Last Updated: March 13, 2024, 00:30 IST
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President Joe Biden courted the help of the highly effective International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Tuesday, reminding its leaders and members of his file on unions as doubtless Republican challenger Donald Trump tries to make features among the many bluecollar staff that helped propel his 2016 victory.
WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden courted the help of the highly effective International Brotherhood of Teamsters on Tuesday, reminding its leaders and members of his file on unions as doubtless Republican challenger Donald Trump tries to make features among the many blue-collar staff that helped propel his 2016 victory.
Biden met with the Teamsters at its headquarters and emphasised the administration’s help of unions and his longtime help for the labor motion. Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien stated after the assembly that Biden has been “great” for staff however burdened that “there’s still a lot of work to be done” to bolster unions.
“There’s always a threat to organized labor, so we want to be proactive and make certain every candidate — not just President Biden — understands how important our issues are,” O’Brien advised reporters after assembly with the president.
Biden and the Teamsters mentioned subjects such because the Butch Lewis Act — a measure now signed into legislation that shored up pensions for scores of staff — Social Security and Medicare, whereas the president vowed to proceed to “hold corporations accountable, because every worker deserves respect, and billionaire executives shouldn’t pay a lower tax rate than truck drivers or warehouse workers,” stated Biden marketing campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt.
Biden met privately with the Teamsters almost six weeks after Trump sat down with them to earn their help. Emerging from that assembly, Trump boasted {that a} important chunk of union voters has backed him and stated of a doable Teamsters endorsement: “Stranger things have happened.”
The president desires to harness labor’s energy and attain to bolster his marketing campaign’s efforts this yr, as Trump tries to make inroads with union staff who’ve historically backed Democratic candidates. The former Republican president peeled away some blue-collar staff 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 inclined to vote Democratic, with 56% of members and households backing Biden in 2020, based on AP VoteCast. Biden, who usually touts himself as probably 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 Teachers and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
“The Biden-Harris campaign is proud to have the support of the AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, UAW and many other unions,” stated Hitt. “We hope to earn the support of the Teamsters as well.”
It’s not simply the help of the Teamsters that Biden and Trump has battled over. The Democratic president traveled to Michigan final September and joined placing autoworkers, turning into the primary president in fashionable historical past to hitch an lively picket line.
The United Auto Workers later formally endorsed Biden, at the same time as 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, nevertheless, had made his Michigan look at a non-unionized auto elements plant.
The Teamsters union represents 1.3 million staff. It backed Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Biden in 2020, though O’Brien has burdened that the union is conserving an open thoughts on endorsements this cycle. The group typically waits till after each events’ summer season nominating conventions to make a proper endorsement, and can “most likely” 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 staff, freight operators, members of legislation enforcement and different authorities staff.
“The Teamsters union is good at one thing: mobilizing our members, especially when a decision and/or battle needs to be had,” O’Brien stated, including: “We have proven how valuable our members are and how engaged — more importantly — they are.”
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