Gary Peters brings retired Teamsters onstage during DNC speech 

BY ANNA LIZ NICHOLS, MICHIGAN ADVANCE

CHICAGO—Having middle-class union parents allowed he and his sisters to have the ability to pursue their dreams, US Sen. Gary Peters said in praising Vice President Kamala Harris’ commitment to the working class during his speech Tuesday at the Democratic National Convention.

“I was raised in a union household. My father was a teacher and my mother a nurse’s aide. …I went to public school, I worked odd jobs, became an Eagle Scout, and Kamala Harris and Tim Walz grew up just like me,” Peters said. “I know they will fight for all of us. They will make it easier to raise our families and to retire with dignity.”

Harris was raised by her single mom, an immigrant and breast cancer researcher. Her running mate, the governor of Minnesota, joined the Army National Guard before attending college and becoming a teacher.

Michigan recently was the backdrop to a historic union fight as the United Auto Workers union went on strike for 46 days late last year in order to get Detroit’s Big Three automakers to meet their demands in contract negotiations.

“In Michigan, we believe we have to build an economy that grows the middle class and we know that when unions succeed, all workers win,” Peters said. 

If former President Donald Trump and his running mate, Ohio U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, win, working people will suffer, Peters said, while bringing retired members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters onto to the stage.

That comes after Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke last month at the Republican National Convention and was the first Teamsters president to ever speak at the convention, which was criticized by some members.

“In the past, the Teamsters have endorsed GOP candidates, including Nixon, Reagan and George H.W. Bush,” O’Brien said. “But over the last 40 years, the Republican Party has rarely pursued a strong relationship with organized labor. There are some in the party who stand in active opposition to labor unions — this too, must change.”

O’Brien is not set to speak at the Democratic National Convention, telling Fox News on Wednesday “maybe the invitation got lost in the U.S. Postal Service and maybe they should ship it UPS, it’ll guarantee delivery”. UPS is the number one employer of Teamsters, with UPS reporting 300,000 Teamster employees.

Several other union leaders did speak at the DNC, including UAW President Shawn Fain, Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Claude Cummings Jr. and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Liz Shuler.

Even without their leader, Teamsters were heard at the convention as Peters turned over the microphone to Kenneth Stribling, a retired Teamster and president of the National United Committee to Protect Pensions.

Stribling talked about learning that by 2025, his pension monthly payments would be reduced in half shortly before his wife was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

“I didn’t know how we were going to make it, so I went to a retirees meeting in the basement of a small church. At that moment, I knew we were not going to go down without a fight,” Stribling said, and his wife made him promise to never quit until they made things right.

Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law three months into his presidency, which secured the pensions of retired Teamsters.

“They saved over 1 million pensions, including 33,000 from my state, Wisconsin, 52,000 from Pennsylvania, 61,000 from Michigan. As President, I know Kamala Harris will have our backs. She will fight for our retirement ,social security and Medicare,” Stribling said.

His wife died in 2019, but Stribling said he kept his promise to her.

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This coverage was republished from Michigan Advance pursuant to a Creative Commons license.