. He has a joystick, iPad or something. Yeah, he has like a Xbox controller or something.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. And there's a catastrophic accident. I mean, you know, and then, then you check the guy's browser, you know, you don't really know.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, he got some other windows open, you know.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

He's got VR goggles on over there.

[Sean O'Brien]

Looking at P. Diddy potties, stuff like that.

[Angie Hicks]

He's over there smoking out of his own nut sack over there. A lot of perverts over there in India and all over the globe. I'm not trying to single them out. I'm perverted. But what was something I was going to ask you about? Oh, so. Well, I. Recently, yeah, recently we had Bernie Sanders on and he talked about a shorter work week and about giving proceeds from Autumn automation to the workers because they're the ones who have gotten us to that point as well.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. I mean, look, there's a, there's a. Bernie's the best. I love Bernie. I think he's a little mad at me right now. He's yelled at me in a couple Senate hearings, like flared up. But, you know, he is truly committed to working class people. There's no doubt about it. You know, we're, as a Teamster organization, you know, we negotiate contracts based on 40 hours per week. But there are some, you know, industries that would like a 32 hour work week paid 40 hours, which, you know, that's, that's, that's going to be a, that's going to be a tough fight moving forward. You know, my thing is we got to protect, preserve and improve what we already have right now.

[Angie Hicks]

Right.

[Sean O'Brien]

And.

[Angie Hicks]

Right. Because once you start giving away some hours. Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You never get it back.

[Angie Hicks]

You never get it back. Right here it says Senator Bernie Sanders, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, labor and Pensions, announced that this Thursday he will introduce legislation to establish a standard 32 hour work week. Sanders said moving to a 32 hour work week with no loss of pay is not a radical idea. Today American workers are over 400% more productive than they were in the 1940s. And he means that the output is because also of automation, but automation is taking the people's jobs. So then it's like it only makes fair sense to compensate the people who are, whose jobs are being taken.

[Sean O'Brien]

Right. And that's obviously a great justification for it, but the reality of it is most of our members have to work 50 or 60 hours. Yeah. A week and have to have overtime. So, you know, that's, that's, that's an issue that I think we'll be dealing with down the road. But there is no doubt that we should be fighting to create jobs as a result of technology being implemented, not destroy them.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Bernie's the best. I mean, he is hilarious.

[Angie Hicks]

He's very. He's very entertaining, man. He's very entertaining. I know you had an issue with Ma. Ma. What was that guy?

[Sean O'Brien]

Mark Wayne Mullen.

[Angie Hicks]

Mark Wayne Mullen. We'll get to it in a second and we'll definitely, we'll put up a. We'll put up a link if people want to watch you guys fight, where people can lease it, but. And we'll give the money. We'll give the proceeds to you guys, too.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, we don't need that one. I'll do that one for nothing.

[Angie Hicks]

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[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I think it's important to know that it's not the long longshoreman's fault that they were on strike. It's the shipping company's fault. And you know, the media is so out of whack at times in creating these scenarios saying that this is a political stunt versus one party versus the other. Their contract expired two days ago. It just so happens it's in an election year. And look, this strike could end real quick if these greedy shipping lines just give the members what they deserve and what they demand and it'll be over.

[Angie Hicks]

We also, if you think about it, it's like you always hear like term the shipping heiress or the shipping air. You don't hear like the Teamsters heiress. You know, they don't have. What even fucking side are people on? Like to. To be on the side of just these just people that have so much, you know, and at a point it's just obvious greed.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. I don't think it's.

[Angie Hicks]

It's unbelievable, man. And it's unbelievable that our country starts to feel like that's. That's the side it's on. Yeah, I mean, it really feels like even just as a regular person, like nobody is support. It's all a sham. A lot of times it feels like, I mean, everybody knows that the lobbies are so big now that they control so much, but it's like at some point you would think there would be a break for the common man, you know?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, that's what we're trying to do. I mean, that's why we've been working so hard. If you see what we're doing all over the country with the UPS agreement, Anheuser Busch record agreements, negotiating strong contracts, we are trying to close that disparity. Right now. We got a big battle going on with United Airlines, which you know, where we're telling all these politicians. I don't know if you saw my statement the other day, stay the fuck out of our business. Let us do our thing. And I always say to people, the neighborhood I grew up in, which had a lot of conflict in it, if there were two people fighting in the middle of the street and you had nothing to do with it, keep walking. It's going to end some point one way or the other. And that's the struggle. But our whole focus on what we've been doing as a union. And look, I'm a fourth generation team, so I love this fight union. It's given me everything in my entire life. The one thing that we need to do is advocate for working people. And you know what people say? Why should I join a union? Why should you join a union? Because we're going to get you better wages, we're going to get you the best benefits, but more importantly, we're going to demand respect in the workplace and we're going to fight for you day in and day out. And look, the United. The ILA right now, that's all they're doing. That is all they're doing. They want respect.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And to your point, there's no Harris. Harris is however you say it.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Princess or something. Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Listen, just take a look at us, whether it's. Yeah, Elliot. Teamsters, you know, we're not royalty, man.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, I've been in Boston. They got some. Definitely. You see abroad out there wearing a Euclid jersey. You know what I'm saying?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, we've got. A lot of us from Boston have faces for radio.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, a lot of. Yeah, a lot of women that are just vaping and just giving hand jobs or whatever, but it's okay. Don't forget.

[Sean O'Brien]

Don't forget the tube top with the C section.

[Angie Hicks]

That's the new Teamsters logo.

[Sean O'Brien]

God forbid. No, we've got. Listen, the Teamsters union, we got some of the finest, hottest working women and they're the strongest.

[Angie Hicks]

No, I'm joking. Yeah. And look, let them play baseball again, dude. You know what I'm saying? That's what I'm saying.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

I would love to see if the union had a league.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, it'd be nice, wouldn't it?

[Angie Hicks]

Do you guys have a team?

[Sean O'Brien]

A baseball team? Yeah, well, it's called the Red Sox, but I don't know if they're any good right now.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. They didn't make the playoffs, did they?

[Sean O'Brien]

No, they didn't.

[Angie Hicks]

Damn. No, but actually, screw you guys. You guys have had so much luck. Dude, I can't believe you make that much money selling cheese and stuff. What all do they have over there? Kraft. Bring it up. Kraft goods?

[Sean O'Brien]

No, Kraft actually started. It's a unionized paper company.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, it is?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. So it's out of Boston or Worcester, which is, you know, probably 45 miles west of Boston. The crafts are actually very good in the community in Boston, but that's. That's not the Same family.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, it isn't?

[Sean O'Brien]

No.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, damn. But every time I've. That's crazy because every time I'm cheering against Pats, I'm always yelling like Lunchables. And. And I didn't even realize Crustables. I thought it was the same guy. It's.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They're very good. They're very good in the. They're very good in the community.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. Ah, yeah. I didn't know. I gotta. Yeah, I filled out some comment cards on some of these websites too. I gotta go back and take.

[Sean O'Brien]

Clean it up.

[Angie Hicks]

Especially when they had Randy Moss. Yeah, I was really heavy on the keys back then.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, how funny was he?

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Oh, he's great. Dude. Dude, I went to a fishing tournament one time, and I should tell this story, but I should, but I will. And so went to a fishing tournament one time. Randy Moss put on a fishing tournament. This one, he was with the Vikings. And you. And you got put with like some fishermen and stuff and you would go out. It was in Minnetonka, Minnesota, on the lake. And I stayed up all night drinking, right? And so I get out there and I. I'm like, I think we're gonna be there for 30 minutes or whatever, you know, like, I'm fishing with my grandparents or something and they're like, yeah, it's a six hour dang. And I'm like, oh, dude. And I had like the whore. Like, I had to go to the bathroom so bad, you know, and. And so I. At some point they're like, we'll just pee off the side of the boat. But I'd have to pee, you know, I had to do a union job, you know, and so at some point, dude, I just had to literally have them troll a little and just hang myself off the side of the boat and just.

[Sean O'Brien]

Did you have any dude wipes with you?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, they didn't even have dude wipes in.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, man, that must have been awful.

[Angie Hicks]

I just had to kind of hold my legs open and let the water go through fast.

[Sean O'Brien]

It was like a redneck bidet.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, God. But thank God, dude. And we didn't catch anything. I couldn't even pull a fish without having to go to the back. Like, the second something would tug on there, I was like, I had damn 40 in the live well, you know.

[Sean O'Brien]

Do you think that had anything to do with what you were drinking the night before?

[Angie Hicks]

100.

[Sean O'Brien]

What were you drinking?

[Angie Hicks]

Jagermeister. It was. Yeah, and it was disgusting. And it was. God, I Just, I still can't. I can't believe that whoever, whatever company sentenced Jagermeister on humanity.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, terrible.

[Angie Hicks]

That's terrest terrorism. You know, and we don't want to say it out loud, but it's terrorism. The dock worker, the who's their leader over there, their Carol Daggett. Yeah, that guy's a freaking. That guy's awesome, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

He's taking some heat.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh yeah, good, let him take some heat. Dude, that guy is awesome.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know the good thing about what.

[Angie Hicks]

He play this video real quick. Sorry to interrupt you, Sean. I just want to hear the dagger. Welcome to Daggett stand. Dude, this guy's a gangster.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's changing into the future. They're not making millions no more, they're making billions. And they're spending it fast as they make it. I want a piece of that for my men. Because when they made their most money was during COVID Yeah. When my men had to go to work on those piers every single day. When everybody stayed home and went to to work. Not my men. They died out there with the virus. We all got sick with the virus. We kept them going from Canada to Main, Texas, Great Lakes, Puerto Rico, now the Bahamas. Everybody went to work during COVID Nobody stayed home. Well, I want to be compensated for that.

[Angie Hicks]

Amen.

[Sean O'Brien]

I'm not asking for the world. They know what I want. They know what they want. And if they don't? No. Then I have to go into the street and we have to fight for what we rightfully deserve.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

These people today don't know what a strike is.

[Angie Hicks]

Right.

[Sean O'Brien]

When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port a lockdown, you know what's going to happen.

[Angie Hicks]

That's good, I'll tell you. And what so yeah, when, when they say. And when he says a lockdown, what, what's that would affect everything, right?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. The ports are just shut down. There's nothing coming in or out. And you know, we represent a lot of members that, you know, we haul off the ports, the ports deliver to warehouses where it's separated load on trucks. We deliver it. So it's going to have an impact. But you know what, it's, you know, a little, it's a short term pain for long term game for these guys. And he's 100% accurate. I mean look, we get paid to fight. We get paid to fight for our members. And that's what he's doing. Look, he's a character.

[Angie Hicks]

Have you spoken to him?

[Sean O'Brien]

So I haven't, but I deal with the leadership around the country. That's the only general president I haven't met that we deal with. I know all the other general presidents around the country from all the other respective unions, and I haven't met him. I mean, the good news is he's so public right now, it's keeping the shit away from me, to be honest with you.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Huh.

[Sean O'Brien]

I've been taking a lot of it lately, but I'm good either way. I'm good. But no, he's. Look, he's. He's got a right. He's got the right fight.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah. It sounds like they got the right guy doing it, you know, cast the characters.

[Sean O'Brien]

He's, you know, straight out of the Sopranos, you know.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. I fucking hope they find some bodies in his yard.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, hopefully they don't.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, you're right. And I shouldn't say that. Sorry, Harold. I don't know. I don't know what he's into. You know what I'm saying? But yeah, yeah, that's what I'm saying is, dude, they got a. It's just. It's a. That's one of the things that starts to happen is it's like, if you don't think that automation, there's no. There's no effect to it, right? Then it's just. There's a human cost to that. There's a human cost to it.

[Sean O'Brien]

Look, when you go into a grocery store now, right, everybody's running to these self checkouts. I refuse to do it. I don't. And I was actually in a local grocery store probably about a year ago, and it was like late at night. And you know, my. I forget why I was going in there. Just got off a flight and I got something real quick and there was an older lady standing there at the register. And I go to go to her, she's like, go over there. Go to the automation. Go over that one self checkout.

[Angie Hicks]

And she was working.

[Sean O'Brien]

I go, listen, if I go on a self check, are you gonna lose your job? She's like, I don't give a shit. I don't like this fucking job anyway. So it was probably something she's doing. I'm like, listen, lady, I know you might not like it, but let's think about the fucking 30 other people that need a job that come. If I go there, then I'm putting you out of work. I don't give a. I'm like. The problem is, it's like some elderly version. What is it? The Golden Bachelorette?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. I haven't watched it.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I'll confess. I haven't either.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And I probably won't.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah, sure, yeah, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, but no, it's just people.

