Labor leader D. Taylor, whose four-decade career in union organizing included helping Culinary Workers Union Local 226 become a Nevada political power, stepped down after 12 years as president of UNITE HERE, the local’s 300,000-member parent organization.
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He said Monday that the Culinary in Las Vegas, which has 60,000 members, could grow to up to 70,000 or 75,000 members, given the prospects for organizing several nonunion resorts, including The Venetian and Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
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“It's appropriate, and we have leadership now that is more reflective of the membership, which I think is key,” Taylor said. “It used to drive me crazy to hear about somebody's ‘potential.’ Being younger and more diverse is where we need to go and I'm excited because I think I've helped develop that team.”
The timing of his departure comes as the national union gears up for the 2024 election where it is expected to strongly support the re-election of President Joe Biden. In 2020, UNITE HERE mounted its largest-ever labor-led door-to-door canvassing operation that helped elect Biden.
Taylor took over the national union in 2012 after spending parts of three decades helping the Culinary become Nevada’s largest labor organization. It has become a potent political force feted by state and national Democrats.
“I have a great love for our members,” Taylor said in a 2012 interview before departing for his role with the national organization. He expressed pride that the Culinary had become an "enormously diverse minority-majority local. The diversity of our membership is our strength, not our weakness. It really provides a rich texture for both our union and our community.”