Culinary union dispatches troops for Obama, Berkley

After months on the sidelines, the most powerful organized labor group in Nevada launched its get-out-the-vote drive for candidates such as U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, who on Monday went to the Culinary union to tell the troops she can't win her Senate race against U.S. Sen. Dean Heller without them.

"I think it's my job to stand with working men and women," said Berkley, a former cocktail waitress, keno runner and shoeshine girl who rose to Congress. "Our No. 1, 2 and 3 priorities should be jobs, jobs, jobs."

For now, it's the Culinary union's full-time job to get Berkley and other Democrats elected, including President Barack Obama, who relied on those same labor forces to help him win Nevada four years ago.

At least 78 Culinary Local 226 members have taken leaves from their casino jobs to work on the election drive, including knocking on doors precinct by precinct, according to the union. The Culinary also is registering voters inside the casinos so they can pack the voting booths on Nov. 6. The union pays all the workers' salaries.

"I can't win this election without you and what you're doing," Berkley told about 80 cheering Culinary workers, who were wearing red T-shirts that said, "2012 Labor Vote." "It is vital - vital - that you continue."

In 2008, the Culinary had 100 full-time staffers working for three months to boost Obama's chances of winning the election and other down ticket Democrats. Obama won by 12 percentage points.

GOP PLATFORM 'BIGGEST MOTIVATOR'

This year, however, Culinary boss Secretary-Treasurer D. Taylor initially said the union wouldn't be engaged in the election but instead would focus on negotiating new labor contracts and on its long fight to unionize Station Casinos. Taylor apparently was upset U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democratic leaders weren't helping the union in its labor battles. But he said Monday the stakes were too high to remain uninvolved.

He said the final straw was the Republican Party platform. It called for curbing collective bargaining rights for public employees and for imposing a national right-to-work law, which would prohibit union contracts at private-sector workplaces from requiring employees to pay any dues or other fees to unions. Nevada is one of 23 right-to-work states, a status that has hampered union efforts to organize workers.

"The biggest motivator was the Republican Party platform. It was by far the biggest broadside against the union that I've ever seen," Taylor said in an interview before introducing Berkley.

Taylor also said the union has reached contract deals for 75 percent of its 55,000 members in Nevada, freeing up more time for the Culinary and its leaders to help with the election in the final push.

The Culinary members paid to canvass neighborhoods each day began work Sept. 4 and will continue through the Nov. 6 election when buses transport voters to the polls. They've knocked on 45,000 doors, the union said.

"We're on the street," Taylor said. "We're just getting started."

The Culinary is focused on the 1st and 4th Congressional Districts, which are heavily Hispanic like the union workers themselves, according to Yvanna Cancela, the union's political director. About 26 percent of the state population is Latino, a powerful force in the past two elections.

"It's really all about turnout," Cancela said. "It's all about who gets out to vote in this election."

The Culinary's efforts could help Obama and Berkley run up the Democratic voter score in Clark County, where 70 percent of the population lives. Heller, a former congressman who represented nearly all of the state except Clark County, is expected to smash Berkley in GOP-heavy rural Nevada and defeat her in Washoe County.

OTHER UNION EFFORTS

Two other powerful unions, the Nevada AFL-CIO and the Service Employees International Union, have been registering voters and knocking on doors for months. The groups on Monday said the unions and a coalition of organizations representing Latinos, Filipino-Americans and others, have registered 25,000 voters in Nevada with three weeks left until registration closes Oct. 16. Early voting starts Oct. 20 and lasts for two weeks before the Nov. 6 election.

Artie Blanco of the AFL-CIO said the union has 200,000 members in Nevada, although many are working out of state since the construction industry collapsed and unemployment is at least 60 percent in the building trades. Their families and homes - many with underwater mortgages - remain in Nevada, she said.

She said the big AFL-CIO push began around Labor Day , although the union was active in Washoe County in August too. She said 60 to 70 paid union members are canvassing every day. She said they aren't discouraged by the continuing economic troubles in Nevada.

"There's still excitement," Blanco said. "Our people know that Romney and Ryan do not give them the answers."

GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and his vice presidential running mate Paul Ryan, a congressman from Wisconsin, have been visiting Nevada often to fire up Republicans, who reject Obama's policies.

Mayra Ocampo of the SEIU, which represents more than 18,000 workers in Nevada, including public employees, said she's confident Obama and the Democrats will win because of shifting demographics. The African-American, Asian and Latino communities are growing in Nevada and in the nation.

"We call it the Rising American election," Ocampo said. "We have a lower propensity to vote, and we want more to have a voice. People have been disappointed, but as the election gets closer, people feel the need to participate."

REPUBLICANS CONFIDENT

The Heller campaign and GOP organizers in Nevada said they knew Democrats would rely heavily on unions to turn out voters as Democrats expand a voter registration advantage to more than 60,000 over Republicans.

The Republicans said the thousands of volunteers who are organizing for Romney, Heller and other GOP candidates are more enthusiastic and loyal to the candidates they support than paid labor forces to Democrats.

"The difference between President Obama's campaign and ours is Governor Romney enjoys a significant enthusiasm advantage," said Darren Littell, a spokesman for the GOP "Team Nevada" effort. "Governor Romney's campaign is supported by legions of volunteers, while President Obama's volunteer support has eroded, leaving him to rely on paid efforts. The reason Governor Romney's support is growing: Nevadans want a real recovery, not four more years of the same. This fact will be felt on Election Day."

Chandler Smith, a spokeswoman for Heller's campaign, said GOP volunteer forces will win out.

"We know that Congresswoman Berkley will rely mostly on paid workers for her ground game whereas our effort is entirely volunteer-based," Smith said. "And that brings more enthusiasm for us."

Inside the Culinary union hall, Berkley reminded the laborers that she was once one of them.

She told the story of her father driving his family cross-country from New York in search of a job in the early 1960s when she was a child. The family made a tourist stop in Las Vegas and never left, she said.

That was about 49 years ago, and Berkley recalled her father popped into the Culinary union hall where she stood, looking for a job. The union sent him to the old Sands hotel-casino, where he got work as a waiter, she said.

After the rally, Berkley said she never doubted the Culinary would work for her election.

"I have been very good friends with this union," she said in an interview. "I knew that they would come through."

Contact Laura Myers at lmyers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2919. Follow @lmyerslvrj on Twitter.