The International Teamsters union on Wednesday refused to endorse Kamala Harris or Donald Trump for president, saying neither candidate has enough support from the union's 1.3 million members.
“Unfortunately, neither major candidate has been able to seriously promise our union that workers' interests will always come before big business,” Teamsters President Sean M. O'Brien said in a statement. “We asked both Trump and Harris for a commitment to not interfere in vital union work or in the Teamsters' core industries, and to respect our members' right to strike, but we did not receive that commitment.”
On Monday, Vice President Harris met with the Teamsters board, a union that has long backed labor unions and made helping the middle class a key policy goal. President Trump also met with the board and invited O'Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention, where the union leader railed against corporate greed.
The Teamsters announced Wednesday that an internal poll of union members showed Trump ahead of Harris.
The Teamsters' choice not to endorse came just weeks before the Nov. 5 election, much later than other large labor unions, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers and the United Auto Workers, which chose to back Harris.
In a statement, the Teamsters detailed their opposition to the candidates, including their opposition to the Congress' 2022 contract for union members who work in the rail sector.
The union had asked both candidates to promise not to use the Railroad Labor Act to resolve contract disputes and avoid shutting down the nation's infrastructure, but both Harris and Trump wanted to keep that option open, despite the Teamsters' argument that it would weaken their negotiating power.
Harris has pledged to sign the PRO Act, which would strengthen union protections, and is supported by the Teamsters. She has also criticized states for enacting laws that make it harder to unionize. President Trump, during a roundtable with the Teamsters in January, did not commit to veto proposals that would make it harder to unionize nationwide.
Other unions have expressed reservations about backing one of the two presidential candidates. The United Electrical, Radio and Mechanical Workers union ultimately endorsed Harris on Friday, but with the caveat that “the manner in which party leaders have replaced Biden with Vice President Kamala Harris as their top choice has been completely undemocratic,” union officials said in a statement.
But the Teamsters' lack of support suggests disinterest from the Biden-Harris administration, which passed legislation to save the pensions of millions of union retirees, including Teamsters members.
As part of the 2021 pandemic aid package, the administration included the Butch Lewis Act to relieve shortfalls in pensions and retiree benefits for more than 1 million union members. The legislation is named after the retired Ohio truck driver and Teamsters union leader, who spent his final years fighting to block massive cuts to the Teamsters' Central States Pension Fund.
