In a city steeped in labor history , Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris promised to protect workers' rights if elected and cast her Republican opponent former President Donald Trump as a foe to workers during a Labor Day speech on Monday at Detroit's Northwestern High School.
"Always good to be in the house of labor," Harris said at the beginning her brief speech in the high school's gymnasium. When she took the stage, Harris hugged a group of union presidents who greeted her under a blue banner that read, "Union Strong for Harris-Walz."
"Don't we love Labor Day?" Harris asked the sea of workers wearing their union T-shirts who applauded her. She repeated a familiar Democratic campaign refrain that unions helped build the middle class in the U.S.
Harris said all workers — even those who do not belong to a union — have benefited from strong unionized workplaces.
“Everywhere I go I tell people, ‘Look, you may not be a union member. You better thank a union member,’ ” Harris said, prompting cheers. “For the five-day workweek, you better thank a union member. For sick leave, you better thank a union. For paid leave. You better thank a union for vacation time.”
Harris criticized Trump as a fierce opponent of workers' rights, saying he blocked overtime benefits for millions of workers, opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage, appointed "union busters" to the National Labor Relations Board and supported right-to-work laws that allow workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to opt out of paying union dues and fees.
"Trump's a scab," the crowd chanted in response to the litany of attacks against Trump.
"But here's the thing, we have a choice here," Harris said. If elected, she vowed to pass the PRO Act to give workers more power to organize.
Harris follows in the footsteps of the many presidential candidates who have visited the Motor City on Labor Day to campaign. And Harris' visit marks her first in Michigan — a key battleground — since she formally accepted her party's nomination in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention.
The latest Free Press poll shows Trump one percentage point ahead of Harris in both a head-to-head matchup and a four-way race that included Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — who suspended his campaign and endorsed Trump — and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. The poll from Lansing-based EPIC-MRA surveyed 600 active and likely Michigan voters between the last day of the Democratic National Convention and last Monday and had a margin of error of plus or minus four percentage points.
"We know this is going to be a very tight race," Harris said.
Launched after President Joe Biden dropped out in late July, Harris' truncated presidential campaign has tried to position her as a champion for workers' rights while characterizing Trump as an ally of the billionaire class who won't advocate for the middle class.
Laborers' International Union of North America General President Brent Booker kicked off the Harris rally. He touted Harris' advocacy for workers' rights, saying she has joined striking workers on the picket line and led a task force on worker organizing. Booker said that he'd never seen a more pro-union president than Biden and declared Harris would continue Biden's legacy.
Michigan Democrats also took to the stage to highlight Harris' support for labor unions and denounce Trump as a candidate who wants union members to support his campaign but will turn his back on them once in the White House.
"Union workers deserve better than the failed anti-worker policies of the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Look, if your most famous line is, 'You're fired,' you sure as hell don’t understand workers," said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a national co-chair of Harris' campaign. She characterized Trump as an out-of-touch rich man. By contrast, Whitmer said the middle-class roots of Harris and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz help them understand the economic challenges voters face.
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If elected, Harris has repeatedly said she would make building up the middle class a key aim of her presidency. It's an economic message Dwan McGrady, 55, of Detroit, who attended the Harris event, said the vice president should continue to focus on as she tries to shore up support for her campaign. McGrady is a special needs preschool teacher with Detroit Public Schools Community District and a Harris supporter who said having a pro-union president is very important to her and said on that front, Harris stands in stark contrast to Trump.
"She's very pro-union," McGrady said of Harris.
Outside of the event, about a couple dozen Harris critics angered by her refusal to call for an embargo on sending U.S. arms to Israel screamed pro-Palestinian chants and nicknamed the vice president "killer Harris" within earshot of her supporters waiting in line to see Harris.
Trump had no campaign events scheduled Monday, but his campaign hosted a news briefing with autoworkers supporting Trump.
Team Trump Michigan Communications Director Victoria LaCivita said Harris' policies would hurt workers, citing energy initiatives to mitigate climate change, including industrial policies to transition the auto industry to electric vehicles, which LaCivita described as a ban on gas-powered cars while Harris' campaign has said the vice president does not support an electric vehicle mandate. "President Donald Trump will return us to an all of the above energy plan, protect Michigan's auto jobs and support American workers," LaCivita said.
After stopping in Detroit, Harris was scheduled to appear in Pittsburgh for a campaign event with Biden, their first joint campaign appearance after he dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris as his replacement. Harris' running mate Walz campaigned earlier Monday in Milwaukee.
In 2016, Trump won Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — dubbed "blue wall" states because they hadn't backed a GOP presidential candidate since the 1980s. Biden won all three states in 2020 to defeat Trump and the trio of swing states could once again decide the election this fall.
Contact Clara Hendrickson: chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743. Follow her on X, previously called Twitter, @clarajanehen .
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This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Kamala Harris vows to protect workers' rights at Detroit rally on Labor Day
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