Teamsters union meets with Biden, plan endorsement decision this summer

By David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday sat down with leaders of the 1.3 million-member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, six weeks after his Republican rival Donald Trump met with the union to seek their endorsement.

Teamsters President Sean O'Brien told reporters after the meeting at the union's headquarters in Washington that leaders and rank-and-file members had an opportunity to ask Biden questions and talk about a lot of issues like bankruptcy reform and a bill to make it easier to unionize.

O'Brien said the union would conduct a lot of polling in the next several weeks and make a decision "most likely after the (Republican and Democratic parties') conventions" in July and August. "This decision will be made with a lot of due diligence, a lot of input from our members with the polling," he said.

O'Brien said Biden's message was "he's consistently been a pro-union president."

Biden's campaign said the president had talked with union officials about legislation he signed to protect union pensions and other pro-union positions, and noted that Biden last fall became the first sitting president ever to join a picket line. 

The Teamsters represent truck drivers, dockworkers, airline pilots, government employees and many other sectors.

The meeting came during a 2024 presidential campaign in which the U.S. economy is one of the top issues. Unions have seen a resurgence after a decades-long decline and some, including the Teamsters, have won significant new contracts.

Former President Trump and Biden are courting union votes in general election battleground states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

"I've dealt with unions my whole life, I have a great relationship with unions," Trump, who was a New York-based developer before becoming president, said on Jan. 31. "We had a very good discussion."

Biden calls himself the most pro-union president in history, and the Teamsters endorsed him in 2020 during his previous match-up with Trump.

O'Brien defended a recent $45,000 donation to the Republican National Committee by a Teamsters political action committee, saying it "gets us a seat at the table." He said over the last 10 years the union has donated more than $5 million to the Democratic Party and about $100,000 to the Republican Party.

(Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis)