Biden canvassers join Teamsters union

Field organizers with former Vice President Joe Biden’s White House campaign announced Saturday that they are unionizing, joining a local Iowa chapter of the Teamsters.

The campaign put out a press release Saturday saying it welcomes the news as the former vice president leverages support from labor groups and white working-class voters in the 2020 primary race.

“Joe Biden has fought for the dignity and respect of working people his entire career and we are proud to be a campaign that puts his values into action — including a $15 minimum wage, paid family leave, and of course the right of workers to organize,” Biden’s campaign manager Greg Schultz said in the statement.

“We look forward to working with our field organizers, as the newest members of Teamsters Local 238, who are helping power this campaign to victory,” he continued.

Biden has long cast himself as an ally of labor movements and unions, vowing on his campaign to bring back the “dignity of work.”

The former vice president released a plan in October that would seek to incentivize unionization and collective bargaining and prevent employers from hindering workers’ organizing efforts. 

Democratic presidential candidates have put a premium on gaining support from labor groups as the party works to win back working-class voters who traditionally vote for Democrats but flipped to President Trump in 2016.

Other presidential campaigns — including those of Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro — have already unionized.