The Teamsters on Wednesday refused to endorse a presidential candidate, the first time in decades that the union has not endorsed a candidate in a presidential election.
“Neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure that the interests of working people are always put before Big Business,” Teamsters General Manager Sean O’Brien said in a statement.
He added: “We are looking for commitments from both [former president Donald] Trump and [Vice President Kamala] Harris does not interfere with critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries — and respects our members’ right to strike — but failed to deliver on those promises.”
The union’s decision came two days after top executives met with Harris to weigh who to endorse.
The Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, freight workers and others, held similar meetings with Trump and President Joe Biden while he was still seeking re-election.
The union, which has 1.3 million members and is one of the largest in the world, gathered the views of its members through straw polls and QR voting based on a code printed in the union’s magazine, union vice president John Palmer said.
On Wednesday, the association released the results of its investigation, which was conducted after Biden dropped out of the race. According to an online membership survey, nearly 60 percent of union members preferred Trump, while 34 percent supported Harris. The telephone poll showed similar results, with 58% supporting Trump and 31% supporting Harris.
The association has not announced the number of participants in the survey or the margin of error.
The Teamsters have supported Democratic presidential candidates for decades. The union supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. It also supported Barack Obama in both presidential elections, John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000.
The Trump campaign highlighted the Teamsters vote in an email Wednesday.
“Although the Teamsters Executive Board is not giving a formal endorsement, the hard-working members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear – they want President Trump back in the White House!” said campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt in a statement. “These hard-working men and women are the backbone of America, and President Trump will strongly defend them when he returns to the White House.”
Trump told reporters Wednesday that the union’s decision not to endorse a candidate was a “great honor.”
“The Teamsters have a lot of weight. The Democrats can’t believe it,” Trump said. “Look, it was always automatic that the Democrats got the Teamsters, and they said, ‘We’re not going to support the Democrats this year,’ so that was an honor for me.”
Harris campaign spokeswoman Lauren Hitt pointed to local Teamsters chapters that supported the vice president.
“The vice president’s strong union affiliation is why Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed him — along with the vast majority of organized labor,” Hitt said in a statement. “As the vice president told the Teamsters on Monday, when he’s elected president, he’ll be watching the Teamsters regardless of rank — because they always have been and always will be the people he’s fighting for.”
During his presidency, Biden has promoted his support for organized labor and has often addressed disputes between union workers and business leaders. In 2021, he voiced his support for the right to organize in a direct-to-camera video while Amazon workers in Alabama were voting to organize.
Then-Teamsters President James P. Hoffa credited Biden with including an $83 billion pension rescue package in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, which strengthened the Teamsters’ Central State pension fund.
In 2023, Biden became the first sitting president to join the line when he visited striking autoworkers in Michigan.
Despite calling himself “the most pro-union president presiding over the most pro-union administration in American history,” Biden drew criticism from organized labor two years ago when he worked with Congress to pass legislation that prevented a threatened rail strike.
The law forced union workers to accept a union contract brokered by the Biden administration. At that time, four of the 12 unions had rejected the agreement.
When signing the law into law, Biden called it “tough.” [vote] to me,” but cited the need to “keep supply chains stable during the holidays.”
The International Association of Fire Fighters is the most prominent union that has yet to endorse a presidential candidate this year. The union endorsed Biden in 2020.
The AFL-CIO, which represents dozens of unions and millions of workers, and the United Auto Workers union have both endorsed Harris.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
