DAVID MARCUS: Why Teamsters members think Trump, not Harris, is the real friend of the working man

Just days after Vice President Kamala Harris met with the leaders of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to appeal for their endorsement, one that almost always goes blue, the union told her to kick rocks, declining to endorse either her or Donald Trump.

My great-grandfather was a Teamsters boss in Philadelphia in the mid 20th century who ran against Jimmy Hoffa for the national presidency of the union. I once asked him just how corrupt and mobbed-up the legendary Hoffa was, but Pop would never say a word against him. In his brogue, he would simply say, ‘Jimmy was a friend of da workin’ man.’

Decades later, the leadership and 1.5 million members of the Teamsters, along with 500,000 retirees, had to decide this week whether Trump or Harris is the friend of the working man in the 2024 race. 

In this stunning move, and direct snub to Harris, the union decided not to endorse or put its significant resources behind either candidate, and the reason why is very obviously pressure from its membership.

‘I voted for Biden,’ a retired longtime Teamster told me in Washington, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh. ‘But you want facts? Let’s give grocery facts, let’s give electricity facts, let’s give gas facts, let’s give every fact between when he was elected and now.’

For him, the facts added up to a vote for Donald Trump.

And he is not alone.

The results of the Teamsters own internal survey were staggering. Back in July, President Joe Biden, (remember him?) was leading Donald Trump 44-36 percent. Fast forward to today and Trump has surged to a 60-34 lead over Harris in the online survey and 58-31 over the phone lines.

This is a massive shift, more dramatic than we have seen within any other substantial demographic. Cutting off Joe Biden’s ancient roots in the labor movement has left members a clearer choice between Harris and Trump, and it’s bad news for the Veep.

It’s also bad news for many in the Teamsters leadership who bristled when union president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention, as did the left-aligned labor movement in general.

In San Francisco, I met Ray, a Teamster in the hospitality industry, proudly displaying his lapel pin, but he was also frustrated by the national leadership.

‘They don’t seem focused on guys like us,’ he told me. ‘Like they are playing a whole different ball game.’

In general, my conversations with union members across the country this election cycle have differed dramatically, depending on whether it was a private sector union, like the Teamsters, or a public sector union, such as teachers unions.

Private sector members talk more about balancing their needs with the ability of their industries, which they know well, to prosper. Public sector union members seem to expect that the government has endless money and can always go find a Leprechaun and take its pot of gold.

If this huge tidal wave of Teamster votes to Trump is reflected in other unions such as the United Auto Workers Union, or service sector unions, and from the working people I’ve spoken to, and I suspect it is, the electoral implications could be profound. 

As with many Americans, there may be many things that many Teamsters don’t love about Trump. That would explain why Joe Biden, who accurately or not, is seen as a more traditional Democrat than Harris, appealed to them.

But without Biden’s big labor patina and history, it seems most Teamsters have decided that it is time for them to move on from the Democratic Party and Kamala Harris, toward Trump’s promise to make America, and its wages, great again.

Just like Pop so long ago with Jimmy Hoffa, more and more Teamsters today are looking at Trump. They may think he’s imperfect, they may think he’s rough around the edges. But increasingly, they also see him as the race’s only friend of the working man.