Teamsters union declines to endorse Trump or Harris in presidential race : NPR

Teamsters Normal President Sean M. O’Brien speaks throughout a rally with employees and union members as a part of an “Amazon Teamsters Day of Solidarity” on Aug. 29, 2024 in Lengthy Seashore, California.

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

cover caption

toggle caption

Patrick T. Fallon/AFP by way of Getty Photographs

The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters isn’t endorsing a candidate for president, in a transfer that breaks with many years of Teamsters precedent and units them aside from different main labor unions.

“After reviewing six months of nationwide member polling and wrapping up almost a yr of rank-and-file roundtable interviews with all main candidates for the presidency, the union was left with few commitments on high Teamsters points from both former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris—and located no definitive assist amongst members for both get together’s nominee,” the Teamsters government board introduced Wednesday.

The announcement comes as a blow to Vice President Kamala Harris, who met with Teamsters management for a roundtable dialogue on Monday. The union launched an inner, digital ballot earlier Wednesday that confirmed almost 60% of members wished management to again Trump. An inner ballot carried out by cellphone confirmed 58% of members supported Trump, in comparison with 31% backing Harris.

Harris has gained the assist of many key labor teams, together with the United Auto Employees, the AFL-CIO, the Nationwide Training Affiliation and American Federation of Lecturers, and the Culinary Union in Nevada. The Teamsters has multiple million members nationwide.

“Whereas Donald Trump says putting employees must be fired, Vice President Harris has actually walked the picket line and stood sturdy with organized labor for her complete profession,” Harris spokesperson Lauren Hitt mentioned in a press release. “The vice chairman’s sturdy union document is why Teamsters locals throughout the nation have already endorsed her — alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor.”

“Because the vice chairman instructed the Teamsters on Monday, when she is elected president, she’s going to look out for the Teamsters rank-and-file it doesn’t matter what — as a result of they at all times have been and at all times would be the individuals she fights for,” Hitt added.

The Trump marketing campaign, in the meantime, touted the union’s inner polling Wednesday, saying “whereas the Govt Board of the Teamsters is making no formal endorsement, the overwhelming majority of rank-and-file working women and men on this vital group need President Donald Trump again within the White Home.”

Teamsters President Sean O’Brien has burdened that this yr’s endorsement course of included a whole bunch of small conferences at Teamsters locals throughout the nation. Moreover, union members have been inspired to weigh in with their opinion on who to endorse by utilizing a bar-code and their smart-phone.

Union employees have been a key demographic for each Democrats and Republicans on this election, given their outsize affect in key states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Nevada. One in each 5 voters in swing states is a union employee, in response to AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler.

Previous to this cycle, the Teamsters had endorsed each Democratic presidential nominee since Invoice Clinton. However O’Brien made headlines in July when he grew to become the primary Teamsters president to talk on the Republican Nationwide Conference within the union’s historical past.

“The Teamsters will not be when you’ve got a D, R, or an I subsequent to your identify.,” O’Brien mentioned throughout his primetime RNC remarks. “We need to know one factor: What are you doing to assist American employees?” He went on to reward former President Trump as “a candidate who isn’t afraid of listening to from new, loud, and sometimes important voices,” and “one robust S.O.B.” in mild of the July 13 try on his life at a Butler, Pa. rally.

O’Brien urged Republicans to undertake a extra labor-friendly agenda, reform labor legal guidelines and defend employees from “company elites. Lower than a month later, although, Trump praised Tesla CEO Elon Musk for threatening to fireside putting employees.

“They go on strike and also you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone,'” Trump mentioned to Musk throughout a dialog on X, previously often called Twitter. These feedback prompted the United Auto Employees to file federal labor prices towards Trump and Musk. In a assertion to Politico, O’Brien mentioned “firing employees for organizing, putting, and exercising their rights as Individuals is financial terrorism.”

Democrats have traditionally carried union households by giant margins. However in 2016, Trump was capable of lower into that lead, serving to him win Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and the presidency. 4 years later, President Biden gained every of these states.

The Teamsters’ inner polling confirmed that between April and July, roughly 44 p.c of union members wished management to endorse Biden, whereas roughly 36 p.c supported backing Trump. However Harris gained solely 34 p.c of member assist within the digital inner ballot between July and September. Some native Teamsters branches, in addition to the Teamsters Nationwide Black Caucus, have endorsed Harris since she entered the race.

Of their announcement, Teamsters management mentioned they have been “unable to safe” key commitments on labor points from both candidate. However Harris did decide to signal the PRO Act, a invoice that expands protections for employees to prepare and discount, and criticized “proper to work” legal guidelines, which stop unions from requiring dues and costs. Trump wouldn’t decide to vetoing nationwide “proper to work” legal guidelines, which management referred to as a “purple line.”

Harley Shaiken, a labor analyst at UC Berkeley, referred to as the Teamsters determination to remain impartial “a really vital mistake.”

“Probably the most pivotal U.S. presidential election within the reminiscence of most individuals, and some of the vital unions is saying, ‘we’ll sit this one out.’ There’s one thing about that image that does not fairly make sense,” Shaiken mentioned.