[Angie Hicks]

That's a good point. You don't think about it.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, you don't. And people, you know, disgruntled or that, like, that lady might have been having a bad night, you know, whatever it was, but.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, she might have been out of Zen's too, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, she might have been. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

If you're a. Yeah. If you're working at late shift, dude, I put. You gotta any put anything in your jaw to get you through there.

[Sean O'Brien]

But the problem is like, she was in her late 70s and it just goes to show you, like, hey, if you got in a union, you got a job, you got a pension, you wouldn't be working at 70 years old. And it's like. Yeah. And it's like, you know, you're pointing at. You're pointing for me to go to a self checkout and I'm like, you're putting people out of work. I don't give a. That. It's like, you know, she ran out of Paul Mulls, you know what I mean?

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, that. Go Raiders. She starts yelling. Yeah, yeah. She probably spends all her money on tattoos, you know.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. Like Marlboros and scratch tickets and, you know.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Remember they used to have those miles you would get with the Marlboros. Remember that?

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, yeah. You'd. You'd smoke 400,000 packs of cigarettes to get a Camel Joe jacket or something.

[Angie Hicks]

That you got to wear to your funeral.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

They put you in that thing.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

You get like a blender that said keep smoking on the side.

[Sean O'Brien]

It was like, I remember growing up my neighborhood, Pepsi did this thing and remember that story that was on Netflix? The kid won a space shuttle or something.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, the kid won, right?

[Sean O'Brien]

So I remember there was a kid in my neighborhood that, you know, he was. So his kid's kid's name was Mike Lazaro and he was like, like crazy. Like, you know, you. You peel the cap off and you'd be a prize. I swear the kid had dentures by the time he was 15. He was drinking so much Pepsi slurping him, huh? Yeah. Oh, it was crazy.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, dude, this. Oh, yeah. What?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

What prizes could you get with the Marlboro Miles? Bring up the prizes. Dude, we never look at this kind of stuff. And I think this is important just to know back in the Day you had to smoke your way.

[Sean O'Brien]

Did they have like Marlboro running sneakers that.

[Angie Hicks]

Unbelievable. There's no way they had that.

[Sean O'Brien]

Like a gift certificate to like a lung transplant.

[Angie Hicks]

Swiss army knife, a neck brace. Who the wants a Marlboro neck bra? Like at that like, unbelievable. Hat, shirt, Marlboro ventilator. Yeah, yeah, that Marlboro thing. Like this. We're doing good.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, Spock, those commercials are awful.

[Angie Hicks]

Bring up the guy smoking through the hole in his throat, huh? And this guy's obviously from. Yeah, this guy's obviously from Medford. Bring him up. And there he is. And that used to be a man. That's how bad smoking can get. Guys.

[Sean O'Brien]

I think that was my English teacher in high school. Hey, I owe you sometimes.

[Angie Hicks]

Why, dude? I didn't have a. I remember there's this kid. I used to tell this story, but there's this kid lived down the street from us, this fella. Mario was his name. And he was. He was Italian, I think, or semi Italian, you know. And he used to. My brother. Something happened. My brother had to go away for the summer. So suddenly I was his friend. Like I was. But I was younger than my brother.

[Sean O'Brien]

Go to jail.

[Angie Hicks]

I don't know if he went to jail, but he went to a place where he couldn't come back for about four months. Months. And so I got. So suddenly I'm friends with Mary. Like the. I would tag around with them, but I wasn't right there. So now I'm friends with this dude and he. I don't know if this is like a union thing or not, but he would like, he used to defecate in his yard and make me bury it right. Make me put it in the ground for him.

[Sean O'Brien]

Subcontracted the workout.

[Angie Hicks]

That's why I wish I'd have known at the time because, yeah, I did over. Probably I did at least 112 burials for this dude, right? Over about. Over that stint, over that third of the year and. And then actually years later he died. He drove a boat into an embankment. And I wanted to be a pallbearer at his funeral. And I even wrote a letter to his mom. And I was like, I'd love to put him in the ground one more time, you know?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. And they wouldn't let me do. But if I was in a union.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I mean, they probably. You could probably go after him for retro pay and. Yeah, you know.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, dude, definitely. And the rose bushes in his yard.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

What are we even talking about? Prize winning brother oh, Jesus. They won yard of the month.

[Sean O'Brien]

You definitely needed a union back then, bro.

[Angie Hicks]

They won yard of the month in a leap year, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

Jesus Christ.

[Angie Hicks]

And that's big work. And that was me doing that.

[Sean O'Brien]

And that was. Listen, you contributed to that. You should be proud.

[Angie Hicks]

But it is true. It's gotten to the point where people don't even think about the people that are doing the jobs behind the scenes, you know, and people that are going in and clocking in day to day. You know, you look at like.

[Sean O'Brien]

So we represent UPS, which is, you know, Fortune 500 company, 340,000 employees, very successful company, difficult company to deal with. And, you know, 53 or 54% of those work as a part timers. You know, they work four in the morning till eight or noon till four or whatever the case may be, and they load and unload these trucks. And prior to us, you know, completing a successful negotiation, they were making $15 per hour nationwide.

[Angie Hicks]

Come on.

[Sean O'Brien]

You had single mothers, you know, going to work there, you know, risking their lives during COVID They were the unsung heroes of keeping supply chain moving. And, you know, it was a very, very credible argument that we had publicly, but the company recognized it. And during negotiations, I'm going to say, how embarrassing is it that you're making $100 billion with a B and you have people that are on subsidized housing, you have people that are on welfare that work for you? And I'll be honest with you, we push real hard. And part timers start out at $21 an hour. The long term part timers are being rewarded. They get full medical, full pensions. You know, they recognized, you know, that they needed to take care of these folks and a lot of pushing and prodding from us. But at the end of the day, they did the right thing by these part timers.

[Angie Hicks]

And who are the major groups that are pushing back against you guys? Is it lobbies? Is it politicians? Is it just big business? Like, it's.

[Sean O'Brien]

So I'll tell you, it's a combination of corporate America and I refer to them all the time as fucking white collar criminals.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, right.

[Sean O'Brien]

That all they do is care about the bottom line, the balance sheet money.

[Angie Hicks]

I say, dude, Right, right, right.

[Sean O'Brien]

And so, you know, leap out. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

And then just so you know that nobody.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, so then fucking prostitutes.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And then you have, you know, these politicians, both sides, Democrats and Republicans. I'll be honest with you, I'm a Democrat. But they have fucked us over for the last 40 years. And for once and not all of them, but for once, we're standing up as a union. Probably the only one right now saying, what the fuck have you done for us? And I'm getting attacked from the left. Since I've been in office two and a half years, we've given the Democratic machine $15.7 million. We've given Republicans about 340,000, truth be told. So it's like people say, the Democratic Party is the party of the working people. They're bought and paid for by big tech. Those big tech companies.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, tech is the new fossil fuel, man. That's what I said.

[Sean O'Brien]

Right. And you've got the Republicans who are now saying, hey, we want to be the working class party. Right? And okay, you've got a great opportunity right now to do that. And The Democrats, if 60% of our members aren't supporting you, the fucking system's broken and you need to fix it. Stop pointing fingers at Sean O'Brien. Stop pointing fingers at the Teamsters junior. Look in the mirror. I mean, I had a heated debate with. Heated discussion two weeks ago with Chuck Schumer, and it got fucking ugly.

[Angie Hicks]

Chuck Schumer is a piece of shit.

[Sean O'Brien]

And it got ugly because, you know these politicians. You know the one thing I've learned, they fucking walk in and they tell you, I did this for you. Okay, great. Let me tell you what you haven't fucking done for us or our members. And we got into it pretty heavy. And I'm like, you had no problem taking $550,000 from me three weeks prior to me going on the Republican National Convention. And then you want to be a fucking tough guy on Twitter or X or whatever it is and throw shit out there about me, like whatever.

[Angie Hicks]

To support their can't. To support the party, Support the campaign, the team. The Teamsters Union has historically endorsed a candidate. Right?

[Sean O'Brien]

Right.

[Angie Hicks]

A presidential candidate. And this is one of the first.

[Sean O'Brien]

Times, two times we haven't. 1976. We didn't endorse. In 1996. We didn't endorse.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay? So for the first time in 30 years now that you guys haven't done it.

[Sean O'Brien]

And again, the reason why we didn't endorse in 1996. Clinton. Because we endorsed him in 92. And look, he created NAFTA, and it fucked a lot of our members over, and we lost jobs as a result of it. So we couldn't. We couldn't endorse.

[Angie Hicks]

Why would he do it, though?

[Sean O'Brien]

Why? Because who are they beholden to? Even though they say we're Beholden to working people. We're beholden to middle class. We're beholden to American worker. They're beholden to look, money, the money and the next opportunity, right? Because you're not there a long time, right? And you know, the next opportunity, it's like, what's his name? The guy that looks like fucking Bradley Cooper. The governor of California Newsom. That guy is bought and paid for by Big Tech. You know, he's had the opportunity to protect the general public and his constituents from AI, from autonomous vehicles, from all this bullshit that we talked about earlier. And we, the union, union men and women, actually got him to stay in office as a result of that recall. We went out and worked hard for him, and what's he do? He fucking vetoes all these protections against artificial intelligence, against Uber, against Lyft, all these. All this bullshit. And these are the people that we were supporting. Like, are you shitting me? Seriously?

[Angie Hicks]

So they're turning their back on you guys aren't supporting?

[Sean O'Brien]

Listen, I can't speak for any other unions, but I'm gonna speak for the Teamsters union. I represent 1.3 million members. And we've said all along we took over. We want a return on our investment. We want to be like big business. We make an investment. We want a return. And that return with these politicians are supporting our issues. That's going to protect jobs and promote unionization throughout the whole country. And they've let us down. They've let us down. And you know what? I'm a person. I think, probably to my own fault, my mother keeps saying, you keep fighting with all these fucking politicians, you're going to get us all audited. Well, that's okay, right?

[Angie Hicks]

Audit? I thought kill, but that's how they do it.

[Sean O'Brien]

First, they better get up early, you know. Can't kill the willing. You know what I mean?

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, dude, you know, I'll take my own life now. What? You know what I'm saying?

[Sean O'Brien]

I showed you.

[Angie Hicks]

And I'll do it on the clock.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I'll still be on the clock.

[Angie Hicks]

You bet. Dude, you don't think I'm clocking out for you?

[Sean O'Brien]

Dude, I'll be on double time.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, we'll let nothing run.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely. Yeah. But I mean, it's just people got to step up.

[Angie Hicks]

California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a Teamsters back bill that would have effectively banned autonomous trust trucks in the state. Wow.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

And you know how many people there are in California? But what does it say? Assembly Bill 282-22-86 would have prohibited the operation of autonomous vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or more on public roads for testing, transporting goods or carrying passengers without a human safety operator physically present in the vehicle. There should be somebody in the vehicle anyway, it's like. Because that thing's also going to get hijacked. Dude, you think Ms. 13 is going to want a bunch of carrots or whatever's passing through? They're gonna. They're gonna shoot, dude, they sent one of those little gypsy cruises with the. It had a.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's like a Datsun B210 loaded up.

[Angie Hicks]

Dude, this thing, it was a little R2 D2, but it was like a. I was. It was kind of aftermarket slightly, you know, and they. They had one of those rolling through the hood one time with some ice creams in it or something you could buy out of it. And 11 brothers beat the. Out of that thing. So there's no. What are they even talking about, Dude? This shit'll get hijacked so quick. Quick, but then you're going to have to put a gunner on the top of the V. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's just getting weird. Bring that back up, please, Trevin. Thank you, bud. It's important to note that 35 jurisdictions, including Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Washington and the District of Columbia, have already authorized the testing of heavy duty autonomous vehicles. Wow. That's what he. That's what Newsom said. California remains the only state to actively prohibit these vehicles, but it's also a huge state where there's so much agriculture and stuff, and. And there's a huge port over there as well, right?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. Oh, yeah. Louisiana port, Long Beach. You've got some big ports over there. So they're not on strike. They're under a different union. They're the ilwu. But, you know, same. Same issues. I'm sure they'll be fighting the same battle down the road, but, yeah, this is the stuff that, you know, we're fighting against. And look, these politicians, you know, they gotta realize that the constituents don't work for them. They work for the constituents.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, well, that's.

