Posted on 09/30/2015 5:51:24 PM PDT by markomalley
With the announcement Wednesday that the Teamsters union will delay endorsing anyone for president, rumors are now circulating the union is looking at Republican Donald Trump.
The news of a delay comes as a particularly harsh blow to Hillary Clinton. As the Democratic frontrunner, she is the most likely to pick up support from the labor movement. With her hesitance to take a firm stance against President Barack Obama on trade and her more recent opposition to the Keystone Pipeline, she has found herself at odds with unions. According to Fox News correspondent James Rosen, leadership within the Teamsters wants to meet with Donald Trump before endorsing any candidate.
“Union sources say the decision was driven by three motivations,” Rosen said. “First as an intention snub to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton who last week opposed construction of the keystone pipeline. Second the Teamsters want to know if Vice President Biden will jump into the race. Then the union executive told me they want to sit down with Republicans candidates. Most notably frontrunner Donald Trump.”
Despite the reports, Teamsters Spokesman Galen Munroe said the union has no meetings with any candidates currently planned. He could not confirm whether the union is trying to setup a meeting with Trump or any other candidate.
“We do not have any meetings planned with any candidates at this juncture,” Munroe told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “I don’t have any information on any planned or requested meetings with candidates.”
Nevertheless, Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa did says the union is looking at any candidate regardless of party.
“It’s long past time for Republicans and Democrats to put aside their differences and work together for the good of our country,” Hoffa said in a statement. “The Teamsters will work with and support any candidate who puts the needs of America’s working families above the deep pockets of their corporate donors.”
The Teamsters isn’t the first union this election cycle to hold off its endorsement. On Sept. 22 reports surfaced that the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) decided to delay too. Back in July, the AFL-CIO also held off its endorsement.
Though some major unions are looking at Biden, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders has been able to pick up significant support from local unions. Labor for Bernie argues the Vermont socialist is the best candidate for working Americans. The group has held rallies across the country and signed on a few national unions and many smaller locals.
The lack of support could have significant repercussions for Hillary. Unions have a considerable amount of political influence. They also tend to contribute significantly to Democratic campaigns. Beyond just money, unions are able to rally people.
i am anti-union because of their appalling treatment of my non-union husband. They don’t care about workers or jobs or the company. They care about their own power. They are highly manipulative and they have cohorts in government that help them do it. They punish people who do not join and again, they have cohorts in government that help them do it. They are anti-freedom.
I wasn’t talking about anyone’s husband or wife, but thanks for that personal note.
Yeah, their votes matter, but do they come with strings? I do not trust unions. My experience is that they are evil power grabbers who punish anyone who they see as in their way.
theres something unseemly about this union announcement
perhaps after DT...goes rogue..it will become all too clear
This here should be enough to make most who area awake, recoil.
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I noted few on this thread never said so much as a word about the biggest unions of them all.
There are more unionized government employees than exist in the entire private sector America.
And you’re all paying the salaries of these millions of unionized government employees.
In fact, these millions of unionized employees and their gold plated pensions are now choking off the budgets of entire cities and states.
Not a peep here about any of that. Btw, Trump never asked for any union support.
Mikey, you’re full O s**t. Thanks for trying!
My husband would get a call from a TV station asking him to work a football game. No BEGGING him to work a football game. So he would. Because unions control that and because the game took place in a non right to work state, they would hound him to death about it. They wanted money from him, He only worked these jobs once or twice a year at most. He didn’t want to join. They would take money from the employer and place it in a 401k account. Chump change. Then they would take the money right back out in administration fees. It was always a zero balance in very short order. All it was to us was junk mail. BUT the IRS tried to say they we could not contribute to our own IRA because we had a 401k. We did not have a 401k. We had a nuisance junk mail problem claiming we had a 401k from a union we did not belong to. We could not get information from the union because we were not members. It was a nightmare. We had to go to tax court.
I hate unions.
Good point.
just the facts mam.
You want all the support you can get. Hey, if they want to give it no strings, fine.
We shouldn’t allow strings.
I guess so. I still don’t trust them. Better to have the individual workers support you and the corrupt union bosses just keep their power grabbing mouths shut.
Unions and conservatism is not a good mixture in 2015. I'll pass.
Then you should really focus on the unionized employees who we're paying 100% of their salaries.
And that would be the largest pool of unionized workers in America, "Unionized government employees".
It is all corrupt. They addressed a problem when they first formed but have long since become as big or bigger a problem as they were confronting. I don’t like their political activities anyway. It is unfair to the members who disagree.
This is actually huge.
That should make your eyes explode.
Because one is worse doesn’t mean the other isn’t bad.
Do you think we have any chance of dumping the gov’t affiliated unions?
Yes, of course. No one serving in government should be unionized. Period.
Indeed they did. And if Trump can get that feather in the cap, it's game over.
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