Vice President Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz (Democrat) engaged with union members during a campaign stop in Michigan on Thursday to voice their support for the union.
“This is a collective issue, no one has to fight alone and it’s important that we understand we’re all in this together,” Harris told members at the Local 900 union hall in Wayne, her second stop over two days in the key battleground state.
“You know why I’ve spent my entire career fighting for unions and for workers? It’s because I understand the concept of collective bargaining and the noble concept behind collective bargaining. And that’s what we have here: fairness,” she said.
Harris has solidified union support in the weeks since she announced her candidacy, which could help her win over working-class voters in key battleground states. The United Auto Workers (UAW), which has supported Biden’s reelection campaign, has now endorsed Harris. The United Steelworkers (UAW) and the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, have also endorsed Harris.
In a memo Thursday, the campaign argued that union members will help the Democratic candidate win the November presidential election.
“We have 2.7 million union members in battleground states. This is significant considering the election four years ago was decided by approximately 45,000 votes in key states,” Harris campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo released just before the meeting with the UAW.
Harris on Thursday thanked her “sisters and brothers at the UAW” for their support.
“Look, even if you’re not a union member, you should be grateful for your union,” she said to applause.
UAW President Sean Fain opened the event on Thursday by praising Harris and Walz and arguing that workers had been “left behind” by former President Donald Trump. Fain has been at odds with Trump over his approach to the Teamsters.
“Are you ready to run for candidate Harris Waltz? I’m ready. UAW family, it’s time to get to work,” Fain said.
Just two days after Harris picked Waltz as her running mate, Waltz regaled the crowd with touting Harris’ “long track record of working for unions, union members and organized labor.” The Harris campaign noted that Waltz, a former teacher, was a member of the National Education Association.
Both Harris and Walz emphasized the short time until Election Day.
“It took us 89 days to get this done,” Harris said. “The one thing we all have in common is we love to work hard. … We enjoy working hard.”
Harris and Walz’s shortlist was approved earlier this week after the vice president announced his running mate and began a week-long tour of key battleground states. The pair made their debut in Philadelphia on Tuesday, stopping in Wisconsin and Michigan on Wednesday and Thursday before hitting North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada later this week.
