UAW’s Shawn Fain predicts working-class support for Harris-Walz ticket

UAW president Shawn Fain speaks to reporters during a roundtable discussion during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago (Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom).

CHICAGO — United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain told reporters Tuesday that working-class people can see themselves in the new Democratic presidential ticket.

“There’s a very distinct difference in these two people and where they stand with working-class people,” Fain said of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.

Fain, who spoke to the Democratic National Convention on its first night on Monday and is often critical of former President Donald Trump, called him a “con artist.”

“He didn’t do a damn thing for autoworkers when he was president,” Fain said, noting that Trump appointed Peter Robb as general counsel to the National Labor Relations Board, who Fain called a “union buster.”

The meeting with the press followed Fain’s remarks on the first night of the convention. The labor leader wore a jacket that he dramatically discarded to reveal a red shirt that read “Trump is a scab,” a term that refers to people who cross the picket lines and don’t support striking workers.

Fain told the crowd at the United Center that Harris would support unions and working-class people.

Unions, a traditionally strong Democratic constituency, have a major presence at the convention.

“Kamala Harris stands shoulder to shoulder with workers when they’re on strike,” he said Monday.

Polling among members

There are more than 400,000 active UAW members, and more than 600 local unions, according to the organization. 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 that UAW member polling has been relatively consistent at 56% support for Democrats and about 32% for Republicans, but he thinks there will be bigger support for the Harris-Walz ticket come November.

“I believe our members will be overwhelming behind Kamala Harris, because she brings a new energy to this,” he said.

Fain added that Walz also has strong labor ties.

“Adding Tim Walz as her running mate was a home run,” he said. “He’s a teacher. He’s one of us.”

In Walz’s first solo campaign rally in Michigan , he told a union-heavy crowd that he would prioritize worker-friendly policies. He was a union member as a public school teacher in southern Minnesota before he won a U.S. House seat in 2006.

Fain said if Harris and Walz win the White House, and Democrats take control of both chambers in Congress, he hopes they would attempt passage of worker-friendly policies such as H.R. 20 , known as the PRO Act.

However, Fain noted that even if there is a possibility of Democrats controlling both the White House and Congress, there would need to be 60 votes in the Senate to pass the PRO Act, which supports workers’ rights to unionize.

“As far as the filibuster goes, I don’t know where that goes right now,” Fain said of passage of the PRO Act. “I would say we hope so.”

Having the support of unions will help aid Harris in battleground states that boast high union membership such as Pennsylvania and Nevada.

A new Emerson College Polling/RealClearPennsylvania poll found Trump with 49% support in Pennsylvania and Harris down by 1 percentage point.

“Pennsylvania likely voters in unions break for Harris by 15 points, 57% to 42%, while those not in a union and without union members in the household break for Trump, 50% to 48%,” Spencer Kimball, executive director of Emerson College Polling, said in a statement. “Those with union members in the household break from Trump, 50% to 42%.”

Before President Joe Biden suspended his reelection bid, he often touted himself as the “most pro-union president.” Biden is also the first president to have walked a picket line with members, when he did so last year.

Fain said that Harris also has strong union ties, noting that she walked the picket line with UAW in 2019.

“I mean, it wasn’t a publicity stunt, wasn’t for the hell of it,” he said. “It’s because that’s who she is.”