[Sean O'Brien]

That's what they have to be reminded of. Of. And there's a lot of good ones that do a lot of great work. Like, you know, we've got a great relationship, and our goal is to try and work bipartisan because that's the only way we're going to get shit done. Right. And, you know, there's been a line drawn in the sand, and our focus has been as a union and mine as a leader is like, look, we can fucking agree to disagree on a lot of shit, and we're going to, but let's agree on the stuff that we can and get some stuff done in this country. You know, get some real, real progressive, you know, legislation that we can work together on. But, you know, the focus has been lost and the whole system's a fucking disgrace, to be honest with you.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, and it's time to shake these pedophiles down, dude. That's how I feel. What else does it say on here? The Teamsters union issued a statement criticizing Newsom's veto. The vast majority of California's oppose unregulated, unaccountable, driverless cars and trucks on the road. Do. Yes. There's already so many. Yeah. It's like. Because then if somebody hits you, what do you just. You can't even sue anybody. You're just. What? You're like, that guy hit me. And the cops. Like, who? And you're like, ah, fucking no.

[Sean O'Brien]

Why do they need cops? What do you need cops for? Yeah, you can't write anybody up. I mean. I mean, that's another thing. Public safety, it's crazy. And it's like, it's gonna get bad.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's gonna get ugly. And we're gonna be a world of robots if people like us don't step up and hold politicians accountable.

[Angie Hicks]

Look, I'll eat beans, man. I'll do what I got to do for as long as it takes. It takes, brother. If there's no. Yeah, as long as I got, I guess, candles, I guess. What else do I. Yeah, we'd have to have candles, water.

[Sean O'Brien]

Dude, wipes.

[Angie Hicks]

Dude. Wipes for sure. You know, unless you're not eating. You know, unless it gets that bad, you're not wiping. You know what I'm saying? Save money on both ends. But, yeah. Yeah, I'm gonna have. We have to get some stuff. Oh, God.

[Sean O'Brien]

That's why we get these shirts made up, you know?

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, I'd love to get one of those.

[Sean O'Brien]

You're gonna have one by the time I leave here today.

[Angie Hicks]

Dude, you see that?

[Sean O'Brien]

See, we deliver. Deliver results, not excuses.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, they deliver results, not excuses. Take me through some of the decision and what it was like behind the scenes to make the choice not to endorse a candidate.

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, look, the one thing that we pride ourselves on when we took over as leaders was transparency and inclusiveness, right? So when you have 1.3 million members, it's important to make certain you understand their perspective, because that's who our employer is. That's who we work for. That's who gives me the opportunity and privilege to represent. And we went through, for the first time ever, we brought every single candidate in from the beginning. And you know, we invited every one of them from Dr. Cornel west all the way. Former President Donald Trump, former President Biden, and then VP Harris and everybody in between. Rfk, who? I love that guy.

[Angie Hicks]

I love that guy too.

[Sean O'Brien]

That guy's awesome, man. He is. He's the best. And we brought them all in in a round table, first time ever with rank and file members, you know, eight or 10 of them from various parts of the country, various political affiliations and we asked them specific questions that were important to us. And you know, at the end of the day we did, we did, we did the meetings there. Then we did polling, straw polling, you know, in the union halls. And then we did electronic polling, 1.3 million of our members, QR code where we had over 40,000 members participate, which is huge. And then we did scientific based polling using the Democratic pollster that the Biden Harris campaign used. And the only poll that was favorable was the poll. We did the straw poll in the union halls which was polling 44% Biden and 38% Trump. So the other polls were 60, 62% Republican.

[Angie Hicks]

In favor of Trump.

[Sean O'Brien]

In favor of Trump, Yes. Even we sent the electronic polling after President Biden dropped out of the race. Look, Biden's been great for unions, working people, but the reality of it is he's gone. He's gone, he's gone. And again, it's like we've got to take into consideration our members opinions. And I don't have the beauty of leaning one way or the other. I have to represent both Democratic members and also Republican members. And quite frankly, when I spoke at the rnc, that's when the attack started happening from the Democratic left and the Republican right.

[Angie Hicks]

Wait, so just to back up, just so I'm clear, and so a straw poll means.

[Sean O'Brien]

It means you go to the union halls. We have 319 union halls nationwide. Okay, so you actually have an in person meeting town hall where you get to, where you get to actually, you know, control the meeting. Right. You control the narrative. But our members get to vote in a secret ballot. And you know, when you have meetings like that straw poll, usually you can put your thumb on the scale and flip it either way. We thought we were going to come out of there with, you know, Joe Biden at 80% and the rest because, you know, There are people coming in there, for the most part, that show up. There are people that work on your staff, and when it only pulls 44%, you know, something's wrong, something's broken. So. So that's why we started doing extensive.

[Angie Hicks]

Polling, because usually the unions are extremely democratic.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

You're saying. Okay, I see what you're saying now.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

The Teamsters polling data shows members backed Biden 44% to Trump's 36.3%. So that's more lopsided than usual.

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, we would. We would hope. We were thinking that it was going to be 80% Biden because, you know, the people. People that show up at union halls for union meetings and. And any type of meetings are usually your supporters are usually the people that are going to vote or follow your recommendations or whatever.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. Their children dress up like. Yeah. Like plumbers and stuff for Halloween and everything.

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, we do check their membership card, you know.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, some of them get in when they're 11. I'm only kidding.

[Angie Hicks]

Okay. So at that point, you realize. Okay, so things are a little bit more. There's. People have different opinions.

[Sean O'Brien]

There's a divide.

[Angie Hicks]

There's a divide.

[Sean O'Brien]

There's a huge divide.

[Angie Hicks]

So then, at that point, did you make the decision to not support a candidate or.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, we took all the data, and historically, the Teamsters Union has never, ever endorsed a presidential candidate till after both respective conventions are concluded. So we asked to speak at the Republican and Democratic. Obviously, we spoke at the Republican, and then we didn't get invited to the Democratic National Convention.

[Angie Hicks]

Did they get back to you? So you asked? Speaking.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, they never got back to us. They never got back to us.

[Angie Hicks]

And you email them or text them.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, we called them. We sent the invitation. We sent the request to speak at both conventions at the same time, and we heard from the Republican National Convention right away. Now, look, going in there was like. It wasn't easy. It was like, you know, going into an ex girlfriend's house whose family hates you because of a bad breakup on Thanksgiving and saying, how y'all doing?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, wow, right?

[Sean O'Brien]

It was. It wasn't. It wasn't a comfortable feeling. And, you know, but like I say to everybody else, when we get the opportunity to highlight American workers and. Or Teamsters, you have to do it. We're gonna do what any and all platforms there are, whether we're welcome or we're not. And we wanted to do the same at the Democratic National Convention. We didn't get that opportunity, but, you know, so to get back to your point was after we did all the scientific polling, after we. After the conventions, you know, we have a general executive board, which are 24 leaders from all around the country. Vice presidents and presidents teams are leaders. Yes, they make up the general executive board. So we presented all the polling data. We had, you know, spirited debate and dialogue, very respectful. And at the end of the day, there were three people that voted to endorse the Harris Waltz campaign. And the majority of the rest of the executive board voted to not endorse and allow local unions and area joint councils to go out and endorse whoever they wanted. Again, you get criticized no matter what you do. But it was the right decision because. Because both candidates, Harris and former President Trump, didn't answer specific questions of what was important to us.

[Angie Hicks]

Like, for example, so which ones?

[Sean O'Brien]

So it's like our right to strike. Like, right now, you see the ILA on strike. We had the railroad workers when we first took over two years ago. They're under what they call a Railway labor act, where Congress can make a recommendation to implement the contract under the process. And they did it, and our members weren't happy. They did it under the Biden administration. And one of our biggest goals moving forward, because we've got this campaign with United Airlines where they're under the same process, we want the right to strike, and we can get the right to strike once we conclude the process. But a lot of times the government will intervene and they'll obviously implement a contract. So. So that was very important to us. Look, if we're in the middle of an RLA negotiation and we want the right to strike, are you gonna support us? Are you gonna stop us? Wasn't a commitment from both sides on that.

[Angie Hicks]

On either side, Republican or Democrat on.

[Sean O'Brien]

Either side on that.

[Angie Hicks]

Not even supporting your right to strike. That's crazy.

[Sean O'Brien]

That's in certain arenas under the Railway labor act, like airlines are under the Railway Labor Act. Railroads are under Railway Labor Act. Trucking industry isn't. Most private sector that we represent isn't. So, you know, we still have the right to strike in other arenas, but these are important industries for us, so we didn't get commitments on that. You know, one candidate may have been stronger on the pro act, you know, you know, obviously supporting the right to organize, supporting collective bargaining agreements. We didn't get a strong commitment from the Republican side on, you know, vetoing national right to work. So. And again, when you're face to face with people and you're asking questions and look, look, we give the questions to all the candidates prior.

[Angie Hicks]

Right.

[Sean O'Brien]

So it's like fucking prepare, lie to us, tell us what we want to hear. Right. And when they can't answer the question or they try and go around you look, we're pretty sophisticated now. We're not as dumb as we look. And our members are certainly not dumb.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, some of them are on break.

[Sean O'Brien]

Or whatever, but still some might be on break.

[Angie Hicks]

That's fine, brother.

[Sean O'Brien]

Third coffee break of the day.

[Angie Hicks]

But they earned it.

[Sean O'Brien]

Thank God for the unions. Yeah. You know, but you know, they didn't answer the questions. So it's like put the polling numbers together, put the in person interviews, you know, we did the right thing, right? We did the right thing by our members, no matter what. And I'll defend that all day long. But you know, the problem is it's like the good news about this whole situation is you see how treacherous the far left can be and the far right. And I think it's fucking hilarious because, you know, don't threaten us with a good time. You want to fight, let's do it. Yeah, you know, and you know, we'll cut their money off. We'll do whatever, whatever it takes. They're gonna have to earn it moving forward. They've done a lot of personal attacks, they've done a lot of attacks on our members. And you know, we're ready to go. Whoever wins either way, you know, they're.

[Angie Hicks]

Gonna have to deal with you.

[Sean O'Brien]

They're gonna have to deal with us. We control commerce in this country.

[Angie Hicks]

Fuck yeah, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

And we're powerful and we're not afraid to fight. We'd rather just fight corporate America instead of dealing with this other bullshit, which is a distraction. We've had politicians, right, that, oh, we support you. We support you. When we're doing the UPS negotiations, there were some high profile people that and senators that claim to be the working people. The Schumers of the world and some others. We're pro union, we want to support unions. They wouldn't sign off on a support letter for UPS workers prior to going in these negotiations. They wouldn't sign off of support letters while we're striking these DSPs where your mom works at Amazon. So it's like, what does that tell you? It means they're afraid they're gonna get their campaign contribution taken away from Amazon and Big Tech. Well, don't say one thing and do another. Be consistent. If you wanna be in bed with Big Tech, just tell us. Be transparent. You'll always hear me say the one Thing I do, and this is me, probably to a fault. I always state my fucking intentions clearly. I'm gonna come after you. We're gonna get X, Y and Z for our members. And if you don't, you're choosing to strike yourself. So accept the consequences. If you're gonna screw us over, don't fucking hide behind false promises. Screw us over. Yeah, you know, tell us you're gonna screw us. I'm happy. We'll figure out how we deal with it moving forward.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, fuck me in the face. Don't fuck me in the rear or whatever. How some people do it. I don't do it like that.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, no, no baby oil here.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Yeah, dude. Yeah. If only did he would have unionized, man.

[Sean O'Brien]

He would have definitely violated every human resource policy and procedure. He probably wouldn't lasted too long.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. And one of. Yeah, the first one. Wash your hands. That's the number one. I mean that's above every sink, you.

[Sean O'Brien]

Know, or age appropriate it.

