US Sen. Bob Casey He called Saturday “Labor Day” for his campaign.

Democrat locked in Hard fight for re-election He addressed hundreds of union workers in Philadelphia 10 days before Election Day as they held get-out-the-vote events and knocked on doors.

“We have to remind them that the right to form a union is at stake in this election, because that’s the next right they’re coming for,” Casey told the crowd of union members gathered by the Communications Workers of America to knock on the door. campaign and at the gates for Vice President Kamala Harris.

He noted that his rival was a businessman Dave McCormickhad received significant funding from Wall Street-backed super PACS. He cited this as evidence that McCormick would support tax cuts for the wealthy, not working-class Americans.

“Do you think the billionaires and big corporations who support him really care about the right to organize?” Casey asked as union members in the audience shouted “no.”

Casey’s race against McCormick has become increasingly heated in recent weeks as the Democrat seeks a third term in the U.S. Senate. Like Democrats Casey, who is working to gather votes before Election Day, reached out to union members, one of his key constituencies, by visiting three separate union-hosted events in the Philadelphia area on Saturday.

McCormick held a rally with veterans in the Lehigh Valley on Saturday. While Casey won the support of a wide range of labor groups in the race, McCormick had the support of many police unions and the Philadelphia Firefighters and Paramedics Association.

Casey started the day with a rally Spring Garden Hosted by the Eastern Atlantic States Regional Council of Carpenters. He teamed up with the Mayor of Philadelphia to launch a Day of Action for the organization Cherelle L. Parkerattorney general candidate Eugene DePasquale, Pennsylvania House Speaker Joanna McClinton and others. He visited the CWA showcase in Northeast Philadelphia and was scheduled to visit with the American Federation of Teachers. Delaware County afternoon.

“Our party would not have been successful in any election without the men and women of organized labor,” Casey said in an interview. “For generations, these have been the foundation of the strength of the Democratic Party. “We must make sure we strengthen unions and the work they do as we present our final arguments to voters.”

Although labor leaders remain generally supportive, union members have moved to the right, making up a significant portion of Trump supporters in the recent election.

Bill Sproule, executive secretary of the Regional Council of Carpenters of the Eastern Atlantic States, noted that union members should drive voting among their own members and the community at large. Although union members have been behind some of Trump’s support since 2016, Sproule said he feels some of those members have “come to their senses.”

“When the former president made tax changes to the tax code in 2017, it was a wake-up call for many union members and many union households the following year,” Sproule said.

Members of more than 100 unions came together Northeast Philadelphia Before knocking on doors Saturday, some traveled to the battleground state from New York and New Jersey to help encourage other union members to vote for Harris and Casey.

“They’re going to do everything they can to destroy unions,” Claude Cummings Jr., president of the Communications Workers of America, said of Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance.

At Saturday’s rally, several union members said they were primarily motivated by immigrant rights and the protection of democracy, not workers’ rights.

Dennis Dunn, a 50-year-old lineman from Philadelphia who was knocking on doors Saturday, said he was glad Harris and Walz were pro-union, but his real motivation was a sense that democracy was at risk. He became emotional as he described the memory of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob stormed the U.S. Capitol building seeking to block the Presidential certification. Joe Biden‘s victory.

“Watching the federal flag parade around the Capitol — which should never have happened — almost broke me as a person,” Dunn said.

Ava Green-Harris’s heart remains heavy. This time, there is another election concern: His citizenship.

The Bahamas-born New Yorker became a citizen in his childhood after his parents were naturalized. But since he wasn’t born in the United States, he worries a Trump second presidency would put his citizenship and his right to vote at risk

To ease her anxiety, she joined her union in Philadelphia and helped people understand “the importance of being given the right to vote.”

“We don’t want to go back to the past,” Green-Harris said. “It is important to call on the people to vote, to ensure that they vote and to do their part in democracy.”