LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A parade of Democratic presidential candidates soon will descend on the Naked City, where thousands of unionized housekeepers, line cooks, waiters and other Las Vegas service workers want to hear the naked truth. These are the workers who have been cleaning up after and serving tourists for years. Now they're about to see the White House hopefuls cater to them.þþCulinary Workers Union, Local 226, with 60,000 members and counting, has long been a powerhouse in local politics and a bright spot in America's bleak labor landscape. Thanks to Nevada's new early slot on Democrats' nomination calendar, it's won a place as a presidential player.þþExhibit A is the lineup scheduled for a Friday rally outside the union's modest hall in an old Las Vegas neighborhood known as Naked City.þþSens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois -- the Democratic front-runners -- as well as Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson are slated to speak at the event, billed as a kickoff for the union's contract negotiations.þþOther candidates -- including former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Delaware Sen. Joseph Biden and Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich -- declined the invitation citing scheduling conflicts.þþThe candidates are in pursuit of a worker-bee organization with a reputation for being able to deliver voters, a key in a caucus state with almost no caucus tradition.þþ''The culinary has an enormous ability to organize and put people out on the street, whether it's a rally or going door to door,'' said longtime Las Vegas political operative Gary Gray. ''They're skilled at it, they're practiced at it and few labor unions can compete with them for doing what they do.''þþAttention from the front-runners was exactly what state labor leaders had in mind when they persuaded national Democrats to give Nevada the second-in-the-nation caucus and, thus, a larger say in picking the nominee. After watching infighting and declining membership undermine union clout nationwide, Democrats went looking for a Western state that could show off labor's strength.þþThe culinary, a part of the national Unite Here coalition, helps Nevada fit the bill. As union membership across the nation has been shrinking, union clout in Nevada has held steady. Almost 15 percent of workers carried union cards in 2006, a slight increase over 2005 and 3 percentage points over the national average.þþThe culinary's work in the service industry has driven the growth. Its ranks have more than tripled from 18,000 in 1989. It's the largest local in Nevada -- three times the size of the next largest union in the state, the teacher's union.þþWhile the growth can be attributed to the boom of megaresorts on the Las Vegas Strip, the union made sure its workers shared in the prosperity. It won hard-fought agreements in which casino management agreed not to fight organizing efforts, and it withstood a more than six-year strike on the Frontier hotel-casino.þþ''We've been very aggressive about not letting the growth pass us by,'' said Pilar Weiss, culinary's political director. ''We've made ourselves part of the growth.''þþUnion members have a strong pension plan; access to a free training academy; and a gold standard, free health care plan that covers 145,000 people -- 7 percent of the population in southern Nevada.þþThe benefits package has helped set the bar for what the union calls ''the Las Vegas dream'' -- a middle-class life with no college degree required.þþImmigration reform also ranks high on the list of members' concerns. Like Manny Barajas, a waiter at the Excalibur Casino, 45 percent of culinary's membership is Hispanic and about the same percentage are immigrants, with large numbers from Eastern Europe, Asia and Africa, Weiss said.þþFriday's rally on the eve of Saturday's candidates forum is just the beginning of candidates' attempts to woo members. The culinary union plans a series of meetings between its rank and file and each of the candidates.þþUnion leaders say they do not plan to endorse early in the primary campaign and insist the Democratic field is on equal footing despite a widespread perception that Edwards -- who's worked for union issues, won the Unite Here endorsement in 2004 and has a close relationship with its president -- has a leg up.þþ''We're not keeping some sort of a score card of that person went to four rallies or that person went to two -- yet,'' Weiss said. ''All the candidates, or most of them, have over the years been to events and rallies and picket lines.''þþThe nod would mobilize thousands of experienced organizers and offer access to a well-tuned network of activists in Nevada -- but it's not guaranteed to deliver the state.þþIt's unclear whether scheduling the Jan. 19, 2008, caucus on a Saturday would keep swing shift culinary workers in 24/7 Las Vegas from participating. A high number of immigrants inevitably means large numbers of members may not be eligible to vote.þþ''In a caucus situation, anybody who has proven political ability to turn out their members is going to play a role,'' said Democratic operative Dan Hart. ''I think that the culinary is going to be a player, whether they're going to be the most significant player remains to be seen.''þþ
Source: NY Times
