It was one of the most passionate moments of the Democratic National Convention. Last Monday night, Sean FeinThe president of the United Auto Workers union climbed onto the stage at the United Center, took off his blazer and revealed a red T-shirt that read “Trump is a scab.”
The crowd, full of party supporters who were wearing the same T-shirts, roared with approval and began chanting “Trump is a scab.” Fain, an electrician working at an Indiana automotive parts factory, was a reminder of the more bare-fisted ideal of labor leaders. He praised the Democratic candidate Kamala Harris despised as a “fighter for the working class” trump as “the pet dog of the billionaire class”.
But while Fenn recalled the combative labor bosses of an earlier era, behind that old-school style was a cutting-edge, tech-savvy campaign machine poised to capitalize on the moment. Soon enough, the digital foot soldiers of the Harris-Waltz team, in conjunction with the UAW, had the Fenn video spread across social media, racking up millions of views, selling thousands of bright red T-shirts, and getting the term “scab” trending online.
That piece of choreographed theater reflects systematic planning and preparation by the Harris-Walz campaign to seek every opportunity to amplify the pro-labor message and, just as important, to burnish their own pro-union credentials with the labor leaders they are aggressively wooing. And with good reason — a union vote could be Breakthrough in 2024,
Knowing that Donald Trump’s strong performance with union families in battleground states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin cost Hillary Clinton the election in 2016, the Harris campaign understands that blue-collar voters could emerge this campaign season as a version of the suburban soccer mom — a crucial demographic to win over.
“There are 2.7 million union members in battleground states,” Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo shared with CBS News on August 8. “That means something, when four years ago about 45,000 votes in key states decided the election.”
Last week, organizers of the Democratic Party convention spared no detail in wooing labor. A record number – 20% – of Democratic delegates were union members; all delegation members from the 50 states and territories stayed in union hotels; nearly all the physical work at the convention was done by union workers, from set building to electrical work, as well as makeup for speakers and performers. And loud shout-outs to unions were strategically placed in many celebratory roll call votes.
The Harris campaign sees its close collaboration with Labor as a force-multiplier.
“We are in a fragmented media environment and it’s very hard to reach undecided voters,” one campaign official said. “Unions are the ultimate validators: They can cut through the noise and misinformation and put out the facts on our record against Trump.”
Labor union members, once a key member of the Democratic Party, have disintegrated in the Trump era — the Republican former president has found success in turning away traditional Democratic voters. Backstage at the convention hall, it was clear the Harris campaign was employing old-fashioned, hard-nosed tactics to counter those gains.
When another prominent union boss, Teamsters President Sean O'Brien, addressed the Republican convention in Milwaukee late last month, Democrats took note. O'Brien praised Trump, described him as “a tough guy” and said he “didn't care about the criticism” because he was the first Teamsters boss to speak at the Republican convention in its 121-year history.
But two weeks later, Trump was mocking it with elon musk In a conversation about firing employees at X. The Republican candidate praised Musk, calling him “the biggest cutter”, and told him “Look what you do, you go in, you say 'Do you want to quit?' I won't name the company, but they go on strike, and you say: 'You're all gone!'”
O'Brien quickly tried to undo the damage, issuing a statement to Politico calling Trump's remarks “economic terrorism.” But the Harris campaign and its labor allies saw an opportunity for revenge. The next day, the UAW's Fain filed a grievance Against both Trump and Musk The National Labor Relations Board has accused him of unfair labor practices. According to a source close to Fain, the Harris campaign was delighted and urged Fain to come on the air to talk about his move.
O'Brien was looking for an opportunity to get back on the Democrats' good side. He asked to speak at their convention, but the Harris campaign shut him out, according to a labor source. Campaign officials did not even respond to his request. Then, in a move that seemed to undermine O'Brien, the Harris campaign invited several rank-and-file Teamsters members to attend convention festivities without their leader.
One Labor source, who asked not to be identified to speak freely about the episode, said it was “a disgrace.” Others suggested it was intended to send a gentle message that supporting Trump could have consequences.
“They weren't throwing the ball over his head, but maybe throwing it a little bit inward to get him to take a step back from the plate,” said Eddie Valle, a political and labor strategist who represents unions including the AFL-CIO. A Harris campaign source simply said that it would not be wise for O'Brien to address the convention, as he was not prepared to endorse the Democratic ticket.
And yet, at the convention’s conclusion, Harris campaign officials said they were keeping the door open to a possible reconciliation with the Teamsters leadership. In what one labor source called a “goodwill gesture,” Harris accepted an invitation to meet with the union’s executive board, which O’Brien is expected to attend.
“Both sides want to convey that they are continuing to talk to each other,” the source said.
Harris faces a more difficult challenge in winning union support than her predecessor. President Biden's close relationship with unions took shape after years of cultivating his image as “Scranton Joe,” a politician whose middle-class roots helped him understand the plight and aspirations of workers. But Harris, a more cosmopolitan figure from California's Bay Area, has had to do more work to define herself as a natural ally of the working class.
In 2020, Mr Biden won 57% of the union vote in key Rust-Belt states, while Trump got 40%. By most accounts, Harris will have to perform at least as well as Biden to win this election.
Mr. Trump is also wooing big workers. In January, he attended a Teamsters rank-and-file presidential roundtable (Mr. Biden visited Teamsters headquarters a few weeks later) and praised the union, noting that many of his major projects are built in collaboration with Teamsters workers. And in an old-fashioned nod to transactional politics, he vowed to give union leaders a “seat at the table” if they support him in the election.
Harris's team has been strategic about its love affair with labor. At last week's convention, speakers took every opportunity to point out that Harris worked at McDonald's while she was in college, and the nominee even brought it up during her acceptance speech. Harris spoke passionately, but tactfully, about the modest East Bay neighborhood she grew up in, calling it “a beautiful working-class neighborhood of firefighters, nurses and construction workers.”
And almost as soon as Harris became Potential nominees Last month, her campaign sent her on a tour of the battleground state, where she met with rank-and-file union members, including UAW workers in Detroit. The campaign has emphasized Harris’ pro-union record, pointing out that she picketed with union strikers during her first presidential run in 2019 and that, as vice president, she broke the gag in the Senate that allowed passage of the Butch Lewis Act, which restored pensions to more than a million workers.
Then Harris chose Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate. His straight-talking Midwestern style, football coach persona and worn-in flannel shirt appeal to lunch-pail voters. A Harris campaign official said it was no coincidence that Walz's first solo trip on the campaign was to rally members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees at their international convention in Los Angeles. And it's no small matter that Walz, a former high school teacher, is himself a card-carrying union member of a union — the American Federation of Teachers.
Ultimately, the Labor vote is likely to follow the candidate whom workers think can best address the economic concerns of the working class. Harris will almost certainly win the Labor vote, but what will really matter is Trump's ability to reduce her margin by appealing to working class voters on issues such as immigration and trade.
Robert Forant, a historian of the American labor movement, says the Harris campaign recognizes this, and is making these economic concerns part of its messaging.
“She’s started talking about how inflation really matters, and you can’t pretend it’s not important.” But he said the Harris campaign still needs to do more, such as acknowledging that working people are having to work multiple jobs to make ends meet, a reality that has third-order effects, including harming family structures. “You have to thread the needle to attract the union vote,” Forant said.