President Biden again targets ‘Trumpies’ in Labor Day speech

President Joe Biden delivered a speech in Milwaukee on Monday where he hit out at “MAGA Republicans, the extreme right and Trumpies.”

Biden addressed union members and touted his appeal for the working class. “The middle class built America,” Biden told a workers’ gathering at park grounds in Milwaukee. “Everybody knows that. But unions built the middle class.”

Biden cited Franklin D Roosevelt’s strong support for unions and went on to say “I am encouraging unions … we need key worker protections to build an economy from the bottom up and middle out. I am sick and tired of trickle-down economics.”

He added: “MAGA Republicans, the extreme right, the Trumpies — these MAGA Republicans in Congress are coming for your Social Security as well,” adding, “extreme MAGA Republicans in Congress have chosen to go backwards full of anger, violence, hate and division.”

“But together we can, and we must, choose a different path forward,” Biden said. “A future of unity and hope. we’re going to choose to build a better America.”

Mary Kay Henry, who is president of the Service Employees International Union, which has 2 million members on its books, said that Biden’s endorsement of unions approaching the midterms was “critical” and said the labor movement must “mobilize in battlegrounds across the country to ensure that working people turn out.”

“We’re really excited about the president speaking directly to workers about, if he had the opportunity, he’d join a union,” Henry said. Henry went on to say: “This president has signaled which side he’s on. And he’s on the side of working people. And that matters hugely.”

Earlier on the day, Biden pledged his support to a potential new law in California, the Agricultural Labor Relations Voting Choice Act. The law, which is currently on Governor Newsom’s desk awaiting his signature, would make a path into a union easier for farm workers.

“The least we owe them is an easier path to make a free and fair choice to organize a union,” Biden said.

Vice President Kamala Harris also emphasized the importance of unions at a breakfast meeting with the Greater Boston Labor Council, by saying “When union wages go up, everybody’s wages go up.”

“When union workplaces are safer everyone is safer,” Harris said. “When unions are strong, America is strong.”