Harris-Walz seeking labor support as Trump undercuts working class voters

UAW Local 900 members made history again when they crowded into their union hall to welcome Vice President Kamala Harris and Governor Tim Walz, Democrats who launched their presidential campaign there.

The event was big follow up to the UAW Stand Up strike almost a year ago that resulted in winning a breakthrough contract with the big three auto companies.

UAW president Sean Fain welcomed the first-ever presidential campaign launch in a union hall as an epic battle between two supporters who walked the picket line, Harris and union member Walz, and union busting Republican Donald Trump.

Crediting unions for the weekend, five-day work week, and vacations, Harris made the connection between a national sense of community and collective bargaining.

“We’re not falling for those folks who are trying to divide us, trying to separate us, trying to pull us apart,” Harris vowed.

“There’s a suggestion that somehow strength is about making people feel small, feel alone,” Harris said. “But isn’t that the opposite of what we know? Unions know how to be strong. It’s about the collective,” she emphasized. “It’s about understanding that one should never be made to fight alone. That we are all in this together.”

While Harris is firing up crowds by asserting that “we aren’t going back,” her opponent is advocating a return to conditions akin to serfdom and slavery in a campaign fueled by billionaire oligarchs who have been denying fair wages at the same time as they raise prices.

Stock prices and corporate profits are at record high levels but the Republican Party has blocked attempts to increase the federal minimum wage.

So severe is the situation that economists say Americans have never been so divided between rich and poor.

The UAW filed federal charges against disgraced billionaires Donald Trump and Elon Musk for their illegal attempts to threaten and intimidate workers who stand up for themselves by engaging in protected concerted labor activity, such as strikes.

Trump and Musk had a rambling, disorganized conversation on a social media platform broadcast to more than one million listeners in which they advocated for the illegal firing of striking workers.

“I mean, I look at what you do,” Trump told Musk. “You walk in, you say, You want to quit? They go on strike, I won’t mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, That’s OK, you’re all gone. You’re all gone. So, every one of you is gone.”

Under federal law, employees cannot be fired for going on strike, and threatening to do so is illegal under the National Labor Relations Act.

“When we say Donald Trump is a scab, this is what we mean. When we say Trump stands against everything our union stands for, this is what we mean,” said UAW President Shawn Fain.

“Donald Trump will always side against workers standing up for themselves, and he will always side with billionaires like Elon Musk, who is contributing $45 million a month to a Super PAC to get him elected,” said Fain. “Both Trump and Musk want working class people to sit down and shut up, and they laugh about it openly. It’s disgusting, illegal, and totally predictable from these two clowns.”