Following a vote of its Executive Council, which represents 60 unions and 12.5 million workers, the AFL-CIO unanimously endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president in the 2024 election.
“From day one, Vice President Kamala Harris has been a true partner in leading the most pro-labor administration in history,” said AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler. “At every step in her distinguished career in public office, she’s proven herself a principled and tenacious fighter for working people and a visionary leader we can count on. From taking on Wall Street and corporate greed to leading efforts to expand affordable child care and support vulnerable workers, she’s shown time and again that she’s on our side. With Kamala Harris in the White House, together we’ll continue to build on the powerful legacy of the Biden-Harris administration to create good union jobs, grow the labor movement and make our economy work for all of us.”
As vice president, Harris:
- Played a critical role in rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, investing in good-paying union jobs, bringing manufacturing back to America, lowering prescription drug costs and raising wages
- Saved the pensions of more than 1 million union workers and retirees
- Led the administration’s efforts to increase access to affordable child care and expand the child tax credit
- Championed worker organizing and chaired the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment, where she championed for new worker organizing and training to create pathways to good union jobs
- Stood with striking writers
Other highlights of Harris’ record in support of workers include the following:
- As a U.S. senator, she fought to expand labor protections and fair wages for agricultural and domestic workers and walked the picket line with International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) workers. She was a vigorous advocate for workers’ freedom to form or join a union, including strongly supporting the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act to reform broken labor legislation that stacks the deck against workers.
- As attorney general of California, she cracked down on corporate greed, took on the big banks after the 2008 financial crisis to deliver relief for struggling homeowners and protected the most vulnerable workers by tackling wage theft and other corporate crimes.
“The AFL-CIO is proud of our early and steadfast support for the Biden-Harris administration, and now we’ll ratchet up our mass mobilization of union workers to elect Vice President Harris as president,” Shuler continued. “Like Harris, the labor movement doesn’t back down—and we’ll never shy away from a tough fight when the future of workers and unions is on the line. Together, we will defeat Donald Trump, J.D. Vance and their devastating anti-worker Project 2025 agenda in November.”
Kansas City AFL-CIO
The Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO quickly joined, offering its own complimentary endorsement of Harris for President.
“The Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO is proud to endorse Kamala Harris, a strong ally of working-class people, for President of the United States. It’s time to create good union jobs, crack down on corporate greed, grow the labor movement, and make our economy work for all of us!” said Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO President Duke Dujakovich in a statement.
Dujakovich, in conversation with The Labor Beacon, also made reference to a statement made by former Republican Nikki Haley, who took a shot at both Biden and Trump in January, prophesying that “the first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.”
Dujakovich emphasized that Kamala Harris can win this race and that organized labor needs to be ready to mobilize in support of her.
Tristin Amezcua-Hogan is the Editor of The Labor Beacon and a member of LIUNA Local 264. Tristin also serves as the Director of Communications for the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO and the Chair of the Kansas City Regional Transit Alliance.
Tristin grew up as the son of a UA Local 669 member in Tecumseh, KS and the great-nephew of George C. Amis, longtime leader of the United Rubberworkers (now USW Local 307) in Kansas. Growing up in rural Kansas as the child of teen parents, Tristin quickly came to appreciate the life-changing benefit of a union job.
Tristin and his partner, Rebeca Amezcua-Hogan, are residents of the Westside, Kansas City, MO's historic Mexican neighborhood. They are proud members of Kansas City's New Reform Temple.
