Nevada’s Culinary Workers Union Can Propel a Presidential Candidate to Victory | Eater

"A powerful statewide hospitality union representing roughly 60,000 hotel and food-service workers, this organization has turned precarious shift work into stable middle-class careers through higher wages, a pension fund, apprenticeship-style training (a culinary academy that moves low-paid workers into higher-paid roles), and programs that help members gain citizenship or buy a first home. Its membership is highly diverse—workers from 178 countries who speak over 40 languages, with many women of color in leadership—and it relies on intensive rank-and-file organizing that trains members as field operatives who can take months off to canvass. Politically, the union is a coveted endorsement because members will canvass and mobilize on a candidate’s behalf; the group also hosts early-voting sites and community-centered caucus operations. Its robust, employer-funded health benefits are central to members’ priorities and were the flashpoint in a public dispute over national Medicare-for-All proposals; leadership ultimately declined to endorse a 2020 primary candidate and instead focused on phone-banking and encouraging members to decide for themselves." - Meghan McCarron