[Angie Hicks]

Amen, dude. You know, I got my producers some tickets to the Tennessee Titans vers Green Bay packers game a few weeks ago and I did it on game time. Game Time has a new feature called Game Time picks that makes getting tickets for concerts and events easier. Game Time picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats so you don't have to waste time searching through thousands of tickets. Additionally, Game Time has the lowest price guarantee or Game Time will credit you 110% of the difference. Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets and any tickets with Game Time. Download the Game Time app, create an account and use code weekend for $20 off your first purchase. Correct baby terms apply again. Create an account and redeem code W E E K E N D for $20 off. Download game Time today. What time is it? Game Time. This episode is brought to you by Better Help. You know, we all wear masks sometimes. Ways that we present ourselves to the world and. And just things that we allow people to see. But behind that sometimes there's a whole orchestra of stuff going on. Thoughts and feelings and uncertainties. And a lot of times that can get overwhelming. When I get in those instances, I reach out for help. Therapy I'm talking about better help is exactly who I'm speaking of. If you're thinking of starting therapy, give BetterHelp a try. It's entirely online. It's designed to be convenient, flexible and suited to your schedule. Just fill out a brief questionnaire to get matched with a licensed therapist and you can switch therapists. At any time for no additional charge. October is the season for wearing masks, but some of us feel like we wear them all year long. Now you can change that. Take off the mask with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com the O today to get 10% off your first month. That's better. H E L P better help.com Theo yeah, that whole thing's crazy. I think that they. I think the government or somebody, the CIA, whoever's busting him, they're going to use that as leverage to get people to speak out for political lever or for speak out in favor of politicians in lieu of getting exposed. I don't know if that's true or not, but I just wouldn't put anything past any of these organizations now. So that was why you guys didn't endorse a candidate. Is there still the possibility for you guys to endorse a candidate?

[Sean O'Brien]

No, we're not going to endorse it. We've made decision that we're going to stay out of it and, you know, see what happens.

[Angie Hicks]

Nothing would change that.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, nothing at all. Nothing at all. Look, if we change our position either way, you know, we look weak. We're strong, right? And I'm strong. We're strong in our position, you know, and there's people that. People that don't agree with it. And that's fine. That's great. And the problem is, like, remember one thing, Everybody's opinion matters, right? Especially our membership. And I'll tell you, I'm so disgusted on, you know, with the behavior of people, like attacking each other personally. It's like we're in the best country in the world, which we're provided the greatest freedoms in the world where we can say and do whatever we want within reason, not breaking the law and not be retaliated or retributed or any retribution against us in this whole process. That's complete opposite of what we stand for. And it's a fucking disgrace. People are laughing at us around the world.

[Angie Hicks]

They're laughing at us because we're not taking care of our workers.

[Sean O'Brien]

Right? No workers or the communities. I mean, we're getting involved in stupid shit, attacking people personally.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, you mean union members are.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, it's just the whole political bullshit.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. It's unbelievable. It's disgraceful that they would then want to make you guys look bad. It's. It's crazy. Yeah. For workers not to get paid. But then you do have people that say, well, these guys make so much money and this and that. But a lot of that you're saying is just bullshit. That's not the starting out salary.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, it's not the starting out salary. And you know, majority of our members are working 50 to 60 hours per week.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, life, family, balance doesn't exist in certain industries. And we've been fighting hard to make sure that we negotiate contracts that, you know, limit over time or limit people being forced to work. And, you know, people might think, you know, everything is great in this country. There's still a lot of workers out there that are hurting. There's still a lot of people that are hurting that are living week to week, paycheck to paycheck.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, indeed.

[Sean O'Brien]

And, and it's a disgrace. And we're giving money out left and right that, you know, let's take care of our workers. Let's take care of.

[Angie Hicks]

If your workers last name was Israel, you'd have all the cash you needed, you know, that's for damn sure. But it is unfortunate. Yeah, my mom's out there, she's driving a catalytic converter 30 miles out into the desert to drop it off, you know, deliver an auto part sometimes. And you know, and it's like. And she's not even getting paid by the mile or whatever. Just, just, you got to think about all those things, you know, and, and.

[Sean O'Brien]

Who'S making the money, who's doing all the work and who's making the money. It's easy.

[Angie Hicks]

Be a big muffler or whoever. Yeah, whoever it is, dude. New New York Amazon delivery drivers join the Teamsters in surge of momentum that's exciting. Hundreds of Amazon drivers at a delivery station in Queens, New York marched on their bosses today to an out there joining the Teamsters. I think striking's fun if you have somebody out there with a drum or something.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, we got an. I mean, we've got. Strikes are awesome. I mean, the one thing about strikes are two things. When you strike for recognition, it sends a strong message to the employer that, you know, our members are united, our members are strong and they want to fight for a contract. And if you don't, we're going to withhold our labor. I mean, there's a lot to be said about disruption. Yeah. And the positive effect on it. And look, it is what it is. And you know, it's not easy at times, but, but you gotta fight, you gotta stand up. And it's a great litmus test for us because we know how strong the group is or isn't. And these Amazon workers, I gotta tell you they have courage and conviction like I've never seen. And, you know, two. Two and a half years ago, we put this as a priority. We've gotta organize Amazon workers, and we have been working tirelessly around the country. And this is gonna be a reality. This is definitely gonna be a rally. You know why? Because once you shut. Shut, you know, companies like Amazon down, or you shut a DHL down or any company, you shut the ports down, it sends a strong message on. Look, this is. This is important. And these corporations need to realize who's actually in charge, and it's not them.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, Yeah, I agree, man. I long for the day that we. That, like, everybody. Just, like all of these, like, Facebook headquarters in different Verizon. Whatever. I don't care if my cell phone doesn't work, dude, you know, I don't.

[Sean O'Brien]

Want a cell phone anymore.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, I know. It ruins everything.

[Sean O'Brien]

That's awful. It's awful.

[Angie Hicks]

It's like we've ruined kind of. It's like we've let technology take away so many things that were valuable to us, and then you see the effects of it on. On children, and they don't know the difference. Right. But then you see some. Some countries, like Poland, who are standing up for, like, whatever their beliefs are as a country and, like, their moral fortitude and. And it's interesting. It's interesting. Sometimes I wish that we did more stuff like that. You know, we started to realize, like, hey, just because this is a technological advancement or because it makes things easier, is it good for us?

[Sean O'Brien]

No.

[Angie Hicks]

Humans.

[Sean O'Brien]

We've dummied down society.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, I mean, look, think about this. You know, we talk about phones. I used to be able to memorize 10 or 15 phone numbers, right? Because I'd go to a pay phone and I'd call someone and I didn't have the number written down, I'd have to memorize it.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Right now I can't even tell you. I'm lucky I know my own phone number because all you do is just speak into a. Speak into a microphone in your phone and call Theo.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Bang. Call you. I don't even have to know your number.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, call my bookie or whoever you.

[Sean O'Brien]

I want a beeper. Let's get a beeper back. Beeper. Let's put payphones back in the corner.

[Angie Hicks]

Payphones.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. Home run.

[Angie Hicks]

The best part about payphones was when you were on one and some guy, like a homeless guy or whatever ever, like.

[Sean O'Brien]

Or trying to. Someone trying to rob you can just hit him with a Receiver.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah, that's true, dude. But it was never long enough. You. It would get.

[Sean O'Brien]

So.

[Angie Hicks]

It would get an inch from their skull.

[Sean O'Brien]

It'd be like, oh, now he's gonna hit me.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, you have, like, put in 40 more cents, and you'll get, like, three extra inches of cord, you know, and you could beat the guy. You know, crank calls were the best from.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, pay phones, huh?

[Angie Hicks]

Pay phones were the best also because. Well, first of all, you used to be able to hide from people. You could be like, I can't be that. Nobody could know where you were. They couldn't get in touch with you at all times.

[Sean O'Brien]

Did you share your location?

[Angie Hicks]

You'd have to. Oh, no, I don't share my location, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

I don't either.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, I'm not sharing my location, dude. I would. That's crazy. With who? I don't even know who would. Yeah, but I. Yeah, that's crazy. You're gonna. You're not gonna see me coming.

[Sean O'Brien]

Imagine your parents tracking you like, 25 years ago on social media.

[Angie Hicks]

No, I would have tied my phone to a cat's back or whatever.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Let that hit the streets.

[Sean O'Brien]

Duct tape it to, like, the German shepherds. Call her. Run around. Oh, it'd be awful. Attract. I'm 53 years old, and we ran wild, like, back in the day.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And I couldn't imagine my poor. My mother. We ran her hard, you know, we ran her hard. But I can't imagine, like, these idiots put everything on social media now, and it's like, really, like, we used to be able to. They rat themselves out.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, people rat that. They tell their boss they can't come and work, and then they're partying or something. Buffalo wow wings or whatever, dude. Yeah, we used to. Used to be able to lie to somebody and they didn't know you were lying. What about that beautiful piece of America that we lost the ability to lie.

[Sean O'Brien]

And not get caught?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, dude. You could tell a woman you were a lawyer or whatever, and she's like, you're 11. And I'm like, who cares? The defense rests. You know, but those were the days, man. You could go into another city and, yeah, you could just make up stuff. You didn't have to be a criminal forever if you were online or something. So much of the fun is gone because a lot of the mystery is gone. But the last thing we. If we lose the, like. Man, it's just so crazy because so much of the fabric of our society has started to dissolve. It's like, you know, it's not as much of a Christian nation anymore. It's not. We haven't stood up for even. And even if it's. If it doesn't have to be a religious nation, it should be a moral nation, right? And we don't protect, like. We don't stand for things morally. Like. Like business has just taken over. It's. Yeah, like greed. It's just. It's gotten crazy.

[Sean O'Brien]

How about people? How about people. You know, everybody talks about, you know, all this righteous bullshit, right? And. And a lot of it's. Some of it's good, some is bad. But, you know, recently I work in Washington, D.C. and there were people actively desecrating monuments and lighting the American flag on fire. Now, regardless of what your position is on anything going on in the world, like, growing up, one value that we add is you respect that flag and you defend it with everything you got. And I kind of. I posted a picture of an American flag on social media. And I'm not really allowed to touch my social media because, like, guys like Will and Brian, my good people that are around me, chief of staff, they protect me from myself because there's certain things I. It just drives me nuts. But I post the American flag and I wrote, I will defend and honor this till the day I die. And everybody else should. We're in the greatest country in the world. I got attack, like, on these private DMs, saying, well, supreme Court said it's legal to burn a flag. Okay? So it's legal to burn a flag because the Supreme Court says, is it morally right to desecrate something so sacred? So that's where, like, I think we gotta get back to basics and say, look, I agree. Let's fucking cut this bullshit out. We're in the greatest place in the.

[Angie Hicks]

World, but we don't even. But now it's almost. If you say America, you say usa, you're suddenly a right. You're far right. You know, it's like if you put an American. Like some people think the American flag, it's like it's been positioned by the media that it's not even that. It's not our unifying flag anymore. You know, that it's for one party. And they did that on purpose. And it's. It's unbelievable. It's sick. And we took the Pledge of Allegiance out of school. Little things that I think have an effect on. On yourself and your psyche in a positive way to make you feel like you're part of a group and when you don't feel like you're part of a group anymore, you don't feel like you're part of the fabric of America, that it's not a real thing, then you start to only look out for yourself. And that's when I think things get really well.

[Sean O'Brien]

If we're so bad, wouldn't people be leaving here left and right?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. All those people that said they were going to leave or whatever, and they're leaving, dude, I wish they would leave.

[Sean O'Brien]

I love this country. And I. It's. It's. Look, do we. Do we have our flaws as a nation? We all. Yeah, we have our flaws as human beings, Every one.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, look at the jets, right?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I know. I know. Jesus. And. But, you know, it's a great country. It's. It's something that people should be proud to live here. They should respect it. And the fight isn't amongst ourselves, you know, for us guys like me in our union members. It's like we were afforded freedoms because of that flag, because of the country we live in, where the enemy is not ourselves. The enemy is corporate American, crooked politicians. That's fucking easy.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. It's weird when the enemy now is in your country, though. That's the. That's the thing that's gotten different, you know, we used to. It used to be that you would, you know, your enemy was other countries or the countries you had conflict with. And now it's gotten to be that the enemies are running our country or they are in debt to people who are running our country, you know, or our leaders are in debt to. To our enemies. That's what's gotten weird. Our leaders are in debt to people who don't care about the morals of this country, you know, and who don't have any.

[Sean O'Brien]

No. And it's. It's. There's got to be a solution to the problem. Problem, though.

[Angie Hicks]

That's what I hope, brother. I hope. Dude, I will chew the tires off somebody's brother. I get. I hope that we can change things, dude, you know, And I think there's a lot of guys out there who can, you know.

