Teamsters and Trump?

[Kathianne]

I remember speaking of this during the RNC Convention. Looks like it may be coming to fruition:

https://redstate.com/wardclark/2024/09/02/has-kamala-harris-lost-the-teamsters-union-n2178831


Has Kamala Harris Lost the Teamsters' Union?By Ward Clark | 11:45 AM on September 02, 2024The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of RedState.com.



AP Photo/Morry Gash
Teamsters Union President Sean O'Brien is not a happy man.


The Teamsters were not given a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention. The big Democrat brains (yes, I know) organizing that event won't tell Mr. O'Brien why they didn't give him a speaking slot. His members, he maintains, are not happy about that.




That's funny, because only a few weeks earlier, Sean O'Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention, becoming the first Teamsters Union president to do so - ever.


O’Brien said that since he took the union’s top job, he’s been happy to find growing support from Republicans, including Donald Trump's running mate J.D. Vance and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.).


“The Teamsters and the GOP may not agree on many issues, but a growing group has shown the courage to sit down and consider points of view that aren’t funded by big money think tanks,” he said.


O’Brien became the first union president to address the RNC, and directly addressed the criticisms against him.


This is an interesting juxtaposition indeed. The big unions have been Democrat strongholds for many decades. They have been, since the FDR years, a constituency that the Democrats could rely on, but now they seem to be throwing that away by neglect. Is this on purpose, or is it just stupidity? A good argument could be made for both. The left is losing the working class, and it's not just happening in the United States.


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There are at least a couple of reasons for this.


First, a huge part of the blue-collar working class isn't down with the "progressive" agenda and its results. They don't like paying $4 a gallon for gasoline. They don't want boys in their daughters' locker rooms in schools or universities. They don't like the waves of illegal immigrants who are being put up in hotels at taxpayers' expense in a lot of places.


Second, Trump. His stances on immigration and international trade resonate well with blue-collar workers who are living through the de-industrialization of the United States. He talks about jobs, a lot, and he is making inroads with the rank and file.


The Democrats, of course, will never lose the public sector unions or the teacher's unions. But that's not enough. The Teamsters, the UAW, the rank and file members of those unions are looking at the modern Democrats and a lot of them are not liking what they see.


Don't just take my word for it - listen to Sean O'Brien. On the DNC not allowing the Teamsters president to speak, Mr. O'Brien said:


"I'm not upset about it, but I can tell you this — my rank-and-file members who have been lifelong Democrats are not happy about it," he says.


That may make a difference in November, but more to the point, it may make a difference in elections yet to come, unless the Democrats step away from the progressive, loony left.

[Kathianne]

A small kudo to CNN, they are reporting what was said by O'Brien en toto. Do a search now, find nearly all MSM outlets are talking about some local that is supporting Harris:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/18/politics/teamsters-will-not-endorse-us-president/index.html


Teamsters won’t endorse in presidential race after releasing internal polling showing most members support TrumpKayla Tausche Kevin Liptak
By Michael Williams, Kayla Tausche and Kevin Liptak, CNN
4 minute read
Updated 8:23 PM EDT, Wed September 18, 2024

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters declined to endorse a presidential candidate on Wednesday after releasing internal polling that showed a majority of its members supported former President Donald Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris.


It’s the first time in nearly three decades that the union has not endorsed a presidential candidate.


“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,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement. “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.”


Ahead of the decision, the Teamsters shared internal data showing that a majority of members supported Trump over Harris. According to an electronic member poll that was initiated after President Joe Biden withdrew from the race, about 60% of members believed the union should endorse Trump while 34% supported Harris. About 6% said they supported another candidate.


“It’s a great honor. They’re not going to endorse the Democrats. That’s a big thing,” Trump said during a campaign stop in New York City on Wednesday. “Democrats automatically have the Teamsters. They took a vote, and I guess I was at 60% or more, and that’s a great honor.”

Harris isn’t giving the specifics some undecided voters say they want
Harris met with Teamsters leaders on Monday. O’Brien had a prime-time speaking slot at this summer’s Republican National Convention but did not appear at the Democratic convention the following month.


The Teamsters, which represents truck drivers, freight workers and other workers, is the last major labor union to announce a presidential endorsement. The nation’s other major labor organizations, including the American Federation of Teachers and the United Auto Workers, have backed Harris.


The last time the Teamsters sat out a presidential election was 1996. It endorsed Democratic nominees in the ensuing six elections, including Trump’s opponents Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020. The union last backed a Republican presidential candidate in 1988, with an endorsement of George H.W. Bush.


CNN previously reported that rank-and-file union membership had large pockets of Trump support, even as major labor leaders endorsed Harris.


