Leaders of several of the nation’s largest unions will have prime-time speaking engagements at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Monday, as the party continues its political outreach to a crucial voting bloc.
According to reports first reported to CBS News, at least seven union representatives will speak on the convention stage Monday, including 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.
International Laborers 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-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Liz Shuler will also speak Monday.
One notable union leader who will not be speaking in Chicago is Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who has requested a slot to speak at both the Republican and Democratic conventions. speak at the RNC in Milwaukee Earlier this year, convention officials said he would not speak in Chicago.
The Teamsters supported President Biden’s campaign in 2020, but have remained neutral so far this cycle. A source familiar with the convention planning said the Teamsters will be represented on stage during the DNC, but O’Brien will not speak.
On Saturday, the Teamsters and Harris agreed to a future roundtable, as they did with Trump and Mr. Biden when he was a candidate.
Several labor allies in Congress will also deliver speeches on Monday, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York.
More than 2.7 million union members reside in the swing states, where Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are nearly tied, according to a recent study. CBS News Poll.
While 56% of union members voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, according to CBS News exit polls, rank-and-file members expressed his concern on how Trump is eroding Democratic support in unions.
The Harris-Walz campaign is hoping that public support from union leaders and an aggressive voter mobilization strategy will win over wavering rank-and-file members.
“The dozens of union endorsements this campaign has received are not just words in a press release, but also a testament to tangible organizational prowess,” wrote Julie Chavez Rodriguez, Harris-Walz’s campaign manager, in a memo on unions.
After announcing her candidacy, Harris quickly won the support of most major unions. She and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a former teachers union member, 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 highlighted her pro-working-class record, both during her tenure as California attorney general, where she signed an order addressing wage theft by employers, and during her time as vice president, when in 2021 she cast the Senate’s tiebreaking vote to pass the American Rescue Plan, which included the Butch Lewis Act — a provision that provided emergency funding for certain pension plans.
“[Harris] “She has stood with working people throughout her career: from the picket line to the Senate, protecting our pensions and fighting for home health aide rights and against corporate greed,” Shuler said in a statement. “The labor movement is rallying like never before behind the Harris-Walz agenda that puts workers first — and against the Trump Project 2025 agenda that attacks our unions and everything we stand for.”
The theme of Monday’s party, “For the People,” is also dedicated to Mr. Biden, who will deliver the keynote address and is a longtime supporter of labor unions.
Several unions, including the SEIU and the nation’s largest labor federation, the AFL-CIO, have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in canvassing efforts and launched door-knocking operations to support the Harris-Walz ticket.
Cooks Union Local 226, an influential Las Vegas group, will also launch canvassing efforts in Nevada to support Harris. The group has endorsed her announced push to end tip taxes and raise the federal minimum wage. Trump proposed a similar plan in June, but the culinary union called it “outlandish campaign promises from a convicted felon.”
Chicago’s rich union history was also a key argument for the city to host the Democratic Party convention, with the convention boasting two major meeting venues powered by members from a total of 30 unions.
“Chicago is the birthplace of the American labor movement and this DNC is a strong union,” 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.”
