Trump meets Teamsters chief as union weighs the presidential race.

As he pursues the Republican presidential nomination for 2024, Donald Trump met with the leader of the Teamsters on Wednesday. He agreed to meet with rank-and-file members later this month, the former president and the union stated in releases.

Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, and Trump had “an in-depth and productive discussion on worker issues most important to the Teamsters Union.” The labor organization, representing 1.3 million workers, including truckers, police, nurses, and film crews, posted about the meeting on the X social media platform.

The conference takes place amid a 2024 presidential campaign when unions are vying for power on the economic front, hoping to take advantage of the historic shift in the American labor market and secure a string of recent labor agreements with the backing of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.

If the Republican front-runner wins his party’s nomination, Biden, who defeated Trump’s 2020 reelection attempt and has long emphasized his union credentials, will almost certainly run against the billionaire in November.

“The Teamsters Union is making sure our members’ voices are heard as we head into a critical election year,” O’Brien stated Wednesday night. “There are serious issues that need to be addressed to improve the lives of working people across the country.”

“Looking forward to more discussions about important issues in the near future,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, describing the dinner meeting as “great.”

At a roundtable in Washington in January, he also promised to meet with union employees and other Teamsters leaders, according to the organization.

A self-described tough “SOB,” O’Brien is among a new generation of union leaders hoping to revitalize the struggle for workers’ rights, including Association of Flight Attendants (CWA) President Sara Nelson and United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain. Union members at Detroit’s Big Three automakers, significant airline carrier pilots, and UPS recently obtained labor agreements with significant wage increases and job protections.

Their support may be vital in a presidential contest with a sharply split electorate when a few thousand votes in a few pivotal states might make a huge difference. Trump has already had the backing of blue-collar workers, especially in conservative areas.

Like the Teamsters, the UAW has not yet endorsed a candidate. But before striking historic deals with General Motors (GM.N.), Ford (F.N.), and Chrysler parent Stellantis (STLAM.MI), the union’s head has been skeptical of Trump and welcomed Biden to a walkout picket line last autumn. While not going to a union picket line, Trump did give a speech outside of Detroit, asking autoworkers to back him.

Unions representing public employees have also opposed Trump’s desire to remove federal worker rights to replace loyalists in the civil service.