During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, Donald Trump said he was running to stop the powerful from beating up on “those who cannot defend themselves.” Well, mere hours before making that speech, the Donald got busted in the chops for doing the very thing he claimed he wanted to end. He coughed up $11,200 for trying to bust a union at one of his hotels.
Last year, the 500 workers at the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas voted to join the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and the Bartenders Union Local 165. They were attracted by the prospect of fatter paychecks. Trump Las Vegas workers are paid more than three dollars less per hour than their counterparts at unionized hotels. For those of you keeping score, that adds up to $120 per week–the difference between making it and just getting by.
The Culinary Union also offered the promise of better health insurance, as well as a secure future. According to union spokeswoman Bethany Khan, workers represented by the union pay no health insurance premiums, and are guaranteed a pension.
That was particularly appealing to workers like Maria Jamarillo, who works at the Trump hotel as a housekeeper. Jamarillo knew that working at a union hotel had its perks. She’d spent six years at Mandalay Bay before leaving to care for her third child. While at Mandalay Bay, she had free health insurance, a pension, and holiday pay.
However, she was forced to go back to work seven years ago when her husband lost his construction job–and Trump was the only hotel that was hiring at the time. “It’s a big difference,” she said. Now she has to pay for her health insurance and doesn’t get a pension–nowhere near enough to “give my kids a better future.”
Two months before the vote, Hillary Clinton herself flew to Vegas to lend her support to the workers. Watch coverage from KTNV-TV in Las Vegas here.
Several workers told Think Progress that Trump and his partner in the hotel, Phil Ruffin, resorted to strong-arm tactics to get them to oppose the union. According to one of several complaints filed with the National Labor Relations Board, Trump and Ruffin suspended several workers who wore Culinary Union workers and campaigned for the union. Hotel management also allegedly engaged in “physical assault, verbal abuse, intimidation and threats” against union supporters.
It’s not the first time that Trump has gotten in hot water with how he has treated his Las Vegas employees. He’s coughed up thousands of dollars over the years after the NLRB found he’d engaged in unfair labor practices. He coughed up settlements in 2014 and 2015 to settle charges that he gagged and intimidated workers.
Given Trump’s history, it comes as no surprise that the union vote was only the beginning of a long struggle. Trump refused to recognize the union, claiming that Culinary Union organizers bullied workers into voting yes. However, according to housekeeper Marisela Olvera, Trump’s management was the real bully. Olvera said that management and its lawyers at the notoriously anti-union law firm, Cruz and Associates, told workers they would never be able to work anywhere in Las Vegas again if the union won.
In February, NLRB hearing officer Lisa Dunn sided with the Culinary Union and recommended that it be certified. The regional NLRB board agreed, and formally certified the Culinary Union on March 21. However, Trump still refused to come to the table, even though the NLRB had issued a formal complaint against him two weeks earlier.
Trump faced the prospect of an NLRB trial later this summer, right when the campaign was due to heat up. To avoid this, Trump did something he claims he never does–he settled. He coughed up $9,700 in lost wages to former server Michael Campus and $1,500 in lost wages to server Alma Zamarin. As punishment for supporting the union, Campus had his hours slashed to the point that it no longer made sense for him to work at the hotel. Similarly, Zamarin was stiffed out of a promotion to full-time server. Trump also agreed to post a notice informing workers of their rights.
Combine this with Trump’s history of refusing to pay for work done on his many properties, and his claim that he is fighting for the powerless is exposed as a transparent lie. After all, he’s been beating up on the little guy for a long time.
