(WASHINGTON) — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters announced on Wednesday that it would not endorse either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris for president. The union stated that neither candidate had garnered enough support from its 1.3 million members.
“Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters President Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement. “We sought commitments from both Trump and Harris not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries — and to honor our members’ right to strike — but were unable to secure those pledges.”
The Teamsters’ decision reflects a division within the labor union, mirroring the broader national divide. While Vice President Harris has consistently supported organized labor, former President Trump has appealed to many white blue-collar workers, even as he has occasionally expressed disdain for unions. By refraining from endorsing either candidate, the Teamsters effectively diminish their influence in the November election, as both candidates claimed to have support among its members.
Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt stated in an email that over three dozen retired Teamsters endorsed Harris at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last month. She emphasized that their pensions were protected by the 2021 passage of the Butch Lewis Act, which President Joe Biden and Harris championed.
“While Donald Trump says striking workers should be fired, Vice President Harris has literally walked the picket line and stood strong with organized labor for her entire career,” Hitt said. “The Vice President’s strong union record is why Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her — alongside the overwhelming majority of organized labor.”
The Teamsters disclosed on Wednesday that internal polling indicated Trump held an advantage over Harris. The Republican campaign quickly seized upon this information, sending out an email proclaiming that “the rank-and-file of the Teamsters Union supports Donald Trump for President.”
Trump described the Teamsters’ decision not to endorse as “a great honor.”
“It’s a great honor,” he said. “They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing.”
Harris met with a panel of Teamsters on Monday, having long courted organized labor and made support for the middle class her central policy priority. Trump also met with a panel of Teamsters in January, even inviting O’Brien to speak at the Republican National Convention, where the union leader criticized corporate greed.
In an interview on Fox News on Wednesday, O’Brien stated that the lack of an endorsement serves as a message to candidates that they must support the Teamsters in the future. “This should be an eye opener for 2028,” he said. “If people want the support of the most powerful union in North America, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican, start doing some things to support our members,” he said.
The Teamsters’ decision to not endorse came just weeks before the election, significantly later than endorsements from other major unions like the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers, and the United Auto Workers, who have chosen to dedicate resources to mobilizing votes for Harris.
Given the backlash O’Brien faced from some Teamsters’ members after speaking at the Republican National Convention, the union’s decision to forgo an endorsement is not surprising, according to Art Wheaton, director of labor studies at Cornell University.
Trump’s praise of Tesla CEO Elon Musk for firing workers who allegedly went on strike made a Trump endorsement highly unlikely, Wheaton said. “The members were not in total agreement,” he said.
Marick Masters, a business professor emeritus at Wayne State University in Detroit who closely follows labor issues, suggested that the Teamsters’ lack of an endorsement reflects a shift in the union’s membership.
For many workers, issues such as gun control, abortion, and border security outweigh Trump’s hostility toward unions, Masters said.
The Teamsters outlined their objections to the candidates in a statement, beginning with their opposition to a contract implemented by Congress in 2022 for members working in the railroad sector.
The union wanted both candidates to commit to not utilizing the Railway Labor Act to resolve contract disputes and prevent a shutdown of national infrastructure, but Harris and Trump both favored keeping that option open, despite the Teamsters’ concerns that it would weaken their bargaining power.
Harris has pledged to sign the PRO Act, which would strengthen union protections, a proposal supported by the Teamsters. However, Trump, during his roundtable with the Teamsters, did not promise to veto a proposal aimed at making unionization more difficult nationwide.
Other unions have also expressed hesitation about endorsing either presidential candidate. The United Electrical, Radio & Machine Workers of America ultimately endorsed Harris on Friday, but added a caveat that “the manner in which party leaders engineered Biden’s replacement at the top of the ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris was thoroughly undemocratic,” union leadership said in a statement.
The Teamsters’ lack of endorsement also indicates indifference toward the Biden-Harris administration, which enacted legislation saving the pensions of millions of union retirees, including many Teamsters members.
As part of its 2021 pandemic aid package, the administration included the Butch Lewis Act to protect the underfunded pensions of more than 1 million union workers and retirees. The act was named after a retired Ohio trucker and Teamsters union leader who spent the latter years of his life advocating to prevent substantial cuts to the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund.
___
AP writers Fatima Hussein and Michelle Price contributed to this report.
