Major union launches national campaign agains Trump businesses

According to the Huffington Post, the Culinary Workers Union, a powerful player in Nevada politics, said it will be urging people not to stay at Trump hotels, eat at Trump restaurants or play golf at Trump courses until he starts bargaining with the union over a first contract. The Las Vegas group, which is part of the national hospitality industry union Unite Here, has been waging a long-running battle with the Trump Organization.

The boycott will be supported by the AFL-CIO, a federation of 56 unions that represent some 12 million workers around the country, according to Bethany Khan, a Culinary Workers Union spokeswoman. She said it will involve properties that Trump “owns, has invested in, or has partnered with.”

“Other unions can respect [the] boycott and not deliver goods or pass the picket line,” Khan told HuffPost in an email.

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Unions don’t take such boycotts lightly, since they discourage business at a workplace that employs their members. But in the case of Trump’s Las Vegas hotel, the Culinary Workers Union accuses him and his team of failing to bargain in good faith, even though the union won an organizing election last year

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The hotel is a joint venture between Trump and his friend, casino magnate Phil Ruffin.

Federal regulators have certified the union as the official bargaining agent for the workers, making such a boycott perfectly legal under labor law.

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In a statement, the union said it would encourage customers to observe the boycott until the hotel honors its legal duty to bargain with the union

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As HuffPost previously reported, management at Trump’s Las Vegas hotel waged an intensive anti-union campaign ahead of the election, shelling out more than half a million dollars to consultants in an effort to persuade workers to vote no. The Culinary Workers Union won anyway, by a count of 238 to 209.

Hotel management then tried to claim that the union had illegally swayed the election in its own favor, an assertion dismissed by officials with the National Labor Relations Board. The hotel appealed that decision to the full board in Washington; a final ruling hasn’t been made.

The union, in turn, has accused the hotel of intimidating workers and retaliating against pro-union employees during the organizing campaign. The labor board’s general counsel, who acts as a kind of prosecutor, found merit in many of those claims. The general counsel filed charges against the hotel, which the full board hasn’t ruled on, either.

Following you can read the full version of the #BoycottTrump campaign launched by the unions:

Citing federal law allowing boycotts for the purpose of forcing an employer to honor their duty to bargain, UNITE HERE, the parent union of the Culinary Union which is certified as the bargaining representative of workers at Trump Hotel Las Vegas, has called for a national boycott of businesses Donald J. Trump owns, has invested in, or has partnered with until the Trump Hotel Las Vegas honors its legal duty to bargain with the union.

The #BoycottTrump campaign urging customers to not eat, sleep, or play at many Trump hotels and golf courses comes in the wake of federal officials’ denying Trump Hotel Las Vegas’ objections to a December 2015 union election, during which the majority of workers at the hotel voted to join the Culinary Union, the largest affiliate of UNITE HERE.

Union members recently picketed at Trump National Golf Course Los Angeles, announcing the boycott from inside the clubhouse restaurant, and union locals have planned further boycott events for September 29 in Waikiki and San Francisco, and October 1 and 18 in Chicago. More actions are expected to follow in Virginia, New York and Florida.

“Enough is enough,” said UNITE HERE President D. Taylor.

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While Donald Trump waged an indefensible anti-worker and anti-immigrant campaign, the workers at his Las Vegas hotel fought for dignity and respect in their workplace. They voted to unionize, they won, and now the law says Trump must negotiate

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Prior to the boycott call, thousands of union members and supporters have demonstrated outside Trump Hotel Las Vegas.

“Donald Trump’s a disrespectful hypocrite, and we stand in solidarity with the workers at Trump Hotel Las Vegas,” said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. “His unwillingness to bargain with the hard-working people who make his hotel successful is shameful. It tells you all you need to know about his feelings toward all working people.”

“At the hotel in the morning we chant ‘No Contract, No Peace! No Contract, No Peace!” said Eleuteria Blanco, a guestroom attendant at the Trump Hotel Las Vegas. Over 57,000 union workers in Las Vegas have fair wages, job security, and good health benefits—in stark contrast to workers at Trump Hotel Las Vegas who pay up to $260 per month for their health insurance, and are paid approximately $3.00 less per hour in comparison to union workers on the Strip. “We’re not second class workers,” Blanco added.

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Trump Hotel Las Vegas management waged a hostile anti-union campaign. Hotel management hired anti-union labor consultants, paying them more than half a million dollars.Alleged offenses against management include suspensions of employees for union activities, as well as threats and interrogations against union supporters

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“After a disgraceful anti-union campaign against their own workers, the hotel still refuses to negotiate with their employees,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union.

“We call on allies and workers to stand in solidarity in a national boycott until Donald Trump, the ‘Great Negotiator,’ comes to the table.”

In Canada, workers at the Trump International Hotel Toronto ratified their first contract seven months after voting to join UNITE HERE.