Dear Members of the Democratic Caucus, Congressional Black Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Democratic Women’s Caucus, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Congressional Labor Caucus, New Democrat Coalition, and Blue Dog Coalition:
I am writing to share with you a statement made by the AFL-CIO Executive Council earlier this week after a visit from President Biden. The Executive Council represents the federation’s 60 affiliated unions with their more than 12.5 million union members. The Executive Council and I felt compelled by all the noise and inspired by the president’s forceful commitment to working people to reaffirm our endorsement of President Biden and Vice President Harris, and remind the country what this administration has done to generate jobs and fight for workers’ rights and better standards of living. This statement was adopted unanimously.
Our federation shares fundamental values with your caucuses and coalitions, organized around the pursuit of freedom, justice, and equality for working people and our diverse communities. In Donald Trump, we face an existential threat to America’s democracy—a threat already coming to fruition in certain ways from recent Supreme Court decisions. We all know what is at stake in the upcoming presidential election. Standing with President Biden at this moment is standing behind the labor movement’s agenda. I want you to know that we are ready to lock arms with you to defend our common aspirations and fulfill the promise of this country.
In case it is helpful in your work during this fight for our country’s future, here is our statement:
The AFL-CIO Executive Council today unanimously voted to reaffirm its commitment to re-electing President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the leadership of the most pro-union administration in our lifetimes.
We were honored to welcome President Biden back to the House of Labor to speak to unions that represent every sector and industry of America’s workforce. No president has been more invested in helping workers than Joe Biden, who stands with working people at every opportunity, including on the picket line.
We shared stories of the hopes of working people and discussed with the president the importance of unions mobilizing for Election Day. The president’s fighting spirit was on full display, and he reiterated his deep commitment to workers and our families and to taking on corporate greed. He was that “Scranton Joe” that we all know and love.
From Day One, the Biden–Harris administration has put working people first, centering union jobs in every piece of its agenda. This administration sparked an industrial renaissance; saved workers’ pensions and hundreds of thousands of public servant jobs; expanded overtime pay; and invested in millions of good union jobs, particularly in construction. Unions have never wavered in our support of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris because they’ve never wavered in their commitment to working people, including the vigorous support of workers’ right to organize. That’s just as true today as when we endorsed the ticket more than a year ago.
The labor movement understands, as Joe Biden does, that solidarity is how we win. The message from today’s meeting couldn’t have been clearer: Right now, it’s time to come together around a vision of a country where everyone has a fair shot with a living wage, affordable health care, retirement security, and time to do the things we love like spending time with family and friends and pursuing our interests and passions. These are fundamental to, as the president reiterated to our meeting, building the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down.
The labor movement is united behind President Biden and Vice President Harris. We urge his party and the American people to join us.
The work of keeping the conversation focused on what’s at stake is not easy when other interests seek to distract the public from Trump’s insidious agenda. We will need to get louder every day, together, until every person in this country understands they are being called to defend its very soul. We need our friends to stand with us as we stand with President Biden and Vice President Harris.
Thank you for all you do.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth H. Shuler
President
AFL-CIO