Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made their first joint appearance on the presidential campaign trail since their party conventions on Monday, celebrating Labor Day by paying tribute to union members in Pittsburgh.
“We are proud to be the most pro-union administration in American history,” Harris said. “I love Labor Day. I love celebrating Labor Day. And Pittsburgh is the birthplace of the American labor movement.”
In between comments about the Administration's support for labor unions and President Donald Trump's attacks on them, Vice President Harris spoke out against Nippon Steel's proposed takeover of U.S. Steel, arguing that Pennsylvania's iconic steel company should remain in American hands.
“U.S. Steel is a historic American company, and it's vital for our country to maintain a strong American steel company. And I completely agree with President Biden that U.S. Steel should remain American-owned and American-operated.”
The United Steelworkers union, which represents about 10,000 U.S. Steel employees, opposes the $14.9 billion deal, arguing that Nippon Steel violated the union's rights regarding a change of control under a four-year core labor agreement signed in 2022. The union and the company are in arbitration talks.
Harris reiterated her support for the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which includes sweeping labor reforms to promote unionization.
IBEW President Kenny Cooper introduced Biden and Harris, noting that Harris's tie-breaking vote to pass the Butch Lewis Act protected the interests of 2 million union members. “They were in agreement for one reason only: They couldn't find a Republican senator,” he said.
Ms Harris voted in the runoff for the inflation reduction bill, but USW International President David McCall said: comment “It has revolutionised the cement, chemical, glass and steel sectors, as well as other traditional core industries.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has also opposed the Nippon Steel deal and said he would block it if he becomes president. Biden voiced his opposition to the deal in March.
Biden may not have been as forthright as Harris, but he outlined his administration's accomplishments in Pennsylvania, from clean energy investments to infrastructure funding. Biden noted that his administration had mandated project labor agreements that respected workers' rights and required American-made products, and reminded the audience that Donald Trump had appointed union-busting officials to the National Labor Relations Board.
“Wall Street didn't build America,” Biden said. “The middle class built America, and unions built the middle class.”
The joint appearance of Biden and Harris hinted at how the pair might campaign in the final stages of the campaign, with Biden describing Harris as “hard as a hammer and the moral fiber of a saint.”
Harris spent the morning in Detroit, joining union leaders at Northwestern High School to extoll the benefits of union organization — a five-day work week, sick leave, vacation time and other benefits.
“We celebrate unions because they helped build America and built the American middle class,” she said. “When union wages go up, everyone's wages go up.”
Biden will be the first sitting president to stand on a union picket line in September 2023 in support of the United Auto Workers (UAW) as they take on the major automakers. “You, the UAW, saved the auto industry in 2008 and before,” Biden shouted through a bullhorn on a picket line in Michigan. “You sacrificed a lot, you gave up a lot. The automakers were struggling. Now they're doing incredibly well. And you know what? You can do incredibly well, too.”
Sean Fein, president of the American Federation of Labor, is both a vocal voice in galvanizing the American labor movement and a vocal opponent of Trump. “Donald Trump is all talk. Kamala Harris is all action,” Fein said at the Democratic National Convention in August while wearing a “Trump is a Scab” shirt. Harris supporters chanted the phrase in Detroit this morning.
In his acceptance speech before the Republican National Convention, President Trump called for Fain's “immediate termination,” but the Republican candidate has been courting labor supporters as he seeks reelection. Renegotiating the North American Free Trade Agreement and proposing a 10-20% tariff on foreign trade are at the center of his lobbying, which he claims would bring manufacturing back from overseas factories.
but Project 2025 The bill, a conservative playbook for a second Trump administration written by the Heritage Foundation, seeks to end meritocratic hiring for thousands of unionized federal employees, calls for changes to “protected concerted activity” that would make it easier for employers to retaliate against union organizing, and repeals the “persuader rule” that requires companies to disclose information when hiring union-busting consultants.
Trump has also backtracked on his public comments about the electric vehicle industry, initially calling for an end to the electric vehicle mandate but then backtracking after Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently endorsed Trump's candidacy. In an interview on Musk's X/Twitter social media space, Trump praised Musk's approach to labor relations.
“They go on strike,” Trump said, “and I won't name the companies, but they go on strike and they say, 'OK, you guys are all gone. You guys are all gone. So you're all gone.' And you guys are the best.”
Speaking at the Republican National Convention, Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, who surprised many union leaders, walked back his oversight of Trump. “Firing workers for organizing, for striking, for exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism,” O'Brien said.
