Gallery: With A Tight Race in Michigan, Union Workers March on Labor Day in Detroit. Kamala Harris Speaks Hours Later.

On a sunny Monday morning, with comfortable temperatures in the 60s, thousands marched through Detroit's Corktown neighborhood in the annual Detroit Labor Day parade, about 63 days before the presidential election, in one of the key swing-states in the nation.

With the theme of "United in Solidarity defending Democracy," union members, including pipefitters, auto workers, teachers, truck drivers, carpenters and journalists, marched down the red-brick lined Michigan Avenue westward til they reached Roosevelt Park in front of the newly renovated Michigan Central Station, where speeches were delivered.

UAW President Shawn Fain wearing his "Trump is a Scab" t-shirt.

Some in the crowd carried "Harris-Walz" signs, or wore "Kamala Harris for President" t-shirts. Some also wore anti-Trump t-shirts that read, "Trump is a Scab, vote Harris." There were no signs of support for Donald Trump or J.D. Vance.

Speakers included UAW President Shawn Fain, President of the American Federation of Teachers Randi Weingarten, National Education Association President Becky Pringle, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and Michigan Supreme Court candidates Kimberly Thomas and Justice Kyra Harris Bolden who had been nominated by the state Democratic party.

Some had expected that Vice President Kamala Harris would speak right after the march. Instead, Harris spoke hours later, at 1;20 p.m. at Northwestern High School on W. Grand Blvd. in Detroit, for about 15 minutes.

"It's good to be in the house of labor," Harris told a crowd that included some of the nation's key union leaders.

"Here in Detroit nearly 140 years ago in this very city, 10,000 people marched in one of our nation's first Labor Day parades," she said. "Many held signs that read 'divided we can beg, united we can demand.'"

VP Harris at Northwestern High School (Screenshot from KVIA video)

She also said:

“Everywhere I go, I tell people, 'Look, you may not be a union member, you better thank a union member for the five-day work day.' You better thank a union member for sick leave. You better thank a union member for paid leave. You better thank a union member for vacation time."

She told the crowd that she's operating as an underdog and expects a close race.