CHICAGO — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told reporters Tuesday that working-class people could see themselves in the recent Democrats’ slate of presidential candidates.
“There is a very clear difference between these two people and their attitude toward the working class,” Fain said of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Fain, the spoke She will attend the first night of the Democratic National Convention on Monday and has often been critical of former President Donald Trump, calling him an “impostor.”
“He has done absolutely nothing for autoworkers during his presidency,” Fain said, pointing out that Trump appointed Peter Robb as chief counsel to the National Labor Relations Board, whom Fain called a “union buster.”
The meeting with the press followed Fain’s comments on the first night of the convention. The union leader wore a jacket that he dramatically removed to reveal a red shirt with the words “Trump is a strikebreaker,” a term used to describe people who break picket lines and do not support striking workers.
Fain told the crowd at the United Center that Harris would support unions and the working class.
The unions, a traditionally forceful voting bloc for the Democrats, are strongly represented at the party convention.
“Kamala Harris stands shoulder to shoulder with workers when they strike,” he said Monday.
Survey among members
According to the organization, there are more than 400,000 energetic UAW members and more than 600 local unions. The union also has nearly 600,000 retired members.
The UAW has already endorsed Harris, as has another major union, the American Federation of Teachers, which represents about 1.8 million members.
Fain said polls among UAW members have been fairly uniform, with 56 percent approval for Democrats and about 32 percent for Republicans, but he believes support for the Harris-Walz team will be greater in November.
“I believe our members will overwhelmingly support Kamala Harris because she brings new energy to the issue,” he said.
Fain added that Walz also has forceful ties to employees.
“Nomination of Tim Walz as her running mate was a no-brainer,” he said. “He’s a teacher. He’s one of us.”
At Walz’s first solo campaign rally in Michiganhe told a union-heavy audience that he would prioritize pro-worker policies. As a public school teacher in southern Minnesota, he was a union member before winning a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2006.
Fain said if Harris and Walz win the White House and Democrats take control of both houses of Congress, he hopes they will try to pass pro-worker measures, such as HR20known as PRO Act.
But Fain noted that even if there was a possibility that Democrats controlled both the White House and Congress, it would take 60 votes in the Senate to pass the PRO Act, which supports workers’ right to unionize.
“As far as the filibuster tactic goes, I don’t know right now where that’s going,” Fain said of the passage of the PRO Act. “I would say we hope so.”
Union support will lend a hand Harris in swing states which have a high proportion of union members like Pennsylvania and Nevada.
A recent survey by Emerson College/RealClearPennsylvania According to a poll, Trump has 49% support in Pennsylvania, with Harris 1 percentage point behind.
“Likely voters in Pennsylvania who belong to a union are voting for Harris by 15 percentage points, 57% to 42%, while those who are not in a union and do not have union members in the household are voting for Trump by 50% to 48%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement. “Those with union members in the household are not voting for Trump by 50% to 42%.”
Before President Joe Biden put his re-election bid on hold, he often referred to himself as the “most union-friendly president.” Biden is also the first president to picket with his union members, doing so last year.
Fain said Harris also has forceful union ties, noting that she participated in the picket line with the UAW in 2019.
“I mean, it wasn’t a publicity stunt, it wasn’t for fun,” he said. “It was because that’s who she is.”
