On Wednesday, the Teamsters refused to confirm a presidential candidateit is the first time in decades that the union has not supported a candidate in the presidential election.
“Both major candidates have failed to make a strong commitment to our union to ensure that the interests of working people always come before Big Business,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in a statement.
He added: “We asked for commitments from both [former president Donald] Trump and [Vice President Kamala] Harris to not interfere with critical union campaigns or Teamsters’ core industries and to respect our members’ right to strike — but failed to deliver on those promises.”
The union’s decision comes two days after senior leaders met with Harris as they weighed who to back.
Similar meetings were held with the Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, trucking workers and others Trump and President Joe Biden while still seeking re-election.
The union, one of the largest unions in the world with 1.3 million members, collected data on its members’ endorsements through a straw poll and QR survey from a code printed in the union magazine, said John Palmer, the union’s vice president.
Communion on Wednesday i announced the resultstetc etcurveyIt was implemented after Biden dropped out of the race. An online member survey found that almost 60% of rank-and-file union members preferred to support Trump, while 34% favored Harris. A telephone poll showed similar results, with 58% supporting Trump and 31% supporting Harris.
The union did not disclose the number of respondents or the error rate.
The Teamsters have been endorsing Democratic presidential candidates for decades. Union supported Hillary Clinton In 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. He also supported Barack Obama in both his presidential bid, John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000.
In an email Wednesday, the Trump campaign highlighted the Teamsters’ request.
“While the Teamsters Board of Directors has not made any official endorsement, hard-working members of the Teamsters have spoken loud and clear – they want President Trump back in the White House!” Caroline Leavitt, spokeswoman of the election campaign, said this. “These hard-working men and women are the backbone of America, and President Trump will stand up for them when he returns to the White House.”
Trump told reporters Wednesday that the union’s decision not to endorse the nominee was a “great honor.”
“The Teamsters carry a lot of weight. Democrats can’t believe it,” Trump said. “Look, it was always automatic for Democrats to buy Teams, and they said, ‘We’re not going to support Democrats this year,’ so it was an honor for me.”
Harris campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt pointed to local Teamsters chapters endorsing the vice president.
“The Vice President’s strong union record is such that Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed him — along with the vast majority of organized labor,” Hitt said in a statement. “As the Vice President told Teamsters on Monday, when he’s elected president, he’s going to look out for the Teamsters rank-and-file no matter what — because they’ve always been and always will be the people who fought for him.”
During his presidency, Biden promoted his support for organized labor and often discussed disputes between union workers and corporate leaders. He said in 2021 support for the right to union In a live-camera video, Amazon workers in Alabama were about to vote on whether to unionize.
In 2021, then Teamsters President James P. Hoffa Biden is considered Including an $83 billion pension fund bailout to the American Rescue Plan Act, which boosted the Teamsters’ Central States pension fund.
Biden in 2023 became the first president to join the picket While visiting striking auto workers in Michigan.
But nevertheless calls himself “The most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” Biden said two years ago, drawing criticism from organized labor as he worked with Congress to pass legislation. prevented an impending railroad strike.
The law forced union workers to accept a union contract brokered by the Biden administration. At that time, four of the 12 participating unions rejected the contract.
As he signed the legislation, Biden called it “tough.” [vote] for me,” he said, but noted the need to “keep supply chains stable during the holidays.”
The International Association of Fire Fighters is the most prominent union yet to endorse a presidential candidate this year. The union endorsed Biden in 2020.
The AFL-CIO and the United Auto Workers, which represent dozens of unions and millions of workers, each endorsed Harris.