[Sean O'Brien]

So that phrase you just said, chew the ties off someone's. So if I had to interpret that in a Boston interpretation, what do you think that would be?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, man.

[Sean O'Brien]

Might just give him a swift kick in the nuts.

[Angie Hicks]

No, I think it would be happy. Yeah. No, I'd put a cannoli in there somewhere.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. North end.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Italian section.

[Angie Hicks]

What's that one place? It's so good. Awning. It's open all night.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, the Bova's.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, you go in there and they got Mike back in the back and he doesn't have. He has. He may still have a couple teeth, I don't know. There's an update you can get online. I haven't checked it with nice tooth. Yeah, yeah. And they're like, tell him Mike.

[Sean O'Brien]

And he'll be like, man, I think that's Bova's Baker.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, that's it. Bro, that place is good. Dude, I'm not gay, but I'll suck off one of those canolas, brother, I'll tell you that. You know what I'm saying, dude, blm, dude, those things are good. And bro, you go in there, you can meet a lady. They got some people in there, dude, and the guy that works in there, works with his ex wife in there. They're in there running it all night.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yep.

[Angie Hicks]

But yeah, they got the guy in the back who's still got. He's got, you know, he's got a couple of horsemen left in a stable back there and every now and then.

[Sean O'Brien]

There'S some thoroughbreds back there.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, every now and then he'll sound off, you know, Every now and then.

[Sean O'Brien]

Somebody will, you know what's good about that place?

[Angie Hicks]

Every now and then. Yeah, they put him in a Vince Wilford jersey back there and he'll start rattling around.

[Sean O'Brien]

Back in the day, that place used to be great because you come out of the bars in Faneuil hall or North Station and that was the only place open. And you know, you, you after drinking 35 beers, it's a good idea to fucking eat a couple cannolis in a little tiramisu. But then you'd. Then you'd end up in the corner and you end up fucking getting in a fight argument. It was like. It was like WWE after eating cannolis and Italian pastry.

[Angie Hicks]

It was WWE players, dude. Two guys beating the out of each other with frost cheeks.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, it's crazy.

[Angie Hicks]

One guy's got a fucking apple cruller just slammed doing his throat.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's funny. I live. I live right now there and it's still. It's still open. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, last time I was there, we went in there and. Yeah, it's so good, dude. Oh, that place is good.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's Sol Battery with a canoli.

[Angie Hicks]

Yes. Oh, bro, they got the best stuff in there. Bring it up. Bring up their website, what's it called? Yeah, see what they got on there. See, Let me see some of the items over there.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, you got to go with the whoopie pie.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, they got him.

[Sean O'Brien]

They got him right there.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, yeah, some of those things. Oh, they got those little. I mean, that's creme brulees, brother.

[Sean O'Brien]

Now, my son that you met today, He's a type 1 diabetic.

[Angie Hicks]

Is he?

[Sean O'Brien]

It's. And he always tells this joke, right? But, like, see that stuff right there on the website? It's pretty sad when that can save his life. Forget cpr. That'll save his life.

[Angie Hicks]

Put a little cruller in him, huh? Put a little bit of Boston cream in his snout.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

Bring him back to life, brother. That sugar knocking, homie.

[Sean O'Brien]

That poor kid has diabetes.

[Angie Hicks]

He's.

[Sean O'Brien]

Politicians have liabetes.

[Angie Hicks]

That's a good point, dude. Oh, I hope you almost. It's almost weird because you're almost like, will some country come and rescue us? But it's our own country. You know, it's like, that's the part that's.

[Sean O'Brien]

We gotta rescue ourselves from ourselves.

[Angie Hicks]

We do, we do. But it's definitely. Greed is one of the biggest things. So with the country kind of divided and even with the union having different views in politics, how do you keep the union unified? Like, how is it tough to do? Or is it.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, I mean, the one thing that's important is, you know, the inclusiveness of the union. You know, we're not a dictatorship. Our leadership is something that's never been done where we are out there. Myself and, you know, my general secretary, treasurer, my partner and all this, Fred Zuckerman, we are actually out three, four days per week in work sites all around the country. We're not talking to leaders. We're not talking. We're talking. We are talking to rank and file members in every industry we represent. And look, this political shit that's going on right now, the presidential race, it's important. But what we do is represent workers. That's the most important thing. So what do we do to keep them unified? Negotiate the best contracts, be out there, be visible, be transparent, be inclusive, but more importantly, be honest with them. You know, part of the issue with a lot of situations we've been through over the last two and a half years is. And the success we've had is because we've been honest with our members and we've empowered them. You know, we've empowered them where they know we have their backs. They know that if they want to take on a fight, okay, we're ready to go. You know, there's no ifs ands or buts about it.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. And should every worker be part of a union, do you think?

[Sean O'Brien]

I think every worker should be part of a union. I mean, look, think about it. You know, we set the tone nationwide on air, you know, industry standards and look, everybody should have healthcare. They don't have to pay for that an employer is paying for. Everybody should have a pension that they can retire on and actually maintain their quality of life while they're retired. So yeah, everybody should have that. That's the American dream.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. And unions, it would feel like are especially disadvantaged because even because their healthcare costs go up year over year and those costs get levied out to the members. The members have to, even if their salary is going up, the cost of the health care is going up the same or similar. So it's, it's, it all washes out. You know, like I was reading the other day about, there was a union, 32 BJ. I think it is 32 BJ.

[Sean O'Brien]

SEIU. Yes.

[Angie Hicks]

Which has workers paying 37% of their compensation of their earnings for to health care.

[Sean O'Brien]

The members spent. What you're saying is the members spent 37 million towards the cost of some of their premium that they pay in the health insurance.

[Angie Hicks]

See with us we know that 37% of their compensation goes towards healthcare.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yes. So they're paying a cost, part of their compensation towards their healthcare. We go into every single negotiation. The majority of our members in the big industries do not pay anything towards the premium. The employers, we demand that they pay the full. Now there are some industries that pay a certain percentage towards the public sector, but we get the ability to negotiate that. We get the ability to negotiate free healthcare and stuff like that. And that's important in this day and age because again you get back to big business. We're out there fighting for the best benefits for our members. Healthcare, we want zero to low cost. And who's making all the money? These fucking providers. Like yeah, you know, the insurance company. Insurance company, Blue Cross, Blue Shields of the world, you know, the Kaisers of the world. And you know, they act like they're providing us all these great benefits. We're fighting for them and they're actually a vendor to us. So in some instances, right, we're the customer. We're investing in our own demise in certain situations. Right. So you know, we've tried to change that narrative as well, but yeah, it's a disgrace. That's a disgrace.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. And I read an article that in New Jersey, police, fire and teachers unions are expecting a 20% increase in their healthcare premium. Premiums for 20, 25. I mean, you know, so you take.

[Sean O'Brien]

A wage increase that's, you know, you get a 5% wage increase. Right. But your health insurance goes up 20.

[Angie Hicks]

Right. That's what I'm saying.

[Sean O'Brien]

You just lost money. Right, Right. And why you shouldn't be losing money.

[Angie Hicks]

No, it's all part of the same scam. It's like, yeah, okay, we'll give you an increase, but this is going to be even higher than that. So we know we're going to get the money back.

[Sean O'Brien]

So think about this. You get a teacher that is responsible for cultivating the next generation and educating that next generation. Right?

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You get a firefighter that's running into a burning building to save your children.

[Angie Hicks]

And you don't have healthcare, and you.

[Sean O'Brien]

Have a police officer that's risking his life every single day with zero support from communities.

[Angie Hicks]

Now, except a Marlboro neck brace.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, right. And. Yeah, yeah, right, exactly right. And you want them to pay more for the health insurance. Are you out of your minds?

[Angie Hicks]

It's literally gonna get to the point, Sean, where you're literally gonna have to smoke for medical care. It's gonna be like, all right, if you want an IV, it's 20,000 mar.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You want a Tylenol, you got to smoke a cotton of cigarettes. Break them off. Yeah. It's crazy. But imagine.

[Angie Hicks]

Imagine those people full body. Like just a full body Winston cast, you know? Yeah, just a full body Parliament cast, you know, this cost 30,000 Tarrington 100 miles. Oh, God. That must have been a.

[Sean O'Brien]

My grandmother. My grandmother used to smoke Tarrington one hundreds, right? And she had like a three inch ash. And he be sitting there, I'd be like, all right, when's this going to light the couch on fire? Hold on. When is it going to light the dive van on fire? I didn't know what a diving. Yeah, I didn't know what it was. A divan.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, well, yeah, My grandmother called it a dove.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. Whatever it was.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah. They both smoking butts.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, they all smoked through pregnancy, right?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, brother. Oh, you'd see a kid be born. He'd be, you know, four ounces, bro. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, she'd put him in. My grandmother put one my brother in a curio cabinet.

[Sean O'Brien]

Kid was craving, like, Tab Tab Cola, dude.

[Angie Hicks]

They had. What was I going to say? My brain's not working good today, man. Some days it's on, some days it's off. You know, it's union. You know what I'm saying?

[Sean O'Brien]

Might be on an off shift.

[Angie Hicks]

But hey, it's. Hey, but hey, bro, it's part of the union, dude. FMLA hey, it knows. It knows no matter what that it's gonna, it's gonna be rewarded.

[Sean O'Brien]

FMLA Friday Monday leave act. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

What was, what else was I going to ask you? Yeah. Why do every. Why does every. Did we already ask this? Why does every worker need a contract with their employer?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, because, look, if you don't have a contract, right, and I tell this to people all the time, we're organizing workers because, you know, we have these meetings with groups that want to organize, and you always get people that don't want to organize, right? They want to be friends with the boss or they think that they're being taken care of. And I always tell them, look, take a piece of paper, write down all your demands, write down your guarantees. Like I, Sean O'Brien, demand from my boss, and my boss will provide for me. 7% wage increase every year, free health care, job security, respect in the workplace. And if you give that to your boss that you're not organized, you think he's going to sign that? Absolutely not. There's no guarantees, right? With a union contract, you're guaranteed, you're guaranteed yearly wage increases, you're guaranteed medical, you're guaranteed retirement, you're guaranteed holidays, you're guaranteed guaranteed vacations. It's simple, it's easy, you know, and that's the litmus test. Hey, if you don't believe us, then everything that you want, write it down as a contract, you individually go give it to your employer, and I guarantee you one or two things are going to happen. He's going to laugh at you, and then he's going to fire you.

[Angie Hicks]

Damn. And now in smaller businesses, it might be different.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I mean, look, there's a lot of smaller businesses that actually take care of their employees that, you know, we've had instances where, you know, you've had a small business, you know, a couple of people come to you and, you know, you know, and when you get into the weeds, deep down in the weeds, you see that, you know, these, you know, this might not be a great opportunity for a union and, or an employer that is actually doing the right thing by the members. That's the one thing that people lose sight of, is what we do as a whole holds other people accountable. So what we get as a union may encourage these small employers to do the right thing selfishly to Keep us out. Right. So we do set that bar pretty high. But there's a lot of family owned businesses that you know, that I know of, especially in my area where I grew up, where, you know, they take care of their employers. You know, I have a friend of mine, Paul Nazaro, who started his own business and he sold it for a lot of money that he'd probably never ask the work again. But he's an example where he always took care of. It was a small tech company, and when he left, he had an employee that worked for him for 35 years on a forklift. He gave him a $500,000 check. Wow. Just stuff like that. So there are good stories out there, but the majority of people. And again, I'll stand by it. I think everybody should have the ability to join a union without retaliation or retribution. And again. But there are a lot of good employers that small businesses family run that have done well and have rewarded the people. So, you know, it's. It's not every employer is bad because they're non union.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, man. I used to. Speaking of forklifts, I used to work over. I used to work at this place. We was galvanizing clevis clamps or something. Some bullshit. I don't know. I got really bad sunburn doing it because we had to do it outdoors or whatever because we weren't unionized or whatever. But yeah, we'd be out there galvanizing shit in the sun and. And oh, at lunch sometimes we would get real high and like we would put each other on that p. On a pallet on a forklift and then put it all the way to the top and get the highest dude and just put him way up there and leave him up there while we went.

[Sean O'Brien]

Nate, you guys definitely needed a union.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Oh, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Was it the. Was it the junior guy or the senior guy? You put up the.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, no, it was. Is. It was a low. It was a low on the totem pole guy. It was me.

[Sean O'Brien]

Did they drug test at that company? Did they drug test at that company?

