President Joe Biden speaks during a meeting of his Competition Council in the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, July 19, 2023 in Washington. Biden will court unions as a cornerstone of the country’s economic future with a speech on Thursday at a Philadelphia shipyard — right as more major unions are weighing strikes that could disrupt the growth he wants to campaign on in 2024. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is courting unions as a cornerstone of the United States’ economic future with a speech at a Philadelphia shipyard. Thursday’s speech comes just as some major unions are weighing strikes that could disrupt the growth the Democratic president wants to campaign on in 2024. Tensions are rising between unions and companies about a rapidly evolving economy in which artificial intelligence, clean energy and e-commerce are rewriting some of the basic rules of work. Biden is trying to allay those concerns by saying unions should be part of that future. But Biden also knows a strike could harm his reelection chances.