WAYNE — Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris rallied with union members Thursday in Michigan, drawing comparisons between the “sacred right” of labor negotiations and a broader responsibility for Americans to collectively build political power.
“We believe in the collective,” Harris said at the United Auto Workers Local 900 in Wayne. “We’re not falling for these folks who are trying to divide us, trying to pull us apart. That’s not where the strength lies.”
Harris, her running mate Tim Walz and UAW President Shawn Fain spoke before an enthusiastic crowd a day after their separate Detroit airport rally — the largest of the campaign since Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the Democratic nominee.
Thursday’s speech was held at the union hall across the street from a Ford plant where the UAW sparked a national strike in 2023 and later ratified its first contract agreement. The union endorsed Harris last week.
Local 900 President Dwayne Walker said the campaign stop was an important symbol for auto workers who have been through hard times in recent years, calling it an “honor” to host Harris and Walz.
The UAW has 1 million active members and retirees across the country, and the auto industry employs thousands of voters in Michigan, a key battleground state that will likely determine who will win the White House in November.
Trump won Michigan in 2016 in part thanks to union workers breaking from the Democratic Party. He has continued to woo blue collar workers as he seeks a return to the White House, particularly in Michigan, where he has argued the transition to electric vehicles could decimate jobs in the state’s auto industry.
But union workers and members at the Harris rally on Thursday predicted those old rifts won’t be a major factor in 2024.
Marcell Edwards, an executive board member for Local 900 and a Sterling Heights resident, said he thinks the vast majority of UAW members are backing Harris and Walz. He noted Biden has long been an ally of autoworkers and he sees Harris as being similarly committed.
Trump needs to “stop lying” about his support for unions, Edwards said, laughing as he recalled the former president claiming to have saved Michigan’s auto industry.
“He’s not the savior of anything,” Edwards said.
Speeches at the Thursday event were short, light on policy details and Harris did not take questions from reporters, beyond telling one reporter that she is eager to debate Trump in September.
“We want fairness, we want dignity for all people,” Harris said in her remarks.
“Dignity to make choices, not have their government tell them what to do. Our campaign is about saying we trust the people. We have always fought for those ideas. We know we are a work in progres, we haven’t reached all those ideals, but we will die trying because we love our country.”
A ‘ridiculous policy’
Trump has argued that transition will hurt the UAW because electric vehicles have fewer parts and require fewer workers to produce.
He reiterated his complaints during a press conference earlier Thursday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, where he answered questions from reporters, bashed tougher fuel efficiency standards adopted by the Biden-Harris administration and said Democrats want “everybody to have an electric car.”
That’s a “ridiculous policy,” Trump said, suggesting “we couldn’t make enough electricity” for a full conversion to electric vehicles. He claimed that because electric trucks are heavier, “you would have to rebuild every bridge in this country.”
Trump also downplayed the large crowd at Harris’ Wednesday night Michigan rally at an airport hangar in Romulus, which her campaign estimated included 15,000 supporters.
“In history for any country, nobody’s had crowds like I have,” Trump said. “You know that. And then she gets 1,000 people and everybody starts jumping.”
Trump has previously said he’s not against electric vehicles, recalling the fun he had driving one during a July rally in Grand Rapids. But he’s been critical of federal incentives for EV consumers and emissions regulations aimed at increasing electric vehicles production.
A Biden administration rule adopted by the EPA earlier this year limits pollution allowed from tailpipes with the goal of having zero-emission vehicles represent half of all new cars and trucks sold by 2030. Electric vehicles are also part of Harris’ environmental agenda. She’s called for cutting the nation’s emissions in half by the end of the decade.
Harris and Walz didn’t touch on electric vehicles Thursday, but they pitched themselves as partners for organized labor.
“We’re preaching to the choir, but sometimes the choir needs to sing,” Walz, the Minnesota governor and vice presidential nominee, told the crowd. “(Trump) doesn’t know the first thing about unity or service, he’s too busy serving himself. Time and time again, he’s weakened our country to strengthen his own hand.”
Citing the Project 2025 conservative policy blueprint that Trump has attempted to distance himself from, Walz warned that Trump could get rid of labor unions, impose a national ban on abortion and cut social programs.
Fain v. Trump
Fain, the UAW president, blasted Trump in the Wednesday rally, calling him a “scab” and Vance a “vulture.” He reiterated those points on Thursday in Wayne, calling Trump a “disaster” while characterizing Harris and Walz as “working class people.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked Fain, most recently Sunday on Fox News, where he called the union leader a “stupid person” and predicted that UAW workers will vote for him despite the labor organization endorsing Harris.
“You know, Trump calls me stupid,” Fain said Thursday. “You know why? Because he thinks auto workers are stupid. We don’t fall for Trump’s alternative facts. This election is not about party politics. All we have to do is look at these candidates in their own words and actions.”
Fain said Trump was “missing in action” when General Motors workers went on strike in 2019, and “nowhere to be found” during the 2023 national strike against the Big Three automakers. Trump came to Michigan during the latter strike but spoke at a non-union plant.
“Whenever we needed help, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz answered the call and they picked a side,” Fain said, invoking a classic labor union song. “They chose to stand up. So now it’s our turn to stand up, to speak up and to show up for them.”
Fain briefly spoke with reporters after the event, where he acknowledged not all union members are Democratic voters. But Fain argued that when you “put the facts in front of them,” his members see the appeal of a Harris-Walz presidency.
Fain said Trump presided over a series of auto plant closures, including the Ford Romeo Engine Plant in Michigan. The plant closed at the end of 2022, though it was announced in agreement with the UAW in 2019. Fain also cited closures of the GM Baltimore Transmission Plant and GM Assembly Plant in Lordstown, Ohio.
He credited the Biden-Harris administration with the opening of a battery cell plant in Lordstown, Ohio that opened in 2022.
‘Things evolve’
Denise Pettis, 58, has worked at the Ford Rawsonville battery pack assembly in Ypsilanti for 27 years. Her son is also a union auto worker, the fourth generation of her family in the UAW.
Pettis said she thinks Trump is trying to tap into anxiety about how the transition to electric vehicles will affect auto workers, but she’s unconvinced it will be bad for them. The Ypsilanti battery assembly facility is a major player in Ford’s electric vehicle manufacturing.
“Things evolve but we still need workers,” Pettis said. “The world is changing, and we’re going to change with it.”
Edwards, the Local 900 board member, said the electric transition is just getting started and he’s not convinced it will reduce demand for jobs. Edwards said new kinds of jobs will be needed for EV infrastructure, and union workers will be there to fill the need.
“It’s always being said that we’re going to lose jobs, but we’re still here,” Edwards said.
Pettis said UAW members are “boots on the ground” organizers for the Harris-Walz campaign. They want to feel like their livelihoods are sustained and that they won’t be threatened.
She’s seen renewed enthusiasm from UAW members since Biden stepped down and endorsed Harris. She called herself a true blue Democrat who wouldn’t have supported Trump either way, but she said Harris is creating “new energy.”
“Elections are won by people,” Pettis said.
