Teamsters say they won’t endorse any candidate after the majority of their members broke ranks and showed support for Trump

After weeks of speculation about the International Brotherhood of Teamsters presidential endorsement, they finally opted not to explicitly endorse either candidate. The decision came after the board met behind closed doors to hold a vote on the course of action. Meanwhile, an internal poll showed that 60% of union members preferred Donald Trump over Kamala Harris.

It will be the first time since 1996 that the powerful union, once chaired by Jimmy Hoffa, will not publicly endorse a candidate for president. Since then, they endorsed Al Gore, John Kerry, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. Prior to 2000 they did, however, endorse Republicans - Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

Teamsters Chairman, Sean M. O'Brien, was one of the speakers at the Republican National Convention in July and even met in recent days with Harris to discuss a possible endorsement. He criticized the Democratic National Convention for not allowing him to speak in Chicago, claiming that "corporate elitists" prevented him from doing so.

"Neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union"

"The Teamsters thank all candidates for meeting with members face-to-face during our unprecedented roundtables. 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," O'Brien said, in a statement released Wednesday.

"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 added.

As for the aforementioned board vote, it ended with three votes in favor of endorsing Harris and fourteen in favor of endorsing no one. John Palmer, the union's general vice president and a staunch opponent of O'Brien, told Politico that the decision was a "cowardly" one, given that he preferred the Democratic candidate.

Gregory Floyd, who heads the largest local chapter of Teamsters in New York City, said instead that the decision was quite expected. He also revealed that Harris told management that she was going to win "with or without" the union's endorsement.

"The Teamsters are more conservative than other unions… we’re to the left of the building trades and to the right of everyone else. The Teamsters are not a reflection of the rest of the country, and what’s going on," he added, also in conversation with Politico.

Majority of union members prefer Trump over Harris

A few hours before announcing the decision, the union released the results of an internal poll, in which some 40,000 members from across the country participated. According to the results, 60% preferred Trump over Harris, who got 34% of the votes.

This shows a clear difficulty for Harris' candidacy, since Biden outperformed Trump by eight points in the same poll conducted a few months ago. We will have to see if this trend is similar in the rest of the unions or if it is a one-off involving the Teamsters.