According to the Teamsters’ own statement, the non-endorsement was approved by the union’s General Executive Board after “in independent electronic and phone polling from July-September, a majority of voting members twice selected Trump for a possible Teamsters endorsement over Harris.” (teamster.org)

This poll should have been a wake-up call to the Teamsters leadership! Such a high level of support for this [neo]fascist candidate indicates that a mass anti-racist educational campaign is urgently needed. The union statement should have announced that it was going all-out to win its rank and file away from the white-supremacist and xenophobic ideology that Trump epitomizes. Such a campaign would build working-class solidarity against the capitalist class, including its ultraright wing.

The union statement rightly criticized both Trump and Harris for not committing to support railroad workers’ right to strike and Biden’s record of blocking a railroad strike in 2022. But a Teamsters-wide anti-racist mobilization would strengthen class unity around defending the rights of railroad workers, who include IBT members.

Instead, Teamsters President Sean O’Brien is continuing down the slippery slope, beginning with his horrendous speech at the Republican National Convention in July, of treating racism and bigotry as non-issues.