LAS VEGAS – A deep and angry split in Nevada's labor movement has opened up as rival unions try to rein in the power of the state's Culinary Workers Union in advance of Saturday's Democratic presidential caucuses.
With its flourishing tourism industry and seemingly constant construction boom, Nevada has become the West's most unionized state and the Culinary Workers Union, which represents 60,000 workers mostly in Las Vegas casinos, is king of the hill.
The localized clout of the union, whose membership has tripled in 15 years, has come to rival some of the titans of organized labor in their heyday, said Peter Rachleff, a labor historian at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.
“It's like the autoworkers used to be in Michigan or the steelworkers used to be in Pittsburgh or the longshoremen's union in Hawaii,” Rachleff said.
With most of Nevada's unions backing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York or former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the Culinary Workers Union, along with the Service Employees International Union, shook up the Democratic presidential race here by throwing their considerable support to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.
Once primarily a mining state, Nevada's economy is so driven by tourism and entertainment that it forces Democratic candidates to play down their Rust Belt economic speeches about the outsourcing of jobs when they campaign in the state.
“These are employees who are not affected by globalization,” said Gary Chiaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.
Few question the impact of the union's endorsement on the race.
“I think the Culinary Workers Union is a big deal,” said political scientist Ted Jelen at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. “They're a savvy organization, and I think they can get their people out. So I think that makes Obama's chances a little better.”
A well-organized voter turnout operation is essential in Nevada, where presidential caucuses in past years have attracted little more than die-hard party activists and been largely ignored by rank-and-file voters.
After the split decision in the early voting states – Iowa voted for Obama and Clinton came back in New Hampshire five days later, what once appeared a Clinton rout in Nevada has been transformed into a too-close-to-call, three-way race, according to the latest poll in the Reno Gazette-Journal.
The fissure in organized labor in Nevada over the Democratic contest turned into all-out war late last week when the Nevada State Education Association filed suit against the Nevada Democratic Party to block the holding of nine at-large caucuses in Las Vegas casinos.
The caucuses were designed to accommodate the concentration of workers within 2.5 miles of the Strip. A large percentage of them are minorities who can't get time off Saturday to participate, especially because the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend is expected to be among the year's most lucrative for casinos.
The teachers union is officially neutral, but many officers back Clinton. D. Taylor, the often-in-your-face head of the Culinary Workers Union, claimed the Clinton campaign is pulling the strings.
“They are tied with the Clinton campaign,” Taylor said on MSNBC this week. “This is the Clinton campaign; you know they tried to disenfranchise students in Iowa. Now they're trying to disenfranchise people here in Nevada who are union members – people of color and women – because they didn't get the endorsement. It is ironic to think about it that we have a major move to disenfranchise people of color on Martin Luther King weekend.”
Some analysts were struck by the sharpness of Taylor's comments.
“Taylor is calling out the Democratic leaders the way Democrats often go after Republicans,” said Eric Herzik, a professor of political science at the University of Nevada Reno.
Teachers union officials have refused to comment on the suit, which will be heard today in federal court. The Clinton campaign insists it had nothing to do with it.
“This isn't our lawsuit,” said Clark County Commissioner Rory Reid, state chairman for the Clinton campaign. “We are going to play by whatever rules the court determines are appropriate.”
While the Clinton campaign was trying to keep its distance from the suit, former President Bill Clinton defended it Monday.
“I think the rules ought to be the same for everybody,” he told students at Green Valley High School near Las Vegas. “I would question why you would ever have a temporary caucus site and say only the people that work there, i.e., the people that we know are going to vote in a certain way or we think they will, (are) able to caucus.”
Although the casino caucuses can be attended by any workers in the designated area, members of other unions questioned why the party made special arrangements to accommodate just one segment of the work force.
Clinton supporter Desiree Kaspar, a member of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said many of her union's members can't get time off either.
“I think it would be nice if they had set something up for other people who have to work on Saturday,” she said last night as candidates' supporters rallied outside the Cashman Center, where a Democratic candidates debate was held.
Party officials note that the state Democratic Party approved the plan for the at-large caucuses in March, got it ratified by the Democratic National Committee in August and nobody objected until last week when the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama.
“It's not a matter of principle to anybody,” said Jelen at UNLV. “The whole thing is to hold down the turnout of the bad guys, whoever they believe them to be.”
The outcome may depend on the union's effectiveness at enforcing solidarity behind Obama, especially from Latino workers Clinton has targeted.
“Forty percent of that union is Latino, and I think most of them are going to vote for Hillary,” said UNLV political scientist David Damore.
Some analysts wonder if the caucus process will discourage some workers from voting their consciences. Unlike a secret-ballot election, caucus participants have to stand up and proclaim support for their candidate – even if it's in front of their co-workers or supervisors.
“We think in the end our members will act like a union,” said Pilar Weiss, the Culinary Workers political director. Damore speculated that union workers who attend caucuses in their neighborhood precincts would feel more comfortable voting for someone other than Obama than those who go to the at-large caucuses in the casinos.
“Those are going to be union-dominated sites, and if there is going to be intimidation to toe the union line, that's where it's going to be,” he said.
