Union leaders at DNC push back against Republicans’ phony support for Organized Labor

By TIM ROWDEN
Editor-in-Chief

Chicago – With union leaders issuing hearty endorsements, Vice President Harris’ campaign highlighted its pro-union stance at the Democratic National Convention, pushing back against the Republican Party’s false posturing of support for working families and Organized Labor.

Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers, which has endorsed Harris, blasted Trump as a union-buster who “laughs about firing workers who go on strike,” referring to an Aug. 11 interview between Trump and Elon Musk on Twitter/X Space, during which Trump praised Musk for firing striking workers.

“For the UAW and for working-class people everywhere, this election comes down to one question: Which side are you on?” Fain said. “On one side, we have Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, who have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the Working Class. On the other side, we have Trump and JD Vance, two lap dogs for the billionaire class who only serve themselves.”

Halfway through his speech, Fain removed his jacket to reveal a  UAW t-shirt emblazoned with the message “TRUMP IS A SCAB. Vote Harris.”

“For us in the Labor Movement, it’s real simple,” Fain continued. “Kamala Harris is one of us, she’s a fighter for the working class. And Donald Trump is a scab.”

Fain was one of a number of union leaders who took the stage at the convention, including AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler; Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Kenny Cooper, Laborers International Union of North America (LiUNA) President Brent Booker, Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Claude Cummings, Jr., American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Lee Saunders and Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President April Verrett.

“This election is about two economic visions,” Shuler said. “One, where families live paycheck-to-paycheck, where people have no right to join a union: a CEO’s dream, but a worker’s nightmare. Or an opportunity economy, where we lower the costs of groceries, prescriptions, and housing; where we go after Big Pharma, corporate landlords, and price gougers; 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. Let’s build it together.”

INFRASTRUCTURE
“For decades we’ve fought for more investment in our infrastructure,” said LiUNA’s Booker. “While Trump made empty promises, the Biden-Harris administration delivered. Now we’re rebuilding highways, bridges and tunnels and powering a clean energy and manufacturing boom. Thanks to them our members can buy a home, put their kids through school, retire with dignity. As president, Kamala Harris will keep fighting for workers who are building America.”

NEW ENERGY FUTURE
“Today we’re building a new energy future while providing great paying jobs and a stable retirement for all working families,” said IBEW’s Cooper.

“Every step of the way Kamala Harris has been there for us. She’s bringing back American manufacturing to forgotten places throughout our country. She cast the deciding vote to save our pension plan. She’s lifted our apprentices up all over the nation. And guess what , she’s not afraid to use the word union.”

PANDEMIC RECOVERY
“Four years ago we faced a pandemic and a recession with a president who didn’t care one bit what working people were going through,” said AFSCME’s Saunders. “Enter Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Within weeks they passed the American Rescue Plan, pulling the economy back from the brink and putting us back to work. They’re guided by a basic principle more freedom for working people including the freedom to join a union.

“So this November we’re moving forward with Kamala Harris as our president.”

BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE
CWA’s Cummings reflected on the digital divide exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Millions of American families didn’t have access to high speed internet at home ,and too many kids were forced to go to online class at the McDonald’s parking,” he said. “But as vice president Kamala Harris helped pass the largest investment in broadband ever. She gave CWA members a seat at the table so we could work to connect every household to the Internet while creating good union jobs. Listen, we don’t play at CWA, and we’re fired up to work with our next president Kamala Harris.”

MAKING IT EASIER TO JOIN A UNION
“We’re all in for Kamala Harris because Kamala Harris has always been all in for us,” SEIU’s Verrett said.

“Vice President Harris joined fast food workers on the picket line and she walked a day in the shoes of a home care worker. She shares our vision for a modern day Labor Movement, a movement that meets the needs of workers in the 21st Century, and an economy that is ready for the future. It is going to be together that we write new rules to make it easier for all workers to join a union…. Let’s elect Kamala Harris so that together we will usher in a new era of worker power and together we will win the future. Let’s go get it.”