Culinary Union cheers Biden, especially on health care

Former Vice President Joe Biden weaved personal stories and policy plans into an intimate town hall discussion with Culinary Local 226 members Wednesday in Las Vegas as the union wrapped up a series of talks with top Democratic presidential candidates this week.

A packed, vocal crowd greeted Biden, who left the stage to speak face-to-face with members asking prepared questions on labor, immigration and health care. There appeared to be general satisfaction with all of his answers, but he received huge applause and even a few yells of “amen” during an introductory speech on his upbringing and answers on health care.

Biden was the third candidate to address the powerful, 60,000-member union and its parent union, UNITE HERE. Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren held similar events on Tuesday and Monday.

— The all-important health care question. The action from Sanders’ and Warren’s events came during questions on health care. Culinary members have negotiated excellent health benefits, and the plans for nationalized health care coming from the more liberal Sanders and Warren have been a tough sell.

Biden gave the union what it wanted to hear:

“Where I come from, I don’t like people telling me what I have to choose,” Biden said. “So the 160 million people who have busted their neck, walked on picket lines, gave up pay, took hits in order to get significant health care … you get to keep it under my plan. You don’t have to give it up.”

He also addressed a question on the “Cadillac tax,” a 40 percent tax on some union benefits built into the Affordable Care Act, saying it probably would be repealed in Congress before the election.

— Tough questioning on immigration. Isaac Cropp, a UNITE HERE organizer from Florida, noted more immigrants were deported under President Barack Obama and Biden’s administration than under President Donald Trump’s. He asked what would change under a Biden presidency.

“A lot,” Biden responded, just about cutting Cropp off.

Biden said only those who have committed a serious crime would be deported in his administration, and those deported immigrants who served in the United States armed forces would be invited back to the country. He would expand Temporary Protected Status to additional central American countries and offer a path to citizenship for those with existing protected status.

— Long-winded casualties. Unlike Sanders and Warren, Biden went well over his allotted time with the union. Some of his answers took detours through personal anecdotes, stories from Biden’s long political history and jabs at Trump.

Ramon Aura, a flight meal coordinator at McCarran International Airport who was listed as one of the event’s speakers, was unable to ask Biden how he planned to help airport workers facing a tough fight with major airlines for increased pay.

That frustration aside, Aura said he was pleased with Biden’s answers on health care and immigration.

Contact Rory Appleton at rappleton@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0276. Follow @RoryDoesPhonics on Twitter.