Teamsters say they won’t endorse in presidential race

After reviewing internal polling of its members that showed overwhelming support for Republican presidential nominee and former president Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election, the executive board of the Teamsters International union has announced it will make no formal endorsement in the race.

It is the first time in almost 30 years that the powerful union, which has approximately 1.3 million members, has not endorsed a presidential candidate — it sat out the 1996 presidential election.

“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 O’Brien said. “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 union said it had conducted in-person straw polls from April through September and had commissioned independent polling of rank-and-file members nationwide. It wasn’t close in any of those survey arenas.

In an electronic member poll conducted between July 24 and September 15, Trump garnered 59.6 percent of the presidential preference compared to 34 percent for Harris. In a research telephone poll conducted after both major party conventions were held, Trump took 58 percent of the preference responses compared to 31 percent for Harris.

Those polls represented a major shift in the union political landscape from earlier this year. In a series of town hall straw polls conducted April 9 through July 3, when President Joe Biden was still in the race, Biden beat Trump 44.3 percent to 36.3 percent. Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., took 5.6 percent of the preference vote.

Those numbers played a major part in the decision not to endorse a candidate, but in a statement the Teamsters executive board said it was also because the candidates would not make major commitments on issues near-and-dear to the union’s heart.

“After reviewing six months of nationwide member polling and wrapping up nearly a year of rank-and-file roundtable interviews with all major candidates for the presidency, the union was left with 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 union reported. “The union’s extensive member polling showed no majority support for Vice President Harris and no universal support among the membership for President Trump.”

O’Brien said the mission for union leadership was to be honest and upfront, to be inclusive and, above all, to be transparent with its membership. 

“As the strongest and most democratic labor union in America, it was vital for our members to drive this endorsement process,” he said. “Democrats, Republicans, and independents proudly call our union home, and we have a duty to represent and respect every one of them. We strongly encourage all our members to vote in the upcoming election, and to remain engaged in the political process. But this year, no candidate for president has earned the endorsement of the Teamsters’ International Union.”

Among other things, O’Brien said the Teamsters had shared feedback from members in the railroad and airline industries who work under the Railway Labor Act (RLA) and who they say are at the mercy of government intervention that often prevents work stoppages. 

“While 10,000 Teamsters at United Airlines are currently negotiating a new agreement, tens of thousands of railroad Teamsters were forced to accept a new contract implemented by Congress without member support in 2022,” the union board stated. “In roundtable discussions with Trump in January and Harris this month, neither candidate promised not to intervene to force similar RLA contracts, which undermines workers’ bargaining leverage.”

O’Brien said Harris did pledge, if elected, to sign the PRO Act, which he calls an essential piece of labor legislation strengthening union protections, and she criticized “right to work” laws that he said are enacted to bankrupt unions. Trump, the union stated, would not commit to veto national ‘right to work’ legislation if he returned to the White House.

“‘Right to work’ laws only exist to try to kill labor unions,” said Teamsters general secretary-treasurer Fred Zuckerman. “It is a red line for the Teamsters and must be for any union when a candidate for elected office does not oppose such anti-worker legislation. It’s too important an issue for the labor movement as a whole to be left up to state legislatures.”

The Trump campaign celebrated the union’s neutrality.

“While the Teamsters executive board is making no formal endorsement, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been loud and clear — they want President Trump back in the White House,” Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said. “These hardworking men and women are the backbone of America and President Trump will strongly stand up for them when he’s back in the White House.”

Not in Wisconsin

The international union may have made no endorsement, but that wasn’t true of multiple Teamsters locals and leaders in Wisconsin, and the Harris campaign said it was receiving grassroots support from Teamsters’ locals around the country.

On September 19, the Harris campaign announced that joint Teamster councils representing more than half a million union members in Michigan, Nevada, Wisconsin, and other states had endorsed Harris, building on previous endorsements by locals in Philadelphia and the Teamsters’ National Black Caucus and retirees.

Michigan Teamsters Joint Council 43 president Kevin Moore, whose council represents 245,000 Teamsters, said the  Harris-Walz ticket offered a comprehensive vision for America that not only prioritized economic fairness but stood steadfastly by the nation’s workers, while, in Wisconsin, Teamsters Joint Council 39 president Bill Carroll said Harris had served as vice president in the most most pro-union administration ever and had worked hard to pass the Butch Lewis Act, which he said saved the pensions of over a million retirees to date. 

“As president, Kamala Harris will build on those efforts and work with Congress to pass the PRO Act, ending some of the most egregious union busting tactics once and for all,” Carroll said. “In contrast, Donald Trump tried to gut workers’ rights as president by appointing union busters to the NLRB and advocating for national right-to-work. Trump’s Project 2025 would go even further, attacking the ability for unions to even organize.”

Teamsters Joint Council 39 has three local union affiliates, and represents roughly 15,000 workers at the three locals across Wisconsin.

The Teamsters’ position is an outlier in the labor endorsement sweepstakes. Other major national unions, including the United Auto Workers and the American Federation of Teachers, have endorsed the Democrat.

The last time the Teamsters endorsed a Republican was in 1988, when George H. W. Bush got the nod over Democrat Michael Dukakis.