Indigenous Peoples’ Right to Vote 2024. DETROIT — Detroit, the auto capital of the world, is a strong working-class city. Democratic presidential candidates are trying to win the working-class vote.
Following in the footsteps of Presidents Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson and Barack H. Obama, who campaigned for president in Detroit on Labor Day, Vice President Kamala Harris, the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, brought her campaign to the Motor City on Monday.
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Meanwhile, her opponent, former President Donald Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential nominee, took a day off from campaigning for Labor Day.
Shortly after 1 p.m., Harris spoke to a packed gymnasium at Northwestern High School, also known as Detroit Collegiate Preparatory Academy, just a few miles from downtown Detroit. The pro-labor event was organized by Laborer’s Local 1191. Other unions were in attendance, including the United Foods and Commercial Workers (UFCW), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and the United Auto Workers (UAW).
“It’s good to be in the House of Labor,” Harris said as she began her speech. “When unions are strong, America is strong,” Harris said as the cheering crowd of nearly 500 people waved blue-and-white signs that read “Union Strong.”
Harris reminded union members that the Biden-Harris administration is the most pro-labor administration in history.
“Everywhere I go, I tell people, ‘Look, you may not be a union member. You better thank a union member.’ You better thank a union member for the five-day week. You better thank a union member for sick leave. You better thank a union member for paid time off. You better thank a union for vacation time,” Harris told a cheering crowd.
Harris told the crowd that Trump was against workers’ rights during the Trump administration. She said he blocked overtime for millions of workers, opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage, appointed “union busters” to the National Labor Relations Board and supported “right-to-work” laws that allow workers covered by collective bargaining agreements to opt out of paying union dues and fees.
“Trump is a scumbag,” someone in the crowd shouted,
“Here’s the thing, we do have a choice here,” Harris said. If elected, she has pledged to pass the PRO Act to give workers more power to organize.
Harris spoke about the negative atmosphere in American politics in recent years.
“I will tell you that I think there has been a certain outdated mindset over the last few years that suggests that the measure of a leader’s power is based on who you knock down rather than what we know is that the true measure of a leader’s power is based on who you lift up,” Harris said.
“But as we fight to move our nation forward, Donald Trump wants to drag us back into the past. But we are not going back.”
Her statement prompted the crowd to chant, “We are not going back.”
Other speakers included Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI), who is running for the open Senate seat in Michigan because Sen. Stabenow is not running for re-election this year.
“Labor judges deserve better than the failed anti-labor policies of the Republican Party and Donald Trump. Look, when your most famous line is, ‘You’re fired,’ you don’t understand workers,” Whitmer said. “We need a president who supports us.”
After the Detroit rally, Harris flew to Pittsburgh, where she appeared with President Joe Biden later in the afternoon for a pro-union rally before flying back to Washington, D.C.
Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, spoke at a “Laborfest” rally in Milwaukee on Labor Day.
Trump-Vance issued a press release that included a social media post Trump made earlier in the day, which stated:
“Happy Labor Day to all our American workers who are shining examples of hard work and ingenuity. Under Comrade Kamala Harris, all Americans are suffering this holiday weekend – high gas prices, rising transportation costs, and skyrocketing grocery prices. We can no longer endure this weak and failed ‘leadership’….”
About the Author: “Levi “Calm Before the Storm” Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was awarded the 2021 Native Media Award for Best Column in the print/online category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents Association. He can be reached at levi@nativenewsonline.net.”
Contact: levi@nativenewsonline.net
