A President Fit for the Shop Floor
By David McCall
USW International President
Instinct told him to run.
But David Simmons stood his ground, took his time even though the seconds ticking away felt like hours, and shut down the flaming machinery at a Southern California oil refinery, averting tragedy.
Simmons chuckles as he relates the story years later, recalling how water from the fire brigade’s high-pressure hoses bounced him around as he wrestled a wrench around a valve in order to close it.
Because so many workers have jobs requiring them to prove their mettle every day — those on the front lines in steel mills, chemical plants, nuclear energy sites and hospitals, among others — Simmons expects America’s president to model courage, too.
Not the toxic, divisive bravado of Donald Trump, stresses Simmons, but the inspiring, unifying fortitude of Kamala Harris, who’s calmly stood her ground in the face of craven attacks, laid out real plans for moving the nation forward and focused, just like he did at the refinery, on getting a tough job done.
“She hasn’t gone dark or mean,” noted Simmons, a longtime member of United Steelworkers (USW) Local 675 who formerly served as a union health and safety representative at a Phillips 66 facility. “She decided, ‘I’m going to be a positive force. I want to be the face of something positive.’”
“We have somebody who’s been responsible, been a great asset to our country,” he said of Harris, noting she entered the race with full understanding of the vitriol she’d face from opponents who have nothing to offer voters but hate. “Do you know how much courage it takes to say, ‘I’m going to go through this anyway?’”
“She isn’t afraid to go into the belly of the beast,” observed Simmons, who’s canvassed voters and worked phone banks for Harris’ campaigns.
The unshakable resolve she’s shown in recent months is nothing new.
Simmons, a longtime political activist and labor board representative, noted that Harris overcame numerous naysayers and detractors in 2003 to win a longshot bid for district attorney of San Francisco.
She then prevailed in another uphill battle to serve as California’s attorney general, a position in which she saved the homes of working people during the nation’s housing crisis and forced banks to pony up billions to pay for their illegal and predatory foreclosure practices.
She also successfully sued California’ notoriously exploitative car washes for wage theft just as Local 675 began helping workers there to unionize and fight back. Her efforts won a $1 million settlement for the workers, who’d been denied overtime and been exposed to hazardous working conditions, while helping to clean up the industry forever.
“She went after them with a vengeance,” Simmons said of those who took advantage of working people. “How can you argue with the result? She hit them in the pocket. She went in their pocket and drew that money out.”
It’s not only Harris’ accomplishments that stand out but the way in which she forged them.
Both as a campaigner and officeholder, she takes an approach similar to that of USW members organizing a workplace or preparing for contract negotiations. She brings diverse groups together, addresses their concerns, and ensures everyone a voice in the fight for a brighter future.
“As unionists, we have been trained to pursue the greater good,” Simmons said, pointing out that Harris showed the same kind of commitment as vice president by leading a White House task force on worker empowerment and casting tie-breaking votes in the Senate that capped drug costs for seniors, enhanced access to health care and created family-sustaining manufacturing jobs.
As president, he added, Harris plans to implement universal paid family leave, deliver additional tax credits for parents and provide support for first-time home buyers. She’s a staunch supporter of the USW-backed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which continues to strengthen the manufacturing economy and national security, as well as the Inflation Reduction Act and CHIPS and Science Act, both essential to the nation’s leadership in evolving industries.
And she’ll continue to support workers by appointing responsible representatives to the National Labor Relations Board and safeguarding recent upgrades, such as expanded protections against cancer-causing silica, at the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Because America finds itself at a crossroads, Angelica Roacho stepped away from her job as a pharmacy technician at Kaiser Permanente in Southern California and spent the past two months campaigning for Harris in Nevada.
Roacho won’t return home until after the election. She spends her days visiting union members to speak with them about all that’s at stake Tuesday, contrasting Harris’ vision of progress with Trump’s goal of dragging the nation down.
“She represents opportunity,” declared Roacho, a member of USW Local 7600.
That’s exactly what she finds voters want in Nevada, a pivotal state with a large number of Latino workers in the state’s casino and hospitality industries. With the help of union activists like Roacho, a political newbie who speaks English and Spanish, Harris continues to lead in state polls.
“I want to try to make a difference,” said Roacho, one of many political newcomers swept up by the promise of a Harris presidency.
That kind of inspiring leadership sets Harris apart, explained Simmons, pointing out that she neither bullies others into supporting her nor cows before others.
“You can talk about her. You can say what you want about her. But she’s focused on policy and the law. That’s what she stands for,” Simmons said. “If you want something else, that’s on you.”
