Kamala Harris gains endorsement of car workers as union support builds

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The United Auto Workers union endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris on Wednesday, shoring up labour support for her campaign and giving her a near-complete lock on a crucial voting bloc for the party.

The Detroit-based union, which has about 370,000 members, said Harris’s “historic candidacy” would build on the Biden administration’s record of “delivering major gains for the working class”, handing her the support of one of the US’s most politically important unions ahead of November’s presidential election.

“We stand at a crossroads in this country,” UAW president Shawn Fain said in a statement. “We can put a billionaire back in office who stands against everything our union stands for, or we can elect Kamala Harris who will stand shoulder-to-shoulder with us in our war on corporate greed.”

With working-class concerns from trade policy to inflation taking on an outsized role in the November election, political analysts have been waiting to see whether big labour groups would embrace her candidacy.

President Joe Biden positioned himself as strongly pro-union, last year becoming the first sitting president to join a picket line when he visited striking car workers in Michigan. Labour groups made some of their strongest gains in years during his administration, in the form of generous multiyear contracts with big employers in industries including car manufacturing, hospitality and airline services.

Todd Tucker, of Roosevelt Forward, a Washington-based progressive group, said Harris had been one of Biden’s “lead spokespeople” in pitching the “pro-labour, pro-climate agenda”. “These are the tenets of Bidenomics,” he said.

Joe DiSano, a Democratic strategist based in Michigan, said there was “diversity of opinion in unions”, but added: “You can’t argue that the Biden administration has been anything but great for organised labour.”

“People I talk to recognise Biden was A+ on labour, and people don’t expect Kamala to be any different.”

The car workers are the latest in a number of unions to endorse Harris as her campaign pushes to win the votes of blue-collar workers in crucial Midwestern swing states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

The Harris campaign has already attracted support from most big unions, including the AFL-CIO, United Steelworkers, the American Federation of Teachers and the Amalgamated Transit Union.

However, Harris has so far failed to secure the support of the Teamsters union — which, with 1.3mn members, claims to be one of the largest labour organisations in the world.

Teamsters president Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention, stirring questions about whether the group could endorse Donald Trump over Harris. The Teamsters have generally supported Democratic presidential candidates, particularly in recent elections, including the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020.

A Teamsters spokesperson said O’Brien had also requested a speaking slot at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The union traditionally waits until after both parties’ convention before making an endorsement, she added.

“At the end of the day, the Teamsters are not interested if you have a “D”, “R” or an “I” next to your name. We want to know one thing,” O’Brien said, speaking at the RNC. “What are you doing to help American workers?”

Don Furko, the former president of the Local 1557 branch of United Steelworkers, which represents US Steel employees in Clairton, Pennsylvania, said its members would “largely” be voting for Trump.

“I think everybody’s got their mind made up,” Furko said, adding that Trump’s stance on immigration and trade restrictions appealed to members, despite their union leaders’ assessment that Harris would better protect their jobs.

In a call organised by the Democratic National Committee last week, union organisers criticised Trump. 

“The idea that Donald Trump or his Maga Republican party is pro-worker in any way, is really laughable,” said Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.