Harris, Trump campaigns both court union vote as Labor Day signals final election stretch

Labor Day is a time to celebrate workers, but every four years or so it’s also a time for politicians to try and secure backing from the country’s powerful labor unions.

With the election just over two months away, candidates on both sides of the aisle are doing what they can to convince working voters that their side has everyone’s best interests at heart, to varying degrees of success.

Vice President Kamala Harris, according to her campaign, will spend Labor Day in Detroit, Michigan, celebrating the holiday with labor leaders and union workers.

“Vice President Harris will fight for unions because she knows they are the backbone of the middle class,” her campaign said. “As part of the most pro-union administration in history, Vice President Harris has created millions of good-paying jobs.

“She is a strong supporter of the PRO Act, cast the deciding vote on legislation that is saving hundreds of thousands of union workers’ pensions, and previously has joined union members on the picket line,” her campaign added.

Gov. Tim Walz will be in his home state of Minnesota meeting with labor leaders in St. Paul, before traveling to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for Laborfest 2024.

According to the campaign, Walz, a former union teacher, is expected to “highlight the Harris-Walz ticket’s proven track record of delivering for unions – which are the backbone of the middle class.”

Former President Trump on the other hand, team Harris-Walz declared, was “one of the most anti-worker and anti-union presidents in history. He hurt autoworkers, shipped jobs overseas, and lined the pockets of the super wealthy and big corporations at the expense of the middle class. A second Trump presidency would be even worse.”

Despite this assertion, there is no arguing with the fact that the head of the powerful International Brotherhood of Teamsters made an appearance before the Republican National Convention this summer — apparently at Trump’s request — but did not appear before the Democratic National Convention weeks later.

This was the first time a Teamsters’ president stood under the conservative party’s tent, which President Sean O’Brien acknowledged is precisely where many of his fellow union members find themselves.

According to exit polling performed in 2016, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saw support for Democratic candidates among union households slip from an 18% advantage, where it was in 2012 under Obama, to just 8%.

Trump’s VP pick, U.S. Sen. JD Vance, appeared before the International Association of Fire Fighters during their international convention last week. Vance was booed several times by many in the audience, but the room was not without its “Make America Great Again” shirt- and hat-wearing members.

“Today, I’m asking you to ignore the campaign rhetoric and to look at the records. In 2019, this union endorsed a Democrat for president with high hopes. But sadly, I believe that you have been let down,” Vance said.

Trump, who recently praised Elon Musk for firing striking workers who were attempting to organize, may not be as pro-union but his “America first” agenda resonates with many working voters, the vast majority of whom are not union members.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in 2023 was down to just 10%. In 1983, when this information was first tracked, more than 20% of workers were organized.

That’s not to say Trump is entirely without union support. This summer, the National Association of Police Organizations, which represents a quarter of a million police officers, endorsed Trump. Several state law enforcement unions have also backed Trump this cycle.

“We particularly appreciate his unflagging recognition that America’s law enforcement officers, just like any other citizens, have Constitutional rights, too,” NAPO president Michael McHale said in a July statement.

However, the vast majority of union leadership in the U.S. has lined up behind the Harris-Walz ticket.

Lisa Shuler, the president of the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest union, told the DNC audience last month that Harris will help build “an opportunity economy…where there’s no such thing as a man’s job or a woman’s job or, like Donald Trump would say, a ‘Black job.’ Just a good union job. That’s the future our president Joe Biden has fought for and that’s the future Kamala Harris and Tim Walz will keep fighting for.”

United Auto Workers president Shawn Fain, addressing the same crowd, said “that when the UAW stands up, we know who stands with us and who stands against us. Donald Trump laughs about firing workers who go on strike. And Kamala Harris stands shoulder to shoulder with workers when they’re on strike. And that’s the difference between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the scab.”

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers president Kenneth Coopers said that it was Harris who “cast the deciding vote to save our pension plan.”

“Every step of the way, Kamala Harris has been there for us. She’s bringing back American manufacturing to forgotten places throughout our country,” he said.

IAFF President Edward Kelly, ahead of Vance’s address on Thursday and before Walz addressed the same group on Wednesday, said labor unions don’t have a choice but to participate in the courtship process. The IAFF has not yet announced an endorsement, but in 2020 endorsed President Joe Biden.

“We have to play in politics. We have to play hard, and we have to play smart. Our members that elected us deserve nothing less,” he said. “Politics is how we identify our friends and how we spot our enemies.”

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