Western Pa. Teamsters endorse Kamala Harris, breaking with national union

The council representing 35,000 Teamsters across Western Pennsylvania endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday, breaking with the decision by its parent union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, to not endorse a candidate in the race for president.

Teamsters Joint Council #40 covers more than a dozen locals across Pittsburgh, Jeannette, Cambria County, State College, Erie, New Castle, Washington and Uniontown.

Carl Bailey, the joint council’s board president, said the vote by board members to back Harris, the Democratic candidate, over GOP nominee Donald Trump was unanimous.

He said Western Pennsylvania Teamsters endorsed Harris because “she is the best for our locals and the best for unions.”

He cited Harris’ support for the PRO Act, a bill to expand labor protections to workers across the country, even in states with anti-labor organizing laws.

Bailey also praised Harris and President Joe Biden for helping save the pensions of Teamsters, including those of local members, as part of federal aid during the pandemic.

“We will never forget that,” Bailey told TribLive Wednesday.

On Thursday, the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters also endorsed Harris. The conference includes Joint Council #40 and represents over 95,000 Teamsters in PA, as well as Teamster members in Delaware and New Jersey and 16 divisions of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

“In the 45 years the PA Conference of Teamsters has been in existence, it is extremely rare to have a pro-labor candidate for president and a pro-labor candidate for vice president running together. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are exactly that team,” said William Hamilton, President of the PA Conference of Teamsters.

The Pennsylvania Teamsters endorsement stands in contrast to the national Teamsters union, which represents 1.3 million members and announced its lack of an endorsement earlier Wednesday.

“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 M. O’Brien said in a statement.

Other major unions such as the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of Teachers and the United Auto Workers are backing Harris.

Trump claims triumph

O’Brien has become a polarizing figure in the labor world. He spoke at the Republican National Convention, and has hinted at support for Trump. He met with both Trump and Harris before issuing the non-endorsement decision.

Bailey said he had no comment on O’Brien.

Trump took the non-endorsement as a win, and his campaign Wednesday highlighted polling released by the Teamsters that showed rank-and-file members supported the former president over Harris.

“President Trump fights for America’s working men and women,” Kush Desai, Team Trump’s spokesman in Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “President Trump’s agenda will bring tax relief and reverse the inflation that hurts working families the most.”

Bailey, however, tore into Trump and ripped the former president’s record on organized labor.

“I think if Trump wins again he will go after us even more,” Bailey said. “I don’t think he cares about working people. He used to brag about having people fired. My job is to keep people from being fired.”

Bailey also criticized Trump’s temperament, calling him an “egotistical bully.”

Bailey, a retired McKeesport Police detective, said Joint Council #40 represents over 50 local police departments. He lambasted Trump for his treatment of U.S. Capitol police officers following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

Other police unions, like the Fraternal Order of Police, have backed Trump, but Bailey said he was proud of the joint council for endorsing Harris.

The Joint Council #40 endorsements, which included dozens of other races up and down the ballot, skewed Democratic but included some Republicans.

Bailey said the Joint Council #40 board is meeting with rank-and-file members Wednesday night, and urging them to back Harris and other endorsed candidates.

Other Teamsters back Harris

Teamster councils and locals around the country have also backed Harris, despite the national union’s call for no endorsement.

Joint Councils 7 and 42 — which cover 300,000 members across 39 unions in California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam — endorsed Harris Wednesday, as did the council representing 200,000-plus Teamsters in Michigan.

Earlier this year, Harris was endorsed by about 10 Teamsters locals in Philadelphia, Miami, Boston, and Washington state.

Speaking on behalf of the Harris campaign, Conor Lamb, a former Democratic congressman from Mt. Lebanon, said the Joint Council #40 endorsement is significant because local Teamsters represent a broad range of members, from police officers to transportation workers and delivery drivers.

“The Western PA teamsters understand that Biden and Harris kept their promises,” Lamb said, referring to keeping pension funds solvent.

“Their endorsement shows they trust Harris will do even more for them, like bring back the child tax credit and expand the right to organize,” Lamb said. “Those aren’t just words, and I think [Bailey] and his members recognize that.”