Hillary Clinton’s campaign released a video of the former senator and first lady saying pro-union things over the years, hoping to turn the tide of organized labor backing Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
Sanders scored the National Nurses United endorsement last month, and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers rank-and-file were reportedly “outraged” when union leaders picked Clinton. Even AFL-CIO boss Richard Trumka hasn’t committed to Hillary yet.
Clinton released the Labor Day video along with a statement Monday stressing workers are “under attack from Republicans who want to cut taxes for the wealthy and let corporations write their own rules.”
“I have fought for working families my entire career. In the Senate, I was an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. As president, I will fight to increase the minimum wage and get wages rising again for all American workers. Right now, CEO pay and corporate profits are through the roof but middle-class incomes have barely budged. That’s not the way it’s supposed to work in America,” she said.
“…I will always stand with workers. I’ll always champion their right to organize. And I’ll always fight efforts to roll back union collective bargaining rights. Because when workers are strong, and working families are strong, America is strong.”
Sanders, meanwhile, spent his Labor Day addressing the AFL-CIO in New Hampshire.
“Working people and their unions fought for a more responsive democracy and built the middle class,” Sanders said. “Today we can and we must follow their example. It’s time to rebuild the crumbling middle class of our country and make certain that every working person in the United States of America has a chance at a decent life.”
“In the wealthiest country in the history of the world,” he sad, organized labor can accomplish all of its goals, “but we can’t do it without a political revolution. We can’t do it unless millions of Americans stand up and fight back to reclaim our country from the hands of a billionaire class whose greed is destroying our nation.”
Bernie leads Hillary by 11 points in New Hampshire.
“The more voters get to know Bernie, the better they like him,” Sanders’ campaign said.
But Trumka may just be waiting for Joe Biden to get into the race. The two marched together in a Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh.
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