Labor speaks on President Biden’s withdrawal, supports Kamala’s candidacy
Organized labor, a stalwart voting base of the Democratic Party, has spent the week praising the union-aligned work of President Joe Biden after he said he would withdraw his bid for re-election in 2024.
“Thank you, President Biden,” SEIU (Service Employees International Union) International President April Verrett wrote in one of many statements issued. “There is no other president in recent U.S. history who has done more for working people. President Biden has given workers fighting for unions—Black, white, Brown, and beyond—a voice at the White House, used his bully pulpit to challenge CEOs and was the first president to walk a picket line.
“We are incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished under the Biden-Harris administration, including executive action to lift up care workers, record job and wage growth, debt relief for millions of student borrowers, lower prescription drug prices for seniors and historic legislation to address our climate crisis,” Verrett continued. “We respect his decision to step out of the race and appreciate his endorsement of Vice President Harris to finish the job they started.”
On top of recognizing Biden for his work, labor leaders lined up to endorse Kamala Harris as the best candidate to further efforts for union workers. Within hours of the announcement of Harris’s candidacy, some of the nation’s largest unions began endorsing her.
On July 22, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) became the first union to endorse Harris when its members unanimously ratified a resolution endorsing her candidacy at the 2024 AFT convention in Houston, Texas. In part of its rationale, the AFT noted that “Biden and Harris know that union membership can be transformative and provides a pathway to the middle class, and have supported worker rights; Trump relentlessly attacks unions and sought to weaken workers’ voice through appointing anti-worker voices to the National Labor Relations Board; and… there is still much work to be done on important economic, climate, healthcare, housing, child care, voting rights and education issues—here and abroad—including addressing the cost of food, gas and housing; and it is clear that Harris understands these issues, share our values and is the right choice in 2024.”
“It is regrettable that with such a stellar record of achievements, there was ever any doubt about President Biden’s ability to lead,” George Gresham, president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers East, said. “Nevertheless, his decision to pass the torch to Vice President Harris reflects his longstanding commitment to putting the American people before personal ambition.”
“Vice President Harris has been a proven ally of the IBEW,” said International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) International President Kenneth W. Cooper. “Working by President Biden’s side, she cast the deciding vote to save our pensions. Their administration created good union jobs through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the American Rescue Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.
“IBEW members know Vice President Harris and have engaged with her over the last four years as she’s visited our job sites, union halls and training facilities. She has listened to us, and we stand confident that she will continue this administration’s extraordinary record on behalf of working people when she is sworn into office next January.”
“Kamala Harris believes in the promise of America––freedom, equality, opportunity, and justice for all,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU). “She is exactly the person we need to be elected president of the United States. We know that she will fight for working people and we proudly endorse Kamala Harris for President.
“Kamala Harris is the person best positioned to continue and expand the work of the most pro-union administration in our nation’s history. In four short years, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris and the Biden-Harris administration have been able to reinvest trillions of dollars to rescue the economy, to rebuild our nation’s infrastructure and to create opportunity in every community through the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the American Rescue Plan. They’ve taken action to protect and uplift workers at every turn.”
Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) International President John Costa said his union was now ready to “focus on building on the progress of the past three and a half years by electing the first female president, the woman who has played a key role in so many of the successful policies that have benefited our members and all working families. For ATU members, this means further progress on transit worker safety through minimum vehicle safety standards on buses, investing in public transportation operating assistance to keep critical bus service on the road for transit dependent riders, and expansion of apprenticeship programs to ensure that transit workers have the skills for the transition to electric buses to keep their jobs and help transit agencies operate efficiently and safely. We know that Kamala Harris will fight for us on these issues, because she has already been doing so as vice president.”
“Since the very beginning of her career in California — the nation’s largest agricultural producer — Kamala Harris has proven herself a loyal friend of all working people,” the United Farm Workers wrote in their endorsement. “Dime con quien andas, y te digo quien eres. (Tell me who you are with, and I’ll tell you who you are.) Vice President Harris has stood with farm workers as California attorney general, as a United States senator, and as vice president. The United Farm Workers could not be prouder to endorse her for president of the United States. Together, we continue the work of building an America that works for all of its working people. ¡Sí Se Puede!”
The Communications Workers of America (CWA) deemed the Biden-Harris administration “the most pro-labor administration in any of our lifetimes.” The union said it is resolved to “enthusiastically [support] the election of Kamala Harris as president of the United States [and] will organize, educate and mobilize our members to support Kamala Harris for president, to elect members of Congress who support our work to rebuild power for working people, and to ensure that everyone understands what is at stake in this election.”
“[T]he most important political priority for working people is preventing a second term for Donald Trump,” the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades said in a statement. “There’s no better candidate to keep the anti-worker Trump-Vance ticket and their Project 2025 as far away from the Oval Office as possible than Vice President Harris.”
“The AFL-CIO is proud of our early and steadfast support for the Biden-Harris administration, and now we’ll ratchet up our mass mobilization of union workers to elect Vice President Harris as president,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “Like Harris, the labor movement doesn’t back down—and we’ll never shy away from a tough fight when the future of workers and unions is on the line. Together, we will defeat Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, and their devastating anti-worker Project 2025 agenda in November.”
“Vice President Harris has been cracking the glass ceiling her whole career,” declared AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) President Lee Saunders. “Now she has the opportunity to become the first woman and the first woman of color to hold the highest office in the land. And AFSCME will help her get there.”
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