Democratic Vice Presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz addressed the International Association of Fire Fighters convention in Boston on Wednesday, August 28, 2024.
He insisted that Vice President Kamala Harris, not former President Donald Trump, will fight for their rights to collectively bargain, while protecting their pensions and maintaining funding for federal fire fighting resources.
As he began his address, Walz vowed, “When Vice President Harris and I win this election, we’ll have your back just like you’ve had ours this entire time.”
Walz went on to describe the current Harris-Biden administration as “the most pro-labor administration in history.”
Walz insisted that a future President Harris would bolster unions by signing into law the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, which he said would make it easier for workers to collectively bargain.
The act also claims to maintain funding for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response grant program and protect any attacks on defined benefit pension plans.
During the address, Walz slammed Trump over his right to work stance, insisting Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, together want to make it harder for workers to collectively bargain.
“The only thing [Trump and Vance] know about working people is how to take advantage of them, how to not pay them,” the Minnesota Governor said.
He added, “Every single chance they’ve gotten, they’ve waged a war on workers and their ability to collectively bargain.”
Walz also referenced his past as a football coach to argue that, despite the former President’s protestations, Trump plans to implement Project 2025 if elected.
“One of the goals of their Project 2025 is to screw the middle class, making it harder for workers to collectively bargain, allowing employers to drastically cut overtime or eliminate it, slash taxes for the ultra wealthy by imposing a national sales tax on the rest of us.
“Look, I’ve said this, I’m an old-time football coach. If you draw up a playbook, you plan on using it. Project 2025 is a plan to reshape what America looks like – moving away from the middle class and putting it right back on the oligarchs and the wealthy at the top.”
Tim Walz
Tim Walz encouraged unionized firefighters to watch Kamala Harris’ September 10 debate with Donald Trump, saying, “It’s going to be good.”
“Kamala Harris, she’s ready to hold him accountable on the debate stage,” Walz said of Trump.
He conceded that many people will probably be more interested in Monday Night Football, but insisted what is said that night will impact people’s retirement, their kids’ educations and the future of the nation’s infrastructure.
Harris, Walz Kick Off Tour In Georgia
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor, Tim Walz, are scheduled to kick off a two-day bus tour in Georgia on Wednesday that will move through rural areas in the southern part of the state before culminating in a big rally in the coastal city of Savannah.
The Democratic ticket will meet with supporters, campaign staff, small business owners and voters.
The party believes that in order to win the critical battleground state over Republican Donald Trump in November, they need more than Atlanta and the suburbs that delivered for Joe Biden in 2020 and must also make inroads, however small, in GOP strongholds.
The Georgia trip is a makeup visit from earlier in the month when the duo was set to embark on a seven-state swing tour introducing the new Democratic ticket.
In addition to the bus tour and the Thursday rally, Harris and Walz will be sitting down with news agency anchor, Dana Bash for their first joint interview.
The interview will air Thursday night.
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