“We have some work ahead of us:” Harris, Biden rally union members during Labor Day campaign stop

Vice President Kamala Harris made it clear on Monday that she knows Pennsylvania’s importance as a swing state in the the 2024 election. At an event on the South Side celebrating Labor Day, she implored listeners to help “get votes to the polls,” from now until Election Day. 

“As unions and labor know best, we know what it’s like to be the underdogs,” Harris said. “And we are the underdogs in this race. And we have some hard work ahead of us. But here’s the beauty of us in this room — we like our work.” 

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took the stage at IBEW Local 5 on Labor Day as part of Harris’ 2024 campaign for president. The appearance was the first joint event of the campaign since the president stepped down from the Democratic ticket in July.

Biden, a president with a history of visits to Western Pennsylvania in and around Labor Day, introduced Harris after speaking to the crowd about his decades-long work with unions. Attendees like Jeremiah Dugan, secretary for the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers, were well aware of the significance of the event as a symbolic “passing [of] the torch.” 

“Biden is a Labor Day staple,” Dugan said. “He’s been coming out since forever and a day. Joe Biden has been a union guy since day one … so to see him passing the torch to [Kamala Harris] in Pittsburgh on Labor Day is just a special thing.” 

Before Harris and Biden took the stage, multiple speakers addressed the crowd, including Sen. Bob Casey, Governor Josh Shapiro and IBEW President Kenny Cooper. 

Shapiro focused on asking the crowd, full of Western Pennsylvania union members, to pitch in daily to help elect Democratic nominees up and down the ticket. 

“I’m here today to ask you, as your governor, as a fellow proud Pennsylvanian … do we have it in us to do what we need to do to be for them over these next 65 days? We’ve got to do the work,” Shapiro said. “And this is when it gets tough. This is when it gets hard. This is when you labor leaders, y’all have to go knock on your colleagues’ doors.” 

AFL-CIO President Liz Schuler made note that in Pennsylvania, which most strategists believe to be the key to winning the White House, one in five voters is part of a union. 

“The labor movement is the backbone of this campaign,” Schuler said. “Every worker in this country is a part of this campaign. Every worker in this country should think about the two futures we have in front of us … There is a better future on the horizon, right? A better future. And it’s on display right here in this hall.” 

Biden, who gave the event’s penultimate remarks before introducing Harris, reflected on the ways in which labor unions helped start his career, when “Steelworkers were the first union to endorse a 29-year-old kid named Joe Biden.” The president thanked union workers for being “the biggest reason why our economy is the strongest economy in the world today,” and reminded the audience of former president Donald Trump’s record with unions. 

“One of the most significant things we’ve done, Kamala and I, is appointing to the National Labor Relations Board a board commissioner that actually believes in unions,” Biden said. “Trump appointed union-busters on that board. But it’s real and it affects people’s lives. Are we going to let that son of a gun do that again?” 

Before introducing Harris, Biden assured the crowd that the vice president is someone who “knows what she’s doing.” 

“She has a backbone like a ram and the moral compass of a saint,” Biden said. “I promise you, if you elect Kamala Harris as president, it will be the best decision you will have ever made.” 

Vice President Harris took to the podium and acknowledged Pittsburgh’s history of union movements that led to labor rights improvements around the country. 

“Not only has Pittsburgh shaped the history of America’s labor movement, today you are also shaping its future,” Harris said. “We are standing on the shoulders of all those that have been here and fought for this fight. So Pittsburgh, I remind us of that to say together, we are fighting to build an economy that works for all working people. And that has always been the vision of the labor movement, and that is the vision of our campaign.”

Harris reaffirmed the Biden administration’s goal to keep U.S. Steel a fully American owned-and-operated company and promised to create an “opportunity economy” that “allows people the opportunity to go where they can see and imagine themselves to be.” 

“We will continue to strengthen the Affordable Care Act and make prescription drugs affordable for all Americans,” Harris said. “We fight for a future where every worker has the freedom to organize, and we will pass laws that benefit workers … and so we will continue to build what I call an opportunity economy.” 

Harris’ message of a hopeful fight to Election Day, a message mentioned by all of the speakers before her, was met with chants of “We’re not going back” as she entered the final minutes of her remarks. 

“We know that it is one of the highest forms of patriotism to fight for the ideals of our country,” Harris said. “And that’s what this election is about. And about the promise of America. And I don’t need to tell unions what the promise looks like. It’s what you do every day.”