The Teamsters’ decision this week to not endorse a presidential candidate sent a message of disappointment over both candidates’ commitment to the prominent union’s issues, and about the rising power of labor more broadly amid an upswing in strikes and union favorability in the United States.
The Teamsters is one of the largest and oldest unions in the country. It made headlines last summer amid high-stakes labor negotiations with UPS, narrowly avoiding a strike that would have disrupted the shipping industry.
The union has a strong presence in Washington, with its office overlooking Capitol Hill and millions spent since last year on lobbying and political donations.
It has consistently endorsed Democrats in recent presidential elections, including President Biden in 2020, although it has endorsed some GOP presidential candidates, including Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien has carved inroads with Republicans since he took over as head of the Teamsters in 2022, notably praising Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) during a speech in July at the Republican National Convention, the first time a Teamsters president has spoken at the convention in the union’s 121-year history.
“The Teamsters have always been something of an outlier among unions since the 1960s, and not nearly as closely associated with Democrats as other unions. So it’s not terribly surprising that they have not endorsed this year,” said James Riddlesperger, a political science professor at Texas Christian University.
But this week’s unexpected withholding of a presidential endorsement sparked blowback among the union’s ranks and other labor leaders, who have called it a mistake at a critical moment for the labor movement in this country.
Jim Hoffa, the longtime president of the Teamsters who preceded O’Brien, criticized the decision as “a critical error and, frankly, a failure of leadership by Sean O’Brien.”
“This election is too important for our union to not do its duty. We must take a stand for working Americans. There is only one candidate in this race that has supported working families and unions throughout their career, and that is Vice President Kamala Harris,” Hoffa said in a statement Friday.
The Teamsters shot back at Hoffa in a statement to The Hill, saying the union “will not focus on the shortcomings or short-sighted opinions of one weak predecessor” and vowing to “make this union stronger and more influential by putting our members first.”
“Just as he did throughout his career as an armchair quarterback masquerading as Teamsters General President, Jim Hoffa is turning a deaf ear to the voice of our membership. The Teamsters Union lost hundreds of thousands of members under Hoffa’s failed leadership. As we successfully build back that member density under Sean O’Brien, we will continue to support and respect all our members — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. We need to build true bipartisan support for working people,” the Teamsters said.
Other major labor unions and organizations including the United Auto Workers, the AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union were quick to endorse Harris after she launched her campaign in July after President Biden dropped out. Leaders from these three unions spoke at the Democratic National Convention, which did not invite O’Brien to speak at the party convention this summer.
Some Teamsters locals bucked the national decision and endorsed Harris.
But how important the local endorsements or lack of an endorsement from the larger union is in the election, remains to be seen.
“[J]ust as other high profile endorsements — RFK, Jr., Tulsi Gabbard, Liz and Dick Cheney, Taylor Swift as examples — haven’t moved the needle in the polls, neither is the Teamsters action likely to make much difference,” Riddlesperger said.
Organized labor has been front-and-center during the 2024 election, riding momentum from notable actions taken in recent years. Organized labor has taken notable action in recent years, from the rail strike threat in fall 2022 to the 2023 “summer of strikes” that included Hollywood writers and actors to the United Auto Workers’ six-week strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis last fall.
Last year, American workers undertook 33 work stoppages, the highest annual total since 39 in 2000, according to the Labor Department. That’s a massive uptick from just five in 2009, the lowest annual total on record, but a far cry from the record 470 work stoppages in 1952.
Union support has also soared from a historic low in 2009, even as union membership rates have dwindled and corporate giants have taken aim at the federal agency responsible for enforcing labor laws.
Approval rates for unions surged from 48 percent in 2009 to 70 percent this year, the highest level since the late 1960s, according to the public opinion polling giant Gallup.
In 2023, the union membership rate was 10 percent, or approximately 14.4 million workers, according to the Labor Department. That’s down from 12.4 percent, or 16.1 million workers, in 2008 and 20.1 percent, or 17.7 million workers, in 1983.
Around 1.3 million of those union members belong to the Teamsters, which looms large in politics.
The union spent nearly $2.4 million on federal lobbying last year — and has already spent $1.2 million during the first half of 2024. Individuals and PACs affiliated with the union have contributed more than $1.4 million to federal candidates and committees this election cycle, according to the money-in-politics tracking nonprofit OpenSecrets.
Top policy priorities for the union include opposition to a national right to work and support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions and bargain with employers, potentially paving the way for union ranks to increase.
The eyebrow-raising announcement Wednesday followed an extensive endorsement process that involved member polling and roundtables with both Harris and Trump.
This is the first time the union has not endorsed a presidential candidate since 1996 — which pitted incumbent President Bill Clinton against Kansas Sen. Bob Dole —a decision taken in opposition to the North American Free Trade Agreement, O’Brien told Fox Business Wednesday. It’s just the third time the union has declined to endorse since 1960.
Although nearly 60 percent of the Teamsters membership preferred Trump to Harris, the union “couldn’t get commitments on our issues” from the former president, O’Brien told The Hill.
And while Harris has expressed her support for one of the union’s top priorities, the PRO Act, O’Brien said the vice president couldn’t offer a plan to get it done.
“We’re probably one of the strongest unions,” O’Brien said. “We want direct dialogue. We want answers. We don’t want, you know, false hopes and dreams masqueraded with rhetoric.”
While the larger Teamsters union has declined to endorse a candidate in the race, the Teamsters National Black Caucus and locals representing a total of more than 1 million Teamsters have endorsed Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Some of those locals are located in battleground states such as Michigan and Nevada, two states the Harris-Walz ticket is fighting to capture to win the White House in November.
“The one caveat in this, of course, is that this is a very close election and voters in only seven closely divided states will determine the outcome. So just a few votes could be significant,” Riddlesperger said.