[Angie Hicks]

No, you. But you knew people were on drugs.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

So you didn't have to test.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, just. You already knew it.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, it was just kind of.

[Sean O'Brien]

Was it like a prerequisite?

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. I don't know. But it was baked in.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. That's the one thing that we do when we stand by. We, you know, everybody's got to get drug tested for the most part. Most of our members do, which is a good thing. You don't.

[Angie Hicks]

You guys Use. Use. Usada. Who do you guys use?

[Sean O'Brien]

I don't even know.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, you don't?

[Sean O'Brien]

No.

[Angie Hicks]

Usada?

[Sean O'Brien]

No.

[Angie Hicks]

They're a big drug testing company. Oh. One of America's greatest mysteries is the Hoffa mystery. Right. So we gotta ask about that, you know, and what happened to him.

[Sean O'Brien]

Right.

[Angie Hicks]

Because he was the Teamsters president.

[Sean O'Brien]

He was. He was. Well, there was the father, and then Junior. The father was an icon. I mean, he put the Teamsters on the map.

[Angie Hicks]

Did you ever meet the father?

[Sean O'Brien]

I didn't know he was. I was born in 1970. He disappeared in 75. No, but my. I know a lot of people that did out of my local and everything else. And, you know, he was an icon. He really was. Greatest labor leader ever. And he put the team. Suzanne. To organize labor on the map.

[Angie Hicks]

And then he went missing, Right?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yep.

[Angie Hicks]

Do you think he's still alive or not?

[Sean O'Brien]

I mean, it'd be 105 or something like that, so I don't know. Probably not.

[Angie Hicks]

He's getting overtime if he might.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I mean, he's probably on the clock still, you know. Probably on the clock or. Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Do you think he's still on the clock? That's probably the appropriate term, dude. Once you become president, do they tell you what happened to him? Because he went missing, no one knows.

[Sean O'Brien]

What happens to him. I mean, that's the biggest mystery. There's all these theories that, you know, you got killed by the mob. There's all these theories that, you know, he's buried under Giant Stadium. No one knows. I mean, yeah, you know, all the theories, but. But the one thing that is like, look, he's gone, but the work that he did should never be forgotten. I mean, that guy.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. He's buried under a Dunkin Don. It's out.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Probably South Medford or something.

[Angie Hicks]

But, yeah, there's always. You're like, we're not digging up another Dunkin.

[Sean O'Brien]

We got munchkins to make. But, no, I mean, it's unfortunate what happened, but, you know, back then, I mean, you know, the Teamsters, it was. It was a very controversial, very influential organization, which I think today we're not as controversial, but we're just as much influential. And no, I don't. I get asked this question all the time.

[Angie Hicks]

I'm sure we had to ask.

[Sean O'Brien]

But I'll tell you one thing, fascinating thing in my office, and I'm in the same office that he had, and then his son, Junior.

[Angie Hicks]

His son Jimmy.

[Sean O'Brien]

Jimmy P. James P. Hoffman.

[Angie Hicks]

James P. Hoffman.

[Sean O'Brien]

James P. Hoffman.

[Angie Hicks]

James P. Hoffa.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, definitely not. His father, you know, was born on third base and actually thinks he hit a triple to get there. Yeah. You know, great name recognition. Right. But in my office you have. It was. It's been all done over. But the one thing is there's a little closet in my office that, you know, they kept part of the history. And you open the closet door, there's a little closet door on the hallway and there's actually a two rail tape record that's still there. So he used to tape record all his conversations in his office and listen to him. You didn't even know you were getting taped. Right. So it's actually still there. It doesn't function. But you know, it's funny. Bobby Kennedy tells a great story and it is true, you know, there's no love loss between Jimmy Hoffa Sr. And Bobby Kennedy's father. Actually this is the, if you see this, that's President Hoffa at a Senate hearing, flipping them off. Flipping off Robert Kennedy. Right. But Robert Kennedy Jr. Tells a story how driving past our headquarters with his father, he was probably 14 years old. He was probably 14 years old and he's driving past our building and his father had like a vendetta against Hoffa and, and he saw that he was in there like 9 o'clock at night working, the lights was on. So he dropped Bobby off and said, I gotta go back to work. If he's working this late, he's preparing, I gotta prepare. So it was funny, the story, but you know, he was definitely an icon and he made the Teamsters what it is today.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, I had a falling out with his son who, you know, as far as I'm concerned, you know, he didn't do what was right towards the end of the union. And that's the great thing about having a democratic union.

[Angie Hicks]

And does everybody's vote in the union count for the same.

[Sean O'Brien]

All our rank and file members vote. Yeah. We're one of the only unions where one voice, one vote each. Each one of our rank and file members gets the opportunity to vote on their leadership.

[Angie Hicks]

And so now every union member can vote for also for any president that they want or any whoever's running, whoever's.

[Sean O'Brien]

Declared candidate, they can, they can vote for whoever they want. So long. Most of the time we run as slates. So you'll have like the Sean O'Brien slate or the like. I think we had, it's the Oz, the O'Brien Zuckerman slate. And we had our opponents last time were membership slate or something like that. And, you know, you run as a slate, a team of 24.

[Angie Hicks]

How often do you have to run?

[Sean O'Brien]

Every five years. Every five years, yep. So we ran in 2000. Our election was in November of 2021, and we take over March of 2022. So we'll have another election in November of 26 and take over, you know, obviously gets sworn in for another term, hopefully in March of 2027.

[Angie Hicks]

And do you have a campaign slogan or did you have, like a campaign slogan?

[Sean O'Brien]

No, but I think, yeah, well, we did. Yeah. Bigger, faster, stronger. And I say it all the time, you know, we've got to be bigger, we got to be faster, we got to be strong. And we definitely have. We definitely have done that.

[Angie Hicks]

Is the union growing?

[Sean O'Brien]

It's growing. We've organized just a teamster alone in two and a half years, organized 50,000 new members. And we're organizing in traditional industries. But I know for a fact you've probably never done this. You've probably never smoked weed. But we are organizing in the cannabis industry, where there's 425,000 W2 employees nationwide.

[Angie Hicks]

Bud slaves, they call them. A lot of people are calling them. Yeah, because they're not unionized.

[Sean O'Brien]

No. And we have organized. I think we've got 2,000 hammocks. We've got 2,000 of them organized, I think, throughout the. Throughout the whole country. So they're there into cultivation. There's workers that are in warehousing, and then they're going to be in distribution. So all in our warehouse. So what we do in this. 425,000 of them.

[Angie Hicks]

Is that one of your largest growing sectors?

[Sean O'Brien]

It's. Well, yeah. Sector.

[Angie Hicks]

The term. What is it?

[Sean O'Brien]

Divisions.

[Angie Hicks]

Is that one of the largest growing divisions?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, we're hopeful it will. I mean, we're doing a lot of things differently where, you know, once this is legalized nationwide, which I think both candidates are supportive of legalizing it, you're going to see in the safe banking laws a change where, again, these companies can put money into actual banks. You're going to see private equity come out and try and buy up all these. All these smaller companies. Where what we're doing is we're working with a private equity fund utilizing contributions from our pension funds and investments in our pension funds to be the buyer of them. To be the buyer of them. Let's go and obviously organize within this industry. So there's 425,000.

[Angie Hicks]

Is it a conflict of interest, though, to be an owner?

[Sean O'Brien]

No, we're not an owner. It would be the private equity firm that we invested, invest in. So it's, it's not uncommon. We do it all the time in other industries.

[Angie Hicks]

Like would you still make the best deal for your.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, we're going to make the best deal because think about it, a lot of times in pension funds and health and welfare funds, we make investments off contributions because you know, that's what you're supposed to do. Right. And it's usually a pretty dynamic asset allocation. You invest in real estate, you invest in private equity, you invest in stocks, you invest in bonds and stuff like that or infrastructure. So think about investing in a lot of times, especially with private equity, you're investing in competitors, non union competitors that could potentially put good companies out of business. So we're taking a different look at it now and approach and say, look, why don't we invest in the industries that we actually represent and instead of investing in our demise, we invest in areas where we can help. So for instance, 30% of this portfolio will be dedicated towards a cannabis investment and the other 70% will be in all kinds of other investments. Right. We're hoping to raise a billion dollars by January or February of 2025. And that gives us the opportunity. Opportunity as well is like if there's a distressed company out there, like a small business that's unionized or even a big business like Yellow Freight who went out of business because they couldn't get financing because there was a greedy private equity firm known as Apollo. If we had this fund up and running a couple of years ago, we could have bought Apollo's position out at $600 million, restructure the company and actually keep 22,000 jobs. Right. So we're doing creative, innovative stuff like that as well.

[Angie Hicks]

You have to.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, you have to. Because like I said, we're a lot more sophisticated and our members deserve, deserve the investments we're going to make on their behalf. And how, like you look at the cannabis industry, for instance, right. If it doesn't get organized, what future do people have going to work there? So we organize them, we negotiate contracts that have health care, that have retirement benefits. We're not just creating a job, we're creating careers for people. Right, right. Cultivation, warehousing, distribution. I mean, you know, that's, that's what we should be doing.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, that's really interesting. Yeah. And I can't believe that's one of the biggest growing. That, that's one of the largest growing.

[Sean O'Brien]

So this saturated.

[Angie Hicks]

Like one of the largest growing sectors for.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Divisions.

[Sean O'Brien]

This Saturated heavily with licenses nationwide. And that's a good thing. But they're capital poor right now. So they're waiting for this legalization federally and the safe banking laws to change. And you're going to see a grab. And if we're not controlling that grab, the best interests of these workers are not going to be at hand. So we want to make sure first and foremost that's what we're doing. We don't want not, we're not, you know, really concerned with, you know, doing double digit return on investments. We're concerned on taking care of these workers that work in this industry and making certain that they have the ability to have a career if they choose.

[Angie Hicks]

But how crazy that it's even come to that. Also that now in order to ensure that the workers are going to be safe, you, that the company, that the organization making them safe also wants to be a vested interest in the like, you know what I'm saying? You got skin of the game, it makes sense. But it's crazy that you would, that people wouldn't just think, yes, we need to take care of the workers.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, well, so again you get back to corporate greed, you know, you get back to a bottom line of a balance sheet before people.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, it's unreal, man. And then there won't be any more people. It'll just be a robot. And some, you know, you know, some I don't even know, just who knows, you know, some Israeli lizard licking a bitcoin somewhere, jerking off in a bank vault. One of your most viral moments was you had a confrontation with a fella from Oklahoma. Was he a senator?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, U.S. senator Mark Wayne Mullen.

[Angie Hicks]

Mark Wayne Mullen. And did you guys ever patch that up? Because you guys almost, you guys almost did a charity fundraiser fight right there in the, in the Senate.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, we had two run ins, you.

[Angie Hicks]

Know, I don't know.

[Sean O'Brien]

We had two run ins. Like I was testifying in a Senate hearing at the request of Senator Bernie Sanders, who I got a lot of respect for and I'm a huge fan of. And this guy like attacked me first.

[Angie Hicks]

What was he upset about?

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, so when you go into these hearings and again like we have to submit like a 50, 15 page brief, right? So you give that 24 hours prior and then you gotta condense that in your testimony to about two and a half to three minutes. So I'm reading my testimony and you know, usually have witnesses pro and con on each side. That's. And you have, you know, the Republicans on the help committee and The Democrats on the Help committee. And I didn't know. I didn't know this guy from a hole in the wall. And he had an issue with a different union. He owned a business, a plumbing. A pipe fitting company in Oklahoma. And I guess they. You know, they picketed his house. He had 300 employees or something. So he took it very personal, which, you know, hey, someone shows up at your house, that is personal. But the reality of it has nothing to do with me. So he started, like, attacking me on all this stuff. And of course, being from Boston, in the neighborhood, I'm like, fuck you, dude. Like, whatever. Like, you're a clown. I just started shitting on him. He started shitting on me back, right? And poor Bernie. Like, I thought he popped a nitro. He was like, enough, enough, enough. And so that was. Yeah, it was like. You know what it was like. It was like, you know, you're sneaking in your grandmother's house in high school because you're drinking and your grandfather's up screaming at you, but I felt bad for him. And then. So that wasn't.

[Angie Hicks]

He bums a sip of liquor.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

He goes to bed. You're like, this is. This is definitely.

[Sean O'Brien]

You got a Marlboro. Yeah, I'm two points shy, right?

