2024 Elections

Union’s assessment: The 2024 candidates are not strong enough.

Kamala Harris’ recent campaign focus on courting Republicans and fundraising with wealthy donors has only brought more skepticism from some in the organized labor movement. | Paul Sancya/AP

By Brittany Gibson, Meredith Lee Hill and Adam Cancryn

11/01/2024 06:46 PM EDT

Link Copied

PHILADELPHIA — Joe Biden’s closeness to organized labor earned him the nickname Union Joe. Donald Trump’s brash populism wooed rank-and-file union members. Kamala Harris received the endorsements of many union leaders.

Ask union members, and there’s some caution about the future.

“Change is weird for everyone, and we have change coming upon us,” said Ray Marini, a leader of the local sprinkler fitters union hosting a packed event with Biden in northern Philadelphia on Friday, acknowledging some of the “nervous energy” that coursed through the labor movement after Harris took over the top of the ticket.

But Biden has made a hard push for his vice president, and Marini said he and many other union leaders in this crucial swing state have prioritized making the economic case in favor of Harris to their members. The rank-and-file attending Friday’s event pledged to vote for Harris, even if driven largely by their faith in Biden’s judgment.

Wayne Miller, the head of the sprinkler fitters union, was even more bullish: “She’s going to be absolutely fantastic, and she’s going to surprise a lot of people,” he said of Harris. “We win in Philadelphia. And we win because of the union.”

Still, union members in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia question Harris, Trump and Biden’s labor records and commitment to them.

Despite Biden’s pro-labor appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees disputes between workers and employers, and his signing into law a bill that helped bailout distressed union pensions, some members weren’t convinced he was as pro-labor in office as he claimed. Harris was viewed with even more skepticism as a comparatively new party leader.

President Joe Biden and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris campaign at the IBEW Local Union #5 union hall in Pittsburgh on Labor Day, on Sept. 2, 2024. | Susan Walsh/AP

“I don’t think anyone is........

© Politico