By Joah Boak | Related Press
WASHINGTON — The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters declined Wednesday to endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president, saying neither candidate had enough assist from the 1.3 million-member union.
“Unfortunately, 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 President Sean M. O’Brien stated in a press release. “We sought commitments from both Trump and 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.”
Nevertheless, in keeping with a report in Politico, West Coast Teamsters introduced their endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, simply minutes after nationwide Teamsters management declined to difficulty a presidential endorsement.
The nationwide Teamsters’ rebuff mirrored a labor union torn over problems with political id and coverage, one which mirrors a broader nationwide divide. Vice President Harris has unmistakably backed organized labor, whereas former President Trump has appealed to many white blue-collar staff at the same time as he has overtly scorned unions at occasions. By not endorsing anybody, the Teamsters are primarily ceding some affect in November’s election as each candidates claimed to have assist from its members.
“While Donald Trump says striking workers should be fired, Vice President Harris has literally walked the picket line and stood strong with organized labor for her entire career,” Hitt stated. “The Vice President’s strong union record is why Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her — alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor.”
Trump known as the Teamsters’ choice to not endorse “a great honor.”
“It’s a great honor,” he stated. “They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing.”
Harris met Monday with a panel of Teamsters, having lengthy courted organized labor and made assist for the center class her central coverage aim. Trump additionally met with a panel of Teamsters in January and even invited O’Brien to talk on the Republican Nationwide Conference, the place the union chief railed towards company greed.
The Teamsters’ option to not endorse got here simply weeks forward of the Nov. 5 election, far later than endorsements by different giant unions such because the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Academics and the United Auto Staff which have chosen to commit assets to getting out the vote for Harris.
With O’Brien dealing with a backlash from some Teamsters’ members after talking on the Republican Nationwide Conference, it’s no shock that the union determined to not make an endorsement, stated Artwork Wheaton, director of labor research at Cornell College.
Trump’s reward of Tesla CEO Elon Musk for firing staff who supposedly went on strike actually made a Trump endorsement most unlikely, Wheaton stated. “The members were not in total agreement,” he stated.
Marick Masters, a enterprise professor emeritus at Wayne State College in Detroit who follows labor points, stated the Teamsters lack of an endorsement suggests a realignment throughout the union’s membership.
For a lot of staff, points akin to gun management, abortion and border safety override Trump’s expressions of hostility to unions, Masters stated.
The Teamsters detailed their objections to the candidates in a press release, beginning with their objection to a contract carried out by Congress in 2022 on members working within the railroad sector.
The union needed each candidates to decide to not deploying the Railway Labor Act to resolve contract disputes and keep away from a shutdown of nationwide infrastructure, however Harris and Trump each needed to maintain that choice open despite the fact that the Teamsters stated it could scale back its bargaining energy.
Harris has pledged to signal the PRO Act, which might strengthen union protections and is one thing the Teamsters assist. Trump, in his roundtable with the Teamsters, didn’t promise to veto a proposal to make it more durable nationwide to unionize.
Different unions have proven trepidation about endorsing both presidential candidate. The United Electrical, Radio & Machine Staff of America on Friday finally endorsed Harris with a caveat that “the manner in which party leaders engineered Biden’s replacement at the top of the ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris was thoroughly undemocratic,” union management stated in a press release.
However the Teamsters lack of endorsement additionally suggests an indifference to the Biden-Harris administration, which signed into legislation a measure that saved the pensions of thousands and thousands of union retirees, together with many within the Teamsters.
As a part of its 2021 pandemic assist, the administration included the Butch Lewis Act to save lots of the underfunded pensions of greater than 1 million union staff and retirees’ underfunded pensions. The act was named after a retired Ohio trucker and Teamsters union chief who spent the final years of his life combating to forestall huge cuts to the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund.
AP writers Fatima Hussein and Michelle Worth contributed to this report.
