FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, November 6, 2018
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan ▪ BKhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Culinary Union members drove historic midterm voter turnout in Nevada
Las Vegas, NV – The Culinary Union, the largest affiliate of UNITE HERE, and one of the strongest political forces in the state, mobilized tens of thousands of hospitality workers and immigrant voters to elect representatives who will fight for our families: Senator Jacky Rosen, Congressman Steven Horsford, Congresswoman Susie Lee, Governor Steve Sisolak, and County Commissioner Tick Segerblom.
“This victory and historic turnout would not be possible without the the largest organized field team in Nevada who fought hard to protect our families,” said Geoconda Argüello-Kline, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “350 UNITE HERE and Culinary Union guest room attendants, bartenders, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, and kitchen workers, canvassed in Las Vegas and Washoe neighborhoods since May. We are proud to have mobilized tens of thousands of hospitality workers and immigrant voters to elect politicians who will fight for our community.”
Total 2018 political efforts for Primary and General Elections: By the end of Election Day, the Culinary Union’s political field team knocked on over 370,000 doors in Las Vegas and Reno and had quality one-on-on conversations with approximately 80,000 voters across Nevada statewide.
The UNITE HERE Culinary Union’s organizing program is the largest political effort in Nevada and was comprised of 350 workers who have taken a union contracted leave-of-absence from their hospitality jobs to talk to their coworkers everyday by phone, in employee dining rooms on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas, and on the doors in neighborhoods in Washoe and Las Vegas – a field program unmatched by any other in the country. Dozens of UNITE HERE union members from Florida, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Virginia, and Minnesota were dispatched to Las Vegas to assist in the field efforts during the last week of canvassing.
The Culinary Union worked with unionized major casino resorts to ensure that thousands of workers were able to vote early and on Election Day at the nearby Las Vegas Strip vote center with an organized bus shuttle program.
The Culinary Union ran a comprehensive strategic communications program, which included regular GOTV emails and texts to 57,000 members, completely in-house internal polling, digital ads targeting Nevada voters reminding them to vote, video ads with 3.5 million views, radio ads in English and Spanish, and uplifted the stories of working men and women in local, national, and international media.
In addition to a robust mail program, where approximately 1,750,000 pieces were mailed to Culinary Union members and the general public, the Culinary Union also has a strong multilingual phone bank program which is entirely run by worker volunteers who made calls in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Amharic, and Chinese. By the end of Election Day, nearly 45,000 personal calls and 520,000 automated calls were made to Culinary Union members and their families who are registered voters throughout Nevada.
The Culinary Union has registered over 10,300 Culinary Union members and their families to vote since the 2016 and helped over 650 immigrants become American citizens this year. Since the Culinary Union founded the Citizenship Project in 2001, the nonprofit has helped over 18,000 hospitality workers and their families become U.S. Citizens for free. The Culinary Union has on average over 82,400 members and their families who are registered to vote.
ABOUT THE CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent over 57,000 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 270,000 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 143,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest immigrant organization with over 57,000 members - a diverse membership that is approximately 55% women and 54% Latino. Members - who work as guest room attendants, bartenders, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, and kitchen workers - come from 173 countries and speak over 40 different languages. The Culinary Union has been fighting for fair wages, job security, and good health benefits for working men and women in Nevada for 83 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226