US President Joe Biden pitched Vice President Kamala Harris to American workers and unions at their first joint rally on Labor Day on Monday as someone with a “ramrod” backbone and the moral compass of a “saint”.
Vice President Harris, in turn, was effusive in her praise of Biden calling him “one of most transformative presidents in the United States”.
Biden had not appeared together with Harris at an election rally after dropping out of the White House race in July and endorsing her to replace him on the Democratic ticket. He delivered the keynote address on the first day of the Democratic convention in August in Chicago. He had not appeared in a rally either by himself or jointly since, until Monday in Pittsburg, a strong union city in Pennsylvania — a key battleground state on the road to the White House.
“She has a backbone like a ramrod, she has a moral compass of a saint,” President Biden said to loud cheers from the audience. “This woman knows what she’s doing. Folks, I promise you, if you elect Kamala Harris as President, (it) will be the best visit you will have ever made. Kamala thinks, as I do, unions are the spine of this economy. She’ll be a historic pro-union president.”
Biden remains popular with labour unions. But there are questions about the clout of the once powerful unions. Only one in 10 members of the American workforce is now represented by a union, half the percentage of the representation in the 1980s, according to The New York Times.
Biden, who has spoken frequently about his unstinting support for belief in unions, remains popular with union members and he appealed to them Monday to back Harris. “Folks, we’ve made a lot of progress, and Kamala and I are going to build on that progress, and she’s going to build on it,” he said. “I’ll be on the sidelines, but I’ll do everything I can to help.”
President Biden portrayed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as “anti-labour and anti-union”; and accused him of appointing union busters to an independent federal body empowered to safeguard employees’ right to unionize or be represented by a union. “We’re gonna let that son of a gun do that again?” he said of the former president.
Referring to the progress made by his and Harris’ administration, Biden said, “It’s all at risk because of Donald Trump. Literally, with the stroke of the pen, he can get rid of a lot of this. And do you think this guy gives a damn about your pensions? Do you think he loses even an instant of sleep over it? You think he cares about all the work you do every day and how hard it is? You think he cares about good-paying jobs for hardworking people who built this economy…Hell.”
Speaking last, Harris underscored the centrality of unions to the welfare of all American workers whether they belong to a union or not. “For more than 150 years, the brothers and sisters of labour have helped lead the fight for fair pay, better benefits and safe working conditions, and every person in our nation has benefited from that work. You know, everywhere I go, I tell people, you may not be a union member, but you better thank the unions for that five-day workweek. Thank unions for sick leave, thank unions for paid family leave, thank unions for your vacation time, because when union wages go up, everybody’s wages go up. When union workplaces are safer, all workplaces are safer. When unions are strong, America is strong,” she said.
