As Election Day approaches and voters across the nation watch Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump debate on a national stage, working people are standing together to call for a nationwide boycott of Trump’s businesses. The bold #BoycottTrump campaign calls attention to Trump’s poor treatment and disrespect of the very people who keep his businesses running every day.
Culinary Union Local 226, UNITE HERE, the certified bargaining representative of workers at Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, cited federal law allowing boycotts for the purpose of forcing an employer to honor its duty to bargain with workers.
Members of UNITE HERE, representing 270,000 working people in hotels, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry transportation, and airport industries, came together in San Francisco yesterday to picket for solidarity with their union brothers and sisters in Las Vegas who have been routinely ignored and disrespected by Trump.
Huffington Post covered this pressing issue, reporting Trump is “failing to bargain in good faith, even though the union won an organizing election last year.”
Union members, organizers, and community justice activists have come out to protest atop a windy hill where the humongous 555 California stands high and mighty, a building of which Trump holds part ownership.
Ian Lewis, Research Director of UNITE HERE Local 2, joined the picket and much like the rest of the members, was livid: “[The] big majority joined and has been there every step of the way while Trump has not sat with them for negotiations. The Federal government recognized the workers wanted a union and acknowledges Trump needs to recognize now.” Equally concerned about the presidential campaign, Lewis points out “he says he’s all about law and order, but it looks like he picks and chooses.”
Commenting on the boycott, UNITE HERE international President D. Taylor compared Trump’s hotel to the rest of the hotels along the popular Vegas Strip: “Over 57,000 union workers in Las Vegas have fair wages, job security, and good health benefits—in stark contrast to workers at Trump Hotel Las Vegas who pay up to $260 per month for their health insurance, and are paid approximately $3.00 less per hour in comparison to union workers on the Strip.”
Trump has a long and troubled history of cheating workers. His disregard for his workers should be a clear signal about his priorities and how harmful a Trump administration could be for working people across the country. In peace and in solidarity, California Labor proudly supports #BoycottTrump, and we encourage you to do the same.
