Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
This week, for only the third time since 1960, the Teamsters endorsed no one for president. It was a rare move and one that the union was all but forced to take.
On the face, it was a simple matter of a labor group struggling to find a presidential partner.
The Teamsters’ official stance was that neither former President Donald Trump nor Vice President Kamala Harris were willing to commit to the policies nearest to the union’s cause.
“We want direct dialogue,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien told The Hill. “We want answers. We don’t want, you know, false hopes and dreams masqueraded with rhetoric.”
O’Brien, who made history by appearing at this year’s Republican National Convention, has been searching for a presidential candidate who will support the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would expand all unions’ ability to form and negotiate with employers and stymie a national “right to work” policy.
To that end, the Teamsters hosted each major party’s candidate for roundtables, a process that did little to clear the union’s path forward.
In Trump, O’Brien found a candidate wouldn’t pledge support; in Harris, he found someone who hinted she might but was bereft of the ability to answer questions with any degree of detail.
“We’re grateful that they came in to see our members, but there was a lot of dancing around a lot of these questions,” O’Brien said.
But there is more to the story than noncommittal candidates.
The Teamsters face an identity crisis, a broad divide between members as well as between members and leadership.
Based on internal surveying, just under 60 percent of Teamsters (59.6 percent) favor Trump for president compared to 34 percent for Harris. By comparison, in 2020 the split was 44.3 percent in favor of Joe Biden and 36.3 percent for Trump.
That’s an emphatic statement.
Perhaps the numbers reflect only members’ feelings about the state of the economy and the working man under four years of Biden’s economic and social policy.
Biden famously crushed a railroad strike in 2022 while touting himself and Harris as the most pro-labor executive branch in U.S. history.
Perhaps it’s a sudden love of Trump or his 2016-2019 economy.
At a minimum, it’s an indication that Teamster leaders could not endorse a Democrat and hope to maintain the faith of their members. But to swing to the right, even though it’s happened several times since the 1960s, might put the Teamsters in danger of losing influence over or the support of Democrats and/or fracturing the union.
Even if the bulk of Teamsters back Trump, the Harris camp within the union is vocal and could cause headaches for leadership if they went all-in on the Republican nominee.
“I’m not going to harp on the disappointment that my national leadership did not have the courage or the fortitude to stand up to this bully and to be able to go out and tell our entire membership, this is the best thing for you as members,” James “Curb” Curbeam, president of the Teamsters’ National Black Caucus, told CNN.
It was a tough spot and, rather than risk either negative outcome, the Teamsters opted to portray themselves as above the fray.
“We can advise, but at the end of the day, our job is not to dictate to our members,” O’Brien said. “It’s to give them information so that they can make the best decision on behalf of themselves and their families.”
That sounds magnanimous enough but also begs the question of why the union ever endorses anyone. Are there years when moral stances are more important? Or is it that there are elections when the math is much easier to calculate?
It’s not a Republican-Democrat issue, at least it hasn’t always been. The Teamsters endorsed Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush when they sought the presidency.
The last time the Teamsters didn’t endorse a candidate was 1996, when Bill Clinton cruised to reelection over Bob Dole, even with numerous scandals hovering over the incumbent.
Since then, the Teamsters have exclusively endorsed the Democrat.
A REPUBLICAN LOSSED OPPORTUNITY?
While the consensus, and logical, response to this week’s news was that the Democrats suffered a setback, it’s worth exploring what Teamter neutrality means for Republicans.
In the short term, it means union support for Harris will be muted and labor-heavy blue states are squarely in play this November. It’s good news for the right to be sure, and Trump celebrated accordingly.
“It’s a great honor. They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing,” Trump said Wednesday. “Democrats automatically have the Teamsters. They took a vote, and I guess I was at 60% or more, and that’s a great honor.”
But have the Republicans missed a chance to make their newfound gains last? Is it possible for conservatives to construct their platforms in such a way that working-class union members migrate to the right and stay there?
Only time and the presence or absence of creative conservative thinking will tell.