On Sunday morning at the American Legion in Northeast Philadelphia, Bill Hamilton began his monthly meeting of union members by alluding to the most significant issue of the day: President-elect Donald Trump had won the election within weeks of their last meeting.
The oath of allegiance was recited. A minute of silence was observed to honor the fallen members of the union, their loved ones and soldiers abroad. And then Hamilton spoke.
“Donald Trump is the president,” said Hamilton, vice president of the Teamsters Eastern Region and business agent for the Teamsters Local 107 Northeast office. “We have to accept it and move on.”
Hamilton, a Democrat, has seen divisive social media posts and negative political rhetoric rampant in his usually close-knit venue. He made it his mission to educate his people about the threats a Trump presidency poses to unions like theirs, even after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters decided not to endorse the presidential candidate, for the first time since 1996, the union chose not to endorse a Democrat in the race. But Hamilton wasn’t surprised when the international organization released data from their unscientific online poll showing that 66% of Local 107 members – mostly men who drive trucks and work in construction – favor Trump over Vice President Kamala Harris in the presidential election .
“Our union was divided on this,” Hamilton told members on Sunday. “We had brothers and sisters who didn’t talk to each other about it.”
Organized labor has long been a stable voting bloc for Democrats, and Biden has gained favor with Teamsters, especially when he helped protect many of their pensions by securing them in his American Rescue Plan. But even though Harris won almost all of the union support, she ultimately lost, in part because of a rightward shift among working-class voters, a shift apparent in Local 107. Bob Brown, 67, a retired teamster and committed Democrat who voted for Harris, argue that union members typically vote for the candidate recommended by their leaders, which in the past has been Democrats.
“We all come from an era where there were times when there was no division,” Brown said. “This is probably the first time we’ve seen something like this.”
It was “definitely social issues” that led some to vote for Trump
Edmund Farley, a member of Local 107, voted for Trump for the first time this year. Farley, 50, said he was looking for changes in the direction of the country’s development and said his vote was “definitely social issues”.
“I didn’t like the fact that men could play women’s sports,” Farley, a father of two daughters, said of the idea of transgender women and girls participating in women’s sports. He also said he disagreed with transgender women using women’s restrooms with his daughters.
Trump and his surrogates made attacks on transgender people a centerpiece of their campaign, spending millions of dollars on anti-LGBTQ ads that demonized Harris for her support for transgender people. Several people mentioned one famed anti-Harris ad about gender-affirming care – called “gender reassignments” in the ad – for undocumented people in prison.
Hamilton saw the ads while watching football on Sunday.
“The ads they were running [were] very boldly attacking Harris over her comments about transgender surgery in prison and the like,” Hamilton said. “Things that particularly bother white, middle-class Americans. AND [Democrats] I didn’t respond to that.”
Heath Fogg Davis, a political science professor and program director at Temple University, said he is not surprised by what appears to be a regression in public perception of transgender issues.
“Historically, when it comes to civil rights gains and losses, we’ve had an ebb and flow, a pattern of reforms and then cuts,” Davis said. “Trans civil rights are, in some ways, the newest category of civil rights protections.”
Michael Sviben, a retired union truck driver from Camden, said he voted for former President Barack Obama in 2012. He voted for Trump this year because he felt he couldn’t trust President Joe Biden or Harris.
Sviben, 70, said he had no serious problems but wanted to “see if we can unite this country.”
“I hear that as soon as Trump gets into office, he will be able to stop the wars and close the border,” Sviben said, then called Harris, the border czar, and said the border was open under her administration.
Conservative media and officials have attacked Harris, who has been tasked with the long-term task of solving core immigration problems, over border control issues.
The Teamsters’ turn to Trump comes as many believe the president-elect poses a threat to workers’ rights.
Trump has avoided supporting an enhance in the federal minimum wage. He changed the Obama-era overtime rules, lowering the income threshold for people working overtime, which approximately 3 million fewer workers qualifies for overtime pay and favors across-the-board tariffs, which economists say will raise the cost of goods imported into the U.S. from other countries.
in August United Auto Workers filed charges against Trump and Elon Musk for Trump’s comments about firing striking workers.
“I was willing to take that risk and vote for it,” Farley said.
Teamsters has always been more conservative than other unions, said Paul Clark, a labor professor at Penn State. Members, however, tended to support candidates they believed would be the most employee-friendly, but that has changed.
“Union members, at least in the last election, prioritized social issues — transgender and gay rights issues that they felt uncomfortable with, gun control, abortion, immigrants coming into their communities,” Clark said.
Randie McDonough (60) is a truck driver and political drug addict who reports inflation and unemployment percentages with extreme precision. Before the election, he polled his colleagues on why they voted for Trump.
“And a lot of guys,” said McDonough, who voted for Harris, “Hispanic guys, my black friends, basically everybody [said they] I don’t want a woman to rule.”
After the election, drivers who voted for Harris are struggling with their colleagues who didn’t.
“I don’t understand my union brothers and sisters who supported Trump and workers in general,” said Bob Strunk, 74, a retired truck driver. “Everyone thinks they’re worse off because of benefits and immigrants, they think their crumbs are being taken away. But they are in a worse situation because the ultra-rich allow them to have only crumbs.
“We won’t always agree on issues like guns, gays, race or religion,” Strunk said. “But we have to unite around the things we agree on, and those are our working conditions.”
It’s more for Trump voter Farley.
“You can’t vote just because [it’s] it will benefit me in my relationship,” he said. “I did it mainly with hope for my children’s future… It’s not about me, it’s about our country.”
