Sean O’Brien has a long family legacy at the Teamsters: his great-grandfather, grandfather and father were all Teamster union members in Boston. O’Brien joined the union after dropping out of college at age 19 to haul equipment on construction sites in 1991. Thirty-two years later, he is on the verge of leading the union in one of the biggest – and costliest – strikes at a single private employer in US history.
The Teamsters have 1.2 million members, making it one of the largest unions in the world. Its membership is diverse, ranging from police to bakers, but it is most famous for representing freight drivers and warehouse workers. The shipping and logistics giant UPS is the single largest employer in the Teamsters Union.
