Jim Kenney rallied support for his mayoral campaign at a union assembly Wednesday night. He was introduced by District 1199c President Harry Nicholas, who pointed to Chicago’s current union struggle as “an early indication of the coming struggle” for Philadelphia workers and praised Kenney as the only candidate who understands that struggle firsthand.

“I believe 97 percent of the unions in our city will be on our side,” Nicholas said in support of Kenney.

Members of District 1199C, NUHHCE, AFSCME, and AFL-CIO were present at the assembly. Last June, Nicholas said that members of 1199c marched from the Convention Center to the courtyard in City Hall to call on support from City Council. Unbeknownst to Kenney, they gave him one of his earliest endorsements for mayor.

The former city councilman is the only mayoral candidate in the current pool to have belonged to a union. In high school, he joined a restaurant workers union, and as a college student at LaSalle University, Kenney worked nights and weekends at Einstein Hospital’s South Philadelphia division where he was represented by 1199c.

“For the first time, we’re running our own candidate,” Nicholas said.

Isaiah Thomas, candidate for city council member-at-large, spoke briefly about his shared dedication with Kenney to Philadelphia labor unions. When Kenney took the podium, he promised the assembly that “...as long as I am alive, we will have a municipal workforce that is unionized.”

“You don’t have to give away the store,” he said of the mayor’s relationship to its municipal workers. “But you have to give the people the dignity they need to work for you, to go the extra mile, and to innovate.”

He called out Philadelphia International Airport for paying a sub-living wage to its sanitary workers and then firing them when they tried to unionize.

“People shouldn’t work 40 to 50 hours a week and then collect food stamps,” he said.

Kenney also stated that the city’s labor issues are tied to education, emphasizing that a good worker is an educated worker. With regard to funding a solution, Kenney said that he would use all the resources available in city government and not wait on Harrisburg.

“We’re going to hope Harrisburg does what they’re supposed to do,” he said. “But we’re going to supplement services at our schools with our own city departments.”