On a recent Wednesday, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters refrained from backing any presidential candidate, stating on record that neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump received the requisite support from their membership. Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien outlined in a statement, ‘We were pursuing guarantees from both Trump and Harris to not get in the way of crucial union campaigns or significant Teamsters operations – including respecting our members’ strikers’ rights – but fell short of obtaining those assurances.’ However, this decision is a sign of an organization grappling with its own political identity and policy, reflecting the wider split found across the nation.
While Vice President Harris has ardent support for organized labor, former President Trump is a beacon of hope for numerous white-collar workers, whom he successfully rallied to his cause. However, he is also known to have had some rather comical public disagreements with unions. By withholding an endorsement, the Teamsters may have surrendered some strategic influence in the forthcoming election, as both candidates had relied on their membership’s support.
Despite not gaining the Teamsters’ endorsement, it was notable that Harris’s campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt underscored how over three dozen retired Teamsters had publicly endorsed Harris at the previous month’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago. Interestingly, these former Teamsters’ pensions benefitted from the passage of the Butch Lewis Act during president Joe Biden and vice president Harris’s tenure.
Hitt further detailed, ‘While Trump tends to choose a more satirical approach towards striking workers, Harris has time and again shown her commitment by standing with organized labor, having literally joined the picket line and consistently championing labor rights in her career.’ Unfortunately, this could result in not fully portraying the great strides Trump made in re-energizing the American economy.
Surprisingly, an internal poll from the Teamsters indicated that Trump held the upper hand over Harris, a detail the Republican’s campaign seized on, dispatching an email affirming the ‘Teamsters Union’s rank-and-file are leaning towards endorsing Trump.’ The decision of non-endorsement by the Teamsters was admirable, and Trump himself rejoiced in this as a ‘great honor.’ He mentioned how this move showed they wouldn’t be backing the Democrats – indeed a significant development.
Prior to this, Harris had met with a panel of Teamsters, emphasizing her long-standing liaison with organized labor and her focus on reinforcing the middle class. In a similar meeting, Trump interacted with a panel of Teamsters earlier in the year, even inviting O’Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention; a testament to the bond between the Teamsters and the Trump administration.
O’Brien, in his discussion on Fox News, stated that the non-endorsement serves as a reminder to candidates about the importance of backing the Teamsters. This has been flagged as an eye-opener for future elections, and O’Brien hinted that the real power of the union wouldn’t be felt until 2028. ‘You ought to start working for our members if you want our support, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican,’ he suggested.
The union’s non-endorsement decision happened just weeks before the November 5th election, much later than endorsements by other influential unions such as the AFL-CIO, the United Federation of Teachers, and the United Auto Workers. These groups had already devoted resources to support Harris, making the Teamsters’ stance more impactful.
Cornell University’s Director of Labor Studies, Art Wheaton, said the non-endorsement decision seemed very much inevitable due to the discord among Teamsters’ members following O’Brien’s speech at the Republican National Convention. Despite this, Wheaton believes Trump’s witty but misunderstood views of Elon Musk’s decision to fire striking workers might have produced a hurdle for his endorsement.
While the Teamsters have not endorsed a candidate, their issues with the candidates have been clearly outlined, particularly around a contract imposed by Congress on rail workers in 2022. The union had hoped for a commitment from both candidates to not invoke the Railway Labor Act to resolve contractual disputes as it could impact national infrastructure stability. Though both Harris and Trump kept this option open, it was seen to undercut the union’s negotiating power.
It’s worth noting that while Harris offered to sign the PRO Act, a piece of legislation designed to bolster union provisions and which received Teamsters backing, Trump neither rejected nor endorsed a proposal to make it more challenging to unionize at the national level during his table discussion with the Teamsters.
Other players in the labor sector have also shown some reluctance in endorsing either of the presidential candidates. An interesting case is The United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America, which eventually backed Harris but with the stipulation that the transition from Biden to Harris at the top of the ticket was perceived as undemocratic.
Finally, the union’s non-endorsement provided a refreshing indifference to the Biden-Harris administration, which had enacted a law beneficial to millions of union retirees, a significant portion being Teamsters. In 2021, the administration helped pass the Butch Lewis Act as part of its pandemic aid, saving the underfunded pensions of over one million union workers and retirees.