Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump will have some unwanted publicity when he stops in Las Vegas this week for some campaign events, as the union seeking to represent workers at a Las Vegas hotel that Trump co-owns will shadow him with events of their own.
The incident shows the long, complicated relationship Trump has had with unions during his career as a real estate developer.
Culinary Union 226, an affiliate of the service employees union Unite Here, won an election in December to represent an estimated 500 workers at the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel, but the business is contesting the election with the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that oversees such issues. Late last week, the board official monitoring the case recommended to the full board that it reject the hotel’s objections.
In an effort to shame Trump into agreeing to negotiate a labor contract, union activists will hold an event Monday evening at the South Point Hotel and Casino, the same Las Vegas establishment that the billionaire is scheduled to apppear at for a campaign rally the same night. The activists will hold a rally the following day at the Trump hotel to again demand that the businessman and his associates recognize their union.
“He says that he is a great negotiator. I don’t know why he cannot sit down and negotiate with us,” said Bethany Khan, spokeswoman for Local 226. She added that the union’s Monday event was scheduled to start an hour before Trump’s so that “he can come over here and negotiate” without missing his own event.
Trump owns 50 percent of his namesake Las Vegas hotel. Unite Here, which has a strong presence in the city, petitioned the labor board to represent the hotel’s workers in June. An election was held in December, with the union winning 53 percent of the workers who voted. The hotel objected to the election, filing objections less than two weeks afterward, prompting the union to appeal to the agency to force the hotel to recognize the union.
It is not clear what specifically the hotel is pointing to in its objection, as most of the labor board documents relating to it have not been made public. Jill A. Martin, vice president and assistant general counsel for litigation and employment at the Trump Organization, told the Washington Examiner they did not believe the election was fair.
“The hearing officer’s recommendations erroneously disregarded the severe misconduct undertaken by union agents, which clearly impacted an incredibly close election. We will continue our fight to ensure a fair election for our valued associates, many of whom vigorously oppose union representation,” Martin said in an email.
Trump has taken some heat from labor leaders throughout his campaign. In August, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the GOP field “hateful and racist.” Trumka did not mention Trump by name, but the comment was in reaction to the immigration debate in the GOP primary, which Trump has dominated by proposing a wall on the Mexican border and banning any further immigration by Muslims.
Trump, nevertheless, has a long history of working with unions in his hotel and casino ventures. He told Newsweek in a July interview that he had “great relationships with unions.” In his 2000 book The America We Deserve, he wrote, “Is Trump a union man? Let me tell you this: Unions still have a place in American society. In fact, with the globalization craze in full heat, unions are about the only force reminding us to remember the American family.”
Veteran Republican strategist and long-time Trump confidant Roger Stone, who quit the candidate’s campaign last year in a dispute over political strategy, said it wasn’t a pose. “He’s generally union-friendly. He plays golf with and is friendly with, on a social basis, a number of union leaders in New York City,” Stone told the Washington Examiner last year.
Trump is a card-carrying union member himself, having joined the Screen Actors Guild as a result of his appearances in television and in movies.
Trade is one of the main areas of common ground between Trump and the labor movement. Like them, he is a major critic of President Obama’s trade agenda, including the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which is expected to go before Congress early next year. Trump has argued Obama is giving away too much in the trade pact.
Leaders of some unions such as the Teamsters and the Communications Workers of America have reported that Trump has enough support within their ranks that it was a factor in their endorsement process. CWA eventually endorsed Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. The Teamsters have not issued an endorsement.
Republican critics have sought to use that background against Trump but have had little traction with it. “While other presidential candidates, like Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, maintain close relationships with union bosses, I will protect workers from these self-interested chieftains,” Jeb Bush said last week, before dropping out of the race Saturday night.
