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- Vice President Kamala Harris has received numerous endorsements from labor unions as she campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination.
- These unions include the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
- Still, some are reluctant to solidify their support, suggesting Harris and the Democratic Party still have work to do to solidify their support.
As the vice president steps up his campaign for the Democratic nomination, many of the nation's largest labor unions have announced their support for Kamala Harris' presidential bid.
But continued resistance from some labor unions suggests Harris still has work to do to win over other working-class voters.
On Monday, the American Federation of Labor-CIO, the nation's largest labor union federation and a longtime supporter of President Joe Biden, announced its endorsement of Harris.
“From day one, Vice President Kamala Harris has been a true partner in leading the most pro-worker Administration in history,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Schuller. “At every stage of her illustrious career in public office, she has proven herself to be a principled and tenacious fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on. From standing up to Wall Street and corporate greed to leading efforts to expand affordable child care and support vulnerable workers, she has shown time and time again that she is on our side.”
“With Kamala Harris in the White House, we will continue to build on the Biden-Harris Administration's strong legacy of creating good union jobs, growing the labor movement, and making our economy work for all of us,” Schuller added.
Several other unions have also voiced their support, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW) and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), as well as the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the United Steelworkers (USW).
The Biden-Harris administration has sought to repay the steady support it has received from unions and labor groups over the past few years. In one of its most high-profile shows of support, Biden became the first sitting president to walk the picket line during a United Auto Workers strike against the Big Three automakers last fall.
But the UAW is among the groups that have yet to announce a formal endorsement of Harris' White House bid. On Sunday, the group released a statement praising Biden's leadership under the Biden administration but stopped short of endorsing Harris.
“The path forward is clear: we will defeat Donald Trump and his billionaire policies and elect a champion for the working class to the highest office in the land,” the statement said.
Representatives for the UAW did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has sought to undermine the UAW's leadership and has explicitly called for the removal of the union's head, Sean Fain.
During his nomination acceptance speech in Milwaukee last week, Trump claimed without evidence that China plans to build auto manufacturing bases in Mexico at the expense of U.S. assembly lines.
“The United Auto Workers should be ashamed of themselves for allowing this to happen. The leadership of the United Auto Workers should be fired immediately,” Trump said, adding, “All auto workers, union and non-union, should vote for Donald Trump because we will bring auto manufacturing back, and we will bring it back fast.”
Dozens of auto manufacturing plants remain in the United States, mostly in the Southern states and Midwest.
Trump has also sought to exploit the UAW's concerns about the national transition to electric vehicles, which led the union to refuse to explicitly endorse Biden's candidacy for president in 2024.
“The federal government is pouring billions of dollars into the electric vehicle transition, but with no strings attached, no promises to workers,” Fain said last spring, according to CNBC. “There's a real risk that the transition to electric vehicles will be a race to the bottom. We want our national leadership to get behind us before we make any commitments.”
According to Brian Rosenberg, a former UAW public affairs director who is now a partner at Triumph Communications, the ratio of Democrats to Republicans at the UAW has historically remained stable at about 60-40.
He said while UAW members are anxious about the transition to EVs, they also have concerns about workplace safety, particularly the impact of Project 2025, a conservative blueprint that lays out measures to weaken public sector unions.
“It's a much bigger issue for them than it is probably in other parts of the country,” Rosenberg said.
CNBC reported last year that UAW members attended and participated in a Trump event in Michigan.
Last weekend, President Trump and running mate J.D. Vance attended a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to shore up support in a key battleground state.
While UAW leadership has at least formally rejected Trump, another major labor union has made it clear it will compete for the president's support.
After Teamsters union president Sean O'Brien delivered an impassioned speech against corporate interests at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last week, some commentators questioned whether workers are now as fully united behind the Democratic Party as they once were.
“I refuse to continue doing the same thing as my predecessors,” O'Brien said. “Today, the Teamsters are here to declare that we are not beholden to anyone or any political party. We are ready to set an agenda, work with a bipartisan coalition and get something real done for American workers. We don't care if we're criticized. It's an honor to be the first Teamsters in our 121-year history to address the Republican National Convention.”
A post that was deleted by X from the official Teamsters account after the speech appeared to suggest internal resentment over O'Brien's appearance.
“No matter how much people like Senator Hawley combine such bigotry with a cynical pro-worker message, labor unions have nothing to gain by supporting far-right racist, misogynistic and anti-transgender politics,” the Teamsters account wrote on X, referring to Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, adding that “mocking diversity does not unite a diverse working class.”
A Teamsters representative said in a statement that the group invited Harris to participate in the roundtable discussion, noting that the group's presidential endorsements are traditionally announced after each party's convention.
“We remain on track and continue to engage our members in this process,” the spokesman said.
Democrats are scheduled to host their convention in Chicago next month.
Biden has generally been pro-labor, seeking to increase manufacturing jobs and boost workers' bargaining power by banning non-compete agreements, but his term has seen a historic decline in active union membership.
But while Republicans have begun to go after working-class and factory workers more aggressively, there are now moves underway to dismantle the National Labor Relations Board, the government agency responsible for resolving labor disputes.
The effort's biggest supporter is Tesla boss Elon Musk, who has pledged his full support to President Trump.
Musk, who was praised by President Trump at a Michigan rally, was sanctioned by the NLRB in 2018 for tweeting, “Nothing stops the Tesla auto factory team from voting to unionize…But why pay union dues and give up stock options?”
More recently, Tesla was the subject of an NLRB complaint in May that accused the company of discouraging employees from “forming, joining, supporting, or otherwise engaging in concerted labor union activities.” The first hearing on that dispute is scheduled for this month.
Representatives for Tesla could not be reached for comment.
