Biden touts his middle class roots in Labor Day speech

Sept. 4 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden touted his credentials as a "pro-union" president during a Labor Day speech Monday in front of union workers in Philadelphia, telling the audience that the labor unions built the middle class.

Biden spoke to a supportive crowd during the annual AFL-CIO Tri-State Labor Day Parade, where he cited increasing hiring figures during his administration, the historically low unemployment rate and the passage of an infrastructure law aimed at boosting middle-class jobs.

"Wall Street didn't build America," Biden said to the cheering crowd. "The middle class built America and unions built the middle class."

It was a theme Biden returned to often in his speech, chiding Republicans for not supporting bills he said would create "good paying jobs" and not supporting unions. He said the number of union jobs and the support for the organizations are reaching a high point.

Biden said that 800,000 new manufacturing jobs have been created since he took office, helping the United States become a manufacturing leader again.

"This is one of the greatest job creation periods in American history," Biden said. "It wasn't that long ago when we were losing jobs."

Referring to former President Donald Trump only as "the guy who held this job before me," Biden accused him of being only one of two presidents who served in a time when there were fewer jobs in the United States at the end of his term from the start of it.

"[Trump] looked at America from Park Avenue. I look at it from Scranton, Pennsylvania," Biden said, referring to his blue-collar hometown. "All the time I've been in public office, I've been referred to as 'Middle Class Joe.' ... Guess what? That's who I am."

Biden has spoken in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, more than a half-dozen times as the 2024 election starts to heat up.