These Teamsters Don’t Buy Trump’s Lies

Although the international union declined to endorse either candidate for U.S. president this year, many Teamster locals and joint councils have endorsed Harris. Strikers at Marathon Petroleum have been showing their colors on the picket line. Photo: Jim West/jimwestphoto.com

By the time Teamsters President Sean O’Brien finally announced in September that the union would not be endorsing anyone for U.S. president—an outcome that had been looking more and more likely—an independent grassroots network called Teamsters Against Trump was ready to step into the breach.

Joint councils and locals representing nearly a million Teamsters in 15 states, including the battleground states of Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. So has the Teamsters National Black Caucus.

Teamsters Against Trump released a video where members highlight why they’re backing Harris, who cast the deciding vote to save their pensions, over ex-President Donald Trump, who tried to gut the National Labor Relations Board and chuckles with Elon Musk about firing workers on strike.

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Members are canvassing and phone-banking fellow Teamsters in swing states, and showing their colors on the picket line at Detroit’s Marathon Petroleum strike, now in its eighth week.

The intervention is much-needed as Republicans style themselves the new party of working people—not based on any shift toward supporting unions, taxing the rich, or providing universal childcare, but instead on anti-immigrant scapegoating and taking credit for the pre-Covid economy. Polls show plenty of workers—not just Teamsters—may buy the lies.