Remarks by Vice President Harris at a Campaign Event | Warren, MI

IUPAT District Council 1M
Warren, MI

5:15 P.M. EDT

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you all.

PARTICIPANT:  Thank you for saving our pensions.  Thank you for saving — (applause) —

PARTICIPANTS:  Thank you. 

PARTICIPANT:  Thank you.  Thank you for CHIPS and Science.  Thank you for the Inflation Reduction Act.  Thank you for all you’ve done for us.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, you know what?  Y- — you guys make it easy.  I mean, look, I — as you know, I am a long-standing supporter and friend of unions and labor.  And — and the painters union, I am honored to have your support in this election.

But, look, you guys are the ones who make it easy.  This is highly skilled work.  You do it with a sense of pride.  You do it with a sense of commitment.  You are making our country stronger and better by the work that you do. 

We just talked about the industrial work that you’re doing, whether it’s about a bridge, whether it’s about what we’re doing to invest in technology and the future industries.  You’re transitioning also into batteries — all that work.  And it’s highly skilled work.

And I love, for example, the apprenticeship programs and building up America’s workforce around training and, again, the highest of skills.  The work that you are doing through an apprenticeship program that’s also about building community and family for the people who enter it — it’s about pride in work.  It’s about the dignity of work.

The reason that I have fought for things like pensions is it’s literally about the dignity of work.  You work hard.  You deserve, at the point that you’re going to retire, to be able to retire with dignity.  And we have to value the skill.

You know, my opponent, he doesn’t understand the importance of unions at all.  No, but he’s — he just gives a lot of mouth.  He —

PARTICIPANT:  He’s got to care about people to understand them.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  He gives a lot of talk about what he cares about, but on the issue specifically of what is good for unions and union labor, he’s been awful.  You look at what he did when he was at — president with the NLRB, the National Labor Relations Board — a bunch of union busters. 

You look at — when he talked to his buddies, like his billionaire buddies — remember, he did the tax cut for billionaires and big corporations.  He’s not workin- — he’s not working for or concerned about working people, middle-class people.  And then when he’s talking to his buddy, he li- — he jokes about, “Yeah, if they’re striking, you should fire them.” 

But what I know America understands about union labor is it’s just about fairness and it is about dignity.  Wherever I go, I tell people: Look, if you’ve got a five-day workweek, if you’ve got sick time, if you’ve got vacation time, if you have a pension, thank a union member.  Thank unions.  Because whether somebody’s a member of a union or not, union labor and hard work is a — so much of what fought for workers’ rights across the board.

So, look, I’m here.  I’m here for you.  We have an election coming up in eight days.

PARTICIPANT:  That you’re going to win.  (Applause.)

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  And we are going — we are going to win.  You know what?  We are going to win. 

We may have bloody knuckles by the end of it, but we’re winning.  We’re winning.

And — and because we stand for certain basic principles, and we know — we know when we know what we stand for, we know what to fight for.

     PARTICIPANT:  You’re here.  He’s not.

     THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Right.  Right.  It’s —

     PARTICIPANT:  Save our country from him.

     PARTICIPANT:  Please.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, I’m — and you’re right.  I mean, you look at — you look at how he just deg- — he — he talks down to the American people.  He — he degrades who we are as America, in- — instead of fighting for who we are in terms of our capacity. 

I look at our young leaders.  They deserve to have a leader and a president of the United States who is not only optimistic but ambitious about what we can do.  Donald Trump just recently talked about how he would get rid of CHIPS — the number of jobs for the painters union members, building trades members, writ large; what we did with the Inflation Reduction Act, the jobs we’ve created there; the work that we’ve done that’s been about partnering with the private sector to create incentives for them to put the money into it and also prioritizing, as I always will, letting them know, “As we create these jobs, put them through your apprenticeship programs.  Let’s make those union jobs and good-paying jobs.”

All of that is at stake, but it’s a — it’s also about an approach and a value in character.  And right now, you know, I’ve been saying: Look, imagine January 20th, because there will be — one of us is going to be elected, and one of us is going to be sitting in the Oval Office on January 20th. 

And it’s a choice on many levels, including whether you want Donald Trump sitting in the Oval Office, stewing over his enemies list —

     PARTICIPANT:  No, no, no, no, no.

THE VICE PRESIDENT:  — or what we’re going to do together, which is there, focused on American workers and American families, on our to-do list.

 So, we got a lot at stake.  We are going to win.  (Applause.)

                         END                      5:21 P.M. EDT