UPDATED, 4:15 PM: Culinary spokeswoman Bethany Khan says the situation "has been resolved." How so? I'm told the Sanders campaign has agreed not to try to enter the employee dining rooms again.
Updated with statement from Culinary leader Geo Arguello-Kline:
We can confirm multiple reports of Bernie Sanders’ campaign staffers attempting and gaining access to Employee Dining Rooms at Las Vegas Strip properties where over 57,000 members that we represent work.
We are disappointed and offended. It's completely inappropriate for any campaign to attempt to mislead Culinary Union members, especially at their place of work. The Culinary Union button that hundreds of thousands of union members have proudly worn to work every day represents 80 years of struggle and fighting for justice. We strongly condemn anyone falsifying their affiliation with the Culinary Union in order to gain access to properties and we will cooperate with casinos and hotels so that this matter is fully resolved.
The Culinary Union has not made an endorsement and is focused on a major citizenship and voter registration campaign while preparing for upcoming contract negotiations.
Operatives from Bernie Sanders' campaign have donned Culinary union pins and secured access to employee areas inside Strip hotels to try to garner votes for the Feb. 20 caucus, sources confirm.
Culinary officials have been made aware of the faux union workers at four hotels -- The Rio, Paris, The Mirage and Planet Hollywood. The Sanders campaigners are wearing the distinctive yellow Local 226 pins, implying they are union members, to gain access to employee dining rooms. Beyond the obvious deception, union officials surely also are concerned about the implication that the organization has endorsed Sanders despite its recent pledge to remain neutral until after the caucus.
"It's inappropriate for any campaign to attempt to mislead Culinary Union members, especially at their place of work," said Yvanna Cancela, Local 226's political director, who confirmed multiple reports at hotels. "As of yet, the union has not made an endorsement, but is focused on a major citizenship and voter registration campaign while preparing for contract negotiations."
The Sanders campaign has not responded to a couple of requests for comment.
The attempt to mislead hotel workers by the Sanders campaign is a measure of just how intense the competition between the Vermont senator and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has become, a microcosm of what is happening nationally five days before the Iowa balloting.
And the casino politicking is a reminder -- and an ironic one -- of how the Clintons made their way inside various Strip resorts to try to get to workers in 2008 after the Culinary endorsed Barack Obama. Clinton won that caucus, 51 percent to 45 petcent, but lost the delegate fight to Obama.
UPDATE, 11:15 AM: Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, a longtime Culinary employee who endorsed Clinton on Thursday, said, "The employee dining hall is kind of our place. For people to abuse that is just wrong. I'm really disappointed."
Carlton added that anyone accessing the employee areas "is a security issue as well. I would be concerned."
UPDATED, 4:15 PM: Culinary spokeswoman Bethany Khan says the situation "has been resolved." How so? I'm told the Sanders campaign has agreed not to try to enter the employee dining rooms again.
Updated with statement from Culinary leader Geo Arguello-Kline:
We can confirm multiple reports of Bernie Sanders’ campaign staffers attempting and gaining access to Employee Dining Rooms at Las Vegas Strip properties where over 57,000 members that we represent work.
We are disappointed and offended. It's completely inappropriate for any campaign to attempt to mislead Culinary Union members, especially at their place of work. The Culinary Union button that hundreds of thousands of union members have proudly worn to work every day represents 80 years of struggle and fighting for justice. We strongly condemn anyone falsifying their affiliation with the Culinary Union in order to gain access to properties and we will cooperate with casinos and hotels so that this matter is fully resolved.
The Culinary Union has not made an endorsement and is focused on a major citizenship and voter registration campaign while preparing for upcoming contract negotiations.
Operatives from Bernie Sanders' campaign have donned Culinary union pins and secured access to employee areas inside Strip hotels to try to garner votes for the Feb. 20 caucus, sources confirm.
Culinary officials have been made aware of the faux union workers at four hotels -- The Rio, Paris, The Mirage and Planet Hollywood. The Sanders campaigners are wearing the distinctive yellow Local 226 pins, implying they are union members, to gain access to employee dining rooms. Beyond the obvious deception, union officials surely also are concerned about the implication that the organization has endorsed Sanders despite its recent pledge to remain neutral until after the caucus.
"It's inappropriate for any campaign to attempt to mislead Culinary Union members, especially at their place of work," said Yvanna Cancela, Local 226's political director, who confirmed multiple reports at hotels. "As of yet, the union has not made an endorsement, but is focused on a major citizenship and voter registration campaign while preparing for contract negotiations."
The Sanders campaign has not responded to a couple of requests for comment.
The attempt to mislead hotel workers by the Sanders campaign is a measure of just how intense the competition between the Vermont senator and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has become, a microcosm of what is happening nationally five days before the Iowa balloting.
And the casino politicking is a reminder -- and an ironic one -- of how the Clintons made their way inside various Strip resorts to try to get to workers in 2008 after the Culinary endorsed Barack Obama. Clinton won that caucus, 51 percent to 45 petcent, but lost the delegate fight to Obama.
UPDATE, 11:15 AM: Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, a longtime Culinary employee who endorsed Clinton on Thursday, said, "The employee dining hall is kind of our place. For people to abuse that is just wrong. I'm really disappointed."
Carlton added that anyone accessing the employee areas "is a security issue as well. I would be concerned."
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