ONLINE / TWEET
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
April 6, 2021
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
STATEMENT by Geoconda Argüello-Kline regarding affordable housing for Nevadans (AB331)
The Culinary Union supports Assembly Bill 331. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Culinary Union members and their families incredibly hard. While hospitality workers are slowly returning to work, tens of thousands are still unemployed and struggling with housing insecurity.
Since March 2020, the Culinary Union has worked with our Housing Fund and other organizations to keep workers in their homes. Unfortunately, there are still too many Nevadans who have lost their home during this pandemic.
Our state must increase the availability of affordable housing to ensure that every Nevadan has stable housing they deserve. It is necessary to provide for long term planning and accountability measures to support affordable housing goals. Furthermore, providing local governments and developers with more options to support the development of affordable housing is commonsense public policy.
During this pandemic, working families and people of color have been disproportionately impacted by housing insecurity. The Culinary Union believes that every Nevadan deserves to be treated with dignity and that housing is a human right. Nevadans should not have to decide between having food on the table or a roof over their head.
The Culinary Union urges the Nevada Legislature to pass and support AB331.
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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 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, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting for working families in Nevada for 86 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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