‘The Majority of the Local Unions Have Remained with Harris’
Despite some snubs, Democrats’ support among organized labor remains strong
It's become so regular and expected that it’s become a quadrennial ritual in the nation’s election of a president.
For decades now, US labor unions endorse whomever the Democratic nominee is, and often back that up with their own get-out-the-vote effort.
This year, however, things have not gone to plan.
A few notable unions — including the national Teamsters — have withheld endorsements of this year’s Democratic standard-bearer, Vice President Kamala Harris.
That’s despite Harris’s boss — President Joe Biden — making history when he became the first incumbent president to join a union picket line when auto workers were on strike last year.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov Tim Walz, have been actively courting the union vote, and one of the first major appearances by Walz when he joined the ticket was to give a rousing speech to a convention of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, or AFSCME.
“Tim is more than an ally,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “He understands us because he is one of us – a union brother who spent years as a public service worker in his community. He embodies the very best of public service – leading with empathy, looking after everyone and leaving behind no one. ... He’s a stand-up guy, absolute salt of the earth. And come next January, he will bring his decency and common sense to the White House.”
Some say that the reluctance of some unions to back Harris comes down to the fact that a portion of their rank-and-file are backing Harris’s Republican opponent, Donald Trump.
That’s despite not only Trump’s long anti-worker record as a businessman, but even continuing to make anti-worker remarks (paywall) on the campaign trail.
“You think about the Trump base, the Trump base is made up of non-college-educated, working-class white males and that’s the majority of that union and the majority also of some of the labor unions that have, I think, you know, pulled back a little bit from Kamala Harris,” said Juan Williams, one of the more-moderate political analysts on Fox News. “But the leadership and the majority of the local unions have remained with Harris because Democrats are the people they rely on for bargaining pro-union stance when it comes to actually getting legislation done."
Although the national Teamsters withheld its endorsement — and Teamsters President Sean O’Brien raised eyebrows with his prominent address to the Republican National Convention this summer — Harris and Walz still are receiving significant union support.
The major AFL-CIO, which represents 60 unions and 12.5 million workers, unanimously endorsed Harris for president in the 2024 election almost immediately after Biden dropped out of the race and threw his support behind his vice president in July.
“From day one, Vice President Kamala Harris has been a true partner in leading the most pro-labor administration in history,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “At every step in her distinguished career in public office, she’s proven herself a principled and tenacious fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on. From taking on Wall Street and corporate greed to leading efforts to expand affordable child care and support vulnerable workers, she’s shown time and again that she’s on our side.
“With Kamala Harris in the White House, together we’ll continue to build on the powerful legacy of the Biden-Harris administration to create good union jobs, grow the labor movement and make our economy work for all of us,” she added.
And despite their national organization staying out at the national level, hundreds of thousands of Teamsters across the country actively support the Democrats.
Local Teamsters unions and joint councils representing approximately 1 million Teamster-affiliated workers have endorsed the vice president.
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