President Biden and former President Trump are seeking endorsements from the Teamsters union, but the labor organization is keeping would-be nominees on alert.
The Teamsters president has asked to speak to both parties at their national conventions, a spokesperson confirmed to The Hill — a rare move as suspense mounts over who the influential group will throw its support behind.
The pro-labor community is confused by the Teamsters’ request. Many see Biden and the Democrats as the natural choice, highlighting the president’s record in the White House. Fears that leaders might support Trump have also increased as polls show a consistently close race less than five months until Election Day.
“This goes back to a time when Teamsters supported Nixon,” said a labor movement leader in a swing state.
President Sean O’Brien’s request to appear at major events for both Democrats and Republicans — a development that was first reported by The New York Times — defied conventional wisdom that major unions would ultimately support Biden.
“I don’t think he likes Trump,” the union organizer said of O’Brien. “It’s more that we all see the competition model as vital for Democrats to do the right thing.”
“And if Republicans want to help, we are welcoming it and building bridges,” the source added.
A Teamsters spokesman said they typically wait until after the conventions to make a formal endorsement.
Still, O’Brien’s desire to address opposing crowds is notable.
“It’s not often that a union president asks to speak at both conventions,” said Bob Bussel, director of the Center for Labor Education and Research at the University of Oregon.
Teamsters officials have expressed interest in playing ball with many types of candidates this cycle. Officials met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Cornel West last year as third-party candidates. They also met with Trump in January. The union’s political action group donated $45,000 to the Republican National Committee soon after, FEC records show, although the group also contributes substantially to Democrats.
Trump has been trying to cut off Biden’s hard-won support from organized labor since 2020, when both candidates were competing for the worker vote.
Meanwhile, Biden spoke to Teamsters leadership and members in March, but it’s unclear whether he got what he wanted. O’Brien left that meeting without committing to who his union would support, knowing he would have some time to make a final decision. The Teamsters have long been in the Democrats’ column andSupportedBiden versus Trump in the last cycle.
Other unions have already pledged their support for Biden, including the prominent United Steelworkers and North America’s Building Trades Unions, and many in the community feel optimistic about his prospects.
Labor activists and organizers don’t necessarily anticipate a seal of approval for Trump, but the waiting game has created some uncertainty.
Polls in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania show differences in margins of error between the two candidates. Any major movements affecting working constituencies could cause further fluctuations.
“I would be surprised if there was a Trump endorsement, but that doesn’t mean it’s not beyond the realm of possibility,” Bussel said. If that were to happen, it would be “a poke in the toe” for Biden as he works to make up for ongoing shortcomings with other voting blocs.
National union leaders say they have taken steps to inform their members about the progress Biden has made in office, including banning non-compete agreements, improving over time protections and mobilization in support of workers in the automobile industry. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Act was also seen as a major boon for organized labor.
“Our union’s perspective is that Joe Biden has been the most pro-union president in generations, if not ever, and our union fully supports his re-election,” said Sal Rosselli, president emeritus of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
“All of the unions we are involved with fully support Biden and do not see the need for a ‘both sides’ approach,” Rosselli said when asked about O’Brien’s request to hear from both presidential candidates.
“About 24 percent of our members are Republicans, for example, but we have had no desire from members, no communication to me or to our members that we should consider supporting Donald Trump,” he said. “The opposite is true.”
Some say O’Brien could be responding to a demand from his members – a vast1.3 million workers– to interact with both sides of the hallway. Unions typically have no say over who employers or other members hire and can have ideologically diverse foundations. He could also simply be testing the agendas of both parties.
Bussel suggested that O’Brien is doing due diligence in trying to cross party lines, but added that the Teamsters leader is also likely “trying to play this to his maximum advantage.”
“It’s almost like being a non-aligned country during the Cold War,” Bussel said. “You really try to get the maximum benefit from your strategic position.”
Eddie Vale, a Democratic strategist with long-standing ties to the AFL-CIO, argued that many underestimate the number of Republicans who are union members.
Vale said the leader’s attempt at bipartisanship seems like “an interesting move to try to see if Republicans are serious about reaching out to union members.”
Kevin Munoz, a spokesman for Biden’s campaign, would not comment on whether Democrats plan to consider a speaking slot for O’Brien. But the campaign is working to win over the union, highlighting Biden’s biggest achievements.
“There is only one candidate in this race fighting for American workers and creating good-paying union jobs here at home, and that candidate is President Biden,” Munoz told The Hill.
“Donald Trump spent his entire life fighting against workers’ rights, and now Trump is proudly running to send union jobs overseas – just as he did in his first term. Joe Biden fights every day for unions and workers across the country and will continue to work to win the support of the Teamsters.”
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Polls show interest among Democratic and Republican voters in the union vote. NBC NewsvotingFebruary indicated that Biden is still outperforming Trump among union households, but by a smaller margin than in 2020.
“Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania will likely decide the election,” said Steve Rosenthal, a Democratic strategist and head of a consulting firm that works with unions.
“All three are states with a huge union history and a huge base,” he added.
The competition is fiercer than in the past, Rosenthal suggested, with both candidates needing to do more to gain support than they are offering at this point in the race. As a result, more expensive endorsements are more coveted.
“The union family vote right now is not where it needs to be to win these states,” he said. “The union’s endorsement is very, very valuable right now.”
Waiting until after the Republican convention in July in Milwaukee and the Democratic convention in August in Chicago to offer an endorsement means less time to capitalize on that brand endorsement. That timeline isn’t great from the candidate’s perspective, but it would still leave time, strategists said, for the Teamsters to pull out all the stops for their candidate between Labor Day and Election Day.
“Biden’s record on union issues has gone beyond anything anyone imagined,” Rosenthal said. “It’s hard for me to imagine a union that doesn’t support it.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
