Trump Hotel Workers Just Proved 'We Can Take On the Powerful and Win'

The Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. The hotel and union reached an agreement for its food, beverage, and housekeeping employees. (Photo: ian mcwilliams/flickr/cc)

Trump Hotel Workers Just Proved 'We Can Take On the Powerful and Win'

Union announces that agreement has been reached with luxury Las Vegas hotel co-owned by president-elect

Over 500 workers at Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas now have a four-year contract starting January 1, 2017, union officials said Wednesday.

The luxury hotel is co-owned by President-elect Donald Trump, who recently used his social media platform to deliver "classic management anti-union propaganda," and whose pick for labor secretary, fast-food executive Andrew Puzder, has drawn the ire of worker advocacy organizations.

The agreement for workers represented by the Culinary Workers Union and Bartenders Union, which are part of the labor union UNITE HERE, will afford workers "annual wage increases, a pension, family healthcare, and job security," a statement from UNITE HERE reads.

The union also said that it had reached an agreement with Trump International Hotel Washington, D.C. to allow for "an orderly organizing campaign."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called it an "inspiring victory."

"In two different ways, they have proven we can take on the powerful and win, even when the boss is running for President of the United States. UNITE HERE members are setting the standard and proving that collectively we hold the power to make the rules of this economy work for working people," Trumka added in a statement.

Despite the hotel's efforts to kill such a move, the Las Vegas hotel workers voted last December to unionize.

But Trump failed to come to the bargaining table, leading UNITE HERE in September to call for a boycott of all Trump businesses and point to the billionaire's "indefensible anti-worker" presidential campaign.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dealt Trump a blow, ruling just before Election Day that his failure to bargain with those employees was unlawful and ordering him to start doing so.

CNN Money notes that when Trump takes office on Jan. 20, he "will have the power to appoint three of the five members of NLRB, which could hear future disputes between Trump hotels and workers. He could end up appointing all five, plus the board's top lawyer." And that could add to a list of major conflicts of interest.

Reutersreports Wednesday that "[t]he Trump Organization still faces a pending case at the NLRB claiming it required thousands of U.S. employees to sign unlawfully broad confidentiality agreements."

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