FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, November 1, 2024
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
On the last day of Early Vote in Nevada, Culinary Union celebrates 89 years of fighting for working families and continues to run the largest political effort to deliver the Battleground state for Kamala Harris -
BROLL of Culinary Union canvassers in the field
Las Vegas, NV – The Culinary Union, largest affiliate of UNITE HERE, was chartered on November 1, 1935. 2024 marks the 89th anniversary of an organization that has improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Nevada hospitality workers and their families with strong union wages and benefits. In nearly nine decades, the Culinary Union is an essential economic institution and the strongest political force in the Battle Born State. The Culinary Union has won a middle-class standard of living for over 800,000 hospitality workers in 89 years through militant rank-and-file organizing and mass actions and worker membership has risen from 18,000 in 1987 to 60,000 members today.
Culinary Union’s powerful political program is mobilizing 600 political organizers to knock on over 900,000 doors and talk to more than 130,000 voters by the end of Election Day. In an average day, a Culinary Union canvasser knocks on 60+ doors during their shift, with the entire team knocking on 20,000 doors a day on average in Las Vegas and Reno, 6-7 days a week for 4 months. Since early August, Culinary Union’s political team has been knocking on the doors of over half of voters of color in Nevada, connecting with 70% of Black voters, 57% of Latinx voters, 29% of AAPI voters, and 20% of Native American voters.
“We are mobilizing our communities to ensure their voices are heard in every corner of Nevada because the path to victory and the White House runs right through Nevada and Culinary Union members, who need strong political leaders like Kamala Harris and Senator Jacky Rosen who will confront corporate greed and lower rent, gas, and grocery prices,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “Unlike Republicans, who side with Wall Street landlords and the super-rich, Kamala Harris stands with hospitality workers. Kamala Harris will cap rent increases at 5%, fund affordable housing, provide $25,000 in down-payment assistance, eliminate the sub-minimum wage, end taxes on tips, raise the minimum wage, and unite workers. Kamala Harris has consistently championed Culinary Union members and has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to tackle issues that are important to guest room attendants who clean hotel rooms, cooks who make gourmet food, and the tip-earning servers who deliver cocktails and unparalleled hospitality. As the largest organization of working women in Nevada, the opportunity to elect the first woman president of the USA is both energizing and historic and we are ready to make history together, and so the Culinary Union will deliver Nevada for President Kamala Harris and Vice-President Tim Walz.”
Culinary Union previously released its 2024 General Endorsement Guide and is proud to run the largest statewide political program to elect Kamala Harris as President and Tim Walz as Vice-President, and re-elect Senator Jacky Rosen and Congressional representatives Dina Titus, Steven Horsford, and Susie Lee.
In early October, the Culinary Union released a new 30-second and 15-second video, “Kamala Harris fights for us” on social media. The digital ad highlights that Kamala Harris is fighting to protect our American dream from corporations that are price gouging working families on food, gas, and housing. Culinary Union is also running a statewide “Trump is for Trump” digital billboard campaign in Las Vegas and Reno.
As the Culinary Union celebrates it’s 89th anniversary on November 1, 2024, Nevada’s largest union is mobilizing hundreds of thousands of hospitality workers and immigrant voters during the 2024 General to elect political leaders who will continue to fight for Nevadans. Political canvassers reflect the Culinary Union’s diverse membership, which is majority women and Black, Latino, Asian American, and people of color, and who are committed to organizing and winning economic and racial justice. Culinary Union has worked for nearly nine decades to build worker power and strength as the largest organization of workers in Nevada. Each political effort draws from the Culinary Union’s nearly nine-decades of rich knowledge of effective and precise voter contact, which is rooted in the principle of working people talking to each other about the importance of building collective power through voting.
The Culinary Union is the largest affiliate of UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union. UNITE HERE runs the largest labor-led independent canvassing program in the country, with 1,800 canvassers aiming to knock over 3.5 million doors across key battleground states including Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Arizona.
The Culinary Union is running the largest statewide political program in Nevada. Hospitality workers, who have taken a leave-of-absence from their casino jobs to get out the vote, are available for interviews in English or Spanish daily. There are also limited shadowing opportunities available for reporters who are interested in spending an hour in the field with canvassers. To attend any of the GOTV launch events through Tuesday, November 5, shadow a canvass team, or to schedule interviews with workers or Culinary Union Secretary-Treasurer Ted Pappageorge, contact Bethany Khan.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who are originally from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 45% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples. Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bakers, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers.
Highlights from the Culinary Union’s legacy:
1935: The Culinary Union was chartered on November 1, 1935.
1949: July 2-8, 1949, the Culinary Union led a historic 7-day strike in the Reno-Sparks area, demanding that all hotel service workers be included in union contracts and fighting for higher wages. The strike began July 2 at 12pm and disrupted businesses during a major holiday weekend as 42 bars closed, workers walked out at 55 restaurants, and picket lines went up in front of several properties. The strike drew support of other unions who refused to cross the picket lines and the ire of anti-union forces, including prominent political figures and business interests who eventually passed a “Right-to-Work [for Less]” law in Nevada in response to this specific labor demonstration of worker power.
1953: The so-called “Right-to-Work [for Less]” policy was passed in 1950 (50.7%), ratified by voters in 1952, and became law effective on January 1, 1953 primarily in response to the Culinary Union’s record of strong organizing and successful wins for working people in Nevada.
1958: In response to the Culinary Union's growing organizing power and several labor-led efforts to repeal the harmful anti-worker "Right to Work [for Less]" law, business interests launched an initiative in 1958 to raise the signature requirements and made it more difficult for Nevadans to put initiatives on the ballot and ultimately pass them. The business-backed measure raised the signature requirements by mandating that petitions meet quotas in three-quarters of the State’s 17 counties and added a unique requirement that initiatives to amend the state constitution must be approved by voters twice, in consecutive elections, before taking effect - something found only in Nevada. This tactic has continued to impact the state’s ballot initiative process.
2023: Culinary Union launched a campaign September 2023 to organize 10,000 non-union restaurant workers and a website, UnionEats.org that is available in English and Spanish. The Culinary Union is actively engaging in outreach to restaurant workers who are employed in and around unionized casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. The website features the organizing drives at Alexxa’s and now Citizens. The website also lists over 360 union restaurants so customers can support restaurant workers on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas by patronizing unionized establishments where workers are treated with dignity, have fair wages, job security, great health care benefits, and respect on-the-job.
See more Culinary Union history here.
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ABOUT CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 145,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members, and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 60% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples.
Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry, and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting and winning for working families in Nevada for 89 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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