United States: The decision by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters was announced on Wednesday, which revealed not to continue its practice of endorsing candidates in the 2024 presidential election.
Therefore, they choose not to support either VP Kamala Harris or Ex-President Donald Trump.
The move is a setback for Harris
It is a setback for Harris, the Democratic nominee who has been campaigning, touting the support of unions in her bid to win the Rust Belt states of Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
It is the first time the Teamsters had skipped an endorsement for a presidential election since 1996 when they supported the Democratic ticket in every election.
According to Sean O’Brien, Teamsters’ president, “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,” USA Today reported.
Decision by the Union in a meeting
Union’s General Executive Board made the decision in a meeting on Wednesday in Washington in the wake of a meeting between the Teamsters leaders and Harris on Monday. In January, the leaders of this union sat down with Trump for a meeting.
However, the Teamsters leaders praised Harris for backing the pro-union PRO Act in Congress and her rejection of the ‘right to work’ laws that were detrimental to unions.
This, coupled with Trump’s refusal to guarantee that he will veto a national “right-to-work” law and calling it a is a “red line for the Teamsters.”
But, neither candidate in their interviews, as Teamsters pointed out, agreed not to intervene in labor actions under the Railway Labor Act, which allows Congress to establish contracts in the railway as well as airline sectors, USA Today reported.
Trump to seek the support of Union members
Trump has recently sought rank-and-file union members despite not having these unions supporting his campaign, as he seeks to rewrite the same working-class narrative that saw him gain the presidency in the 2016 election.
Teamsters said it was an exit poll that had been conducted among its members prior to the announcement, and this showed that most of them preferred Trump to Harris despite the fact that many leaders of other unions have endorsed the vice president.