Kamala Harris Saved Teamsters Pensions, Gets No Endorsement

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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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