LIVE: Harris Campaigns in Detroit

She doesn't just talk the talk, she walks the walk. Unlike other people like Donald Trump. Let me tell you what it's like being a union member under Donald Trump. He told us he wouldn't allow factories to shut down and then guess what happened? Factories across Michigan closed their doors. Trump said he was going to protect our jobs and then lost nearly 300,000 jobs on his watch including more than 30,000 of these manufacturing jobs. And then with the project 2025 agenda it will give him power to go after the right to organize and it will try to dismantle our unions and then make life even more expensive for us. So that's the choice we're looking at in November. We have him and we have Kamala Harris. And unlike Trump she doesn't have a massive wealth. She understands the dignity of work. She understands what we fight for and she's laser focused on building up the middle class because that's where she comes from. With Kamala Harris as the vice president we passed the biggest infrastructure bill in generations which created millions of good-paying union jobs. We've seen auto jobs return to the state. In fact under her leadership we've gained more than 420,000 jobs including 25,000 of those manufacturing jobs. It was Kamala Harris who helped pass the time vote to save pensions for our workers and as union members we all need those pensions. Kamala Harris is a fighter for the people and that's been true her entire career. Vice President Harris is fighting for the future of every worker to join a union and bargain for better wages, better benefits, and better lives. The Harris-Walz administration will work with Congress to pass the PRO Act and when it reaches the vice president's desk she will sign it. So to sum it up there is only one candidate on the ballot for president who has the backs of the working people in Michigan and we now have to have her back. Now I am proud to welcome her to the stage, a true fighter for us and everyone. Vice President Kamala Harris! I want to thank you for your extraordinary leadership and all of your work and the heart and soul that you put into your work like I know all the members of LIUNA and everyone here does every day because we love our country and we know it is at stake. Thank you Tyreen. So it is so good to be with so many incredible leaders and elected officials who are here. Governor Whitmer was here earlier, Senator Stabenow. Our next United States Senator, Representative Elisa Slotkin. And I always want to thank Representative Dingell. Where is she? There she is. Stephen. Thank all of you for the work that you do every day and to all the labor leaders who are here. I thank you all for your extraordinary work. Don't we love Labor Day? It's always been that way, right? The way we celebrate Labor Day is we know that hard work is good work. We know that when we organize, when we bring everyone together, it's a joyful moment where we are committed to doing the hard work of lifting up America's families. And I want to thank everyone here for that work and the way you do it every day, including General President Booker of the Laborers, of the Utility Workers, President Weingarten of the AFT. And thank you to all of the union members who are here this afternoon. So, on Labor Day and every day, we celebrate the dignity of work. The dignity of work. We celebrate unions because unions helped build America. And unions, it is true across our nation and it is true here in Detroit. Nearly 140 years ago, in this very city, 10,000 people marched in one of our nation's first Labor Day parades. Many held signs that read, divided, we can beg. United, we can demand. For generations in Detroit and across our nation, the brothers and sisters of labor have stood together to righteously demand fair pay, better benefits, and safe working conditions. And let me say, every person in our nation has benefited from that work. Everywhere I go, I tell people, look, you may not be a union member, you better thank a union member. You better thank a union member for paid leave. You better thank a union member for vacation. Because what we know is when union wages go up, everybody's wages go up. When union workplaces are safer, every workplace is safer. When unions are strong, America is strong. The labor movement has always understood the power of the collective and the power of unity. The power of unity. And while we are fighting so much nonsense that is about trying to divide our country, trying to pull us apart, look to what the history and the present of labor tells us about the power of the collective and unity. The spirit of that work, as much as the product of that work, is very telling and gives us really good lessons about what creates strength. And you know, many of you know, my parents met while they were active in the civil rights movement. So when I was young, my parents, and I see some young leaders here today, when I was young, my parents would take me to the meetings, I see our young leaders, and take me to the marches. I was in a stroller. And from a very young age, I learned that when people stand together, when we join voices, knowing that the vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us, when we join those voices, we can drive extraordinary change. Which is why I believe, in my heart and soul, no one should ever be made to fight alone. We are all in this together. But I'll tell you, I think that there has been a certain backward-thinking approach over the last several years, which is to suggest, some folks, them folks, to suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down, instead of what we know, the true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up. For the strength of a leader, let's stop with the nonsense. And in this election, we all here know there are two very different visions for our nation. Ours, focused on the future. The other, focused on... Let's just get through the next 64 days. And ours, yes, my dear brother, is focused on the future, and theirs is focused on the past. And we fight for the future. We fight for a future where all people receive dignity and respect and opportunity. For not just for some, but for all. That's what we are fighting for. And so, we are 64 days out from the election day, and in Michigan, mail-in absentee voting starts in 24 days. So, this election, and our fight, is a fight for the promise of America. A promise, I love you, America. A promise of freedom, of opportunity, and justice, not just for some, but for all. But what we know, is as we fight to move our nation forward, Donald Trump intends to pull us back to the past. We're not going back. Right? So, intends to pull us back, including back to a time before workers had the freedom to organize. As president, we will always remember, Donald Trump blocked overtime benefits from millions of workers. Tyrese talked a bit about this, and opposed efforts to raise the minimum wage. He appointed union busters to the National Labor Relations Board. He supported so-called right-to-work laws. Here's the thing, we have a choice here, right? And we're not going back, because we also know that if Donald Trump were re-elected, he intends to give tax cuts to billionaires and big corporations. He intends to cut Social Security and Medicare. He wants to impose what, in effect, is a national sales tax on everyday products and basic necessities that will cost, and economists have said this, that will cost a typical American family almost $4,000 a year. He wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act. And take us back to a time in our country which most of us remember, when insurance companies, you remember, had the power to deny people coverage based on a pre-existing condition. Remember that? Deny people, children with asthma, a survivor of breast cancer, a grandparent with diabetes. Look, America has tried those failed policies before, and they are failed policies. And we are not going back. And instead, we fight for a future, a future where no person has to go broke just because they got sick. And so, when I am president, we will continue to strengthen the Affordable Care Act. We will bring down the cost of prescription drugs, not only for some, but for all Americans. We fight for a future where every worker has the freedom to organize. And so, when I am president, we will pass the PRO Act and end union busting. And I'll remind everybody on all these bills, we've got to elect a Congress who supports that, to be able to actually get that work done. We fight for a future where every person has the opportunity, not just to get by, but to get ahead. And so, when I am president, we will continue to build what I call an opportunity economy, so that every American has an opportunity to own a home, to start a business, to build intergenerational wealth for their family. We fight for a future where every senior can retire with dignity. And so, when I am president, we will continue to defend Social Security, medications, 64 days, the most important election of our lives, and probably one of the most important in the life of our nation. And here's what I'd say to all the brothers and sisters assembled. We know this is going to be a very tight race to the very end. We know. We know. But I'm telling you, we know how they play. We know what they do. So, let's not pay too much attention to the polls. Let's know, like labor always does, we are out here running like we are the underdog in this race, because we know what we are fighting for. And we got some hard work ahead of us, but again, we all like hard work, because hard work is good work. And to do that hard work, I'm going to count on everyone here, all the leaders here, for your work. Because, put bluntly, Michigan, y'all know how to win. So today, I ask Detroit, Michigan, are you ready to have your voices heard?