Teamster President O’Brien Tacitly Endorses Trump, But Hundreds of Thousands of Members Defy O’Brien and Support Harris

The leadership of the 1.3-million-member Teamsters union official has no endorsement. But Teamster President Sean O’Brien has tacitly endorsed Donald Trump for president—by attending and speaking at the Teamster convention, by ensuring that the union’s executive board which he dominates voted no endorsement for U.S. president, and by releasing polls that claim a majority of the union’s members back Trump. Trump, speaking at a rally, naturally claimed that the Teamsters had endorsed him

But it’s clear that many of the union’s members—hundreds of thousands of them—reject O’Brien’s no endorsement position and even more strongly the union’s implicit endorsement of Trump. As well they should given Trump’s anti-union positions and his racist, xenophobic, and misogynistic behavior and rhetoric. After all, while some 61% of Teamsters are white, 18% are Latino and 12% are Black, and 20% are women. The Teamsters then have hundreds of thousands of Black, Latino, and women members, and both documented and undocumented immigrant members, as well as LGBT members (about 7% of all U.S. adults identify as LGBT, some are Teamsters) all of whom must be aware that Trump—and apparently O’Brien as well—have no respect for them. One wonders, do Teamster immigrant workers want to see Trump’s proposed immigration round-ups, concentration camps, and deportations? Do working women in the Teamsters really want to give up the right to choose abortion? The answers are coming.

The local and joint council votes on nomination for president of the United States have become a virtual referendum on O’Brien—and he is losing.

The West Coast Teamsters in Joint Councils 7 and 42 representing 39 local unions representing 300,000 members in California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam, have endorsed Harris. Teamsters Joint Council 43 in Michigan, Teamsters Joint Council 39 in Wisconsin, with their thousands of members also voted to endorse Harris.

A number of other locals and joint councils in Washington state, Idaho and Alaska, Philadelphia, Miami, western Pennsylvania, and elsewhere previously endorsed Harris.

The Teamsters National Black Caucus has rejected Trump and voted to endorse Harris. “I’m very disappointed that our international leadership has chosen not to stand up to a bully and an anti-union candidate,” said James Curbeam, chairman of the caucus.”

It is not surprising that so many Teamsters would reject Trump. As one Teamster wrote in a discussion on X (formerly Twitter) “Union members voting for Trump is like chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.”

What are O’Brien and the Teamster executive board thinking of when they claim no endorsement but actually help Trump? The Teamsters issued a press release saying “the union’s final national survey. In the poll ending Sept. 15, Teamsters selected Trump by 58 percent for endorsement over 31 percent for Harris.” I have doubts and questions about the polling, about how many members were actually reached. If those figures were an actual reflection of the members’ views, then it is clear that O’Brien and the leadership did a poor job of organizing discussions and education the members about Trump’s record of opposition to unions, his Project 25 that would weaken unions, and his racist, sexist, and anti-immigrant record. The rebellions in the joint councils, the unions, and in the Black caucus suggest the polls may be way off.

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