ST. LOUIS, Missouri — Several speeches at the 2023 Fall Meetings for the Democratic National Committee featured party leaders describing efforts to court working-class voters.
Labor leaders celebrated President Joe Biden's appearance at the United Auto Workers' picket line, the first of its kind in history.
"There is no Democratic Party without the American labor movement," UFCW Executive Vice President Stuart Appelbaum said.
While Biden promised he'd be the most pro-labor president ever, labor unrest has surged on his watch as workers rally for better pay across several industries. Some Democrats at the DNC Fall Meetings blamed that unrest on Republican policies they argued fed into unfettered corporate greed.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, however, laid a portion of the blame at the feet of Democrats for giving Republicans an opening to woo working-class voters.
"In too many instances, the Democratic Party has turned its back on the working class," Sanders told the DNC Labor Council over a remote video call. "I am pleased and proud that Biden walked that picket line. That's a major step forward. But we have got to do a lot more."
DNC chairman Jaime Harrison plans to join St. Louis area laborers at the UAW picket line in Wentzville on Friday.
"Our economy is built on them. So we're going to let them know that we have their backs," Harrison told 5 On Your Side. Harrison reacted to Sanders' warnings that former President Donald Trump is winning working-class voters over.
"The middle class in this country is built on the backs of working people, on the backs of union members," he said. "Corporations are important because they bring good jobs and all that, but at the end of the day, a corporation is only as good as the people who work in it."
In his speech to the Labor Council, Sanders painted Trump as a hypocrite on labor issues and called for the party to improve its outreach to labor union members.
"During his four years as president, his major law was to give tax breaks to billionaires who work against unions," Sanders said. "Despite the fact that the president is now under indictment on four separate cases, in some of the polls, he is actually winning; and among working class people, he has an enormous amount of support. That's a fact. You may not like it. It is a reality."
"We have to address that issue," Sanders said. "You can't run away from it because if you run away from we ain't gonna have much of a country left."