President Joe Biden rallied union members at the IBEW Construction and Maintenance conference in Washington on Friday in his latest bid to put his self-declared pro-union bona fides front-and-center ahead of the 2024 election.
“It’s good to be home,” Biden declared as walked to the podium in front of cheering members of the labor union, adding his grandfather would be “proud as hell I’m listed as the most pro-union president in history.”
The president used his speech in front of the conference to announce that a IBEW facility in southern Ohio produced its first 200 pounds of enriched uranium, which the administration has said is needed for advanced fuels for “the next generation” of nuclear reactors.
The federal government authorized a high-assay low-enriched uranium enrichment demonstration project at the plant in Piketon last year.
“The first ever, first ever, made in America,” the president emphasized. “And it's on track to produce nearly a ton by the end of the year – enough to power 100,000 homes.”
The president went on to tout some of his signature pieces of legislation and accomplishments, including the bipartisan infrastructure law, climate investments and jobs created in manufacturing.
Biden, staring down a likely November rematch with former President Donald Trump, lobbed a few criticisms of Trump’s record on infrastructure and the nation’s debt – even bringing back the Mar-A-Lago vs. Scranton comparison the president deployed during a speech in his childhood hometown of Sranton earlier this week.
“They learned ,and my opponent learned, the best way to get rich is to inherit it,” Biden said.
“I guess that’s how they look at the world from Park Avenue and Mar-a-Lago,” the president continued, referencing Trump’s Florida resort. “But I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania and Claymont, Delaware – working class and middle class towns.”
“When I look at the economy, I don’t see it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago, I literally see it through the eyes of Scranton where I grew up at my grandpop’s kitchen table.”
Biden has sought to shore up support from organized labor – something that could be crucial to winning the blue-collar workers in swing states like Michigan and Wisconsin. On Wednesday, he delivered remarks in front of unionized steelworkers in the other so-called blue wall battleground state of Pennsylvania.
“Union workers, the IBEW – I’m president – and that’s no malarkey – because of you – that’s no joke” Biden said. “I wouldn’t be standing here had you not stepped up when you did in 2020.”
IBEW, which represents more than 800,000 workers in the U.S. and Canada, according to its website, endorsed Biden for 2024 almost immediately after he announced his reelection bid nearly a year ago.
Biden won the union’s support in 2020 as well, with the group giving him the nod to get the Democratic nomination in Feb. 2020.
“Brothers and sisters, please join me in welcoming the biggest supporter of the IBEW, the most union-friendly, pro-labor president in the history of this great nation, our current and next president of the united states, Joe Biden,” IBEW International President Kenneth Cooper said to introduce the president on Friday.
He noted the union will do “everything we can” to make sure Biden is reelected in November.
Biden secured the endorsement of the United Auto Workers union in January, months after making history when he joined striking UAW members on the picket line in Michigan as they pursued better pay and benefits from the Big Three Detroit automakers.
Both Biden and Trump met in recent months with the Teamsters union leadership as both candidates court the backing of that union, which boasts 1.3 million members.