Dem VP nominee Tim Walz in a Milwaukee Labor Day stop noted his organized labor credentials while touting Kamala Harris for being part of the most pro-union U.S. administration in history
In comparison, he charged that the only thing Donald Trump knows about working people is “how to take advantage of them.”
Speaking to Laborfest, the Minnesota guv noted he was a dues-paying member of his union while a teacher and recounted how GOP opponents once accused him in a campaign of being in the pocket of organized labor.
“I said that’s a damned lie. I am the pocket. I am the pocket,” Walz said yesterday. “And I told them if you want to attack me for standing up for collective bargaining, for fair wages, for safe working conditions, for health care and retirement, you roll the damn dice. I’ll take my chances on that. I’ll take my chances.”
Walz said while California’s attorney general, Harris sued banks for mismanaging pension funds, resulting in millions going back to families through the pensions they had earned. He said she cast the tie breaking vote on the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 that helped keep workers on the job, and he touted work by the Biden-Harris administration to protect pensions for retirees.
Walz added he signed a package of pro-union priorities in Minnesota that included making it easier to form a union while barring employers from forcing unions to attend anti-union meetings.
In contrast, he said Trump blocked overtime for middle class workers while in the White House and opposed increasing the minimum wage.
“Every single chance these guys have gotten, they’ve waged war on workers and the middle class,” Walz said.
Ahead of Walz’s remarks, U.S. Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Prairie du Chien, knocked Harris for her economic plans. The 3rd CD rep said she wants to put in place price controls, which he said would lead to economic upheaval. He also said the average Wisconsinite is facing higher costs at the grocery store and the gas station and urged voters to remember that as they begin to cast ballots this fall. Local clerks face a Sept. 19 deadline to send absentee ballots to Wisconsin voters with a request on record.
“Kamala Harris has proven to not understand basic economics,” Van Orden said. “Donald Trump has proven to know economics inside and out.”
Walz’s stop was part of a Labor Day swing for the ticket that had Harris in Detroit and Pittsburgh. Harris is backed by many of the nation’s largest labor unions, but Trump has sought to make inroads with union members.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin form the “blue wall,” three states that are key to Dem hopes of winning the electoral college.
Pennsylvania and Michigan rank in the top 15 states in the nation for the percentage of workers who belong to unions. Wisconsin, meanwhile, ranks in the bottom 20 after its union ranks dropped significantly following the passage of a 2011 law that stripped most public employees of the power to collectively bargain and right-to-work.
Walz told the crowd unions built the nation, but also built the blue wall.
“If those guys think there’s a crack in the blue wall, they’re sadly mistaken, Gov. Evers. They are sadly mistaken, Gov. Whitmer. They are sadly mistaken, Gov. Shapiro,” Walz said.
Walz opened the event by telling the crowd that some members of the media and his staff who had been part of his motorcade were injured in a traffic accident. He said there were a few minor injuries, but “everyone is going to be OK.”
According to White House pool reports, both President Joe Biden and Harris called Walz to check in after the crash.
Source link
