WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden courted the assist of the highly effective Worldwide Brotherhood of Teamsters on Tuesday, reminding its leaders and members of his report on unions as seemingly Republican challenger Donald Trump tries to make beneficial properties among the many blue-collar employees that helped propel his 2016 victory.
Biden met with the Teamsters at its headquarters and emphasised the administration’s assist of unions and his longtime assist for the labor motion. Teamsters Common President Sean O’Brien stated after the assembly that Biden has been “nice” for employees however pressured that “there’s nonetheless a whole lot of work to be performed” to bolster unions.
“There’s all the time a menace to organized labor, so we wish to be proactive and make sure each candidate — not simply President Biden — understands how necessary our points are,” O’Brien advised reporters after assembly with the president.
Biden and the Teamsters mentioned matters such because the Butch Lewis Act — a measure now signed into regulation that shored up pensions for scores of employees — Social Safety and Medicare, whereas the president vowed to proceed to “maintain firms accountable, as a result of each employee deserves respect, and billionaire executives shouldn’t pay a decrease tax fee than truck drivers or warehouse employees,” stated Biden marketing campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt.
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Biden met privately with the Teamsters almost six weeks after Trump sat down with them to earn their assist. Rising from that assembly, Trump boasted {that a} important chunk of union voters has backed him and stated of a attainable Teamsters endorsement: “Stranger issues have occurred.”
The president needs to harness labor’s energy and attain to bolster his marketing campaign’s efforts this yr, as Trump tries to make inroads with union employees who’ve historically backed Democratic candidates. The previous Republican president peeled away some blue-collar employees in his 2016 win and is trying to exploit a divide between union leaders who’ve backed Democratic candidates and rank-and-file members who may very well be swayed to vote Republican.
Union members are likely to vote Democratic, with 56 % of members and households backing Biden in 2020, based on AP VoteCast. Biden, who usually touts himself as essentially the most pro-union president in historical past, has swept up endorsements from main labor teams such because the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Lecturers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Staff.
“The Biden-Harris marketing campaign is proud to have the assist of the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, UAW and lots of different unions,” stated Hitt. “We hope to earn the assist of the Teamsters as effectively.”
It’s not simply the assist of the Teamsters that Biden and Trump has battled over. The Democratic president traveled to Michigan final September and joined placing autoworkers, changing into the primary president in fashionable historical past to affix an lively picket line.
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The United Auto Employees later formally endorsed Biden, whilst Trump made his personal journeys to Michigan to criticize the president’s push for extra electrical autos – one of many union’s chief issues throughout their strike. Trump, nonetheless, had made his Michigan look at a non-unionized auto components plant.
The Teamsters union represents 1.3 million employees. It backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, though O’Brien has pressured that the union is retaining an open thoughts on endorsements this cycle. The group typically waits till after each events’ summer time nominating conventions to make a proper endorsement, and can “most definitely” accomplish that once more this yr, as soon as it polls its members, solicits rank-and-file enter, and reconvenes its management crew, O’Brien stated.
The union’s membership consists of UPS drivers, movie and tv employees, freight operators, members of regulation enforcement and different authorities employees.
“The Teamsters union is nice at one factor: mobilizing our members, particularly when a call and/or battle must be had,” O’Brien stated, including: “Now we have confirmed how priceless our members are and the way engaged — extra importantly — they’re.”