DETORIT (AP) — Vice-President Kamala Harris plans to use Monday’s joint campaign appearances in the industrial city of Pittsburgh with President Joe Biden to argue that U.S. Steel should remain domestically owned — coinciding with the White House’s previous opposition to the company’s planned sale to Japan’s Nippon Steel.

Harris “is expected to say that US Steel must remain domestically owned and operated and that she will always work to support American steelworkers,” her campaign said.

That’s similar to Biden, who has said that he opposed the possible sale of US Steel to Nippon to “better preserve strong American steel companies, powered by American steelworkers.” But it still represents a key policy plank for the vice president, who has offered relatively little of it since Biden abandoned his re-election bid and endorsed Harris in July.

Harris has been careful to present herself as “a new way forward” while remaining fiercely loyal to Biden and the policy he has pushed. Her delivery is very different — and in some cases she has pushed to move faster than Biden’s administration — but the overall goal of expanding government programs to support the middle class is the same.

The vice president began Labor Day celebrations with a rally in a Detroit high school gymnasium, where hundreds of spectators wore bright yellow union shirts and held “Union strong” signs. She noted that one of the nation’s first Labor Day parades took place in Detroit about 140 years ago and that “everyone in our country has benefited” from the work of unions.

“Everywhere I go, I tell people, ‘Look, you may not be a union member, so you better thank a union member,’” said Harris, who noted that collective bargaining by unions helped secure the five-day workweek, sick pay and other key benefits and solidified safer working conditions.

“When unions are strong, America is strong,” she said.

Harris was later scheduled to attend the Labor Day parade in Pittsburgh, marking the first time she and Biden would speak together at a campaign event since the surprise election swings that fueled a new wave of Democratic enthusiasm for the 2024 election.

Biden, 81, has spent most of his long political career forging close ties with unions, but the White House said the president asked to introduce Harris at the joint appearance — rather than the other way around — because he wanted to highlight her record of helping union members during one of the largest Labor Day gatherings in the country.

In addition to the opposition to the sale of Nippon Steel, Biden has approved expanding tariffs over imported Chinese steel – a rare example of political overlap with the former Republican president Donald Trumpwhich has welcomed higher foreign tariffs on many imports. Still, U.S. Steel said in a statement Monday that it “remains committed to pursuing the transaction with Nippon Steel, which is the best deal for our employees, shareholders, communities and customers.”

“The partnership with Nippon Steel, a longtime investor in the United States from our close ally Japan, will strengthen the American steel industry, American jobs and American supply chains, and increase the competitiveness and resilience of the American steel industry relative to China,” the company said, noting that it employs nearly 4,000 people in Pennsylvania alone.

David B. Burritt, president and CEO of U.S. Steel, said Nippon Steel has announced plans to “invest approximately $1.3 billion in U.S. Steel union-represented facilities, in addition to the $1.4 billion capital commitment they previously announced.”

Referring to Trump during her speech in Detroit, Harris said some have suggested that “the measure of a leader’s strength is based on who you knock down rather than what we know; the true measure of a leader’s strength is based on who you lift up.”

Harris, 59, is trying to appeal to voters by portraying herself as being averse to Trump’s sharp rhetoric but also looking beyond the Biden era.

Harris’ events feel very different from Biden’s, which have typically drawn smaller crowds. But the vice president’s agenda is packed with the same issues he’s championed: curbing prescription drug costs, defending the Affordable Care Act, growing the economy, helping families afford child care — and now her stance on selling U.S. Steel.

“We are fighting for a future where we build what I call an opportunity economy, so that every American has the opportunity to own a home, start a business and build wealth and intergenerational wealth,” Harris said at a recent rally, echoing Biden’s calls to grow the economy “from the bottom up and from the bottom up.”

Harris has promised to work to lower grocery store costs to combat inflation. She has also moved faster than Biden in some cases, advocating for using tax cuts and incentives to encourage homeownership and ending federal taxes on tipped service workers. But she has also been relatively light on detail on major policies, instead continuing to back Biden on key issues.

The vice president appeared briefly onstage with Biden after the president delivered his speech on the opening night of last month’s Democratic National Convention, but the two have not shared a microphone at a political event since Biden himself ran against Trump. At the time, the campaign primarily used Harris as its lead spokesperson for abortion rights, an issue it believes could help it win in November as restrictions increase and health care worsens for women after the fall of Roe v. Wade.

Since the ticket exchange, they have both appeared at official events and met at the White House.

Harris has been one of Biden’s top validators for more than 3 1/2 years. Now the tables have turned, as Harris wants to back Biden — a native of Scranton, Pennsylvania — to win the potentially decisive state.

While the vice president has been more forceful about the plight of civilians in Gaza, he has also expressed support for Biden’s efforts to arm Israel and broker a hostage deal and ceasefire as Israel’s war against Hamas there continues for nearly 11 months.

Israel said on Sunday that it the bodies of six hostages recovered captured during the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the war in Gaza, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The revelation led thousands of Israelis take to the streets to demonstrateand demanded a ceasefire.

Before appearing in Pittsburgh with Biden, Harris met with the U.S. hostage-deal negotiation team in the White House Situation Room and discussed further efforts toward a deal that would secure the release of the remaining hostages.

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Weissert reported from Washington.