The Teamsters’ political committee has given $45,000 to the Republican National Committee, according to federal records, a significant departure for a powerful organized labor group that has more recently supported Democrats, such as President Biden, who have championed workers’ rights.
The union sent out the contribution - the maximum allowed from the union’s political action committee - to the RNC the same day former president Donald Trump met with Teamsters’ leadership for the second time in January.
The Teamsters also sent $135,000 to the Democratic National Committee last December plus a $15,000 donation in March.
Neither the Teamsters nor the RNC immediately responded to a request for comment.
The gift to the RNC, which is facing fundraising woes, magnifies tensions for unions that have benefited from Biden policies making it easier for workers to unionize and subsidizing projects to create union jobs, even as Trump remains popular among a lot of rank-and-file union members, especially in battleground states such as Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Following a meeting in late January at the Teamsters headquarters in D.C., Trump told reporters that he had a “good shot” at receiving the union’s endorsement. But Teamsters chief Sean O’Brien said during the same news conference that the Biden administration had “been great for unions,” adding that the Teamsters still had “some more questions that need to be asked to both candidates.”
O’Brien’s courting of Trump, starting when the two met privately in early January at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate, has outraged some of the union’s left-leaning leaders and members. One board member condemned the meetings, calling Trump a “known union buster, scab and insurrectionist,” according to the letter sent to the Teamsters president.
In January, days after O’Brien met with Trump, Teamsters executive board members received a letter asking them to vote to approve the $45,000 contribution to the RNC under the recommendation of both O’Brien and secretary-treasurer Fred Zuckerman.
The Teamsters union, which represents some 1.3 million UPS and other transportation workers, is one of only a handful that have not yet endorsed in the 2024 presidential race, wielding its stamp of approval as leverage in Washington, even as a large group of unions has endorsed Biden - the self-proclaimed “most pro-union president” - much earlier than typical in an election cycle.
The Teamsters endorsed Biden in 2020, Hillary Clinton in 2016, and Barack Obama in 2012 and 2008.
O’Brien has said that it’s important for the union to get to know all candidates for the job and that members’ votes “will not be taken for granted.” Some labor experts say O’Brien could feel pressure to consider the memberships’ diverse political leanings, because he won his office in 2021 after running as a reform candidate who promised members more involvement in union decision-making. He is aware that many rank-and-file Teamsters are Republicans, they said.
The Teamsters occasionally make small political contributions through its political action committee to Republican candidates and PACS, but the donation to the RNC departs from its usual spending. It is the union’s first contribution to the RNC since it donated $15,000 in 2004, according to data on Open Secrets, a Washington nonprofit that tracks campaign finance contributions.
Meanwhile, the RNC recently reported that last year was its worst fundraising year since 2013, with the committee entering 2024 with only $8 million in cash on hand and its chair, Ronna McDaniel, expected to step down under pressure from Trump.
Trump ended last month with less cash in his campaign account than Biden has, as his campaign and the leadership PAC that has been bearing his legal expenses burned through its war chest.
Biden has frequently touted his strong ties to labor unions, while straining at times to make inroads with working-class members. His biggest wins for the labor movement include approving trillions of dollars in spending on infrastructure, semiconductor and climate packages that incentivize companies to hire union workers as well as installing a labor advocate to lead the National Labor Relations Board who has made it easier for workers to join unions. However, he drew backlash from railroad workers in 2022 after asking Congress to impose a union contract that did not include paid sick days to avert a strike.
Last month, he received the much-coveted endorsement from the United Auto Workers union, whose leader, Shawn Fain, said at the time, “Rarely, as a union, do you get so clear of a choice between two candidates. … Donald Trump is a scab.”
Trump has called himself “pro-worker,” positioning himself as an ally of the working class, but he has supported numerous policies that restricted labor’s power. He installed a leader at the NLRB, widely opposed by unions, whose policies and rulings weakened workers’ rights. Trump’s visit to Michigan during the UAW strike in the fall featured a rally with autoworkers at a nonunion shop, while Biden joined striking workers on a picket line, becoming the first sitting president to do so. Trump has received few union endorsements outside of law enforcement unions.
The Teamsters’ inroads with Trump and the GOP have drawn criticism from the union’s progressive wing, though the union held talks with presidential candidates across the political spectrum this December.
“We’ve never done anything like this in my time on the board,” John Palmer, a Teamsters executive board member, said of the contribution. “I suspect the play is that we’ll have a bit more leverage with the GOP, but it appears like a tacit endorsement of Trump.”
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Marianne LeVine contributed to this report.
