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Minnesota Governor Tim Walz on Tuesday hit out at Donald Trump’s anti-union record as he promised that he and Vice President Kamala Harris would take the pro-labor agenda that made his state one of the best places to work and bring it to the rest of the country.
Speaking to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union in Los Angeles, the Democratic vice presidential nominee — the first labor union member on a presidential ticket since Ronald Reagan ran as a Republican in the 1980 election — slammed Trump’s record while touting Harris’s background as a former fast food worker.
“You know Vice President Harris grew up in a middle class family, picked up shifts at that McDonald’s as a student. I keep asking this to make a contrast here, can you simply picture Donald Trump working at a McDonald’s, trying to make a McFlurry or something?” he said.
Trump, he added, “couldn’t run that damn McFlurry machine if it cost him anything!”
Walz told the conference attendees that he and Harris both credit labor unions and unionized teachers, nurses, and state and local government workers with building the American middle class, and boasted of how he and the vice president have joined striking workers on picket lines.
Walz also touted his record as governor, recounting how he signed what he described as “one of the biggest packages of pro-worker policies in history” into law in Minnesota.
“We made it easier for workers to form unions, we strengthened workers protections, and yes, we banned those damn captive audience meetings for good,” he said, referring to a practice of management holding mandatory anti-union meetings to prevent or discourage workers from organizing. He added that the ban on anti-union activities was “the best thing to get sued over” during his time in the governor’s office.
“Today, Minnesota is one of the best states for workers in the country. I’m surrounded by some that aren’t. So the vice president’s vision is to take those worker protections to every state in the union,” he continued.
Taking aim at his opponents, Walz told the audience of union members that “the only thing” Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, know about “working people” is “how to take advantage of them.”
“Every single chance they’ve gotten they’ve waged war on workers and their ability to collectively bargain, to take that away from them,” he said, citing Republican opposition to the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would make it easier for workers to form unions and require state governments to negotiate with public sector unions.
He added that Trump’s support for anti-union “right-to-work” laws makes him a “scab,” using a pejorative term for non-union labor brought in to undermine striking workers.
Walz’s remarks in Los Angeles are part of a multi-state swing of appearances and fundraisers that are his first solo outings since being tapped as Harris’s running mate one week ago.
The Minnesota governor showed no compulsions about taking on Trump and Vance, citing their support for anti-worker provisions in the Project 2025 blueprint for the next GOP administration.
“One of the clear goals of that project ... is to put the screws to working people, making it harder for us to collectively bargain, allowing employers to drastically cut overtime or even eliminate it. And make no mistake about this, Donald Trump and JD Vance want to eliminate ... all public sector unions altogether,” he said.
Referencing his experience as a football coach, he warned that the Project 2025 “playbook” is more than hypothetical and said Republicans would absolutely make use of it if returned to power.
“If you’re going to take the time to draw up a playbook you’re damn sure going to use it. So don’t think that they’re not going to use that playbook they drew up, because they’re going to,” he said.
