PHILADELPHIA—Less than four days before the general election, President Joe Biden, on Nov. 1, delivered remarks at a union house in Philadelphia to tout his administration’s record on pensions.
“When you retire and find out all those years of work and sacrifice are slashed, through no fault of your own ... imagine what that does financially and emotionally to your dignity. It’s wrong,” Biden said, referring to union pension cuts.
He said the Butch Lewis Act is “the most significant investment in pension security in over 50 years.”
“Before the Butch Lewis Act became the law of the land, union workers and retirees faced cuts of up to 70 percent of their retirement benefits,” Biden said. “Because of what [Vice President] Kamala [Harris] and I did in Congress ... pensions are protected.”
This point was underscored by other speakers at the event, who included acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, Pennsylvania Teamsters President William Hamilton, and Rep. Brendan Boyle (D-Pa.).
The bill in question was named for Butch Lewis, a former U.S. Army Ranger and longtime member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters who became a prominent advocate for pension reform before he died in 2015.
His widow, Rita Lewis, spoke at the event, and Biden surprised her by posthumously awarding her husband the Presidential Citizens Medal.
Outreach to Unions Before the Election
The speech is one of several that Biden has delivered to exhibit his legacy as president before he leaves office. It also highlights the work for a key constituency in Pennsylvania, which is crucial for a Harris victory in the state as the Democratic presidential nominee.Several union workers in the audience told The Epoch Times that Biden’s support for pension reform is the reason they support Harris in the election.
“Thanks to the Biden administration and the American Rescue Plan, we’re gonna get the necessary funds to ensure and secure pensions for many years to come for some of those members that would have been impacted if the fund ran out of money,” said Leonard Purnell, the field services director of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1776, the largest union in attendance at the speech. “[Harris] will continue the work of the Biden–Harris administration.”
Purnell said the union is involved in “get out the vote” operations to turn out supporters for Harris to vote.
“We’ve been engaged in a huge program now for several months. ... we’ve already ID'd a number of supporters, [and] our job is to make sure they come out to vote on Tuesday,” Purnell said, noting that the union was coordinating with the Harris campaign.
Tom “Tiny” Callan, vice president of the Teamsters Local No. 623, agreed.
“We think that [Harris] will continue Joe Biden’s stance and keep the unions strong. ... we’re knocking on doors, [we] went out to different parts of the city to knock on doors and put hangers in Harris–Walz’s support,” he told The Epoch Times.
Shoring up union support is especially critical to Harris’s campaign amid Trump’s constant appeals to working class voters, with his plan to impose large tariffs on imported goods to help domestic industry.
Over his career, Biden has made support for unions a key part of his political brand to appeal to working class voters—a characteristic that he emphasized during the speech.
“I’m proud to be ... the most pro-union president in history,” Biden said, repeating a line he uses frequently.
Flanking Biden on stage were two large banners emblazoned with the words “Union Strong.”
Using one of his trademark phrases, Biden said, to applause, “The middle class built this country, and unions built the middle class.”