The International Brotherhood of Teamsters declined to endorse in the 2024 presidential race, becoming the only one of the nation’s major 10 unions not to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a statement, the union said it had “few commitments on top Teamsters issues from either former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris—and found no definitive support among members for either party’s nominee.”
The Teamsters is one of the largest unions in the U.S., with 1.3 million members, including large numbers of transportation and public works employees.
After the Teamsters general executive board announced it would not endorse, several joint councils representing most active and retired Teamsters in the battleground states of Nevada, Michigan and Wisconsin came out in support of Harris.
“As Vice President of the most pro-union administration ever, Kamala Harris worked with the Teamsters and other union workers to pass the historic Butch Lewis Act which has saved the pensions of over a million retirees to date,” said Bill Carroll, President of Teamsters Joint Council 39, in Wisconsin. “This November we will work with millions of union workers across the country to defeat Donald Trump once again.”
Although the national Teamsters union has endorsed Democrats since 1996, when it did not endorse a candidate, Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention in July. The last time the Teamsters endorsed the GOP candidate in a presidential election was in 1988 for then-candidate George H.W. Bush. They also endorsed Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984 and Richard Nixon in 1972.
In the announcement of its decision Wednesday, the labor union cited a lack of commitment from both Trump and Harris to “not to interfere in critical union campaigns or core Teamsters industries—and to honor our members’ right to strike.” The union said neither candidate pledged to avoid government intervention in railroad or airline strikes. In 2022, Mr. Biden signed legislation that imposed a labor agreement on rail workers to avert a strike during the holidays.
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The Teamsters noted that Harris did pledge to sign the PRO Act, which would strengthen the right to unionize, and Trump would not commit to vetoing “right to work” legislation in a second term.
O’Brien forced the union’s first-ever roundtable interview process for the 2024 endorsement at the end of last year, inviting all major-party candidates to make their case for the union’s support. Union leadership met with former President Donald Trump, as well President Biden earlier this year. In July, Harris replaced Mr. Biden as the Democratic nominee and met with the Teamsters on Monday.
O’Brien said the Monday meeting with Harris focused on the same questions as the previous roundtables with Trump and Mr. Biden. O’Brien said the rank-and-file members advocated for the passage of the PRO Act and the veto of any “Right to Work” laws. He added that Harris acknowledged the diversity of political opinion among the Teamsters, while also criticizing her Republican opponent during the conversation.
“The roundtable went really well,” O’Brien said. “One thing that’s important, we have the same roundtable that we’ve had for all the presidential candidates that have come in. We’ve asked the same question to each candidate, mostly Teamsters specific issues. We also ask questions regarding legislation such as the PRO Act, bankruptcy reform and antitrust.”
O’Brien said earlier this month on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” he hadn’t endorsed in the 2024 presidential race yet because he had yet to meet Harris, and “you don’t hire someone unless you give them an interview.”
The Teamsters executive board met on Wednesday following its meeting with Harris to discuss the endorsement decision.
The union conducted polling before Mr. Biden exited the presidential race, and found a plurality of its members backed him over Trump, 44% to 36%. But in a subsequent poll of Harris and Trump, the former president won far more support, 60% to 34%, and in a second poll that concluded on Sept. 15, members again chose Trump by a large margin, 58% to 31%.
In a statement, the Trump campaign touted the poll numbers showing support, saying that “while the Executive Board of the Teamsters is making no formal endorsement, the vast majority of rank-and-file working men and women in this important organization want President Donald Trump back in the White House.”
In response to the Teamsters’ decision, Harris spokesperson Lauren Hitt touted Harris’ ties to organized labor, pointing out that she walked with a United Auto Workers picket line in 2019. Hitt also noted Trump’s recent comments during an interview with Elon Musk suggesting that striking workers should be fired. The United Auto Workers filed federal labor charges against Musk and Trump, accusing them of trying to “intimidate and threaten” workers.
“As the Vice President told the Teamsters on Monday, when she is elected president, she will look out for the Teamsters rank-and-file no matter what,” Hitt added.
“I work with a lot of Republicans… and I’m getting a lot of positive push for Trump,” said Brett Ohnstad, a Teamsters member and corrections officer in Minnesota. “However, we’re not looking at who’s going to be the candidate that fills the whole gamut. We’re looking here at just who is going to support labor.”
“Our members are the union, and their voices and opinions must be at the forefront of everything the Teamsters do,” O’Brien said. “Our final decision around a possible Presidential endorsement will not be made lightly, but you can be sure it will be driven directly by our diverse membership.”
Some factions within the Teamsters, such as the Teamsters’ National Black Caucus, broke with O’Brien earlier this year and endorsed Harris.
James Curbeam, the head of the Teamsters National Black Caucus, said he was not surprised by the board’s decision but expressed skepticism about how reflective the polling is of the rank-and-file, claiming only a fraction of the total Teamsters membership participated in the online polling. CBS News has reached out to the Teamsters for further details on the polling.
“It’s a disappointment that our overall international [board] didn’t do it, but locals and joint councils know the right thing to do,” Curbeam added.
The decision could influence certain battleground states in the Nov. 5 election where union membership is strong, including Michigan, Nevada and Pennsylvania.
O’Brien made waves at this year’s Republican National Convention after delivering one of the most anti-big business speeches in recent RNC memory and becoming the first boss in the organization’s 121-year history to address the convention. He was not invited to speak at the Democratic National Committee.
“Today, the Teamsters are here to say we are not beholden to anyone or any party,” O’Brien said during the July speech. “We will create an agenda and work with a bipartisan coalition, ready to accomplish something real for the American worker. And I don’t care about getting criticized.”
