The Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters is just not endorsing anybody for president.
The union’s government board mentioned Wednesday that it discovered “no definitive assist amongst members for both social gathering’s nominee,” so it determined to not again both the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris, or her GOP opponent, former President Donald Trump.
“Sadly, neither main candidate was capable of make critical commitments to our union to make sure the pursuits of working persons are at all times put earlier than Huge Enterprise,” the union’s president, Sean O’Brien, mentioned in an announcement.
Though the 1.3-million-member union isn’t formally backing anybody, its non-endorsement may very well be seen as a snub of Harris. In spite of everything, organized labor tends to assist Democrats, and a lot of the largest unions rapidly bought behind Harris’ candidacy when she changed President Joe Biden atop the Democratic ticket.
The Teamsters additionally gave Trump a lift by releasing figures displaying its members most popular Trump over Harris in latest inner polls ― one thing the Trump marketing campaign rapidly blasted out in a press launch.
O’Brien has mentioned the Teamsters wouldn’t again Democratic politicians by default, and he angered plenty of members and leaders in his personal union by cultivating a relationship with Trump. The Teamsters chief even took the extremely uncommon step of searching for after which accepting a talking slot at this summer season’s Republican Nationwide Conference, praising Trump as “one powerful SOB.”
“I refuse to maintain doing the identical issues my predecessors did,” O’Brien mentioned in his speech, at instances criticizing each Democrats and Republicans. “At this time the Teamsters are right here to say we’re not beholden to anybody or any social gathering.”
However a number of native associates of the Teamsters, in addition to its Black caucus, have come out in assist of Harris, saying one other Trump presidency can be horrible for unions. Two of the union’s joint councils, representing a mixed 300,000 members in California, Hawaii, Nevada and Guam, endorsed Harris on Wednesday proper after the chief council introduced it’s non-endorsement.
The Republican former president had an undeniably anti-labor file throughout his first time period, when he weakened office protections, attacked federal worker unions and made it tougher for employees to prepare. Trump has given no indication that he would break from such insurance policies in a second time period.
In the meantime, many labor historians agree that the Biden-Harris administration has the most pro-union file at the very least since Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Biden has known as out companies for union-busting, walked a picket line in assist of strikers, and formed a extremely progressive Nationwide Labor Relations Board that’s making it simpler to type unions.
The present administration may take credit score for safeguarding 1000’s of Teamsters’ retirements via an $86 billion pension rescue that obtained no Republican assist within the Senate.
