Wayne — Vice President Kamala Harris championed “the collective” and the right to bargain for wages and working conditions during a Thursday afternoon event with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, at a union hall in Wayne County as part of their two-day campaign swing through Michigan.
“We just want fairness,” Harris told United Auto Workers packed inside the United Auto Workers Local 900 hall in Wayne. “We want dignity for all people. We want to recognize the pride all people have to freedom and liberty, to make choices, especially those that are about heart and home and not have their government telling them what to do.”
Championing collective bargaining, she added: “We believe in the collective. We’re not falling for these folks who are trying to divide us trying to separate us, trying to pull us apart. That’s not where the strength lies.”
The Harris-Walz campaign event came a day after her Wednesday night rally at the Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus, Harris’ first visit to the Great Lakes State since 81-year-old President Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed her to replace him at the top of the ticket.
After keying in on economic issues on Wednesday, promising to address price gouging, increasing rent and uncapped prescription costs during a speech to thousands of supporters packed inside an airport hangar, Harris struck a more general theme on Thursday, emphasizing the importance of unions and the middle class. The next four years also will have major implications on the auto industry from regulations and legislation affecting the advancement of electric vehicles and their sale to policies that affect union organizing and bargaining.
“This election is a simple choice: What direction and what’s our country going to look like?” Walz said. “What direction are we going? … Donald Trump’s going to take it backwards.”
Walz portrayed Trump as out-of-touch and self-serving. He referenced the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy initiative, suggesting Social Security, the Affordable Care Act and abortion access could be put at risk if Trump gets a second term.
Trump’s campaign has said the conservative vision of a remake of the federal government isn’t an accurate representation of his policy agenda, while the former president has tried to distance himself from the project.
“He’s not fighting for you,” Walz said. “He doesn’t know you. He doesn’t care about your family and his running mate is just as dangerous and backward as he is.”
The candidates didn’t take questions from the media.
Victoria LaCivita, communications director for Trump in Michigan, in a statement called the Harris-Walz “gaslighting tour of Michigan … insulting.” She characterized Harris as a “dangerously liberal California elitist … more focused on tiktok trends and celebrity endorsements than the stock market crash, looming war in Europe AND the Middle East, and the border crisis.”
“These are the issue that keep Michiganders up at night,” LaCivita said. “Michiganders see Kamala Harris and Tim Walz turning a blind eye to the kitchen table issues giving us heartburn, and that’s why Michigan will send President Trump to the White House in November.”
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, added in a statement: “President Trump did more for the auto industry in four years than any President in history and is running again to fix the economic disaster caused by the Harris-Biden Administration.
“Shawn Fain,” she said, referring to the UAW president, “is a puppet of the Democrat Party who is sadly out of touch with the millions of hardworking union laborers across the country who are supporting President Trump.”
More:Trump recommits to a Sept. 10 debate at news conference and lashes out at Harris
Fain introduced Walz and Harris, calling them “working-class people.” Harris was a prosecutor in San Francisco before being elected attorney general of California and then a U.S. senator in 2016. Walz was a high school teacher and football coach before being elected to Congress for six terms and then governor of Minnesota in 2018.
“They’re working-class people,” Fain said. “That’s the difference. They spent a career serving other people and fighting for other people and not forgetting where they come from. On the other side, we got what I call the Trump-Vance disaster. … They spent their lives serving themselves representing the billionaire class and enriching themselves at the expense of the working class.”
Trump was a celebrity New York City real estate mogul and reality TV star before being elected president in 2016.
“Donald Trump calls me stupid. You know why? Because he thinks all workers are stupid,” Fain added. “But we’re not stupid. We don’t fall for Trump’s alternative facts or what we all call lies.”
Trump has said Fain should be ousted as UAW president, trying to blame Fain for China building auto plants across the southern border in Mexico and planning to sell Mexican-assembled vehicles into the United States.
More:Q&A: Shawn Fain on endorsing Harris, battling Trump and a ‘wake-up call’ for Democrats
The Detroit-based UAW with approximately 1 million active and retired members is an influential group within the organized labor movement, the auto industry and the battleground state of Michigan. There are roughly 350,000 active and retired members in the state.
“I earned my pension, and I paid into my social security,” Velma Overman, 69, of Inkster, a retiree, said about what issues are important to her after Harris spoke. “I thought we’d hit a stalemate, but we’re back. There’s this energy. I felt ownership (by fellow UAW members). You show what you feel with your feet.”