Before Biden dropped out of the race, Teamsters officials had suggested to various stakeholders that the union could remain politically neutral this cycle for the first time in decades.


“At the end of the day, the Teamsters are not interested if you have a ‘D,’ ‘R’ or an ‘I’ next to your name. We want to know one thing,” O’Brien said at the RNC. “What are you doing to help American workers?”


An endorsement from the Teamsters, which counts members across a variety of industries and is heavily represented in critical swing states such as Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – all of which went for Trump in 2016 before backing Biden four years later – would have been a crucial get for either candidate.


Later Wednesday, the Harris campaign touted support from local Teamsters’ chapters in Michigan, Wisconsin and Nevada, seeking to reaffirm its union support.


Meanwhile, the president of the Teamsters’ National Black Caucus questioned the union’s decision to withhold an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race and suggested O’Brien was afraid to have “hard conversations” with members.


“I’m not going to harp on the disappointment that my national leadership did not have the courage or the fortitude to stand up to this bully and to be able to go out and tell our entire membership, this is the best thing for you as members,” James “Curb” Curbeam, a member of Teamsters Local 480 in Nashville, said in reference to Trump.


He also called into question the polling methodology used to support the union’s decision.


“What is the actual number of people that took part in the polls?” Curbeam asked.


Curbeam said the Black Caucus would do its own organizing in support of Harris.


The Teamsters’ endorsements of Clinton and Biden in the past two presidential cycles came under previous leadership. While union members are thought of as a traditionally Democratic voting bloc, Trump has been working to make inroads among rank-and-file members.


Biden had long enjoyed strong union support. He became the first sitting president to visit a picket line last September and frequently employed some version of the line, “The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class” in many of his stump speeches during his time as candidate. Harris has also begun using that line.


The Teamsters internal data also revealed that a town hall straw poll taken before Biden exited the race showed him with 44% of members’ support compared with Trump’s 36%. That survey also included Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who garnered about 6% of members’ support. Kennedy has since suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump.


But Harris does not have the same long history with unions and working people as the president.


Her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is himself a former union member as a public school teacher.

[Kathianne]

More. Lot's that can't c & p:

https://hotair.com/tree-hugging-sister/2024/09/18/great-moments-in-doh-and-the-teamsters-union-presidential-research-poll-says-n3794688


Great Moments in 'D'Oh!': And the Teamsters Union Presidential Research Poll Says?Beege Welborn 9:20 PM | September 18, 2024



AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
If you remember, back in July, right before the Republican National Convention, word broke that Sean O'Brien, feisty, obnoxious, and victorious president of the Teamsters Union, had been invited by none other than Donald Trump to speak at the convention.


O'Brien accepted the offer.


The collective gasps of horror and shock reverberated through labor, liberal, and GOP living rooms.


VURT DA FURK WAS HAPPENING?


And there he was, at the podium in Milwaukee, proudly doing his labor schtick.


It was a remarkable moment Monday night at the Republican National Convention, surely creating some amount of confusion among longtime Republicans, when Sean O’Brien, president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, delivered a stemwinder of a speech in prime time. He called former President Donald Trump a “tough S.O.B.”


O’Brien did not endorse Trump, but he leaned into the incongruity of speaking at the convention of a party that has long fought workers’ ability to organize. The union could vote to endorse a candidate later this year.


It was the only convention speech he would give, as the Democrats never did extend a similar invitation.


O'Brien was ruthlessly hounded by other labor leaders, labor-friendly media sites, and members of unions themselves, being called everything from a traitor to more unmentionable epithets. And he was constantly questioned about why he had bothered with the Republicans at all.


...It seems ridiculous to waste time speaking to such an audience, yet O’Brien gladly accepted the invitation. He has long insisted that he and the Teamsters he represents are not beholden to either party, and doubled down on that stance during his speech. Predictably, the union leader’s remarks did not seem to resonate with the heavily conservative audience, who found little in them to applaud.


The silence was deafening when the union leader decried weak labor laws and corporate greed, but the crowd perked up when he pivoted to gushing over Trump himself, whose “toughness” he praised. While his appearance was hailed by some pundits as a savvy move to cut through political polarization (or snuggle up to a potential Trump administration), the majority of the reactions from within the labor movement were overwhelmingly negative.


REACTIONS WITHIN THE LABOR MOVEMENT WERE OVERWHELMINGLY NEGATIVE


Yeah. About that. O'Brien weathered the storm and insisted that the Teamsters leadership wouldn't make an endorsement recommendation until their members had had a chance to weigh in as well.


In their earliest canvas of membership, while Biden was still a candidate, the president was a 44%-36% favorite over Trump.


