MILWAUKEE — When 15,000 people showed up to see Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama speak about labor rights in Milwaukee on Monday, they were told by the senator it was not a night for politics.

“In times of need, there’s no political party,” Obama said in his address, which lasted less than 15 minutes. “In times of need, there are no red states or blue states. In times of need there is the United States of America.”

Referencing Hurricane Gustav hitting the Gulf Coast one day earlier, Obama encouraged supporters to donate through the Red Cross in order to help the region “once again under siege from a terrible storm.”

Obama said Americans have a “spirit” of looking after each other, something that is most evident during times of great hardship.

“It’s most evident when natural disasters strike because we understand that only God has control,” Obama said. “It takes it out of the realm of politics when we all understand when we have to come together.”

He added the spirit cannot just be restricted to times of great catastrophe because every day across America there are “folks who are going through their own quiet storms.”

Despite saying Monday was “not a night for political speeches,” Obama did address the connection between the “spirit of unity” and the “spirit that brought the Union Movement about” to the crowd largely comprised of union workers.

“What has always made this country great is the understanding that we rise and fall as one nation,” Obama said, adding no one is immune to unforeseeable circumstances, accidents or discrimination in the workplace.

Unions are responsible for many rights everyone enjoys, Obama said, including the 40-hour work week, minimum wage, health care and pensions.

“Even if you’re not a member of a union, you’ve benefited from a union,” Obama said. “So I wanted to speak about how we sustain that middle class against all the challenges that we face today, and how we promote policies that honor the dignity of work.”

Obama said occasionally people need “just a little bit of help” and union support helps during these circumstances, adding Americans all believe in the national values of family, community, neighborhood and government.

“Every once in a while, somebody’s going to get knocked down,” Obama said. “Every once and a while, somebody’s going to go through some hard times. When we least expect it, tragedy will strike.”

Justin Wilson, managing director for the Center for Union Facts, a Washington, D.C.-based union advocacy group, said there was a time when unions were useful, but anyone who thinks that still to be true is “living in the past.”

“If you work in a company that’s unionized, forget extra money for working hard,” Wilson said, adding any role a union once played is now handled by the federal government.

Wilson said unions are responsible for sending the steel, airline and automobile industries into bankruptcy, and the only thing unions are used for today is demanding higher wages, which result in work strikes.

UW junior Stacy Gehringer had seen Obama speak twice in Madison, but wanted to see him speak in a location “with a different vibe.”

Although Obama’s speech was short, Gehringer said he was “still really passionate about what he was talking about.”

Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and his running mate Gov. Sarah Palin, R-Alaska, are expected to speak in Cedarburg on Friday.