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

“Neither major candidate could make any serious commitments to our union to ensure that the interests of working people always come before big business,” Teamsters President Sean O’Brien said in a statement.

He added: “We asked for commitments from both (former President Donald) Trump and (Vice President Kamala) Harris not to interfere with critical union campaigns or key Teamsters industries, and to respect our members’ right to strike, and we were unable to get those commitments.”

The union’s decision comes two days after top executives met with Harris to discuss who they would support.

The Teamsters, which represent truck drivers, freight workers and others, held similar rallies with Trump and President Joe Biden when he was running for re-election.

The union, one of the largest in the world with 1.3 million members, gathered input for a recommendation from its members through a poll and a QR poll 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 survey, conducted after Biden dropped out of the race. It found that nearly 60% of rank-and-file union members backed Trump, while 34% backed Harris, according to an electronic member poll. A telephone poll showed similar margins, with 58% backing Trump and 31% backing Harris.

The union did not disclose the number of participants in the vote or the margin of error.

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

In an email Wednesday, the Trump campaign highlighted the Teamsters’ polling.

“While the Teamsters Executive Board does not formally endorse the campaign, the hardworking members of the Teamsters have been 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 strongly support them when he returns to the White House.”

The former president responded to the union’s decision not to endorse a candidate during a call with reporters on Wednesday, calling it “a great honor.”

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

Harris campaign spokesperson Lauren Hitt pointed to local Teamster chapters that supported the vice president.

“The Vice President’s strong union record is the reason Teamsters locals across the country have already endorsed her — along with the overwhelming majority of organized labor,” Hitt said in a statement. “As the Vice President told the Teamsters on Monday, if she is elected president, she will stand up for the Teamsters base no matter what — because they have always been and will always be the people she fights for.”

Throughout his presidency, Biden has promoted his support for organized labor and has frequently spoken out on disputes between union members and corporate executives. In 2021, he voiced his support for the right to unionize in a direct-to-camera video as Amazon workers in Alabama were about to vote on whether to organize.

Then-Teamsters Chairman James P. Hoffa praised Biden in 2021 for including an $83 billion pension bailout in the American Rescue Plan Act, which bolstered the Teamsters’ Central States pension fund.

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

But despite calling himself “the most pro-union president leading the most pro-union administration in American history,” Biden drew criticism from unions two years ago when he worked with Congress to pass legislation averting a threatened railroad strike.

The law forced union members to accept a union contract brokered by the Biden administration. At the time, four of the 12 unions involved had rejected the deal.

When he signed the legislation, Biden called it “a difficult (vote) for me,” but also 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 endorsed a presidential candidate this year. The union endorsed Biden in 2020.

Both the AFL-CIO, which represents dozens of unions and millions of workers, and the United Auto Workers union have endorsed Harris.