In Durham, VP Kamala Harris heralds union jobs as future of US economic recovery
The American economy is emerging strong from nearly two years of pandemic-induced disruptions and losses, and the best way forward is to create more jobs that allow workers to organize for better wages and save more money, Vice President Kamala Harris said Wednesday.
In her third trip to North Carolina since taking office, Harris came to Durham, having most recently visited the Triangle while campaigning in 2020. For this visit, she was joined locally by Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Durham Mayor Elaine O’Neal along with Democratic state lawmakers and members of Congress at Durham Technical Community College, where she gave her speech.
She spoke about the Biden administration’s efforts to create more “good-paying, union jobs” throughout the country and promote collective bargaining in both the public and private sectors. Accompanying her from Washington was U.S. Labor Secretary Marty Walsh, as well as U.S. Reps. David Price and G.K. Butterfield.
“As a nation we have made real progress in our fight to end this pandemic, and get our economy back to normal. And with more than 215 million people vaccinated, our communities are more protected from this virus than they’ve ever been before,” Harris said to a small crowd of invited guests at Durham Tech. “And that said, the president and I know the fight is not yet won.”
Union jobs will build the future, Harris says
Traveling across the country over the past year, the Democratic vice president said she had met several people who were struggling to pay their heating bills, fill their cars with gas or afford groceries. People are understandably tired and frustrated, Harris said, but they’re also determined to return to work, school, and a sense of normalcy.
“What I see most clearly, is neither the fear nor the fatigue, but resilience,” Harris said. “The resilience of the American people, and the determination of the American people to always build a better future.”
The status of the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost of living could be key factors in whether voters keep Democrats in control of Congress in the 2022 midterms or deliver a blow to President Joe Biden’s agenda by putting Republicans in control.
The vice president’s visit was part of a travel blitz by administration officials following Biden’s State of the Union address Tuesday night. Biden touched briefly on community colleges, jobs and wages, and advocated for a $15 minimum wage in his speech.
Before her speech, Harris toured the IBEW local 553 apprentice program at Durham Tech along with Walsh, Price and Cooper. Students in the program, which trains them to become union electricians, demonstrated equipment for the vice president. Tara Schmitt, a third-year apprentice at Durham Tech, introduced Harris.
“You are a face and image of the future of labor in America,” Harris said to Schmitt.
The vice president later said union workers are helping build critical infrastructure including solar panels and wind turbines that will cut energy costs and combat climate change, fiber optic cables that will deliver high-speed internet to households throughout the country and new pipes to bring families safe drinking water.
North Carolina has long had the second lowest union membership rate in the country, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, after South Carolina, though it has seen some increase in private sector unionization during the pandemic. The state’s ban on collective bargaining for public sector workers has been in place for more than half a century. The average national union membership rate is 10.3%. North Carolina’s rate is 2.6%.
Durham’s union members have had a higher profile than others in the state. State Rep. Vernetta Alston, a Durham Democrat who was at the Harris event, previously served on the city council, where she led the formation of a workers’ rights commission. Democrats in the state legislature have advocated for several changes to labor policy, but for the most part the Republican-majority has not taken them up.
New funding for community colleges
The Biden administration is committed to empowering workers to organize, Harris said, and is “deeply proud to be the most pro-labor administration in the history of our country.”
Part of that commitment is $45 million in new spending by the Labor Department on grant programs to bolster community colleges, Walsh announced on Wednesday.
The grants will connect people to training and good-paying jobs, and will help bring more working people into the middle class, Walsh said. The program will be focused on women and people of color, he added.
Harris said the Durham Tech students she met on Wednesday will be part “of a new era of the American labor movement.”
Union jobs will uplift people from every walk of life, Harris said.
“Every person should be able to benefit from the power of solidarity, because every person in our nation, no matter where they start, deserves an opportunity to succeed,” Harris said. “That is the future we are fighting for.”
VP stops by Durham elementary school
During the drive from Raleigh-Durham International Airport to Durham Tech on Wednesday morning, Harris’s motorcade stopped by R.N. Harris Elementary School, where students lined up along a fence and cheered on the vice president, holding up hand-drawn signs and portraits of her, according to a White House pool report from a reporter traveling with Harris.
On her way back to the airport, Harris stopped by the school once again, this time stepping out of her SUV to walk over to the kids and talk with them and shake hands. A subsequent pool report noted that Harris spent about 10 minutes with the kids, “crouching down to dole out pep talks at eye level,” before heading to RDU.
Takeila Hannah and her 8-year-old daughter Tatum came to Durham Tech hoping to see Harris speak. In an interview, Takeila Hannah told The News & Observer she donated to Harris’s own presidential campaign before she dropped out and joined the Democratic ticket as Biden’s running mate.
“When we heard that Vice President Kamala Harris was coming to Durham we wanted to see her up close and personal,” Takeila Hannah said. “We support her message and we’re just overall supporters of the Biden administration.”
Asked what she liked about Harris, Tatum said she likes that “she looks like me.”
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published March 2, 2022 at 2:11 PM with the headline "In Durham, VP Kamala Harris heralds union jobs as future of US economic recovery."
