I grew up in a union family in Detroit. Health insurance, food on the table, a roof over our heads — as kids, we took all that for granted, but history tells us it wasn’t easily won, and work stoppages are perennial reminders that it’s hard to maintain, too. As kids, we weren’t aware of the constant tension between labor and capital. All we knew was that we sometimes ate at Red Lobster on Sundays, and sometimes we were lucky to get anything at all.
Opinion columnist
Granderson Landing Station
LZ Granderson writes about culture, politics, sports, and navigating life in America.
That’s what Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Tim Walz were greeted with when they landed at Detroit’s airport on Wednesday for a rally with the United Auto Workers union: the hopes and struggles of the Midwestern working class. The campaign believes there are roughly 2.7 million union members in the battleground states.
Harris and Walz will be here often.
“Michigan just went back to middle-class workers,” said Jonathan Smith, a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, at the event. “We’re not going back.”
In 2013, Republican Governor Rick Snyder Made Michigan a “right to work” statewhich allows people to work in union-represented jobs without paying the unions. He promised this would bring more jobs, but the measure was met with huge protests, and over the next decade we learned who was right.
Michigan workers saw their way of life deteriorate, but not the job growth that had been promised. In 2023, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer corrected her predecessor’s mistake. She, like many of the speakers who took the stage at the Detroit rally, made sure to thank union leaders for organizing the massive crowd. Led by members of the United Auto Workers union, who wore red, the thousands who gathered in and around an airport hangar included several wearing brightly colored union T-shirts.
With less than 90 days until the election, what better way for Harris to start the first full day with her new running mate than with voters she knows are used to battling? And she's not new to this bloc or its causes.
In 2018, as a senator, Harris showed her support for striking University of California employees by withdrawing as a commencement speaker at Berkeley. In 2019, she joined a UAW picket line in Nevada. The Biden administration’s transition team included Teresa Romero of the United Farm Workers and Lonnie Stephenson of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. Harris isn’t just comfortable in this environment. The faces in the crowd shape her policy proposals and inform her message. Walz's selection reiterates his commitment to work and the working class.
As for his opponent, former President Trump claims to be pro-labor, but his companies are gone. A trail of aggrieved and unpaid workers over the decadesincluding union members. We're talking about carpenters, electricians, plumbers. In fact, his companies racked up more than 20 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage. As chairman, he flooded the National Labor Relations Board with known union-busters. In 2004, crossed a picket line to appear on “The Apprentice.” His current campaign decided not to hire union stagehands… and ended up with a poorly hung sign that read He appeared to be supporting Harris for president.
Last fall, Trump held a rally in Michigan at a nonunion plant as the UAW fought for a living wage. At that event, Trump criticized the Biden administration for pushing automakers toward electric cars, claiming the shift would decimate Detroit’s economy. Then Elon Musk endorsed him. Now Trump says he has no choice but to favor electric cars because of it. So much for city-destroying electric vehicles, right?
When union families in the Great Lakes region were struggling to put food on the table, they received support from Biden and Harris. Trump only came looking for votes.
“I was pleased with Biden at the top of the ticket, but with Kamala Harris there’s real excitement,” Shana Norfolk, a Detroit native, told me Wednesday. “She understands what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck because she’s been there with us. I think she’s going to fight for civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, equity and inclusion — because she gets it.”
That's how Harris has been able to build so much momentum organically. She's a person that many different types of Americans can relate to because she speaks to the values that the coalition needs. And it all starts with compassion.
At one point, Walmart workers who relied on public assistance costs taxpayers more than $6 billion a yearAt the same time, the company and its shareholders enjoyed nearly $8 billion in tax breaks and subsidies. Now, despite Walmart CEO Doug McMillon saying after the Jan. 6 attack that Trump’s big lie was to blame for the division in the country, Walmart continues to donate to Republicans who denied the election. Presumably to get tax breaks.
Earlier this year, the NLRB accused Walmart of illegal tactics. To prevent employees from unionizing in Eureka, California. Tax breaks are clearly not enough. Project 2025, the playbook conservatives want to use from day one of a possible second Trump term, includes initiatives to erode the labor movement.
Health insurance, a roof over their children, food on the table: Under Trump, all the basic goods of the middle class would be at the whims of the 1%. No wonder there was such a passionate crowd filling the Detroit airport hangar for Harris and Walz: 99% hope this new Democratic presidential ticket can stop that from happening.
