Biden rallies Pittsburgh’s union base to support Harris

President Joe Biden returned to Pittsburgh on Saturday, rallying and canvassing with building trades workers, selling Vice President Kamala Harris as a continuation of his pro-labor policies and the best hope to improve wages and union rights into the future.

Biden rallied Saturday afternoon with about 100 members of the Pennsylvania District Council of the Laborers International Union of North America at their hall in Downtown Pittsburgh. He then met with campaign volunteers at the Allegheny-Fayette Labor Council apprentice training center in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood.

He thanked the crowd at the Laborers’ hall for the rousing applause and for their praise of when he stood on the picket line with United Auto Workers in Michigan last year. Biden was the first sitting president to join a picket line.

Biden said the contrast between his chosen successor, Harris, and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump could not be clearer in relation to union rights.

“I have walked the picket line, and so has Kamala,” Biden said during a 20-minute speech to a cheering crowd of union members. “This is about decency versus lack of decency. This is about character.”

Though Biden has suffered from poor approval ratings nationally throughout most of his presidency, that wasn’t evident among the Pittsburgh laborers. The union workers shouted “Joe! Joe! Joe!” several times throughout his speech and took selfies with the president.

Biden, a longtime ally of the influential building trades unions in Southwestern Pennsylvania, regularly focuses his Pittsburgh visit on boosting local unions. On Labor Day, he rallied with several unions at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers’ hall in South Side. In April, he gave a speech in front of United Steelworkers union members in Downtown.

Laborers’ general president Brent Booker lauded Biden for his role in bringing back the over 1 million manufacturing jobs that were lost during the pandemic and the billions in investments created by the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS and Science Act.

“Joe Biden is a laborer’s laborer,” Booker said. “He has had a generational impact.”

The president highlighted the urgency of Election Day in 10 days, and lashed into Trump’s anti-union record.

“Name me one single thing he has done for unions,” Biden shouted. He then attacked the large tax cut bill passed under Trump’s presidency, saying that it gave tax breaks to millionaires and left middle-class Americans holding the bag.

Western Pennsylvania Teamsters unions have endorsed Harris, breaking with the national Teamsters union, which failed to endorse a presidential candidate.

However, Trump Pennsylvania spokesman Kush Desai said Trump has earned the support of Teamsters rank-and-file members, citing a survey the union put out before the national Teamsters decided not to make an endorsement.

“Rank-and-file union members across Pennsylvania, including a majority of Teamsters, are backing President Trump because they know full well which candidate in this race delivered peace, prosperity and stability for the American worker and which candidate left them at the mercy of historic inflation and unlimited illegal immigration,” Desai said.

Biden’s popularity among Western Pennsylvania union members was instrumental to his 2020 victory, and the president was keen on reminding the laborers Harris will be just as supportive.

Harris has been endorsed by the Laborers, which isn’t always in lock step with Democrats like other unions. The Laborers endorsed 28 Republicans and 42 Democrats in Pennsylvania this year.

The Harris campaign has placed emphasis on winning over moderates and even Republican voters, as well as visiting rural Pennsylvania counties where Democrats have been losing ground over the years.

Biden pleaded with his supporters that the election was just too close to sit on the sidelines.

“Don’t do it for me: Do it for your kids, for your grandkids, for your neighbors,” said Biden, urging them to vote for and volunteer for Harris. “Please, do what is right.”

After his speech in a brief stop at a phone-banking event at a labor hall in Beechview, Biden handed out pizza from Fiori’s to about a dozen volunteers.

When asked about the state of the race, Biden said he was feeling pretty good about Harris’ chances in Pennsylvania.

“We are going to win Pennsylvania,” he said.

Getting a boost from organized labor could be crucial in the race for Pennsylvania’s 19 Electoral College votes.

Two polls taken this week show Harris locked in a tight contest with Trump. An Emerson College poll has Trump up 50% to 48% compared to Harris, while a Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll has Harris up 48% to Trump’s 47%.

Pittsburgh hosted a number of high-profile Democratic surrogates Saturday.

First lady Jill Biden is scheduled at an event in the area in the evening and has been campaigning across the state throughout the day. Billionaire and Mt. Lebanon native Mark Cuban, a Harris ally, held a town hall event at Duolingo in the city’s East Liberty neighborhood.

The Pittsburgh region has seen more visits from presidential candidates and their surrogates than any region in the nation.