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PBS News Hour - Segments

Teamsters president on Trump’s economic agenda: ‘They made a lot of promises’

PBS News Hour - Segments

PBS NewsHour

News, Daily News

4.11K Ratings

🗓️ 11 March 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

President Trump’s Cabinet is now complete. The Senate confirmed Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer in a broadly bipartisan vote. The former Oregon congresswoman picked up support early on in the nomination process from labor groups, including the Teamsters. Geoff Bennett discussed the confirmation and President Trump's economic agenda with Teamsters President Sean O’Brien. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders

Transcript

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0:00.0

President Trump's cabinet is now complete. The U.S. Senate late yesterday confirmed President Trump's

0:06.1

final cabinet secretary in a broadly bipartisan vote. Former Oregon Congresswoman and now Labor

0:12.5

Secretary Lori Chavez-Durreemar picked up support early on in the nomination process from labor groups,

0:18.4

including one of the largest unions, the Teamsters, with its 1.3 million

0:23.0

members. We're joined now by Teamsters president, Sean O'Brien, to talk about that and more.

0:27.9

Welcome back to the news hour, sir. So let's start with the confirmation of Lori Chavez-Durreemer as

0:31.8

labor secretary. You've said that the Teamsters were largely influential in President Trump's

0:37.1

selection of her.

0:38.2

Why is she the right choice to serve as Labor Secretary right now?

0:43.0

Well, she's definitely the right choice.

0:44.7

I mean, she's always been pro-worker.

0:46.7

She's a daughter of a retired Teamster.

0:49.1

And she was the right choice, and she was the only choice.

0:52.6

We lobbied President Trump right after the election very hard, saying that, stating our case that, you know, he made a lot of promises and commitments and he lived up to his commitment as far as making certain that working people, especially union people, were taking care of and that we have a seat at the table.

1:08.7

And as a result of Secretary de Rieman's confirmation, we certainly do have a seat at the table. And as a result of Secretary de Rima's confirmation,

1:12.9

we certainly do have a seat at that table. So beyond having a seat at the table, how can she

1:17.5

effectively champion what you would see as pro-union policy in an administration that has

1:22.7

taken anti-worker stances as many people see it. Right.

1:27.7

Well, I mean, look, she's going to have pressure from the administration.

1:32.1

But remember one thing, we rallied labor after the election to support her confirmation.

1:38.5

I think it was the second most bipartisan confirmation.

1:42.7

So we do have credibility and influence. And I believe through

...

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