October 23, 2024

Vice President Kamala Harris cares about union members and working families.

During her Oct. 18 speech at a United Auto Workers union hall in Lansing, Mich., Harris talked about the importance of unions and collective bargaining and vowed to defend both if she’s elected on Nov. 5.

Her opponent, Republican billionaire Donald Trump has done nothing but talk down unions and working families. He opposes overtime pay and says striking workers should be fired. As president, he packed the courts and the National Labor Relations Board with anti-labor advocates who favored large corporations over workers.

“Listen to his words,” Harris said of Trump to several hundred union workers at the union hall meeting. “He's got his club, and I'm going to tell you, union workers are not part of his club.”

The AFL-CIO echoes Harris’ message on their “LaborVotes” website. The website, at https://betterinaunion.org/harris, has detailed information about why the 12.5 million-member nationwide labor federation is supporting Harris and why she is the right choice for union members.

The LaborVotes site also includes a comparison that shows why Harris is the only choice for president and information on the dangers of Trump’s Project 2025 proposal and Trump’s ties to the radical, sweeping plan—one that would abolish public sector unions like UUP—if he wins the Nov. 5 election.

Trump has continually denied having anything to do with Project 2025, but an Oct. 22 story in The New York Times shows that his fingerprints are all over it.

According to the story, 18 of the document’s 40 authors served in the first Trump administration. One worked on Trump’s first presidential transition team and 12 worked in Trump’s first administration, his transition team or his campaign team. More than half of the 267 additional contributors to Project 2025—that’s 144 people—also worked for Trump in his first administration or on his transition or campaign teams.

Read the New York Times story HERE.

Why is Harris the right choice for labor?

For starters, Harris walked the picket line with United Auto Workers in 2019 and publicly supported a short-lived strike by U.S. dockworkers. She also stood in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America during their 2023 strike and spoke at the 2024 AFT Convention in Houston.

As vice president, she cast crucial tie-breaking votes, including one that passed the American Rescue Plan of 2021, which protected the pensions of more than 1 million retired and working union members.

She also:

• Is part of one of the most pro-union administrations in U.S. history.
• Led the administration’s efforts to increase access to affordable child care and expand the child tax credit.
• Played a crucial role in rebuilding America’s infrastructure, investing in good-paying union jobs, bringing manufacturing back to America, lowering prescription drug costs and raising wages.
• Championed worker organizing and chaired the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, where she advocated for new worker organizing and training to create pathways to good union jobs.

Read more HERE