PHILADELPHIA –  Barack Obama says he’s the rightful heir to any Rocky movie references, telling the audience at a state AFL-CIO convention on Wednesday that Hillary Clinton’s claim to be the scrappy underdog is inaccurate in Pennsylvania.

The Democratic presidential rival was also quick to point out that the famed Rocky Balboa is just a character in a film.

“I know there’s been some talk about Rocky Balboa over the last couple of days,” Obama said to laughter. “And you know, we all love Rocky. We all love Rocky. And last time I checked, I was the underdog in this state. … But we got to remember that Rocky was a movie, and so is the idea that somebody can fight for working people and at the same time, embrace the broken system in Washington, where corporate lobbyists use their clout to shape laws to their liking.”

Obama’s efforts to acquire the Rocky mantle follow Clinton’s analogy a day earlier, in which she recalled a famous scene from the 1976 Oscar-winning film in which the boxer celebrates his indomitable spirit after running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Clinton said to end her presidential campaign now would be like “Rocky Balboa had gotten halfway up those art museum steps and said, ‘Well, I guess that’s about far enough.”‘

“Let me tell you something, when it comes to finishing a fight, Rocky and I have a lot in common. I never quit. I never give up. And neither do the American people,” Clinton told the same crowd that Obama was addressing on Wednesday.

Clinton then promised that as president she would create 3 million new jobs through investments in public infrastructure.Clinton told the labor audience that as first lady she had forcefully battled NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement, even as her husband was aggressively pushing for its passage through Congress. The agreement is widely unpopular with organized labor because it helped clear the way for many blue-collar jobs to be moved to Mexico and other countries with cheaper labor costs.

“I did speak out and oppose NAFTA,” she said. “I raised a big yellow flag and said ‘I don’t think this will work.”

How strongly Clinton worked against NAFTA while in the White House remains a matter of some dispute. Former aides to Bill Clinton have said she was skeptical of the agreement, but largely because she felt it conflicted with her effort to pass health care reform.

On March 19, the National Archives released most of Clinton’s daily schedules as first lady; they showed her holding at least five meetings in 1993 aimed at helping win congressional approval of NAFTA. The Obama campaign said the meetings show Clinton was misrepresenting her record on NAFTA.

“What I oppose — and what I will always oppose — are trade deals that put the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interests of American workers. That’s why I opposed NAFTA,” Obama told union members as he wrapped up a six-day bus tour through Pennsylvania.

“What I refuse to accept is that we have to sign trade deals like the South Korea Agreement that are bad for American workers,” he added.

Both Democratic presidential candidates have portrayed themselves as labor’s best friend as they campaigned in Pennsylvania. At an economic summit in Pittsburgh organized Wednesday by Clinton’s presidential campaign, the New York senator was expected to propose eliminating tax breaks for companies that move jobs to other countries and using the savings to persuade companies to keep jobs in the U.S.

Clinton’s plan would offer new tax benefits for research and job development. It would also create “innovation and research clusters” across the country and provide $500 million annually in investments to encourage the creation of high-wage jobs in clean energy.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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