CULINARY WORKERS CAN'T STAND THE (UNION) HEAT TO VOTE OBAMA

As the Culinary Union worked feverishly this week to persuade its members to support Barack Obama, a prickly question arose: What is the difference between tough political tactics and unethical, or illegal, intimidation? Some Culinary members say they have felt intimidated by the pushy approach of some organizers. Some, however, were told they would have to caucus for Obama, period.

If so, it raises the question of where a union draws the line between hard-nosed politicking and intimidation. Having endorsed Obama just last week, 10 days before the Nevada caucus, organizers are working overtime and making the hard sell. Some members -- including ones identified to the Las Vegas Sun by the Clinton campaign -- find the approach off-putting.

Take, for instance, the case of Ruben Beltran, a Culinary member and Clinton volunteer who helps set up conventions at Mandalay Bay. Union representatives, he said, are telling employees they must caucus for Obama on Saturday, making it sound more like a demand than a suggestion. A union rep removed a pile of Clinton fliers from the cafeteria and asked workers where they came from. She said many members support Clinton and would be following their conscience Saturday.

Most troubling is the case of Sylvia Antuna, a cook at Paris Las Vegas, who said she was filling out a voter registration form in the employee cafeteria when two union reps approached her about Obama. When she told them she wasn’t sure about caucusing for him, one rep took her registration form, telling her that she couldn’t participate Saturday if she wasn’t supporting Obama. (Antuna is undecided.) Marie Angers, a fellow cook, and her son, Matt DeFalco, a kitchen runner, said they witnessed the incident and engaged the organizers in a heated discussion. Angers is a Clinton backer. Both said they saw one organizer hand Antuna an Obama pledge card, telling her she had to sign it to participate in the caucus.

A large number of the voters who are expected to caucus at the casino sites are Latino. With the Democratic race already embroiled in debates over race this past week, all the candidates have been making concerted efforts to reach out to Nevada's sizable Latino population. However, Clinton's ties to the lawsuit via her backers could damage her support among Latino voters, not just in Nevada, but as the race moves to Feb. 5 states that also have large Latino populations.
The ad says (translation by UNITE HERE): "Hillary Clinton does not respect our people. Hillary Clinton’s supporters went to court to stop working people from being able to vote on Saturday. That is disgraceful. Unforgivable. Hillary Clinton does not respect our people who work hard. Hillary Clinton’s supporters want to stop people who are working on Saturday so they can’t vote. Disgraceful. Unforgivable. Hillary Clinton has no shame. Hillary Clinton should not let her friends attack the right of our people to vote on Saturday. Disgraceful. Unforgivable. No respect. Senator Barack Obama is defending our right to vote. Senator Obama wants our votes. He respects our votes. He respects our community, our gente. Barack Obama’s campaign theme is 'Si Se Puede.' Yes we can. Vote for a President who respects us and our right to vote. Obama for President. Yes we can.

What the the ad doesn't mention is that (1) they cannot prove a direct link between the plaintiff's of the law suit (teachers union) and Senator Clinton, and (2) Clinton enjoys an overwhelmingly positive amount of support from the Jewish population in Nevada, a surprizingly flourishing community in the state. They will have to choose between their sabbath, and voting. No special voting accomodations for them...which is Obaminable.

The emergence of a labor effort on Obama's behalf touched off a barrage of criticism from both the Clinton camp and aides to Sen. John Edwards, who said they considered it a surprising turn of events given that Obama's campaign was sharply critical of labor organizations that campaigned heavily for Clinton and Edwards in New Hampshire and Iowa. "He loudly and repeatedly attacked independent ads by unions in Iowa as the product of special interests," said Edwards for President Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince. "But when a different outside group starts running ads on his behalf in Nevada, there's not a peep from him or his campaign.