Biden thanks hospitality workers in Las Vegas ahead of Nevada's Tuesday primary
DARLENE SUPERVILLE
Updated Mon, February 5, 2024
President Joe Biden meets with members of the Culinary Workers Union at Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas, Monday, Feb. 5, 2024.
(AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday congratulated hospitality workers for reaching a tentative agreement with several Las Vegas hotel-casinos and calling off a strike deadline for another, telling members of the local culinary union, “When you do well, everybody does better.”
"I came to say thank you — not just thank you for the support you’ve given me the last time out and this time, but thank you for having the faith in the union," Biden, who is running for reelection in November to a second term, told Local 226 Culinary hospitality workers who gathered at Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas. “Thank you for continuing to push it because this really matters. It matters, it matters, it matters.”
The president has been in Las Vegas since Sunday for campaign appearances ahead of the state's Democratic primary on Tuesday. He visited with the union members on Monday and later visited a boba tea shop before flying back to Washington.
The Culinary Workers Union, which represents hospitality workers, says it has reached a tentative agreement with six more downtown hotel-casinos and called off a strike deadline for another.
The Culinary Union is the largest in Nevada with about 60,000 members statewide. It negotiates on behalf of its members for five-year contracts.
Biden recently was endorsed by the United Auto Workers union. He proudly touts his longstanding support for the men and women of organized labor.
“I make no apologies for being the most pro-union president in America,” he said Sunday night at a reelection campaign rally in a historically Black neighborhood in Las Vegas.
The culinary union's tentative agreements averted a Monday morning walkout threat at several near-Strip and downtown properties as the city kicks off Super Bowl week. The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will face off at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday.
After negotiations with some of the remaining casinos hit a snag, the union announced last week it would go on strike if tentative contracts weren’t in place by early Monday for downtown casino workers at properties that hadn’t reached agreements.
The NFL’s 58th Super Bowl is expected to bring 330,000 people to Las Vegas this week, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday congratulated hospitality workers for reaching a tentative agreement with several Las Vegas hotel-casinos and calling off a strike deadline for another, telling members of the local culinary union, “When you do well, everybody does better.”
"I came to say thank you — not just thank you for the support you’ve given me the last time out and this time, but thank you for having the faith in the union," Biden, who is running for reelection in November to a second term, told Local 226 Culinary hospitality workers who gathered at Vdara Hotel in Las Vegas. “Thank you for continuing to push it because this really matters. It matters, it matters, it matters.”
The president has been in Las Vegas since Sunday for campaign appearances ahead of the state's Democratic primary on Tuesday. He visited with the union members on Monday and later visited a boba tea shop before flying back to Washington.
The Culinary Workers Union, which represents hospitality workers, says it has reached a tentative agreement with six more downtown hotel-casinos and called off a strike deadline for another.
The Culinary Union is the largest in Nevada with about 60,000 members statewide. It negotiates on behalf of its members for five-year contracts.
Biden recently was endorsed by the United Auto Workers union. He proudly touts his longstanding support for the men and women of organized labor.
“I make no apologies for being the most pro-union president in America,” he said Sunday night at a reelection campaign rally in a historically Black neighborhood in Las Vegas.
The culinary union's tentative agreements averted a Monday morning walkout threat at several near-Strip and downtown properties as the city kicks off Super Bowl week. The San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs will face off at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Sunday.
After negotiations with some of the remaining casinos hit a snag, the union announced last week it would go on strike if tentative contracts weren’t in place by early Monday for downtown casino workers at properties that hadn’t reached agreements.
The NFL’s 58th Super Bowl is expected to bring 330,000 people to Las Vegas this week, according to the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.
Biden meets with union workers in Las Vegas
Brett Samuels
Mon, February 5, 2024
President Biden on Monday met with union workers in Las Vegas, seeking to bolster his support with a key constituency on the eve of the state’s primary and ahead of the general election.
Biden spoke to members of the Culinary Workers Union at the Vdara Hotel, shaking hands and taking photos. His visit came after the union, which represents hospitality workers in Las Vegas, reached an agreement with several hotel-casinos in the city to avert a potential walkout.
“Wall Street did not build America. The middle class built America. Unions built the middle class. There would be no middle class without the unions,” Biden said in remarks to the workers.
“So I came to say thank you,” he added. “Not just to say thank you for the support that you’ve given me last time out, but to thank you for having the faith in the union.”
Biden’s meeting with culinary union members echoed a similar stop he made in Michigan to speak with members of the United Auto Workers members last week. Both are a nod to the importance of unions for Biden in building a coalition to carry swing states like Nevada and Michigan in the general election.
Biden, who often refers to himself as the most pro-union president in history, won the vote among union members in the 2020 election by 14 percentage points over former President Trump.
Biden stopped in Nevada on Sunday and Monday ahead of the state’s Democratic primary contest on Tuesday. Marianne Williamson is the lone primary challenger who will be on the ballot with Biden after Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.) missed the filing deadline.
The president is expected to win easily, just as he did Saturday in South Carolina with 96 percent of the vote.
Jarrett Renshaw and Trevor Hunnicutt
Sun, February 4, 2024
U.S. President Joe Biden visits Los Angeles
By Jarrett Renshaw and Trevor Hunnicutt
LAS VEGAS (Reuters) -President Joe Biden might join Las Vegas hotel employees on a picket line if they go on strike Monday, a move that would bind him closely with another group of workers in a 2024 election battleground state, the union's chief told Reuters.
Workers with the politically influential Nevada Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Downtown Grand Hotel & Casino have until early Monday to reach an agreement.
Failure to do so could mean the workers start a strike.
Biden has committed to joining striking workers if they walk out, Ted Pappageorge, secretary-treasurer and head of the union, told Reuters in an interview. Biden will be in Las Vegas on Monday, capping two days of political events.
Asked whether Biden will join workers on Monday if they strike, Pappageorge said "there will be opportunities" for Biden to rally with workers, and that Biden was invited to join the picket line.
Company and union negotiators were headed back to the table Sunday evening ahead of a Monday morning deadline for a deal.
The Culinary Union has already reached more than 30 agreements that cover 50,000 workers with other Vegas hotel and casino properties.
Biden's campaign declined to comment. The campaign and the White House have not yet provided any schedule for Biden on Monday.
If Biden joins the picket line, it would be his second such step in recent months after he joined striking autoworkers in Michigan last September. That was the first visit by a U.S. president to striking workers in recent memory and came ahead of an endorsement by the United Auto Workers last month.
Just last week, Trump met with the leadership and some members of the 1.3-million member International Brotherhood of Teamsters, one of America's biggest unions, in a bid for the support of labor groups.
The arid Western state of Nevada, where Biden is expected to easily win a Democratic Party primary on Tuesday, is one of seven identified by Biden's campaign as a closely contested battleground in November's general election. Voter support in such states could swing to either party.
In 2020, Biden narrowly beat his Republican rival Donald Trump in Nevada by 33,596 votes, or less than 3%, and opinion polls show a rematch between the two men this year, which seems likely, would be close.
About 30% of Nevada's population is self-described as Latino or Hispanic on the U.S. Census, and Republicans are making some inroads with these voters nationwide.
Biden calls himself the most pro-union president in history and has taken many pro-labor actions. The AFL-CIO, an umbrella group for worker groups including the Culinary Union, endorsed Biden last year.
The Downtown Grand, which is owned by the investment company CIM Group and operated by Fifth Street Gaming, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Kim Coghill and Gerry Doyle)
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