Sunday, October 26, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

NEVADAN AT WORK: DONALD "D." TAYLOR, Culinary Local 226 secretary-treasurer

Union boss steadfast in his fight for people

Culinary Local 226 Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor leads a union meeting Tuesday with Sherri Cronder, left, and Jesus Lopez. Taylor said his mother inspired him to help working people. Photo by John Gurzinski.

If he didn't exist, it would be hard to imagine D. Taylor, secretary-treasurer of Culinary Local 226.

A child of the 1960s and 1970s, Taylor's unrepentant idealism and liberal views leave him seemingly alone in the sea of 21st century cynicism.

His modest, bare-bones headquarters in the light-industrial area behind the Stratosphere is hung with bright pictures of workers and demonstrations, and drawings and art works by union members.

Ask Taylor, who tends to wear denim jackets and khaki trousers, what keeps him going and he pulls out letters from his members thanking him for helping improve their lives.

"The way you maintain it is just to go into the workplace. You see courageous folks who stand up. That's how I maintain it," he said. "What keeps your eyes on the prize is to see what workers do to better themselves and their families."

But his upbringing is what got him started, especially being the son of a single mother.

"I know what my mother did to sacrifice for me," Taylor said.

That taught him that "working folks are the bread and butter and what has made this country what it is," he said. "Every day I learn something from them and I'm terribly proud to work for them. At the end of the day, they deserve better, and if I can help in any way, I feel proud."

Question: How did you land in the union?

Answer: I saw that my single mother would work hard every week, yet had a hard time providing for her family. I thought there was something wrong if a worker worked hard and had trouble providing for her family, and the only institution I saw that could change that was the labor movement.

Question: How did you get into union management?

Answer: Two ways. One in Williamsburg, Va. (where I grew up). This union was organized in Colonial Williamsburg. That was my first introduction. We felt that was needed in Colonial Williamsburg. Then, when I was working in Washington (as a buser, food server and kitchen worker), I happened to get a job at a union restaurant with a contract. I felt the contract should be enforced so I became a shop steward and it just got in my blood.

Question: What have you liked the most?

Answer: That working folks in this country can have some say in their future and destiny, which appears more and more not to happen. And empowering them to have rights on the job.

Question: What have you liked least?

Answer: Time away from my family. But workers are asked to take courageous stands and sacrifice and my family understands, but that's my least favorite thing.

Question: Of what are you proudest?

Answer: I think the development of rank-and-file leaders, many of whom became staff members and leaders of this union. That and the ability recently to have people of color who do not speak English to achieve rights for the first time. In the last collective bargaining agreement, we included people whose first language is not English to acquire rights for the first time with housekeeping units.

Question: What's your biggest disappointment?

Answer: The inability to organize the nonunion on a massive scale.

Question: How do you see the union?

Answer: The union has to really become the barometer and standard for hotel and casino workers for this town. What we achieve directly affects the nonunion. We've been able to achieve a standard of living that is unprecedented in this country for service workers. And I think what we want to achieve is for every casino and hotel worker to have a part of the American dream, which is homeownership, security in their job, good health benefits and the ability for their children to achieve a higher status of education, be it vocational or postsecondary.

Question: What's the biggest challenge ahead?

Answer: First, we have to organize the unorganized. That's a direct threat to the standard of living we've been able to accomplish here (for union members). Second, the challenge of health-care cost. This is a market with unprecedented health-care inflation. To provide good benefits is an ongoing challenge. And third, I think the ability for upward mobility in the casinos through training is a challenge we need to meet.

Question: What do you like most about Las Vegas?

Answer: It's a great place when it's this time of year. Vegas is an exciting place. I've never lived in a boomtown like this where you can always count on change. For the work we do in the union movement, there is no better town in the United States. Because, one, we have enormous challenges here, which brings excitement. We have a great membership that's steeped in history and tradition and always have a lot of new blood. And we have the ability because of our size and market share to actually help workers in the valley, and that's a very exciting phenomenon.

Question: What do you like least about Las Vegas?

Answer: The long, hot summers.

Question: Do you feel companies are adversarial toward the union?

Answer: I do not think the industry is monolithic. With companies that regard us as a partner, we work together quite well. And that will prove to be true over and over on a state and local level. There are (also) employers who are hostile, but they are shortsighted because of the issues we face on a state and federal level, and because we've proved you can be union and quite successful. There's no question about that.

Question: Should immigration policy be a focus?

Answer: I think the immigration policy of this country is obsolete. It doesn't approach anything that is rational. I think immigrants want to have a better future for themselves and their families. We want a big change in immigration policy. It's long overdue. And it has nothing to do with how our economy works.

Question: What else would you change?

Answer: I think what I would change is we need to think longer-term, have workers have much greater representation in the decision-making process that affects our lives day-to-day, be it about health care, education or transportation. Too often, these decisions are made without the workers included. Too often they're made by very powerful interests who have the main say in what goes on.

Question: What fuels that idealism?

Answer: My view of this country has workers who, if they work, should have good health insurance and a decent wage and lots of things our parents were told we should get if you did you job well and those are things that have been eroded. I don't think service jobs need to be dead-end jobs. I think we have proved that in Las Vegas with casino jobs. That's why we fight so hard.