The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the largest labour unions in the United States, has said that it will not endorse any candidate in the upcoming US presidential election.
In a statement on Wednesday, the influential union of about 1.3 million members said that it would not endorse either Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris or Republican former President Donald Trump.
“The Teamsters thank all candidates for meeting with members face-to-face during our unprecedented roundtables,” Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien said in the statement.
“Unfortunately, neither major candidate was able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure the interests of working people are always put before Big Business.”
The move breaks with decades of precedent: The Teamsters have endorsed the Democratic candidate in every election since 2000, and the union has not declined to endorse a candidate since 1996.
It also comes as both the Democratic and Republican parties have been courting organised labour ahead of the November 5 election, which is expected to be hard-fought between Trump and Harris.
The Teamsters said that polling of its members showed a preference for Trump over Harris by a margin of more than 25 percent, but no “universal support” for either candidate.
The Trump campaign said that the polling shows that the “vast majority” of the group’s members supported the ex-president and wanted to see him return to the White House.
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