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Nevada unions battle over Democratic caucus

"With its flourishing tourism industry and seemingly constant construction boom, Nevada has become the West's most unionized state and the Culinary Workers Union, which represents 60,000 workers mostly in Las Vegas casinos, is king of the hill.

"The localized clout of the union, whose membership has tripled in 15 years, has come to rival some of the titans of organized labor in their heyday, said Peter Rachleff, a labor historian at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.

"...With most of Nevada's unions backing Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York or former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, the Culinary Workers Union, along with the Service Employees International Union, shook up the Democratic presidential race here by throwing their considerable support to Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois.

"...Few question the impact of the union's endorsement on the race.

"...The fissure in organized labor in Nevada over the Democratic contest turned into all-out war late last week when the Nevada State Education Association filed suit against the Nevada Democratic Party to block the holding of nine at-large caucuses in Las Vegas casinos.

"The caucuses were designed to accommodate the concentration of workers within 2.5 miles of the Strip. A large percentage of them are minorities who can't get time off Saturday to participate, especially because the three-day Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend is expected to be among the year's most lucrative for casinos.

"The teachers union is officially neutral, but many officers back Clinton. D. Taylor, the often-in-your-face head of the Culinary Workers Union, claimed the Clinton campaign is pulling the strings.

"...Party officials note that the state Democratic Party approved the plan for the at-large caucuses in March, got it ratified by the Democratic National Committee in August and nobody objected until last week when the Culinary Workers Union endorsed Obama..."

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