Sunday, October 06, 2024

Kamala Harris Saved Teamsters Pensions, Gets No Endorsement

In 2021, Democrats attached an expensive pension bailout to the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion stimulus package they muscled through the Senate on a party-line vote ... The inclusion of an estimated $74 to $91 billion to shore up troubled multiemployer pension funds was a small legislative miracle for the Teamsters and other unions - and it never would have happened without Harris. She cast the deciding vote in a crucial step known as the motion to proceed, allowing the stimulus package to advance with zero Republican support.

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Many O'Brien critics are angry that the union could look past the pension rescue, to say nothing of Trump's hostility to unions during his first term. The Teamsters' Central States pension fund was the biggest plan facing insolvency, with thousands of Teamsters facing benefit cuts so steep it would threaten their retirements.

"The Biden-Harris administration carried out their promise to solve the Teamsters' pension problems," Jim Hoffa, the union's former longtime president who preceded O'Brien, said in an interview. "That alone should be enough to cement a commitment from the IBT."

Local Teamsters councils covering a majority of the union's members across the U.S. have since come out for Harris, often citing the pension issue, among others.

O'Brien himself is a trustee of the New England Teamsters Pension Plan. That plan was on track to run out of funding by 2028, but now it will receive $5.7 billion in federal money due to Democrats' stimulus package, according to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the government-run entity that insures defined-benefit pensions. Without that funding, the plan's 72,000 recipients could have seen their benefit payments slashed by roughly 75%.

John Palmer, a member of the Teamsters' executive board, who plans to challenge O'Brien for the union's presidency in 2026, said he was one of three executive board members who voted to endorse Harris, while 14 voted to endorse no one. (Trump received no votes, he said.) O'Brien made the case that backing Harris would defy members' wishes, Palmer said, and he believes O'Brien's position influenced the thinking of other board members.

Palmer argued the non-endorsement would prove to be "very costly."

"We're not here to reflect members' polling," he said. "We're here to make sure facts are put forward to members so they can make an educated choice."

Biting the hand that feeds you and feeding the hand that slaps you in the face. Way to go Teamsters. I'm sure reinstalled President Trump and the anti-union GOP won't seek to pullback funding for your pensions. No way, right?

#1 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-10-06 11:51 AM

Is it possible that labor union endorsements aren't what they once were?

"O'Brien himself is a trustee of the New England Teamsters Pension Plan. That plan was on track to run out of funding by 2028, but now it will receive $5.7 billion in federal money"

Nice job, O"Brien.

Nice to know my tax dollars going to bail out pensions that shouldn't have been underfunded in the first place.

#2 | Posted by eberly at 2024-10-06 01:06 PM

"Biting the hand that feeds you and feeding the hand that slaps you in the face."

interesting metaphor, Tony. Not getting their endorsement might lead Harris to believe she's viewed as biting the hand rather than being the hand.

And the vote wasn't even close. Only 3 out of 17 voted to endorse Harris and the other 14 voted to endorse nobody.

Why was that? Why the unwillingness to support Harris? Why choose to endorse nobody?

#3 | Posted by eberly at 2024-10-06 01:11 PM

How did she do that?? She was just the Vice President in 2021. She had no real power to move the needle.

#4 | Posted by LauraMohr at 2024-10-06 01:12 PM

Laura, you understand the VP can break a tie in the senate, right?

That's one area where the VP can "move the needle".

#5 | Posted by eberly at 2024-10-06 01:18 PM

Teamsters=ungrateful assh***s! No surprise there. I'll bet more of them are anti-LGBTQ than almost any other voting group.

#6 | Posted by danni at 2024-10-06 04:47 PM

Not getting their endorsement might lead Harris to believe she's viewed as biting the hand rather than being the hand.

Not catching your juxtaposition Ebs. How is Harris biting the union's hand? She backed them with her deciding vote and made sure that they got their pension support. She isn't lashing out against the union because they didn't endorse her, she's remained quiet as I'm sure she will with the IAFF non-endorsement as well.

If it were up to the GOP, the Teamsters' pension wouldn't have received a dime of support from the government since ZERO voted to support the IRA. To me, Harris provided her hand and got it bitten, while the GOP slapped the union with theirs and is now touting the non-endorsement as a win for them - a net positive along with the release of internal polling showing significant support from the rank and file for Trump, another sleight towards Harris.

Only 3 out of 17 voted to endorse Harris and the other 14 voted to endorse nobody.

Why was that? Why the unwillingness to support Harris? Why choose to endorse nobody?

The 'why' is that the E-board doesn't want to enrage the vocal rank and file who support Trump even though he doesn't support them and wants to weaken unions in general and undermine overtime pay and regulations - many union members' lifeblood. That explains the 14 absentions. These are elected positions, and usually those elected don't want to sign their own future pink slips by crossing their voting members. The new international head spoke at the RNC and was told to pound sand by the DNC, nominally for having been seen as kissing Trump's ring so publicly.

As noted the non-endorsement is seen as a tacit endorsement of Trump by all sides, which is another reason so many of the largest and most influential locals singularly gave unqualified endorsements of Harris in response to the international's refusal to.

#7 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-10-06 06:47 PM

-How is Harris biting the union's hand?

I don't know but I suspect Union leadership can answer that which would explain why they don't like here

#8 | Posted by eberly at 2024-10-06 07:53 PM

The child-raping scab jokes about firing striking workers.

www.nydailynews.com

#9 | Posted by reinheitsgebot at 2024-10-06 08:00 PM

"the vocal rank and file who support Trump even though he doesn't support them and wants to weaken unions in general and undermine overtime pay and regulations"

How come they don't see it that way?

