West Coast Teamsters introduced their endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, simply minutes after nationwide Teamsters management declined to situation a presidential endorsement.
The transfer represents a pointy break throughout the highly effective union’s membership in liberal states like California, the place former President Donald Trump stays a broadly unpopular political determine. The union’s nationwide headquarters launched inside survey outcomes earlier within the day that confirmed near 60 p.c of its members backed Trump.
Teamsters Joint Councils 7 and 42 — that are made up of 39 native unions representing 300,000 members in California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam — wrote in an announcement that Harris and her operating mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz have a historical past of supporting expanded labor protections for staff, just like the proposed Shield the Proper to Set up Act and a Minnesota regulation that may ban employers from forcing staff to attend anti-labor conferences.
“Teamster members work and reside in cities in addition to in rural communities, come from numerous backgrounds, and have completely different views, however Joint Council 7 and 42 Teamsters refuse to be divided by extremist political forces or grasping firms that wish to see us fail,” mentioned Teamsters Joint Council 7 President Peter Finn. “As Teamsters we’ll stand collectively to have a robust voice on the job, present for our households, and serve the communities the place we work.”
Teamsters Common President Sean O’Brien mentioned the nationwide union declined to endorse after it hadn’t secured pledges from both marketing campaign to not intrude in “in vital union campaigns or core Teamsters industries.”
Neither candidate “was in a position to make critical commitments to our union to make sure the pursuits of working individuals are all the time put earlier than Huge Enterprise,” he wrote in an announcement.
The highly effective union has deep roots within the automotive, warehouse and different blue-collar industries vital to battleground states in locations just like the Midwest. Harris had in current days met with the Teamsters to shore up help among the many traditionally Democratic-leaning bloc, which had made an enchantment to each campaigns to help a union-friendly overhaul of federal labor regulation, chapter reform and antitrust insurance policies.
The union has opposed California insurance policies on autonomous autos over issues about job losses. Finn not too long ago in contrast Gov. Gavin Newsom’s help of the trade to Trump’s insurance policies.
“The fact is now Newsom is popping into Trump,” he mentioned. “He’s performing like a dictator that bullies and disrespects the legislature, and he’s constantly siding together with his wealthy pals and large tech as an alternative of looking for who he was elected to look out for.”
