PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — President Joe Biden visited the Sprinkler Fitters in Northeast Philadelphia Friday to tout his pro-union policies.
The president announced $684 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan to bail out the pensions of 29,000 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, including nearly 11,000 in Pennsylvania. The law has saved pensions for more than a million workers since it passed in 2021, without — as Biden noted — a single Republican vote, which he attributed to the influence of Donald Trump.
"It's like you either vote the way one guy wants or you're in trouble. It's wrong. It's not who we are," he said.
But the visit to the Sprinkler Fitters Union was not quite a campaign event. It was more of a chance for the president to bask in the success of his pro-labor policies.
"Just since I've been elected — and I'm proud to be listed as the most pro-union president in American history — the middle class has grown; the middle class is growing. We have the best economy in the world right now because of you," he said.
Biden also awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal posthumously to Butch Lewis, the union activist for whom the Pension Rescue Act is named. His widow Rita accepted.
"I just want to say to President Biden — for the rest of his life, he will have 10.1 million people whose pensions have been saved thanking him and grateful for the rest of our lives," Rita said.
Most unions have endorsed Biden's preferred successor, his Vice President, Kamala Harris.
