Felton Institute employees and union members cheer after delivering their health and safety demands to management during a rally on Aug. 10, 2023, to bring attention to a gas leak employees say went unaddressed for more than a year at Felton's Sunshine Community Center in San Francisco's Mission District. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
The likely matchup between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump for the White House presents a stark difference for voters on labor issues, especially on workers’ push for higher wages and safer workplaces.
On the other hand, Trump has garnered no major endorsements from organized labor despite his campaign to appeal to working-class voters with populist messaging. Teamsters President Sean O’Brien spoke at the Republican National Convention last week, but neither he nor the union endorsed Trump — and the speech drew criticism from other labor leaders.
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Why does this matter?
Unions’ support may be able to help Harris win over workers in battleground states who are disenchanted with Democrats after foreign trade agreements decimated their lives, said Bill Gould, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board who teaches labor and employment law at Stanford University.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, July 22, 2024, during an event with NCAA college athletes.
He noted it will be important for her to tout efforts launched by the Biden administration, including investments to create jobs and uplift manufacturing, such as through the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.
Recent polling has shown voters more likely to see Trump and Republicans as stronger options to reduce inflation, a key economic anxiety weighing on the campaign. With that in mind, unions’ money, organizing prowess and political advocacy could play a key role in the election.
Why have some big unions endorsed Harris?
Those in organized labor who publicly support Harris see her as likely to advance Biden’s agenda.
The Biden-Harris administration also tapped outspoken pro-worker former officials from California to lead the U.S. Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, tasked with protecting workers.
Trump’s record during his first presidency points to a more “hostile” approach towards unions and aversion to efforts to address sexual harassment and discrimination in the workplace, Gould said.
Trump was “implacably opposed” to legislation raising the federal minimum wage to $7.25, which was last increased 15 years ago to the day, Gould noted. He expects Harris to be more receptive to supporting the raise.
“Everything we know about the vice president and her involvement in the Biden administration indicates that she would give workers a chance to move forward,” Gould said. “And everything we know about the Trump administration tells us the exact opposite, that they would restrain worker [organizing] and enhance inequality between those who have and those who have not.”
What have unions said?
In statements endorsing Harris, leaders at various unions praised her record in elected office.
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, whose organization represents dozens of unions and 12.5 million workers nationwide, said Harris had been a “true partner.”
San Francisco Human Services Agency workers, who are members of SEIU Local 1021, rally outside their office in downtown San Francisco on March 20, 2024, to protest a voter-approved measure that may task their short-staffed workforce with additional responsibilities. (Nik Altenberg/KQED)
“From taking on Wall Street and corporate greed to leading efforts to expand affordable child care and support vulnerable workers, she’s shown time and again that she’s on our side,” Shuler said in a statement. “At every step in her distinguished career in public office, she’s proven herself a principled and tenacious fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on.”
SEIU, whose 2 million members include many women of color working in healthcare, government and other industries, said they were “ALL IN” for Harris in a press release.
“She has taken action to make homecare and childcare more accessible and affordable, championed new staffing standards for nursing homes, and has always prioritized all service and care workers and the essential work that they do,” SEIU President April Verrett said in the release. “We cannot risk a MAGA future in which corporations and the wealthy are lavishly rewarded with tax breaks and fewer regulations while working people struggle.
Hours after Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Harris on July 21, United Farm Workers President Teresa Romero said that Harris is “the best leader to defeat Donald Trump and to continue the transformative work of the Biden-Harris administration.”
“Since the very beginning of her career in California — the nation’s largest agricultural producer — Kamala Harris has proven herself a loyal friend of all working people,” Romero said in a statement. “The United Farm Workers could not be prouder to endorse her for President of the United States. Together, we continue the work of building an America that works for all of its working people.”
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