The Teamsters declined to endorse a presidential candidate on Wednesday, marking the first time in decades that the union has not endorsed a candidate in the presidential election.

“Neither of the two major candidates has been able to make serious commitments to our union to ensure that the interests of working people are always put ahead of those of big business,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement.

He added: “We have demanded commitments from both (former President Donald) Trump and (Vice President Kamala) Harris not to interfere in key union campaigns or core Teamsters industries – and to respect our members’ right to strike – but have not been able to obtain those commitments.”

The union’s decision came two days after top politicians met with Harris to weigh who to support.

The Teamsters, which represent truck drivers, freight workers and others, held similar meetings with Trump and President Joe Biden when he was still in the re-election race.

The union, one of the largest in the world with 1.3 million members, gathered its members’ opinions on a support campaign through mock ballots and a QR survey using a code printed on a union magazine, said John Palmer, the union’s vice president.

On Wednesday, the union released the results of its poll, conducted after Biden dropped out of the race, which found that nearly 60 percent of union members planned to support Trump, while 34 percent supported Harris, according to an electronic membership poll. A telephone poll found similar splits: 58 percent supported Trump and 31 percent supported Harris.

The union did not disclose the number of survey participants or the error rate.

The Teamsters have supported Democratic presidential candidates for decades. The union supported Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2020. It also supported Barack Obama in both presidential runs, John Kerry in 2004 and Al Gore in 2000.

The Trump team pointed to the Teamsters’ polls in an email on Wednesday.

“Although the Teamsters Board of Directors has not expressed formal endorsement, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have made it loud and clear: They want President Trump back in the White House!” campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “These hardworking men and women are the backbone of America and President Trump will vigorously advocate for them upon his return to the White House.”

The former president addressed the union’s decision not to endorse a candidate in a call with reporters on Wednesday, saying it was “a great honor.”

“The Teamsters have a lot of weight. The Democrats can’t believe it,” Trump said. “Look, it was always automatic that the Democrats would get the Teamsters, and they said, ‘We’re not going to support the Democrats this year,’ so that was an honor for me.”

Lauren Hitt, spokeswoman for Harris’ campaign, pointed to local Teamsters chapters that supported the vice president.

“The vice president’s strong union record is why Teamsters chapters across the country have already endorsed her — alongside the overwhelming majority of unions,” Hitt said in a statement. “As the vice president told the Teamsters on Monday, if she is elected president, she will be sure to look out for the Teamsters rank and file — because they have always been and always will be the people she fights for.”

Throughout his presidency, Biden has emphasized his support for unions and frequently intervened in disputes between union members and company leaders. In 2021, he expressed his support for the right to unionize in a video shot directly to camera as Amazon workers in Alabama were about to vote on whether to organize.

In 2021, then-Teamsters President James P. Hoffa acknowledged Biden’s recognition for including an $83 billion pension fund bailout package in the American Rescue Plan Act, strengthening the Teamsters’ Central States Pension Fund.

In 2023, Biden became the first sitting president to join a picket line when he visited striking autoworkers in Michigan.

But even though Biden called himself “the most pro-union president at the head of the most pro-union administration in American history,” he was criticized by unions two years ago when he and Congress passed a law that averted a threatened rail strike.

The law forced union members to accept a collective bargaining agreement negotiated by the Biden administration, after four of the 12 unions involved rejected the deal at the time.

When he signed the bill, Biden called it a “tough (vote) for me,” but cited the need to “keep supply chains stable around the holidays.”

The International Association of Fire Fighters is the most prominent union that has not yet endorsed a presidential candidate this year. The union endorsed Biden in 2020.

Both the American trade union federation AFL-CIO, which represents dozens of unions and millions of workers, and the auto workers’ union United Auto Workers supported Harris.