Underscoring Michigan’s signification in the election, Trump’s running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, also was in southeast Michigan on Wednesday. Outside the Shelby Township Police Department, he focused on illegal immigration and public safety and suggested Harris can’t be trusted.
“She’s a fake,” Vance said at the event. “And the American people have to look at her record if we actually want to know how she stands on the issues because her words simply can’t be trusted.”
The International UAW endorsed Harris last week, saying she will support the union’s “war on corporate greed” in contrast to Trump, whose net worth Forbes lists at $4.8 billion.
Local 900 represents Ford Motor Co. workers at Michigan Assembly Plant that builds the Bronco SUV and Ranger midsize truck. The plant was the first Ford plant to go on strike last fall during the UAW’s 41-day, targeted walkout against the Dearborn automaker that resulted in a record contract, including wage hikes, the reinstatement of cost-of-living adjustments, increased retirement contributions and more. That includes a commitment by Ford to invest another $125 million in Michigan Assembly by the contract’s expiration in 2028 after already investing the other half.
“They’ve been through a lot here,” said Laura Dickerson, director of the UAW’s Region 1A that includes Local 900. “Our members know there is a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box. Kamala Harris is a voice for the labor movement.”
Ford hired 900 people earlier this year to boost the number of vehicles being assembled at the plant, increasing employment at the plant to nearly 6,000 workers. About 700 autoworkers also transferred from the Dearborn Election Vehicle Center because of reduced production of the all-electric F-150 Lightning pickup in response to slower-than-expected demand, despite policies seeking to drum up EV sales and manufacturing.
President Joe Biden was the first sitting president to walk a strike picket line during last year’s strike at the three Detroit automakers at a General Motors Co. components distribution warehouse in Van Buren Township. Harris during the 2019 national UAW strike against GM walked a picket line, as well.
“It’s like the Olympics; they’re just passing on the torch,” said Dwayne Walker, president of Local 900. “You look around, and you see all these smiles on their faces. It’s the future that is here right now. All everyone wants is to know there’s a better future, to pay their bills, to have clean air.”
Local 900 members also work for stamping company GNS North America, Leadec Industrial Services GmbH, MPS and Bay Logistics, Precision Logistics and United Sorters of America, according to its website.
“I’m eager to see a woman of color be president,” Shauna Lewis, 49, of Ypsilanti, said Thursday on a shuttle to the union hall ahead of the Harris campaign event. “She’s very supportive of the UAW, and I’m thankful for that. I don’t see that happening with (Republican nominee Donald) Trump.”
The message shared by Harris and Walz struck a note with Mike Rodgers, 62, of Belleville, a retiree of Ford after 32 years.
“We’re not looking back,” Rodgers said. “We’re just getting started. It’s not just getting by, but getting ahead.”
Ebony Kennedy, 48, of Inkster, a 25-year UAW member who works in quality at the Ford plant, attended Thursday’s event wearing a Rosie the Riveter-inspired T-shirted that said, “YES, WE KAM.” Harris’ support for labor and commitment to support abortion access make her excited about the candidate.
“She represents us, because she is a woman,” Kennedy said. “Her beliefs are my beliefs. The union stands for family and loyalty. Those are all the things she stands for.”
Added Ida Payne, 77, of Westland, a 25-year UAW member who retired from the plant: “We’ve tried all the men. It’s time for a woman.”
That “girl power,” hopes Tiffanie Simmons, 29, of Dearborn Heights, a Local 900 union representative, will allow Americans like her who have felt like they’ve been holding their breath since 2020 to exhale for the promise of stability in her job, a better future for her daughter and an easier retirement.
“We’ve been on a rollercoaster since then,” Simmons said, though noted she feels the auto industry has become more stable and prosperous, even though there’s still more for which to fight. “I’m hoping it’s going to be uphill. I’m all about a candidate who is all-in on the labor movement. It’s like having another voice on your side out there.”
The event also puts a spotlight on the city of Wayne, a community that’s had its economic challenges and reflects the diverse demographics of the nation, Mayor Pro Tem Alfred Brock said.
“By coming to Wayne, she’s showing who the important people are,” he said. “It’s the day-to-day workers who are building cars, manufacturing things, innovating.”
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Staff Writer Craig Mauger contributed.