#10 | Posted by eberly at 2024-10-06 08:14 PM

How come they don't see it that way?

Why does anyone support Trump after watching his act for the last 9 years? Teamsters are no different. Many of them hate the same people Trump hates and blames the same people for their problems that Trump does and they believe he'll actually try to make their lives better instead of just his own and increase his wealth accumulation.

If anyone knew how to change these people's minds it would have been done by now.

#11 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-10-06 08:22 PM

"Teamsters are no different."

Then why do people pretend to give a ---- about this endorsement?

Man, democracy really sucks sometimes.

#12 | Posted by eberly at 2024-10-06 08:25 PM

Why was that? Why the unwillingness to support Harris?

#3 | Posted by eberly

Male insecurity and gullibility.

#13 | Posted by SpeakSoftly at 2024-10-07 01:32 PM

"Donald Trump has the most working-class support of any GOP candidate in 40 years"

If you can't figure it out...

#14 | Posted by sitzkrieg at 2024-10-07 01:32 PM

The Teamsters' Central States pension fund was the biggest plan facing insolvency, with thousands of Teamsters facing benefit cuts so steep it would threaten their retirements

Isn't that what Welfare and Food Stamps are for?

#15 | Posted by FedUpWithPols at 2024-10-07 04:51 PM

Based upon internal polls released by the Teamsters their members prefer Trump nearly 2-1 over Harris. No way leadership could endorse her given that. In reality the union should have endorsed Trump given their internal polling.

#16 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-10-07 06:57 PM

#16 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-10-07 06:57 PM | Reply | Flag: MAGA Math

#17 | Posted by Hans at 2024-10-07 07:02 PM

As I've said repeatedly in this election. It is Sadly, all about race. Harris is qualified, Trump is a senile joke. Harris has actual plans, Trump's only plans are to stay out of jail, go after enemies, and re-enrich himself again through scams and shady dealings...BUT none of
that matters, because she is black and female, and Trump's kkklan are racist white males and their Stepford wives for the most. And that is all they see or care about.

You'd have thought we've gotten beyond all of this by now, but apparently the GOP south has held onto the world's longest grudge since losing the Civil War,
aaaaaand here we are.

Glad I will be watching the election returns and subsequent fallout from the safety of a 4 star hotel this time around.

#18 | Posted by earthmuse at 2024-10-07 07:17 PM

Actually, for the first time in a very, very, very, very, (x 1000) long time, Strawlighter is actually correct. (Don't faint)

From April 9-July 3, nearly 300 Teamsters local unions nationwide conducted first-of-their-kind Presidential town halls, soliciting endorsement preferences from members via straw polls. The in-person voting was held prior to Biden's withdrawal from the race. The Teamsters' polling data shows members backed Biden 44.3 percent to Trump's 36.3 percent.

Following the Republican National Convention and Biden's campaign exit, the Teamsters commissioned a national electronic poll of its 1.3 million members, overseen by an independent third party. During a voting window from July 24-Sept. 15, rank-and-file Teamsters voted 59.6 percent for the union to endorse Trump, compared to 34 percent for Harris.

In the past week, following the Democratic National Convention and recent Presidential debate, the Teamsters commissioned independent polling firm Lake Research Partners to conduct the union's final national survey. In the poll ending Sept. 15, Teamsters selected Trump by 58 percent for endorsement over 31 percent for Harris.

teamster.org

Now, having shown the polling data, not all members participated and obviously those who did are more politically oriented than non-participants. And it doesn't say how many members abstained from responding to the polls.

But this does beg the question as to why the members supported President Biden but turned to Trump after he dropped out considering that Trump's positions did not change and Harris is running on most of the same policy stances as Biden was.

An objective person might discern that more than a few Teamsters members are misogynists and or bigots showing their innate prejudice, but that's just an observation currently unsupported by hard evidence - or what's affectionately known around here as a Strawlighter Special.

#19 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-10-07 07:18 PM

#19. So, I'm right and you still take a swipe?

No worries. I thought it was kind of funny.

#20 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-10-07 07:36 PM

So, I'm right and you still take a swipe?

The truth is never a swipe, ... it's the truth.

#21 | Posted by tonyroma at 2024-10-07 07:39 PM

#20 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-10-07 07:36 PM | Reply | Flag: stink eye

#22 | Posted by Hans at 2024-10-07 07:43 PM

My eye smells like perfume, Hans.

#23 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-10-07 08:14 PM

#23 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-10-07 08:14 PM | Reply | Flag: Not at all unexpected

#24 | Posted by Hans at 2024-10-07 08:20 PM

I take care of my wife. The perfume rubs off a bit.

#25 | Posted by BellRinger at 2024-10-07 09:06 PM

- I take care of my wife.

She was a DEI hire, so he has to.

#26 | Posted by Corky at 2024-10-07 09:09 PM

This is Amerikkka.

#27 | Posted by fresno500 at 2024-10-07 09:53 PM

Teamsters=ungrateful assh***s! No surprise there. I'll bet more of them are anti-LGBTQ than almost any other voting group.

#6 | POSTED BY DANNI

As a former 25 year teamster I disagree.
The problem is one man, that POS O'brien.

#28 | Posted by a_monson at 2024-10-07 10:34 PM

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