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Labor unions to get prime billing on first night of Democratic National Convention
Leaders of several of the largest labor unions in the country will have speaking slots during primetime at the Democratic National Convention on Monday in Chicago, as the party continues its political overtures to a crucial voting block.
According to details first shared with CBS News, at least seven labor union representatives will deliver remarks Monday on the convention stage. This includes United Automobile Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President April Verrett, and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) President Lee Saunders.
Laborer’s International Union of North America president (LiUNA) President Brent Booker, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) President Kenneth W. Cooper, Communications Workers of America (CWA) President Claude Cummings and American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) President Liz Shuler will also speak Monday.
One notable labor union leader who will not be speaking in Chicago is Teamsters President Sean O’Brien, who requested a speaking slot at both the Republican and Democratic conventions. While he did speak at the RNC in Milwaukee earlier this year, convention officials say he will not be speaking in Chicago.
The Teamsters endorsed President Biden’s campaign in 2020, but have remained neutral so far this cycle. A source familiar with the convention’s planning said the Teamsters will be represented on stage during the DNC, but that O’Brien will not be speaking.
On Saturday, the Teamsters and Harris agreed to a future roundtable discussion, as they did with Trump and Mr. Biden, when he was a candidate.
Monday will also feature speeches from several Congressional allies of organized labor, including Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusettes, Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Gary Peters of Michigan.
More than 2.7 million union members reside in the battleground states, where Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are virtually tied, according to a recent CBS News poll.
While 56% of labor union members went for Mr. Biden in 2020, according to CBS News exit polls, rank-and-file members have voiced concern over Trump chipping away at Democratic support in union halls.
The Harris-Walz campaign is hoping public support from union leadership and an aggressive get-out-the-vote strategy will break through to rank-and-file members on the fence.
“The dozens of union endorsements this campaign has received deliver not just words on a press release but tangible organizing prowess,” Harris-Walz campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo about labor unions.
After declaring her candidacy, Harris quickly received support from most major labor unions. She and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a former teachers’ union member, spoke at a UAW event in Michigan as part of a battleground tour last week. Walz also spoke separately at an AFSCME convention in Los Angeles.
Harris’ campaign has pointed to her pro-labor record, both during her time as attorney general of California, where she signed an order dealing with employer wage theft, to her time as vice president, when in 2021 she cast the deciding Senate vote to pass the American Rescue Plan, which included the Butch Lewis Act — a provision that provided emergency funding for some pension plans.
“[Harris] has had workers’ backs throughout her career: from the picket line to the Senate floor, protecting our pensions and fighting for home care workers’ rights and against corporate greed,” Shuler said in a statement. “The labor movement is mobilizing like never before behind the Harris-Walz agenda that puts working people first — and against the Trump Project 2025 agenda that attacks our unions and everything we stand for.”
The party’s theme for Monday, “For The People,” is also dedicated to Mr. Biden, who will give the keynote address and has been a longtime supporter of unions.
Several unions, including SEIU and the nation’s largest union federation, AFL-CIO, have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into canvassing efforts and have launched door-knocking operations to support the Harris-Walz ticket.
Culinary Union Local 226, an influential group in Las Vegas, will also launch canvassing operations in Nevada to back Harris. The group has been supportive of her announced push to end taxes on tipped wages and raise the federal minimum wage. Trump proposed a similar plan first in June, though the Culinary Union panned it as “wild campaign promises from a convicted felon.”
Chicago’s rich history of labor unions was also a key pitch for the city to host the Democratic Party’s convention, with the convention touting its two primary venues being powered by members of a combined 30 unions.
“Chicago is the hometown of the American Labor Movement, and this DNC is union strong,” said Chicago Federation of Labor President Bob Reiter. “From the labor peace agreement we negotiated with the DNC and the Host Committee to our incredible workforce that keeps Chicago moving every day, we are excited to welcome delegates from across the United States to the Windy City.”
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Paul Whelan, freed in prisoner swap with Russia, tells other American detainees: “We’re coming for you”
Washington — Nearly seven weeks after the Russians handed over Paul Whelan on a tarmac in Ankara, Turkey, the Marine veteran stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol with a message for other Americans who are held abroad.
“We’re coming for you,” he told reporters Tuesday night after he met with lawmakers. “It might take time, but we’re coming.”
Whelan said he spoke with lawmakers about how the government can better support detainees after they’re released.
“We spoke about how the next person’s experience could be better,” he said. “What the government could do for the next person that’s held hostage and comes home — the care and support that other people might need, especially people that are in a worse situation. There are people coming back that lived in the dirt without shoes for three years, people that were locked up in hideous conditions for 20 years. They need support.”
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The U.S. secured Whelan’s release in August in one of the largest prisoner swaps since the end of the Cold War. The complex deal came after months of sensitive negotiations between the U.S., Russia, Germany, Slovenia, Poland and Norway.
As part of the deal, Russia released 16 prisoners while the Western countries released eight Russians. Whelan was released alongside Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, Russian-American radio journalist Alsu Kurmasheva and Vladimir Kara-Murza, a U.S. green card holder and Kremlin critic.
Whelan, who had been the longest-held American detainee in Russia, was arrested in December 2018 when he traveled to the country to attend a friend’s wedding. He was convicted of espionage in a secret trial and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2020.
Whelan, his family and the U.S. government vehemently denied that he was a spy and accused Russia of using him as a political pawn. The U.S. government considered him to be wrongfully detained, a rare designation that put more government resources toward securing his release.
But a deal to secure his freedom was long elusive. He remained behind bars as Russia freed Marine veteran Trevor Reed and women’s basketball star Brittney Griner — both of whom were detained after Whelan’s arrest — in prisoner swaps with the U.S.
The U.S. said it pushed for his inclusion in both exchanges, but Russia refused. It led to Whelan advocating for his own release from a remote prison camp, calling government officials and journalists to make sure that he wasn’t forgotten.
When the plane carrying Whelan, Gershkovish and Kurmasheva landed in Maryland on Aug. 1, Whelan was the first to disembark. He was greeted by President Biden, who gave Whelan his American flag pin, and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“Whether he likes it or not, he changed the world,” Rep. Haley Stevens, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters Tuesday.
Whelan’s case and his family’s constant pressure on the U.S. government brought more attention to the cases of Americans who are wrongfully detained by foreign governments.
Haley said Whelan is a reminder to other Americans considering traveling to Russia that “you have a target on your back.”
Whelan said it’s been an adjustment acclimating to life back in the U.S., especially learning the latest technology like his iPhone 15.
“I was in a really remote part of Russia,” he said. “We really didn’t have much. The conditions were poor. The Russians said the poor conditions were part of the punishment. And coming back to see this sort of thing now is a bit of a shock, but it’s a good shock.”