[Angie Hicks]

So, yeah, this is insider trade.

[Sean O'Brien]

So we get into this big exchange, and then I didn't know who he was. It was. It was actually comical. That was the first time. And then. So after that, of course, I start attacking him on social media, and he starts attacking me back. And we're going back and forth. So then I have to testify. Another hearing, and he come in and he. I can. He was all fired up, you know, because clearly I hit a few nerves. And he's like, stand your butt up. Up. And I'm like, you stand your butt up. I am. He goes, you want to do this? We'll do it right now. I'm like, let's do it. And.

[Angie Hicks]

And they didn't let y'all fight, though, huh?

[Sean O'Brien]

No, I was like, you know what it was like, you know, I played a little bit of hockey, and, like, I don't even think I could jump over the boards anymore. But, you know, if I got over there and he got over. I mean, it's on, but you know it. And poor Bernie, you know, he's yelling. Yelling and everything else.

[Angie Hicks]

I saw that clip.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. I mean, he was. He called me the next day. He goes, did you have fun? I go, I had a fucking blast, to be honest with you. Right. And so then as time went on, you know, Mullen's people and my people were bumping into each other up at Capitol Hill, and they all determined it would be in the best interest if, you know, we sat down and, you know, try to air out differences, if we couldn't air our differences, whatever. But, you know, he challenged me to a fight, like a charity fight.

[Angie Hicks]

He.

[Sean O'Brien]

He's supposed to be an MMA fighter. And I'm like, dude, I walk to work, I'll just meet you at a park, you know, and we'll see what happens. But thankfully, it didn't get to that. Both sides and for the best, you know. No, I'll be honest with you. Like, I met with him. We agree to disagree on a lot of things, but, you know, he's a sitting US Senator, one of a hundred should be well respected people. I get the privilege of representing 1.3 million working people, so, you know, we both probably could have done things differently that day. But it was fucking fun as hell.

[Angie Hicks]

Was fun.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, it was good. And it was. It was great.

[Angie Hicks]

Because you need some of that shit, cuz C Span or whatever that channel is, is boring.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

I'm lying to you.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

And you don't even know what's going on on there. You know, every now and then, C Span's awful.

[Sean O'Brien]

It's like. It's like watching old people, you know.

[Angie Hicks]

Hump, and they're all. Yeah, I mean, yeah, if you've done it.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, I haven't. Never done that. Yeah, never watched that stuff.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Look, dude, as long as you're not watching.

[Sean O'Brien]

But maybe I'll watch the Golden Bachelorette now or something, you know, as long.

[Angie Hicks]

As you're not watching it on the clock.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, no. Definitely no. Be in the break room. Yeah, in the break room.

[Angie Hicks]

Dude, the break room is always so much fun. Dude, I'll tell you this. And I've definitely stolen from my employers. I used to work at the grocery, right. And I was a checkout guy. Right, right. We did stocking and checking that. And then I got moved up to checker and bagger too, dude. And I got up, and when I'd.

[Sean O'Brien]

Go to the checker or Bagger.

[Angie Hicks]

Baggers.

[Sean O'Brien]

Bagger sounds a little deviant.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, bag is definitely. Well, I used to. I used to, if it was rich people, I would ring their items up a couple times. And then when poor people came through, I wouldn't ring their items up, but I'd remember, like, okay, I got three boxes of cereal.

[Sean O'Brien]

So you like a modern Day. Robin Hood at Publix.

[Angie Hicks]

I mean, yeah, I was, you know what, anything big, it was just some fucking cinnamon toast crunch or whatever. But I definitely helped out here and there, you know, did what you could because some families, they didn't notice it. You know, it's still. It's still stealing. But what we used to do is when we go to break, we would walk down, like, our fate, whatever aisle had our favorite food, and we just steal some right off the shelves. So that's. I feel sorry about that. I want to apologize. That place is called. Called Dell Champs, I think went out of business. And then.

[Sean O'Brien]

Do you think it went out of business because of the employee pilfering or.

[Angie Hicks]

I mean, I don't know. I didn't take much.

[Sean O'Brien]

I usually took Swedish fish and shit.

[Angie Hicks]

No, I do like a banana. Maybe a little bag of Funyuns or something. Not one of the big bags, but. Yeah, it was just. Everybody did it. But see, that's not a bad. That's not a fair thing. Everybody does it.

[Sean O'Brien]

You just. It just implicated all your co workers.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, dude. Definitely all of them. Chad Giddy, all those dudes. Dudes. This one dude used to come clock in, go home. He worked for us for four months.

[Sean O'Brien]

That's funny.

[Angie Hicks]

Like, who is he? People would come to work and like, where is he? They came at a piece of picture of picture of him one day. Where is he? This kid named Chucky or whatever. Like, who is he? And like your employee, you're going to rat him out? I'm like, I don't even. We never seen that.

[Sean O'Brien]

We don't know him. To rat him out.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, dude. But yeah, working at a grocery store was fun. Do you see more you. Do you see the union growing now?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we can joke about, like, the breaks and all that stuff.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, for sure.

[Sean O'Brien]

But unions have proved they're the hottest work and most productive workers in the country. And I think this new generation, you know, that have an appetite to fight and they want to take on the boss and, you know, they're very in tune with social media. And I think there's a great opportunity. I mean, when you see places like Starbucks and Chipotle and all these industries that have never been unionized, where the young workers that are 18, 19, 20 years old, demanding recognition, demanding representation in the workplace, I think the sky's the limit. And I think, again, it sets the tone for the next 10 or 15 years in the labor movement. We definitely have seen growth in the Teamsters and a lot of Those industries that have never been represented, you know, there's. It's exciting times.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, no, it definitely seems like it. Well, we're just, I'm seeing as more big businesses and things get, become conglomerates and stuff like that. Yeah, the last thing you have is, is it almost seems like it's the last choice, you know, and it's the best choice. You know, you have to have somebody fight against these groups for you. This article says this summer alone 10,000 workers organized with the Teamsters for the first time at a wide range of employers and traditional Teamsters industries like transportation and delivery, including dhl. Oh, we were already talking about that. Yeah. So do you think that. Oh, it says also including Amazon, the American Red Cross, Costco and cannabis dispensary nationwide. So it's, it's everywhere.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, we are, we're hitting every single opportunity. We don't solicit. We have targets like Amazon because they're such a bad employer. But dhl, we represent DHL around the country. Some places were unionized, some weren't. So what we did is we just started striking them for recognition and we shut them down at cvg, which is the airport in Cincinnati, last December, Right during the busiest time for them. And what we did there, there was 2,300. We got a first time contract there for 1300 workers and the remaining 1,100 we got codcheck neutrality which they didn't want to give us. But we said, look, no problem. Next December we're going to do the same thing to you. We'll shut you down. And the good thing for us, once you have a union contract, for the most part, whether it's dhl, ups, unfi, Cisco, any of those, we have what they call picket line protection. So we get to honor picket lines all over the place. So we can extend picket lines at different locations and shut down industries nationwide. And again, that's a choice that an employer makes that they shouldn't make. And we've been successful doing that. So as a result of that, DHL is funny. They are, I think they are owned by the Deutsch Post office, I believe.

[Angie Hicks]

And I remember when they showed up with those yellow trucks.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, they're awful. The Kansas City Chiefs.

[Angie Hicks]

What's going on?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, so we, you know, we organize and we have, you know. But again, you know, they're a European company. And I met with the CEO after we struck him and I said, he's like, we want to reestablish our relationship. And I'm like, okay, give us Card check neutrality.

[Angie Hicks]

What is card check neutrality?

[Sean O'Brien]

It means they just agree to. Once we get the majority of the employees assigned cards, we give them to a third party arbitrator who decides the validity of the cards. And then if we have the majority, they sit down and negotiate a contract with us. There's nothing else.

[Angie Hicks]

What do you mean, the validity of the cards? What do you mean?

[Sean O'Brien]

Like, they just. The arbitrator will determine if we do have the majority or not. And we don't usually submit these cards to an arbitrator unless we have 80% of the cards.

[Angie Hicks]

And so the cards mean people sign up.

[Sean O'Brien]

People signed up. I want to join the union.

[Angie Hicks]

Got it. Okay.

[Sean O'Brien]

So, you know, they'll determine that, and then they sit down and negotiate a contract. So we had a meeting in Washington. They sent these three, the CEO, their lawyer, and the cfo. And I went with our attorney, Fred Zuckerman, and I'm a general secretary, treasurer. We sat down and they like, we want to reestablish the relationship. One guy had an English accent and really fucking aggravating.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, it was like, good a.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, we'll see about it.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. All that bullshit and pisses me off. Well, we want to have a relationship. I go, well, the only way we're gonna have a relationship, you give us card check neutrality. And he said, yeah, we don't. We don't believe in that. I'm like, okay, great. Meeting's over. I'm not gonna beg for this. Go fuck yourself. See you later. Yeah. And then, like, two days days later, our attorney's on the phone, and their attorney's like, we rethought this because we told them, we'll just shut you down every chance we got. And you don't want to be like that. But when they come in and that, especially, you know, they're not from. They're not an American company.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know, they could give two shits less about us, but, you know, we've reestablished our relationship where, you know, we've made them realize how important their workers are and how important a relationship is with the Teamsters. So, you know, we've been successful there, and, you know, look, we'll work with anybody. But how.

[Angie Hicks]

How? Say in the weed organization, right? Say the people that work in for weed companies, how do they become part of the union? How does someone who's working somewhere who feels like, okay, I'm not supported or maybe I'm at a place that should be supported, how do they approach you guys to be hopefully potentially be part of the union.

[Sean O'Brien]

They'll go to a local, they'll go to a local union, like a team, since local, and they'll, you know, initiate. Okay.

[Angie Hicks]

To start at a local level.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, they'll go to a local level, talk to the local union. Local union will either send in their organizer or we'll provide an organizer for them. They'll go out, talk to the workers, establish a relationship, establish trust, and have them sign authorization cards, meaning they want to join the union. And especially in the cannabis industry, I think we've gotten more card check recognition because I think, think two things, they know that, you know, we can strike them for recognition and two, they know that we have this ability to, you know, make investments in their businesses as time goes on. Once this fund is created and it's good, it's good for the industry because think about it, we're going to regulate that industry, Right. So if we don't organize them, you know, the mom and pop that are charging X amount and I've never done Dr. Drugs in my life. I don't even know, I've never smoked weed or anything else, but I've done them. Yeah, I mean, they're all right. Yeah, I mean I, I didn't do them because I probably would have loved them, but you know, I don't know. But you know, you don't want to undercut each other in this industry where it's a race to the bottom. So there, there are a lot of employers out there that have welcomed us in because of that reason. Like we don't want to sell a gummy, you know, 25 cents cheaper than the guy down the street. So, so we've actually regulated this industry to a certain point. But the other thing too, which is very important in this industry is continuity of employees. Right. So if you are providing employees with a union contract, good wages, good benefits, there's not going to be a turnover ratio. When we first started this organizing campaign, we were seeing 20, 21 year old kids that they weren't stealing a banana, they were sampling on the product, right?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

And they'd get, they know, fight or they'd leave. So, you know, we've actually instilled some stability in this, in this industry just because they know there's an opportunity and they're, they're organized as a contract and, you know, there's a future.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, I think then you feel like you're part of something.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

You know, which is the same thing, like in, which goes back to our conversation about America it's just like feeling like you're a part of something. Feeling like, you know, I think it used to feel like your country was unionized. You know, it definitely felt like that when I was a kid. And, and we haven't catered to that, you know, and our leaders haven't catered to that, and our decision makers haven't catered to that. One last question. Wait. So do. Do the. Does the union also work with the employer to do certain things?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I mean, there's times where we, we have to work with each other on, you know, legislation that benefits, you know, both our members in the company. There's a lot of common fights that we have to work together on. It's not always a line drawn in the sand. And the good thing is it's like a lot of political issues we have coming up, like certain issues with reauthorization act and a lot of federal legislation will work with a lot of our larger employers, especially if it's more beneficial for our members. So, yeah, we do work. We do work a lot with employers. Some employers, you know, you'll never be able to work with, they just, you know, they just dig in and they want to fight all the time, but, you know, we're ready for it either way, but we'll work with anybody.

[Angie Hicks]

Do you think you'll be able to unionize Amazon workers?

