1 day Ago By Megan Lebowitz and Alexandra Marquez
The Teamsters on Wednesday declined to endorse a candidate for president , the first time in decades that the union hasn't backed a candidate in the presidential election. "Neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business," Teamsters General President Sean O'Brien said in a statement. He added, "We sought commitments from both [former president Donald] Trump and [Vice President Kamala] Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries—and to honor our members’ right to strike—but were unable to secure those pledges.
" The union's decision comes two days after senior leaders met with Harris as they weighed whom to endorse. The Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, freight workers and others, held similar meetings with Trump and President Joe Biden when he was still seeking re-election. The union, which at 1.
3 million members is one of the largest in the world, collected input on an endorsement from its members through straw polling and a QR poll from a code printed on a union magazine, a vice president at large of the union, John Palmer, said. On Wednesday, the union released the results of their survey , which was conducted after Biden dropped out of the race. It found that almost 60% of rank-and-file union members preferred to endorse Trump, while 34% backed Harris.
The Teamsters have for decades endorsed Democratic presidential candidates. The union supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. They also backed Barack Obama in both of his presidential runs , John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000.
Over the course of his term, Biden has promoted his support for organized labor and has frequently weighed in on disputes between union workers and corporate leaders. In 2021, he expressed support for the right to unionize in a direct-to-camera video as Amazon workers in Alabama were about to vote on whether to organize. Then-Teamsters president James P.
Hoffa in 2021 credited Biden with including an $83 billion pension-fund bailout in the American Rescue Plan Act, which boosted the Teamsters' Central States pension fund. In 2023, Biden became the first sitting president to join a picket line when he visited striking autoworkers in Michigan. But despite calling himself “the most pro-union President leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” Biden drew criticism from organized labor two years ago when he worked with Congress to pass a law that averted an impending rail strike .
The law forced union workers to accept a union contract that had been brokered by the Biden administration. At the time, four of the 12 unions involved had rejected the deal. As he signed the legislation, Biden called it “a tough [vote] for me,” but cited the need “to keep the supply chains stable around the holidays.
” The International Association of Fire Fighters is the most prominent union that has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate this year. The union endorsed Biden in 2020. The AFL-CIO, which represents dozens of unions and millions of workers, and the United Auto Workers union have each endorsed Harris.
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