Shawn Fain, president of the United Automobile Workers, speaks during the Democratic National Convention Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
The heads of six unions spoke on the first night of the Democratic National Convention to list the many ways the Biden-Harris team has had workers’ backs and how Trump has been hostile to workers’ rights and prosperity.
The half-dozen women and men who lead many of America’s largest labor unions were unequivocal in their support of Vice President Kamala Harris, their gratitude for President Joe Biden, and their vow to never let former President Donald Trump be back in a position to make American workers’ lives tougher.
“This election is about two economic visions,” said Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO and its 13 million US workers. She said Trump’s vision is a CEO’s dream but a worker’s nightmare. The other vision, she said of Biden and Harris, “is an opportunity economy, where we lower the cost of groceries, prescriptions, and housing.”
Shawn Fain, president of the United Auto Workers union, railed against corporate greed, which he says has a defender in Trump.
“It causes inflation,” Fain said. “It hurts workers. It hurts consumers. And it hurts Americans.”
He argued that Trump seeks to divide frustrated workers by trying to blame minorities, the LGBTQ community, immigrants, and anyone else that will distract from corporate price gouging and wage theft.
“Four years ago,” said AFSCME leader Lee Saunders, “we faced a pandemic and a recession with a president who didn’t care one bit about what working people were going through.”
But Saunders said things improved quickly once Biden and Harris took over, passed the American Rescue Plan, and “pulled the economy back from the brink and put us back to work.”
Brent Booker of the LIUNA Laborers union, Kenneth Cooper of the IBEW electrical workers union, and Claude Cummings, Jr. from the Communication Workers of America praised the Biden-Harris team for turning decades of talk about infrastructure improvements into action through long-term investments.
“While Trump made empty promises,” said Booker, “the Biden-Harris administration delivered. “Thanks to them, our members can buy a home, put their kids through school, and retire with dignity.”
Cummings reminded delegates of how many families had to take their children to do their homework in McDonald’s parking lots during the Covid pandemic because of the lack of affordable, accessible, high-speed internet. And Cooper singled out the job growth in clean energy manufacturing and installation.
April Verrett, president of the healthcare worker union SEIU, said Biden and Harris have been very good to her 2 million service and care workers and the many Americans who need care. She said they are responsible for building “a labor movement that is going to be more inclusive and built for the middle class. And we are going to end poverty wage work once and for all.”
Noticeably absent was Teamsters leader Sean O’Brien, who spoke at the Republican convention in Milwaukee and wanted to give a full speech to Democrats in Chicago, rather than share the stage for brief remarks with the other union leaders. The Teamsters have still not endorsed a candidate in the presidential race, a move that has rankled many of the union’s 1.3 million members—including the Teamsters National Black Caucus, which endorsed Harris.
