Donald Trump’s Republican National Committee is touting the role of union labor in building out Fiserv Forum and other venues for the party’s national convention next month in Milwaukee.
But the feelings of affection aren’t exactly mutual.
In an email Thursday, the RNC boasted that the majority of workers involved in the convention buildout will be union members. Republicans name-dropped stagehands represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, or IATSE; drivers represented by the Teamsters; and electricians represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
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IATSE, which has endorsed Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden for reelection, has previously called out Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, for crossing its picket line when New York City workers on “The Apprentice” — the NBC show Trump hosted — called for better pay. In the runup to the 2020 election, the union called Trump “the most anti-worker, anti-union president in U.S. history.”
Stagehands represented by IATSE Local 18 ratified a collective bargaining agreement with Fiserv Forum in 2019, at a time when the basketball arena was expected to host the 2020 Democratic National Committee. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the convention wound up getting downsized to the smaller Wisconsin Center, and Democrats conducted a large part of those convention activities remotely.
Fiserv Forum. (Michael Barera / Creative Commons)
Reached by phone by Raw Story, IATSE spokesperson Jonas N. Loeb declined to comment on the RNC’s use of the union’s name.
Unlike IATSE, the Teamsters have not yet endorsed Biden — or Trump, for that matter. The Teamsters met with both candidates earlier this year, and President Sean O’Brien has reportedly defended a $45,000 donation to the Republican National Committee saying it “gets us a seat at the table.” O’Brien has said the union would poll its members before making a decision on an endorsement.
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The Hill reported this week that O’Brien has asked to speak at both the Democratic and Republican national conventions this summer.
As to the convention, the union is clearly putting its members’ jobs ahead of political considerations.
“If you’re asking do we support good union jobs in the convention industry, of course we do,” Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz told Raw Story. “Teamsters work on the RNC and the DNC, and we will again this election year.”
Deniz added that the Teamsters union traditionally issues endorsements after the two parties’ respective conventions.
The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers did not respond to emails and phone calls seeking comment for this story.
Biden, for his part, declared in 2021: "I intend to be the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history."