WASHINGTON—In a defeat for Trump who had hoped he could get Teamster President Sean O’Brien to wrangle an endorsement of him out of his union, the best O’Brien could do, after kowtowing to Republicans by attending their convention, was a “non-endorsement” of either Trump or Harris.
It has not sat well with many Teamsters across the country, however. First, the African American Teamster constituency group came out with its Harris endorsement last month and now Teamster locals across the country are breaking with O’Brien and endorsing the Harris-Walz ticket.
O’Brien cited alleged union “surveys” that showed Teamster members backing Biden before he quit the race but backing Trump afterwards. Union local presidents have been saying that fewer than one in 20 members were ever polled in any surveys.
The non-endorsement then is lighter than it seems. In addition to the only notable Teamsters constituency caucus, representing African-Americans, endorsing Harris, additional Harris endorsements from union locals started to roll in almost immediately after O’Brien made his non-endorsement announcement.
Huge support for Harris
Those announcements add to what is overwhelming support for Harris among unions across the country. The Harris endorsements by Teamster locals amount to a repudiation of a clear attempt by the MAGA movement to weaken the solidarity of unions and to attack the programs for which unions are fighting. Harris supports the PRO-Act which makes historic changes in labor law and strengthens the ability of unions to organize. Trump refused to support that legislation.
Leading the way on the Teamster Harris endorsements yesterday were two big councils on the West Coast, who together include almost a fourth of all Teamsters, combined. They cover California, Hawaii, Oregon, and swing state Nevada, plus Guam.
Following them to endorse Harris were Joint Councils in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Western Pennsylvania—all swing states–a council in Minnesota and Local 237 in New York, the union’s largest. Further, the two telephone and electronic surveys O’Brien cited covered fewer than one of every 20 Teamsters.
“Many Teamsters locals have gone on the record as endorsing Harris,” said one veteran Teamster reformer who’s been active for more than three decades and who is wired into its internal politics. Those locals will act as they wish “regardless of the internal struggle” on the Teamsters board.
He also pointed out how Vice President Harris, worked closely with union reps on successful comprehensive legislation, the Butch Lewis Act, to save financially troubled multi-employer pension plans without yanking away pensions from current recipients.
That new law aids members, retirees, and families of the largest such troubled pension plan, the Teamsters Central and Southern States Fund. Multi-employer plans were thrown on financial rocks by the financier-caused Great Recession late in Republican George W. Bush’s reign.
The Butch Lewis Act overturned a dead-of-the-night GOP “solution” a decade ago that cut payouts to current multi-employer recipients by an average of almost half.
“Shameless, shameless,” the veteran reformer said of the Teamster board’s non-endorsement, especially after that sequence which overturned the GOP pension cut.
Union President Sean O’Brien, the union board and rank-and-file Teamsters held a roundtable with Harris on September 16. Two days later, in announcing its decision, O’Brien falsely claimed neither lived up to the commitments the Teamsters sought. He also said the two polls showed pro-Trump majorities, which they decidedly did not.
O’Brien admitted that Trump refused to say he would veto a national right-to-work law, while Harris would veto it. Right-to-work, which unions term “right to work for less,” lets non-unionists use union services and seek the protection of union contracts without paying dues.
RTW is a key cause of Republicans and their corporate puppeteers, because it takes dollars, called fair share fees, out of unions’ hands, weakening their ability to defend workers.
Trump, at O’Brien’s prompting, invited the union leader to address the Republican Convention. O’Brien also solicited an invitation to the Democratic convention but says he never heard back.
Optics were bad
But the optics of O’Brien on the GOP podium in television prime time, regardless of his strong speech blasting both knee-jerk Republican anti-worker stands and their corporate backers, gave the visual impression of white working-class support for Trump. Republican delegates wouldn’t even applaud the groveling O’Brien and sat on their hands.
O’Brien cited the union-commissioned electronic and telephone surveys, despite their miniscule samples. The first, from July 24-Sept. 15, gave Trump 59.6 percent of Teamsters to 34 percent for Harris, he claimed. The second, during the week ending Sept. 15, gave Trump 58 percent to 31 percent for Harris.
Showing the damage that results from the “non-endorsement, Trump trumpeted the union’s decision, too. “It’s a great honor. They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing,” he declared.
Both alleged Teamster surveys also fly in the face of the last national poll of union workers, as part of a larger survey before Biden dropped out of the race. Trump megaphone Fox News commissioned that independent poll, which gave Biden a 65-32 percent lead over Trump among all union household members.
Teamsters Joint Councils 42 and 7, which together represent 300,000 workers in 39 locals in California, Nevada, Oregon, Hawaii, and the territory of Guam, endorsed Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. They pointedly said Walz is a teacher with the joint AFT-NEA Education Minnesota, with a strong pro-union record.
The duo “demonstrated a commitment to standing with working people through action, such as supporting the Protect the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, and in Minnesota, Walz signed a bill that would ban forced captive audience meetings,” their joint statement said in part.
“Under a Harris-Walz administration, we are confident that we will continue to have pro-worker appointees to the National Labor Relations Board and the Supreme Court, which directly impacts our ability to organize and win contract fights that benefit all workers.
“The 300,000 Teamsters” in the two joint councils “provide essential services” to the U.S. economy, Joint Council 42 President Chris Griswold said. “They deserve a committed administration that will relentlessly advocate for their rights, ensure their safety, and prioritize the needs of working people.”
“Joint Council 7 and 42 Teamsters refuse to be divided by extremist political forces or greedy corporations that want to see us fail,” said Joint Council 7 President Peter Finn.
O’Brien also justified the national union’s decision by saying both Trump and Harris could use the Railway Labor Act to impose binding arbitration and cooling-off periods—and, if needed, presidential boards writing union contracts—for its rail and airline workers. In those cases, O’Brien said, workers lose the right to strike. “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,” O’Brien said.
But O’Brien did not discuss Trump’s constant courting of the corporate class behind the closed doors of his Mar-a-Lago, Fla., estate. “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,” he said.
CONTRIBUTOR
Comments