Editor’s note: The article has been updated to reflect the number of times the union has not endorsed a candidate in recent election cycles.
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters will not issue an endorsement He took part in the presidential election for the first time since 1996 and only the third time since 1960.
Sean O’Brien, chairman of the Teamsters, said: “Neither of the two major candidates has been able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure that the interests of working people always come before the interests of big business.”
“We have demanded commitments from both Trump and Harris not to interfere in key union campaigns or core Teamsters industries – and to respect our members’ right to strike – but we have not been able to achieve those commitments,” O’Brien said.
The Teamsters supported President Biden in the 2020 election and have consistently supported Democratic presidential candidates in the most recent election cycle.
Notably, the union waited significantly longer to announce its decision than other unions and labor organizations, including the United Auto Workers, the National Education Association, the Service Employees International Union and the AFL-CIO, all of which endorsed Biden and then-Vice President Harris after the president dropped out of the race in July.
The Teamsters have supported Republican presidential candidates including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush, and O’Brien’s flirtation with former President Trump and Republicans sparked speculation that the union might once again stand out from the crowd.
O’Brien is trying to gain traction with Republicans like Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) as the union works to push through policy priorities, including the Protecting Workers Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would strengthen workers’ ability to form a union and bargain collectively, and opposition to national right-to-work laws.
The union’s PAC also made its first contribution to the Republican National Committee since 2006 this election cycle. Donation of $45,000 to the committee’s congressional fund about a week before Trump spoke at a Teamsters roundtable in slow January, according to Data from the Federal Election Commission.
The union moderated panel discussions with Harris, Biden and third-party candidates Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West as part of the endorsement process.
Harris supported the PRO Act during the campaign, and O’Brien told reporters on Monday There is “not much difference” between Harris’ roundtable and Biden’s, which the union leader said was “great for the unions.”
Some local Teamsters unions and caucus members, including the National Black Caucus of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, also supported Harris.
However, O’Brien also said his members’ contributions would be a “significant” part of the endorsement process, and recent polls showed members clearly supporting Trump in the presidential race.
While between April 9 and July 3, 44.3 percent of union members supported Biden, compared to 36.3 percent for Trump, polls following the Republican and Democratic conventions found that Teamsters members preferred Trump over Harris.
In a survey commissioned by the union An independent poll conducted between July 24 and September 15 found that 59.6 percent of Teamsters members voted for Trump, compared to 34 percent for Harris.
In a separate poll commissioned by the Teamsters in the week ending September 15, 58 percent of Teamsters members voted for Trump, compared to 31 percent who voted for Harris.
The lack of support is a major blow to Trump, who had invited O’Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention in July as the first Teamsters chairman in the union’s 121-year history.
The move sparked a backlash from union leaders and anti-union activists alike, but gave him a platform to take on corporate bosses, anti-union elites and the status quo in Washington.
“The Teamsters are doing something right if the extremists in both parties think I shouldn’t be on this stage,” O’Brien said.
“At the end of the day, the Teamsters don’t care if you have a D, R or I next to your name. All we want to know is: What are you doing to help American workers?”
However, O’Brien rebuked Trump weeks later after the former president the dismissal of striking workers was threatened during an interview with Elon Musk.
“I mean, I look at what you’re doing,” Trump told Musk. “You come in and say, ‘You want to quit?’ You go on strike, I won’t say the name of the company, but you go on strike, and you say, ‘That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So every one of you is gone.'”
O’Brien called such a proposal “Economic terrorism.”
Trump’s campaign team highlighted the results of the internal polls later Wednesday.
“Although the Teamsters Board of Directors has not expressed formal endorsement, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have made it clear loud and clear: They want President Trump back in the White House! These hardworking men and women are the backbone of America and President Trump will vigorously advocate for them upon his return to the White House,” said Trump’s national press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
The Republican Party is having great difficulty winning union leadership across the board, and according to a recent Gallup poll, Americans are increasingly less likely to agree that Republicans best represent the interests of union members.
According to the Gallup pollSixty-two percent of Americans surveyed believe the Democratic Party best serves union members. By comparison, 27 percent said this about the Republican Party.
“The union voting bloc is particularly important in Pennsylvania, Nevada and Michigan, swing states where the proportion of union members is higher than the national average,” Gallup noted in its analysis.
But union members’ interests in an election go beyond labor issues, and enormous segments of union members and Teamsters could still vote for Trump.
Polls for the 2020 race showed about 40 percent of voters in union households voted for Trump, compared to 56 percent who voted for Biden.
Harris had a 10 points ahead toward Trump in union households in a Fox News poll released last month.
While O’Brien said that “no presidential candidate has earned the support of the Teamsters’ International Union,” he noted that the union “strongly encourages[s] all our members to vote in the upcoming elections and continue to participate in the political process.”
“Democrats, Republicans and independents are proud to call our union home, and we have a duty to represent and respect each and every one of them,” O’Brien said.
Updated at 16:15