But then the old switcheroo happened, the cackler was anointed, and the polls needed to be recalibrated, particularly in light of O'Brien's RNC appearance and, frankly, the DNC dissing him.


Two days ago, Harris finally met the union leader in D.C. to solicit his support. The NY Times described the meeting as "tense."


Oh, I'll bet it was.




But O'Brien was still keeping his cards close to his vest, waiting on the member online and phone survey tallies (1.5M members and 500K retirees) to finish.


They must be done tabulating results because they released the totals today, and, believe me - it's the shock heard around the world.




Electronic Member Poll: Trump: 59.6% Harris: 34.0%


Their research phone poll results were Trump: 58% Harris: 31%


GULP


Oh, "the reactions were overwhelmingly negative," alright, but to the idea of a Harris presidency.


In a blinding fit of chickenSchlitz cowardice, the Teamsters duly decided NOT to endorse anyone because while the standard for Harris was "majority" support, the standard for endorsing Trump had to reach "universal" support.




EXCUSE ME, WHAT


It's like only being mostly dead, I guess.




Or just that maybe O'Brien, considering the hot water he's in already, made the prudent choice a guy who's not a Giants fan would make...if you know your Teamsters history.


In any event, the fallout from this earth-shattering non-endorsement is already sweeping through some very shay quarters.


Media is in meltdown.




The French Lady is blithering, "I can't speak to..." even more than usual.




And the Washington Post is having a ZOMG! moment of epic proportions as the implications of this massive diss sink in.




What's not to love?


David Marcus, who grew up in a union family, says this is quite the snub and a clear statement that members believe Donald Trump is the friend of the working man.


...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.


...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.


...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.


...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.


Trump handled the news brilliantly.




Oh, that was smooth as silk and completely sans bluster—sheer perfection.


And the thought of this has to have them panicking.




So I hope Trump's security is very, VERY frosty.


This could get so, SO ugly, so fast.

[fj1200]

I believe the teamsters are more likely than others to support the Republican candidate.

[Gunny]

I believe the teamsters are more likely than others to support the Republican candidate.One would think. The simple math is Trump wants to put their industries to work and support them with tariffs. Don't have to agree with it to call it what it is. What do the Dems have? More promises to create more jobs when they are the ones that have stuck the knife in the back of American industry?

Like other voting blocs, union employees follow along with what the union exec's tell them and vote "D" because they always have. People need to wake up and take a look at what they are getting and from who and get over disrupting their comfort, no thought required zones.

[NightTrain]

This has been a long time coming. Working guys don't like their money going to fanatical lib projects without any say so, and that's what really pissed all of us Journeymen off up here - we found out that our local IBEW 1547 was funneling money to Obama in '08 and after. None of us liked him or his policies, and yet our money was being spent however the DNC wished. We didn't have a say in it, that was for the union execs to decide.

While there were a few diehard Libs, most guys felt like I do politically... I'd estimate the split was about 75/25 throughout the ranks. Almost invariably, the libs weren't guys like me who worked hard and went to the far corners of the earth to get the job done - the libs were usually the useless fuckers in an office who had no idea how the equipment worked or what it took to get it working. That was back in '08, and the mood has shifted more conservative as the left showed everyone who they are. I wouldn't be surprised to see IBEW workers leaning Republican north of 85% up here now.

The Teamsters guy really had some stones to speak at the Republican Convention, and while it was a cop out by not actually endorsing Trump like 65% of the members wanted, the man deserves props for doing as much as he did because before now it was completely out of the realm of possibilities. You know he risked much by going as far as he did.

I wouldn't be surprised to see talks happen with Trump over the next 4 years and seeing a groundswell of Unions officially shifting allegience to Republicans - the vast majority of union members already privately do, even if they don't talk about it.

I don't have any idea what the other unions' members think, but I'm pretty confident that if it's a hardworking person getting their hands dirty and going home with aching muscles at the end fo the day, they don't like democrats or their welfare loving policies. That's not universally true, of course, but the majority feel that way.

With some constructive dialogue with Trump over the next few years, we can finally break that official partnership between dems and unions, and that's going to hurt the libs in a big way.

[fj1200]

We didn't have a say in it, that was for the union execs to decide.

Any discussion of the SCOTUS Beck decision that should have limited that sort of thing?

https://www.unionfacts.com/article/political-money/understanding-beck-rights/

[Gunny]

Any discussion of the SCOTUS Beck decision that should have limited that sort of thing?

https://www.unionfacts.com/article/political-money/understanding-beck-rights/That looks really good on paper. In real life, at least in the IBEW around here, you might as well quit your job as opt out of anything the biwigs think best for all.