Ramstad: Labor unions flex new muscle in politics, as they have recently in boardrooms

America’s political parties for decades have been shaped by the tension between the two poles of capitalism — Democrats with labor and Republicans with capital.

This year, some Republicans say that, because of Donald Trump’s comeback, they’ve become the party of working men and women.

Trump’s running mate JD Vance made that case at the GOP convention by saying, “We need a leader who’s not in the pocket of big business, but answers to the working man, union and nonunion alike.”

Political analysts later portrayed Trump and Vance as trying to realign party politics and siphon campaign funds from Democrats.

While that may be Republicans’ goal, it overlooks the growing power of the nation’s labor unions. They are stronger than I’ve ever seen in my working life, which began nearly 40 years ago. Unions are flexing their muscle in this election just as they have at the bargaining table in the post-pandemic years.

“We are not beholden to anyone or any party,” Sean O’Brien, leader of the Teamsters, the nation’s fourth-largest union, said in a surprise prime-time speech at the GOP convention.

He then ripped into some of America’s largest companies, calling them out by name, for treating workers poorly. Some at the convention hall were stunned silent, unsure of how to react to such harsh criticism of business — the ally they rarely question or criticize.

About a decade ago, it started to become harder to find workers in Minnesota and other parts of the country, due to demographic change and immigration restrictions. That gave leverage for unions to seek better contracts from employers and to establish bargaining units in new workplaces.

Last year, unionized workers made big gains in pay and work conditions after going on strike against automakers, Hollywood studios, casinos and hospitals. Minneapolis city leaders recently approved a new contract of huge pay raises to police, a force that is far below its employee targets.

O’Brien applied a version of that power at the GOP convention by saying Teamsters’ votes “will not be taken for granted.”

His appearance upset the White House, Democrats and leaders of some other unions. President Joe Biden had overseen a bailout of the Teamsters pension that benefited about 350,000 of its members. A day after his convention speech, O’Brien on CNN called Biden “the most pro-union president we’ve ever had.”

In Minnesota, Local 49 of the International Union of Operating Engineers began splitting its political contributions between Republicans and Democrats after the 2008 recession.

“Our union should not be in the position where our success is determined by the outcome of an election,” said Jason George, business manager for the unit, often called “The 49ers.” “The much smarter position to be in is where your issues are important to both parties.”

The 49ers focus on two issues: making sure that workers are paid at prevailing wage in the state and preventing Minnesota from becoming a “right-to-work” state, where employees can avoid joining a union.

He said he believes the 49ers and other unions have worked so well with Minnesota Republicans that there’s no chance that, even if the GOP took full control of state government, they would turn Minnesota into a right-to-work state. On the national level, he’s less sure the GOP will follow through on his union’s agenda.

“We’ll see. The jury’s out,” George said. “But I do think it’s important — and what Sean O’Brien did is important — to talk to everybody.”

Rep. Pete Stauber, who in 2018 became the second Republican congressman elected in the 8th district that includes the Iron Range, stronghold of Minnesota’s Democratic party since the 1940s, reached out to the 49ers and other unions during his first campaign and stayed close since. The 49ers last month endorsed Stauber for re-election in November.

“Union members are my friends and neighbors. I go to church with them. I coach hockey with them. They’re throughout my community, and they’re good friends of mine,” Stauber said.

Stauber first joined a union as a professional hockey player in 1990. Later as a police officer in Duluth, he organized and became president of a union representing police officers. His father, he told me, belonged to the 49ers in the 1940s when he worked as a heavy equipment operator.

Stauber now chairs a mining subcommittee in the House and he said other members view him as a “pro-labor Republican.” He cited workers’ interests for his effort to reinstate leases for the Twin Metals copper and nickel mine that the Biden administration canceled in 2022. Many people were concerned about the mine because of its proximity to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

“The Biden-Harris administration pulled those leases for purely political reasons,” Stauber said. “Those were good paying union jobs that they just threw away.”

Stauber sponsored a bill to streamline permitting for new mines that passed the House last year. It has not been taken up by the Senate.