Leaders of some of the nation’s largest labor unions will speak in prime time at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday, as the party continues its political outreach to a crucial voting bloc.
According to details first shared with CBS News, at least seven union officials are scheduled to speak on the convention stage Monday. They include United Automobile Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President April Verrett, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Lee Saunders.
Laborer’s International Union of North America (LiUNA) President Brent Booker, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Kenneth W. Cooper, Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Claude Cummings and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Liz Shuler are also scheduled to speak Monday.
One notable union leader who will not be speaking in Chicago is Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who has requested a speaking engagement at both the Republican and Democratic conventions. Although he speaking at the RNC in Milwaukee Earlier this year, congressional officials said he would not speak in Chicago.
The Teamsters supported Biden’s 2020 campaign but have remained neutral this cycle. A source familiar with the convention’s planning said the Teamsters will be represented on stage at the DNC, but O’Brien will not speak.
On Saturday, the Teamsters and Harris agreed to hold a roundtable discussion in the future, as they did with Trump and Biden when he was a candidate.
Monday will also feature speeches from several members of Congress who are union allies, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan.
According to a recent report, more than 2.7 million union members live in swing states, where Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are nearly tied. CBS News poll.
While 56% of union members voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, rank-and-file members have, according to CBS News exit polls expressed concern about Trump undermining support for Democrats in union halls.
The Harris-Walz campaign hopes that public support from union leadership and an aggressive turnout strategy will sway undecided members.
“The dozens of union endorsements this campaign has received provide more than just words in a press release, they provide tangible organizing power,” wrote Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris-Walz’s campaign manager, in a memo about unions.
After announcing her candidacy, Harris quickly won support from most major labor unions. She and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former member of the teachers union, spoke at a UAW event in Michigan last week as part of a battleground tour. Walz also spoke separately at an AFSCME convention in Los Angeles.
Harris’ campaign has pointed to her pro-labor record, both during her time as California’s attorney general, where she signed an executive order cracking down on employer wage fraud, and during her time as vice president, when she cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate in 2021 to pass the American Rescue Plan, which included the Butch Lewis Act — a provision that provided emergency funding for some pension plans.
“[Harris] has stood by workers throughout her career: from the picket line to the Senate floor, protecting our pensions and fighting for the rights of home health care workers and against corporate greed,” Shuler said in a statement. “The labor movement is mobilizing like never before behind the Harris-Walz agenda that puts working people first — and against the Trump Project 2025 agenda that attacks our unions and everything we stand for.”
Monday’s party theme, “For the People,” is also dedicated to Mr. Biden, who will deliver the keynote address and has been a longtime supporter of labor unions.
Several unions, including SEIU and the nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in campaigns and launched door-to-door campaigns to support the Harris-Walz candidate.
Culinary Union Local 226, an influential group in Las Vegas, will also launch campaigns in Nevada to support Harris. The group has backed her announced push to end taxes on tips and raise the federal minimum wage. Trump first proposed a similar plan in June, though the Culinary Union dismissed it as “wild campaign promises from a convicted felon.”
Chicago’s rich history of labor unions was also a major reason for choosing the Democratic Party convention as host. The convention claimed that the two main convention venues were controlled by members of a total of 30 unions.
“Chicago is the home of the American labor movement, and this DNC is strong on unions,” said Bob Reiter, president of the Chicago Federation of Labor. “From the labor peace agreement we negotiated with the DNC and the host committee to our incredible workforce that keeps Chicago moving every day, we are thrilled to welcome delegates from across the United States to the Windy City.”
