But Biden has made a hard push for his vice president, and Marini said he and many other union leaders in this crucial swing state have prioritized making the economic case in favor of Harris to their members. The rank-and-file attending Friday’s event pledged to vote for Harris, even if driven largely by their faith in Biden’s judgment.

Wayne Miller, the head of the sprinkler fitters union, was even more bullish: “She’s going to be absolutely fantastic, and she’s going to surprise a lot of people,” he said of Harris. “We win in Philadelphia. And we win because of the union.”

Still, union members in both Pittsburgh and Philadelphia question Harris, Trump and Biden’s labor records and commitment to them.

Despite Biden’s pro-labor appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees disputes between workers and employers, and his signing into law a bill that helped bailout distressed union pensions, some members weren’t convinced he was as pro-labor in office as he claimed. Harris was viewed with even more skepticism as a comparatively new party leader.

“I don’t think anyone is pro-union,” Karen, a 65-year-old retired teacher who did not want her last name used, told POLITICO after a retired electrician knocked on her door recently in the Penn Hills neighborhood of Pittsburgh. “It’s up to us. The workers have to make our voices heard.”

Harris, meanwhile, missed out on the endorsement of three unions that all endorsed Biden in 2020, and polling shows a continuation of working class voters trending toward Trump. Some Harris aides are livid over some of the union non-endorsements, privately saying they feel betrayed by key union leaders who didn’t have the “courage” to press their rank-and-file to support the candidate with the pro-labor record.

Harris’ recent campaign focus on courting Republicans and fundraising with wealthy donors has only brought more skepticism from some in the organized labor movement.

“All Democrats and all Republicans are not monolithic, right? There are people you can work with. There’s others that you know, they do one thing for you, and 40 years later, they’re still, you know, expecting to get a pat on the back for it, and that’s not how things operate,” said Kara Deniz, spokeswoman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which opted to not endorse either presidential candidate.

Part of the Teamsters’ reason for not endorsing was a lack of commitments from Harris about supporting striking workers in an interview at the IBT office as well as rank-and-filing polling that favored Trump, Deniz said.

AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler, who oversees about 60 unions and 13 million members, is running a door knocking program that aims to reach 5 million people in battleground states. Union members represent about 20 percent of voters in the blue wall states, she said, and at a recent press call she shared that of canvassed members, about 64 percent of members are backing Harris compared to 19 percent for Trump.

The United Auto Workers, which is also running a door knocking program to reach almost 300,000 workers and retirees, put its stats at 62 percent for Harris and 33 percent for Trump, according to a recent press release.

But a perceived lack of organized labor support from both presidential candidates also kept some unions on the sidelines this campaign, with them opting to not endorse anyone.

In addition to the Teamsters, the International Association of Fire Fighters and the International Longshoremen’s Association also held back endorsements. The longshoremen’s president, Harold Daggett, criticized Biden’s commitment to unions in a video interview ahead of his own union’s strike this October, which ended after about two days with a new tentative agreement.

“Where’s the president of the United States? He’s not fighting for us. He told in LA, he told the union, hurry up and get a contract. That’s the mentality they have,” Daggett said, referencing the West Coast’s contract strike in 2023.

Daggett and the firefighters union declined interview requests.

Despite the longtime union membership of Harris’ running mate, Tim Walz, he’s struggled to influence key union support — especially among the male-dominated industrial unions. Surprisingly, Harris campaign officials even have argued Walz wasn’t intimately involved in negotiations over key union endorsements after they fell apart. He’s also drawn backlash by publicly attacking some union leaders as overtly political operators.

But even some union members who back Harris have privately admitted that their colleagues’ concerns about her track record are valid, especially on border policy and sky-rocketing everyday costs.

One senior union official, who recounted an internal fight among members about whether to endorse Harris, said fellow members brought up what they argued were Harris’ failures on immigration and inflation as reasons not to back her.

“Some of these things may have happened on her watch. Maybe some things in hindsight might have [been] done different,” said the union official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the private conversations. “But also, a lot of really good things have happened under the Biden-Harris administration.”

“You can’t hang that shit around her neck without giving her the accolades for where this country has turned around,” the union official added.

A Harris official, however, said there’s really no comparison between the vice president’s record and Trump’s and mentioned the former president appointing “union busters” to the National Labor Relations Board, among other things.

“Biden and Harris saved billions in Teamsters union pensions, and Trump threatened to withhold emergency funds for union firefighters risking their lives in wildfires,” the official said.

But other Harris supporters in the rank-and-file have concerns about the Biden-Harris administration’s record.

“When [Biden] first got in, he disappointed me with the pipeline,” said Mark Provenza, a retired letter carrier, referring to the Keystone XL Pipeline. “You’re supposed to be the pro-union guy.”

Provenza, who is voting for Harris, also said he was “disappointed” that Biden didn’t support the railway workers who tried to go on strike in 2022 but were prevented by the Railway Labor Act. He expects Harris will approach labor the same way as Biden.

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Union members on canvases in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia tried to make the case that Harris, like Biden, would protect member benefits and keep unions strong. But undecided voters from union households weren’t immediately convinced. Some said they wouldn’t be voting at all.

“We know that unions are basically on the line,” Shuler said in an interview at the Allegheny-Fayette County Central Labor Council office ahead of one canvas. “[It’s] whether there’s a future with unions where workers can collectively bargain and fight for better wages or, as we know, in Project 2025 the elimination of public sector unions and things like overtime and safety and health protections.”

The Trump campaign rejected the affiliation with Project 2025 and said no policy is official unless it comes directly from Trump.

“American laborers and unions support President Trump because they have paid the price for Kamala’s failed economic policies over the past four years,” Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary, said in a statement.

Dino Guastella, a Teamster from Philadelphia whose local has endorsed Harris, believes Harris should talk more about successes from the Biden Administration to make her case to union members and working class voters.

“I think it’s a mistake. She should be taking credit for the infrastructure bill, the CHIPS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act,” Guastella said while tabling for Harris outside of the UPS Warehouse. “Those all brought good blue collar jobs.” He also mentioned that when I-95 collapsed, Biden’s bills helped fix it in record time.

But in his view, it’s also hard to sway any voters weeks from Election Day — even when talking about policy.