Unite Here Union (including Las Vegas Culinary Local) Expected to Endorse Obama

Source: New York Times

By Steven Greenhouse

Unite Here, the union representing more than 450,000 hotel, restaurant, apparel and laundry workers, is likely to announce its endorsement of Senator Barack Obama on Wednesday, a top union official said yesterday. The union’s leaders are to vote in a conference call at 11 p.m. Tuesday night, following the New Hampshire primary, and they are expected to back Mr. Obama unless he stumbles badly in New Hampshire.

“There are three excellent candidates in the race ­ we like them all, said Bruce Raynor, the union’s president. “This is a very hard choice.”

The endorsement would make Unite Here the first national union to back Mr. Obama, and it would give him a big leg up in Nevada, where the union’s Las Vegas local, Culinary Local 226, with more than 60,000 members, is by far the largest and strongest union in the state.
Many of Unite Here’s leaders had originally favored Senator John Edwards, but, to Mr. Edwards’s dismay, they were unable to persuade a majority of the union’s board to support him....

The union, a successor to the International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union and the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Union, also represents 400,000 retirees. Union officials say they could help Mr. Obama in South Carolina because they are one of the largest unions there as a result of the union’s long-time presence in the textile industry there.


Barack and Michelle Obama stopped in Manchester, N.H. (Ozier Muhammad/NYT)

Read more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/unite-here-expected-to-endorse-obama/

In 1984 Lane Kirkland and the AFL-CIO endorsed Walter Mondale even before the primaries started thereby tying every union member's hands that wanted to work for another candidate like Gary Hart, which we wanted to do. Once the outrage and dust settled, we were told that they would never endorse before the Democratic convention again, and the AFL-CIO hasn't.

Now too many individual unions are endorsing a candidate which binds their members to supporting the candidate the union endorsed. Two things you never do in life are rape babies and work against the union endorsement. They are equally morally wrong. The different unions all need to wait, let the dust settle and then endorse after the convention. That way, all the members stay happy.

Source: NY Times

By Jennifer Steinhauer

The powerful Culinary Workers Union in Las Vegas, by far the most coveted get in Nevada, is almost certain to endorse Barack Obama tomorrow, said several people familar with the union’s plans.

The union, known as Culinary 226, represents workers in the casinos along the Vegas strip as well as other workers around the city. It has 60,000 members, giving it by far more members than any other union in Nevada.

The union had been leaning toward giving the nod to John Edwards, which was broadly seen as his best shot in winning the state, where Hillary Clinton had double-digit leads over her competitors until just the last week.

While Mrs. Clinton still leads in the latest polls, and has just about every important elected Democrat in the state backing her, the union’s powerful force will be seen as both a boon to Mr. Obama, and the union’s members, who have been pushing for the senator against its leadership’s proclivities for months.


Read more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/vegas-union-leans-to-obama/

Local 40 of the Beverage Dispensers & Culinary Workers Union.... Was a member for about 28 years....

This is part of the reason people begin to dislike unions.They play these sicko games. They think they are endorsing a "winner' and they don't give a fig whether he even cares about them. In my state we had an instance where a union member wasn't endorsed by his own union because they said a Democrat couldn't win.Unbelievable!

If he cares about American middle class in general, then he certainly cares about this union! Obviously this union thinks that Barak represents what they want from a President.

Barak is certainly NOT a blue collar union guy himself.Edwrds used to belong to a union and his family still does. Barak is a prep school Harvard educated yuppie.I don't get their supporting him.

Also said they (NBC) reported it last night. :shrug:

I heard Joe Scar say the same thing this morning.