Joe Biden tells A.F.L.-C.I.O. members he'll be 'the strongest labor president you have ever had'

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden spent part of his Labor Day at the A.F.L.-C.I.O headquarters in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he promised that if elected, he will be "the strongest labor president you have ever had."

Biden vowed to increase the wages of essential workers, hold business executives liable if they interfere with unionization efforts, and pass the PRO Act to give workers more bargaining and organizational rights, The New York Times reports.

"Wall Street did not build this country," Biden said. "You did — the great American middle class. And the middle class was built by unions — unions — and the American people now finally get it after a long time of being convinced that unions were a problem, not the answer." A Gallup poll released at the end of August found that 64 percent of Americans approve of labor unions, up 16 points from a 2009 low point.

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.