PITTSBURGH — The United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America endorsed Bernie Sanders on Monday, offering one of the few endorsements by a national union as Democratic presidential candidates continue to court labor’s support.
The union, which represents some 35,000 workers, voted to back Mr. Sanders directly after he spoke at its national convention in Pittsburgh, where he made a boisterous appeal for their help in the race.
“The UE is about what our campaign is about,” said Mr. Sanders, who was greeted onstage with raucous cheers as he peppered his comments with the phrase “brothers and sisters.’’
“Having traveled this country, there is growing disgust on the part of ordinary Americans at the corporate greed that we see,” he said. “That greed is an illness — it is an addiction. And if the corporate CEOs don’t get the treatment that they need, we will provide the treatment for them.”
Mr. Sanders and UE, which is known for its progressive positions and has long backed the kind of single-payer health care system Mr. Sanders champions, have supported each other for years. In February, just days after entering the 2020 race, the Vermont senator backed striking workers represented by UE at a locomotive plant in Erie, Pa. A local leader for the union spoke at Mr. Sanders’s campaign kickoff rally in Brooklyn in March, and chants of “Bernie, Bernie!” filled the hotel ballroom during Mr. Sanders’s address on Monday, leaving little doubt as to where the union members’ support lay.
“Bernie understands the need for workers to have a democratic, independent union movement that is unafraid to challenge Corporate America’s stranglehold on our economy,” Peter Knowlton, the union’s general president, said in a statement.
But while the endorsement is somewhat symbolic — the union is relatively small and does not traditionally endorse presidential candidates — it comes as several Democratic candidates, including Mr. Sanders,Elizabeth Warren and Joseph R. Biden Jr., are jockeying for support from organized labor, a critical constituency especially with such a crowded presidential field. And it follows a flurry of activity from the Sanders campaign to aggressively affirm its on-the-ground support for workers, including a rally on Sunday in Louisville with striking AT&T workers. Last week, Mr. Sanders also released an ambitious plan that included setting a goal of doubling union membership in his first term as president.
So far, most labor unions are still sizing up candidates and have not offered endorsements. In April, Mr. Biden earned the endorsement of the national firefighters’ union. In June, the 40,000-member New York Hotel and Motel Trades Council endorsed its hometown candidate, Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Still, the UE endorsement could amp up the pressure on other candidates who are also seeking organized labor’s support. More than a dozen candidates, including Mr. Sanders, spoke last week at a labor convention held by the Iowa Federation of Labor, A.F.L.-C.I.O in Des Moines to make their cases for how they would strengthen unions and empower workers.