Former longtime Teamsters President Jim Hoffa blasted his successor on Thursday for the union’s controversial choice to not endorse Kamala Harris for president.
Hoffa accused the union’s present chief, Sean O’Brien, of a “failure of management,” saying the Teamsters’ non-endorsement would enhance the marketing campaign of former President Donald Trump. He known as it “a crucial error” on O’Brien’s half.
“There is just one candidate on this race that has supported working households and unions all through their profession, and that’s Vice President Kamala Harris,” he stated in an announcement despatched to reporters.
Hoffa, the son of Jimmy Hoffa, headed the union for 23 years earlier than stepping down in 2022. He stated he oversaw the presidential endorsement course of six occasions throughout his tenure.
“In each case, we supported the candidate that demonstrated a confirmed monitor document of preventing for working People and unions,” Hoffa stated.
O’Brien introduced Wednesday that the 1.3-million-member Teamsters wouldn’t be endorsing Harris or Trump, saying the union discovered “no definitive assist amongst members for both social gathering’s nominee.” The union additionally launched inner polling the identical day displaying members most well-liked Trump to Harris.
“There is just one candidate on this race that has supported working households and unions all through their profession, and that’s Vice President Kamala Harris.”
– Former Teamsters President Jim Hoffa
The announcement from the worldwide union angered progressive members — and prompted a slew of its native associates to declare their backing for Harris.
As of Thursday afternoon, 11 Teamster locals and joint councils had endorsed the Democrat inside a 24-hour span, together with some within the swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, in response to a tally supplied by the Harris marketing campaign.
Requested for a response to Hoffa’s feedback, Teamsters spokesperson Kara Deniz supplied an announcement calling the previous union chief “an armchair quarterback.”
“The Teamsters Union misplaced a whole bunch of hundreds of members below Hoffa’s failed management,” the union stated. “As we efficiently construct again that member density below Sean O’Brien, we are going to proceed to assist and respect all our members — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.”
Main unions just like the Teamsters are likely to again Democratic candidates for workplace, since Democrats typically assist unions whereas most Republicans, together with Trump, are hostile to them. The Teamsters endorsed Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Invoice Clinton for president, although the union supported George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan in earlier years.
Not endorsing anybody this cycle means the union received’t be mobilizing its political program for both social gathering on the prime of the ticket, successfully benefiting Trump.
As Hoffa put it, “By the [union] selecting to not endorse Harris-Walz, the invaluable impression these grassroots efforts signify can be absent in crucial battleground states.”
The Teamsters additionally handed Trump a public-relations win: The GOP candidate’s marketing campaign gleefully blasted out the polling numbers the union launched, calling it proof rank-and-file members again the Republican.
O’Brien has stated that members of each events have let organized labor down and vowed that the union wouldn’t be “beholden” to both. He even requested for and accepted a talking slot on the Republican Nationwide Conference this summer time, a call that infuriated left-leaning union members given the social gathering’s monitor document on labor.
In that speech, O’Brien known as on each Democrats and Republicans to assist staff and praised Trump as “one robust SOB.”
