President Joe Biden swings through Philly, four days ahead of election, to tout union support

PHILADELPHIA — President Joe Biden swung through Philly for an event with union laborers just four days before Pennsylvania voters are poised to choose his successor.

Biden received a warm welcome at the UA Local 692 Sprinkler Fitters in Northeast Philadelphia Friday, with the crowd cheering and chanting “Thank you Joe!” as he took the stage. Large swaths of the crowd remained standing even after Biden began speaking, holding phones up and watching him intently.

The event was an official visit — likely one of Biden’s final ones to the city as president — rather than a campaign event for Vice President Kamala Harris, who has had to distance herself from Biden on the campaign trail.

But the union setting highlighted the role that that blue collar workers in Philadelphia could play in determining whether Harris or former President Donald Trump succeeds Biden as president.

As speakers lauded Biden’s support for unions as president, they also took jabs at Trump and Republicans.

Although Biden often spoke softly, he kept the crowd energized and laughing, and raised his voice with conviction at certain points.

Biden said he is proud to be “the most pro-union president in American history,” which was met with applause.

Biden presented the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second highest civilian honor, to the wife of the late Butch Lewis, the namesake of the Butch Lewis Act, a provision of the American Rescue Plan, which the White House says protected more than 1.2 million pensions.

When Biden noted the number, some attendees blurted out “Yes!” and broke out into applause. He said that 65,000 pensions were saved by the plan in Pennsylvania alone.

Biden called the legislation the most significant pension security measure enacted in over 50 years. The legislation was named Lewis, a Teamster and pension protection advocate. After boasting about the impact of the act, Biden called up Rita Lewis, who accepted the honor on behalf of her late husband.

The medal was created by former President Richard Nixon in 1969 to recognize citizens “who have performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens.”

In her own remarks, Rita Lewis highlighted the electoral stakes by noting that every Republican in Congress voted against the legislation.

“Not one Republican voted to save your pension,” she said. “The Democrats didn’t forget us.”

Biden said he and Harris “worked like hell” to include the Butch Lewis Act in the American Rescue Plan, the 2021 COVID-19 relief package passed in the first months of Biden’s presidency.

Before Biden took the stage, Bill Hamilton, president of Teamsters Joint Council 53 and Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters, denounced Trump for embracing Elon Musk on the campaign trail, calling the tech giant a “billionaire who doesn’t give a lick about working people.”

Tommy Callan, vice president of Teamsters Local 623 in Philadelphia, also brought up concerns about Trump and Musk’s relationship in an interview.

“He hangs out with Elon Musk, and Elon Musk flat out says any striking worker should be fired,” said Callan, 58, of New Jersey. “That’s really not union friendly. That’s really not what we want to hear.”

While the Pennsylvania Conference of Teamsters and several Philly locals have endorsed Harris, their parent organization, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, chose to remain neutral in the race.

U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, who also spoke at the event, had his father Francis Boyle — a retired SEPTA janitor — stand up in the crowd, who was met with applause. The lawmaker said his father relies on his Teamsters pension, also touting the Butch Lewis Act.

“I have never forgotten who I am, where I come from, and who I’m fighting for, and neither has Joe Biden,” said Boyle, a Democrat who represents Philadelphia.

While a sense of anxiety has been clear among some Democratic circles, attendees of Biden’s speech projected calm ahead of Tuesday.

Dan Kane, 60, who works for the Teamsters Local 202 in New York, said that the country is split politically —and Pennsylvania maybe even more so — but he still thinks Harris will prevail.

“I think there’s more enthusiasm, and I got to be hopeful that we need some kind of normal politics,” he said. " … and the racist and misogynist rhetoric that comes from the other campaign, I just don’t think most Americans support that.”

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