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, without a doubt. We're going to be able to organize them. Hell, yeah, without a doubt. It's going to be, you know, it's going to be a battle. It's going to be a fight. But that's where, you know, we're going to call on, you know, the Dems and the Republicans and everybody involved that say they are passionate and supportive of these workers. We're going to, we're going to call them out. We're going to. We're going to expose them and we're going to put them to the test, and that's. That's what needs to happen. Good. Yeah, we're going to be there. We're going to be their conscience. I want to represent your mother. Yeah, absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

I appreciate it. Somebody. Yeah, Yeah, I think that'd be awesome. She likes to work hard. That's one thing my mom's always been, is a worker. She likes to work. You know, it's probably her favorite thing to do.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

So.

[Sean O'Brien]

So where did you get your work ethic from?

[Angie Hicks]

Probably from her, I guess. You know, it's funny. It's like, yeah, there's so many things that. But I do I do thank her for that actually. A lot of times. Yeah, it was like she was always working. But yeah, I, I do have a strong work ethic because of her.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, no, it's. Well, you're a product of your environment. If your parents sat on the couch, smoked butts and drank beers, chances are that's probably what you're gonna do. I had the ability growing up. Where I grew up, my father worked two, three jobs and hustled his whole life. My mother the same thing. So we try and still that work ethic and my two kids and my nephews as well, which is important. And I think we gotta get back to basics in this country and you know, I think we have the ability to do it over the next several years.

[Angie Hicks]

Well and a worker should be able to know if they're going to lock in with a company and they're going to be like I'm going to be here, that I'm going to know that when I get home from work every day, I'm not going to also wonder do I need to go back out to another job to pay for insurance this month for my wife and for my children? And then they're not home to be home with their children. And so then the children grow up without their parents around and so then they run into all types of things. So then they're in therapy and they're out using drugs or they don't. And there's no sense of a family and it just, everything starts to dissolve, you know, and it's just, and it definitely is, there's a part of it is greed at the top and a part of it is that in a first world country like this, in a country that has the highest GDP in the world, you would think that we would also want the impression workers to be happy and worrying about what's next always isn't that you can't. Stress alone, you know, can cause so much damage to someone.

[Sean O'Brien]

Think about, think about your personal life. My personal life. When you're happy in your personal life, you're productive.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, right.

[Sean O'Brien]

You're driven. Same should hold true with people that go to work every single day. The employer should realize that if you have a happy employee that you embrace and you respect, they're going to work that much harder for you. Right. And you reward more importantly.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, reward, I think for sure. Sometimes it's, you know, it's tough to be the certain type of employer to everybody, but that they should be rewarded for sure.

[Sean O'Brien]

There's no doubt, you know, I mean, you Talk about therapy when you're a kid. I just look back at my therapy was a wooden spoon over the head. If we acted up, you know?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. Oh, my mother.

[Sean O'Brien]

That was a good old days, wasn't it?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, dude, my mother would hit us like Teddy Brewski.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

She would just.

[Sean O'Brien]

My mother had more hits on us than Justin Bieber.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, my mother would put on a Pedroia jersey and just tear into us, dude. Just hitting triples right off of my brother.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, that's good stuff.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

Did you laugh when your brother was getting beat?

[Angie Hicks]

I did. Every now and then I chimed in, dude, I'd shatter a wooden chair over that freaking mixed breed.

[Sean O'Brien]

Remember how. Remember how, like, growing up. I don't know how you grew up in your house, but we'd be eating dinner. My father would work two or three jobs, and you'd be sitting there eating dinner. We grew up in a pretty modest house, very simple. And God forbid, you know, you couldn't poke the bear. God forbid someone spilled something at the table, be Jesus Christ. And you'd stop not. You'd be firing. Your fork would have sparks on it because you want to get out of that table because you don't want to feel the wrath. You know what I mean? It was awful. But those are the best times.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. It was so much fun. And part of what you're talking about is a family being able to sit and have dinner together, right? Absolutely. And part of that was because, like. Yeah, because people are being compensated fairly. And a mom was able to be at home sometimes, and sometimes they weren't, but. Yeah. And now we've gotten to this point where it's like both fam. Both parents have to work and nobody. And people aren't even building a family unit anymore. And it's. And I'm not. I don't mean that in a negative way. Some people still are, but people should be able to afford to do that. In a country that brings in this much, that produces this much, it. It's got to start to change.

[Sean O'Brien]

There should be a work, family balance. And look, I'm guilty as charged. I went out to work and I wanted to work 80, 90 hours a week. I still do. And I always did it with the, you know, objective of taking care of my family, taking care of, you know, my kids. And thankfully, my kids didn't end up up over. Well, I mean, you know, maybe not.

[Angie Hicks]

Completely, but Sean looks like he's available.

[Sean O'Brien]

Sean's all right. Sean's good.

[Angie Hicks]

We'll See?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, we'll see. Jury's still out.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

But no, you went to work to provide for your family, and now it's like, you know, you made that choice. Now you don't have a choice, you know, because it's just so hard to make it.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Yeah, we can definitely do better. And it starts with the individual people. And sometimes the individual people can't do it by themselves anymore because they don't have the lawyers to back them up. They don't have the voice they need. So the individual people have to get together and they have to unionize. And that's where you guys come.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. You can't. You can't survive as an American worker. Not represented now that the. The deck is stacked against you, you know, and, you know, the average person. And look, you want to go to work, do your job, you know, let us fight for you. Let us take on the grievances at work, you know, don't bring them home. You know, that's the beauty of a union. You know, you don't have to. You have the. You know, you have the backing of a union. You don't have to fight with your employee and make a call and say, hey, you know, to your business agent. You work for me. This is my issue. This is my grievance. I have faith you're going to fix it.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sean O'Brien]

You know.

[Angie Hicks]

Right. Yeah. You don't have to be. Take on all that stress. What do they lose by being a part of a union? What is a worker?

[Sean O'Brien]

Not a thing.

[Angie Hicks]

Not a thing.

[Sean O'Brien]

Not a thing. Not a thing.

[Angie Hicks]

Before you go, Sean, thanks so much for your time.

[Sean O'Brien]

I appreciate.

[Angie Hicks]

Thanks for representing people and supporting people and being a voice for people and. Yeah. And. And sharing things so clearly with us today. I think that we've learned a lot. Is there like a movie or a song? Like, is there something from the Drop Kick Murphy or something from a movie or just something that, like, really you feel like is like. Like has a union feel to it for you ever.

[Sean O'Brien]

I mean, one of my favorite movies of all time. I knew I wanted to be a Teamster truck driver. My whole life was convoy. That poor guy just died this past week. Kris Kristofferson. But all the Dropkick Murphy's the best. Kenny Casey's a buddy of mine.

[Angie Hicks]

Kris Kristofferson, right there. He just passed away.

[Sean O'Brien]

He passed away.

[Angie Hicks]

People love him.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah. Road scholar, too, I guess.

[Angie Hicks]

Was he really smart guy?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

Wow. And. And he drove truck, too.

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, I don't know if he drove it Just for the movie, maybe. There was probably a team. So I'm sure a team still was driving it back in the day that was filmed.

[Angie Hicks]

Imagine if nobody's driving. You don't have anybody to flip off if they go by.

[Sean O'Brien]

I know. Robots gonna give you the finger.

[Angie Hicks]

What fun is that? Yeah. How you gonna do that?

[Sean O'Brien]

I know, it's crazy.

[Angie Hicks]

That's the last piece of America we have.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. Blow the air.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, yeah. And if you can't be a six year old flipping off a trucker, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

Well, like picking your nose like, and stuff like that. That's crazy.

[Angie Hicks]

What is this country coming to where you can't even flip off a dropkick Murphy.

[Sean O'Brien]

The best. Kenny Casey's awesome. Yeah, he's my guy. He is my guy. He's a good friend. Very, very active in the sober community as well.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, is he? Which, yeah, Kenny Casey. I'm gonna have to learn more about him.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, he's. He is awesome. You know, he's a character too. He is absolutely hilarious. Cartoon character, you know, but. But very, very committed to sobriety. Very committed to working people. Working class guy. He loves unions. Real good friend.

[Angie Hicks]

Wow. I'm have to tap in with him. I'll send him a DM or something.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, I can. I can hook you guys.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, it'd be cool.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. People love them from up there. That's definitely. I mean, people get married to their music and buried to it.

[Sean O'Brien]

Coming up to boss. Shipping up to Boston. I was in the Departed.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, you were in it.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That was in it, not the song was in it.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, their music. Yeah, yeah. Dude, I'm a Boston Bruins fan.

[Sean O'Brien]

Dude, we're gonna sign that goalie or what?

[Angie Hicks]

Huh?

[Sean O'Brien]

We're gonna sign the goalie or what?

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, rat lit.

[Sean O'Brien]

No, no, Swamin.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, I don't know. Not that big. He's in.

[Sean O'Brien]

He's in a big contract fight right now.

[Angie Hicks]

He is?

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, yeah. Public too. Cam Neely.

[Angie Hicks]

Jeremy swam in. There he is.

[Sean O'Brien]

Yep.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah. Sign him. Dude, is he un.

[Sean O'Brien]

They are. Marty Walsh is representing them, right? Former Secretary of labor. He's the head of the National Hockey Players Association.

[Angie Hicks]

I love their coach, man.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh yeah, he's good. Well, my friends, their assistant coach, Joe Sacco.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh yeah, guys, the best.

[Sean O'Brien]

We all grew up together. Yeah. Family, best friends. Joe's the best.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, that's cool, dude.

[Sean O'Brien]

Right there. There he is.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, Monty's the best dude. Joe Sacco. That's cool. Money. Just a fucking. Monty's hilarious so where I grew up.

[Sean O'Brien]

We had about four or five guys make the NHL. One on my street, Keith Kachuk. His two sons play in the league tcac.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, they call him the Rat. Or. No, no, no, that's the brother.

[Sean O'Brien]

No. So the father was my age. We grew up on the same street. And he's got two sons that are in NHL right now. Brady and Matthew. Matthew just won this. Keith, right there.

[Angie Hicks]

Matthew just won, right?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Angie Hicks]

What's Matthew's nickname?

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, I don't know. They call Keith Big Walt.

[Angie Hicks]

Oh, they do?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah. Me and him went to a UFC fight not too long ago with Brian. We went with Dana White. It was hilarious.

[Angie Hicks]

Dude. I was going to say, because you kind of look like Dana White.

[Sean O'Brien]

Dana's a good man. Yeah, Dana's the best.

[Angie Hicks]

But. Oh, that's him. That's the guy. They call him the Rat Song. Right? What's his nickname? Matthew.

[Sean O'Brien]

That kid is hilarious. So the mother's a longshoreman?

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, they call him the Rat King, dude. We'll fucking see about that.

[Sean O'Brien]

Keith's mother is a longshoreman and she's on strike. I was with the sister yesterday on the picking line. She's a longshoreman as well. And the father? Keith's father, their grandfather just retired a few years ago. Boston Fire Department. Great family.

[Angie Hicks]

Wow. The Tkachiks. No, the Kachik. They're definitely. Look, I'm not saying they're. They're using extra letters, sir.

[Sean O'Brien]

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

I'm not trying to snitch or nothing like that, you know, so. It is what it is.

[Sean O'Brien]

You gotta fill the back of that jersey up.

[Angie Hicks]

Hey, also in Boston, who knows how to spell anything?

[Sean O'Brien]

Yeah, yeah, we. Listen, we have a. We have a rule in Boston. If it's any more than three claps as a word, you don't use it.

[Angie Hicks]

You're saying three syllables.

[Sean O'Brien]

Three claps. You know, you gotta sound it out.

[Angie Hicks]

That's a nice rule. Yeah, dude. Wow. Sean, I appreciate it so much, man. Yeah. Thank you so much for your time, brother.

[Sean O'Brien]

I appreciate you, sir. Thank you.

[Angie Hicks]

Really appreciate. It was informative. And anything else that you think you need to share.

[Sean O'Brien]

I'm an Aries, and I like long walks in the park, my friend.

[Angie Hicks]

All right, all right, dude, look, as long as you're back in an hour.

[Sean O'Brien]

Absolutely.

[Angie Hicks]

Now I'm just floating on the breeze and I feel I'm. I'm falling like these leaves I must.

[Sean O'Brien]

Be cornerstone oh, but when I reach.

[Angie Hicks]

That ground I'll share this piece of my life found. I can feel it in my bones, but it's gonna take.