UNION STRONG — Before the sun rose at the gates of UPS’s sorting warehouse in Philadelphia, Erik Lexie was handing out flyers to drivers and mail sorters clocking in for the morning shift and heading out for the night, informing them that their Teamsters’ local endorsed Kamala Harris for president. Trump supporting employees didn’t want to hear it. “I wouldn’t vote for her if she was the only one running,” Bill, a 31-year-UPS veteran, said without breaking his stride in front of Lexie’s modest table with a “Teamsters for Harris” poster and a stack of flyers about why Local 623 endorsed the vice president. Another UPS employee, when handed the flyer explaining why his local was backing Harris, threw it back at Lexie. When Lexie asked a third passerby if he had a plan to vote, without shifting his gaze from his trek to the parking lot, he replied, “Not for her!” The scene, which unfolded last Wednesday, vividly captured the challenges Harris faces with organized labor this year. Union voters have long been a key element of the Democratic Party base. And most unions have endorsed Harris’ candidacy. But union leaders acknowledge their members are divided as Trump and other populist-leaning Republicans have made inroads with working class voters. For the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, support for Trump among the rank and file is so robust — almost 60 percent nationally, according to its internal polling — that the union opted not to endorse any presidential candidate this year. It endorsed Joe Biden in 2020. The drift away from the Democratic Party is a significant concern in a presidential election that will be decided by thin margins, and where the Rust Belt — which is home to many of these workers — is pivotal to Harris’ chances. In the wake of the Teamsters’ non-endorsement, as well as the International Longshoremen’s Association and the International Association of Fire Fighters’ recent decisions to not endorse Harris, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz acknowledged his frustration Monday. Ironically, Lexie isn’t a fan of Harris or Trump. He says he’s backing Harris because she’s better on labor issues and Trump wouldn’t commit to the Teamsters that he would veto national right to work legislation — shorthand for laws that make it harder to organize and maintain union membership. Trump supporters seemed unconcerned about that distinction. Brian Brocato, of Pittsburgh’s AFSCME Local 297, who has been canvassing for Harris in Western Pennsylvania said Trump supporters regularly slam the door in his face when he’s door knocking. When he can get a Trump supporter to crack their door open, he pleads for just two minutes to collect data for the door knocking app. Alex Criego, an AFL-CIO local staffer also in Pittsburgh, said he’s also had the door slammed in his face by his union brothers and sisters who are backing Trump. “They’re not persuadable,” he said, describing misinformation about immigrants eating people’s pets that’s frequently repeated to him. “I just back away [from them].” In interviews with more than a dozen union members and canvassers, that was a common sentiment — rank-and-file members who support Trump have no interest in hearing the case for Harris. “You think Trump supporters are able to change their mind?” John Weyer, a 29-year Michigan veteran of the UAW — which has endorsed Harris — said in an interview in Washington at a Stellantis manufacturers conference. “Not a whole lot resonates when you get the people that are saying goodbye to your face.” Harris’ level of support varies widely between unions, of course, with support among industrial, male-heavy groups like the firefighters and Teamsters softer than support from other large, national unions. Leaders at the AFL-CIO rejected the idea that there was tension or resistance to hearing the case for Harris among some members. “No, we’re not experiencing that,” said Darrin Kelly, president of the Allegheny-Fayette County Central Labor Council, in its Pittsburgh office that’s still decorated with wood paneling and a framed photo of Joe Biden with a priest. “The most important thing is they’re always going to be our brothers and sisters, and they’re going to be our brothers and sisters even after the election. Because someone has a different belief, you don’t shut the door. That’s not what we do.” The AFL-CIO, which is the largest labor union in the country and has endorsed Harris, is in the middle of a multi-million-door canvas effort on her behalf. President Liz Shuler said that from its door-knocking data to date, its union members are 64 percent behind Harris, 19 percent with Trump and the rest are undecided or voting third party. Shuler said that a focus on talking about union contract concerns and national labor policy issues override partisanship, during an interview. Shuler gave a rallying speech Saturday to about 150 volunteers before they went out to knock the doors of their fellow members, saying, “unions are the most trusted messages. We’re the ones who can break through.” However, after those union volunteers got their canvassing assignments, several of them said they found it difficult to get a hearing from those who are supporting Trump, and nearly impossible to counter the fear-mongering and misinformation they heard about abortion and immigrants. Weyer, the Michigan UAW veteran, said you can try to talk about staples of union hall discourse — such as contracts and benefits — “but Fox News is out there so we can’t shield them from that or social media.” “I don’t know how effective this is anymore,” Joe Delale, a 75-year-old retired electrician and former leader at his local, said during his day canvassing in Pittsburgh. Trump had thoroughly remade these member-to-member conversations. Delale had more success speaking on a doorstep with Jack Kier, a fellow retiree. Kier, 77, wasn’t in a union but his father was — that’s why he suspects he’s still on the AFL-CIO door-knocking list. He’ll be voting for Harris, but the majority of his buddies in his Marine veterans group definitely won’t be, he said. “I want somebody in there who’s responsible … I’m just trying to be reasonable,” Kier said. “I can say that to you, but [to] those guys [his veteran friends], there ain’t no way.” Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at bgibson@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @brittanyagibson.
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