By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden will meet next month with members of the 1.3-million member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of the largest unions that remains undecided in the 2024 presidential election, the campaign and union said on Tuesday.
Biden will attend a March 12 roundtable at the union headquarters in Washington weeks after the Teamsters hosted a meeting with his Republican rival and predecessor Donald Trump.
Topics will include workers’ wages, income inequality, corporate bankruptcy reform, antitrust enforcement in the warehouse and package delivery industries, and efforts to reform the ability for workers to unionize, the Teamsters said.
The Teamsters endorsed Biden in 2020. “Unions built the middle class,” Biden said in a speech last month, adding he had “kept my commitment to be the most pro-union president ever.”
Unions have seen a resurgence in the United States with many, including the Teamsters, winning significant new contracts.
Trump and Biden are expected to target union votes in general election battleground states, including Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
Trump said after his meeting with the Teamsters that his pledge to impose tariffs on Chinese goods, and to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants across the U.S.-Mexico border is supported by many union members.
“I’ve dealt with unions my whole life. I have a great relationship with unions,” Trump said.
The Biden campaign said the president “looks forward to meeting with the Teamsters and earning their endorsement.”
Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said after the Trump meeting there still needed to be questions asked of both Trump and Biden, and that “we’ve got a long way to go before we make a decision” about an endorsement.
Union endorsements could be crucial in a presidential race among a closely divided electorate where just a few thousand votes in several key states could decide the 2024 election.
Biden received a coveted endorsement in January from the leadership of the almost 380,000-strong United Auto Workers (UAW), another key labor group in the Midwest, an important election battleground.
(Reporting by David ShepardsonEditing by Bill Berkrot)
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