In blow to Biden, Teamsters union considers no endorsement in 2024 race

WASHINGTON – US President Joe Biden is on the brink of failing to win a key labour endorsement, as leaders of the 1.3 million-member Teamsters union consider backing no candidate at all in the US presidential race, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters’ decision has not been finalised and is expected to be made in the coming weeks.

Not backing Mr Biden, whom the union endorsed in 2020, would compound political damage to the Democratic President’s re-election bid.

A Teamsters endorsement for Republican candidate Donald Trump appears unlikely, sources say, but deep internal divisions mean the union may not back any candidate at all. That would mark the first time since 1996 that such a decision has been made, according to news reports.

Since

his halting performance in a presidential debate

on June 27, Mr Biden has already seen a number of lawmakers and donors asking him to stand aside, worried about his ability to get re-elected and serve another four-year term. Some allies say they believe

a July 13 assassination attempt on Trump

could quiet those calls, but other Democrats doubt that.

Mr Biden’s team once viewed the Teamsters endorsement as all but inevitable, and still counts a number of senior leaders there as supporters. But months of deteriorating relations and rising concerns about Mr Biden’s political endurance have soured sentiment among some of the leaders at the union, which represents workers in fields ranging from trucking to manufacturing and office work.

“No final decision has been made,” said Ms Kara Deniz, a spokeswoman for the Teamsters, adding that any reporting that suggests an outcome is speculative.

Last week, United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain met his union’s executive board to discuss his concerns over Mr Biden’s ability to defeat Trump.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien closed the first night of the Republican National Convention on July 15.

Mr O’Brien acknowledged at the outset that his presence roiled his union, angered many on the left and sparked protests from anti-union voices on the right.

His praise of former president Trump – “In light of what happened to him on (July 13), he has proven to be one tough SOB,” Mr O’Brien said – will not sit well with some leaders of his union.

Nor will his praise for some other Republicans, including Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri and Representative Nicole Malliotakis of New York.

But the Teamsters leader also laced into corporate America for having what he called no allegiance to the US. He lamented that “Americans vote for a union but can’t get a union contract”, and he mourned workers who are fired for labour organising.

“That is economic terrorism at its worst,” Mr O’Brien said – rhetoric not usually heard in the halls of a Republican convention.

Mr O'Brien reached out simultaneously to the Democratic and Republican national committees to speak at their conventions but heard back only from the Republicans, Ms Deniz told Reuters.

A person familiar with the planning of the Democratic convention said no final decisions had been made about its programming.

“We are building a convention in Chicago that will tell our story to the American people, including the stories of labour and union leaders and workers that President Biden has been delivering for as the most pro-union president in modern history,” said convention spokesman Matt Hill.

Biden, Clinton, Obama

The Teamsters, founded in 1903, endorsed Mr Biden in 2020, as well as Democrats Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, though it has sometimes picked Republicans in earlier elections.

The group’s frustrations with Mr Biden’s team have mounted in recent months. On one key priority, rescuing trucking giant Yellow Corp and its 30,000 union jobs from bankruptcy, Mr O’Brien sought and was denied an Oval Office meeting to discuss the issue with Mr Biden, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Those frustrations were compounded as some Democratic lawmakers and donors have, since the debate,

called for Mr Biden to drop his re-election bid

and open the door for another candidate, another person familiar with the union’s deliberations said.

Working-class groups helped power Mr Biden’s 2020 election victory in closely contested states such as Michigan, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

Union groups encourage their members to vote, volunteer and donate to campaigns, and they form a particularly important source of cash and labour for Democratic presidential campaigns.

In return, they expect policies that increase union jobs and wages and make it easier to collectively bargain contracts with employers. Mr Biden’s gestures have included a US$36 billion (S$48 billion) bailout of a union pension fund that prevented cuts to the income of more than 350,000 Teamsters union workers and retirees.

Across many unions, rank-and-file workers are more divided about Democrats than their leadership, and

Trump has actively courted workers’ support.

The Teamsters held roundtables with Trump and Mr Biden in 2024 and hosted some 300 local events with workers to gauge their opinions on the race.

Mr Charles Lutvak, a Biden campaign spokesman, said the campaign had drawn vast union support reflecting Mr Biden’s “record of delivering results for working families while Donald Trump delivers for his wealthy donors and himself”.

He said Mr Biden is “a champion for working people over greedy corporations – whether they vote for him or not”.

Mr O’Brien has said the union would conduct polling and most likely make a decision on an endorsement after the parties’ conventions have concluded in August. REUTERS