Clinton, Sanders, O’Malley hope to win labor support in Las Vegas

By Kyle Roerink

Monday, Aug. 17, 2015 | 2:24 p.m.

Three contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination will be in Las Vegas this week to rally a longstanding voting bloc: the AFL-CIO.

Democrat candidates Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley will speak to a crowd of labor leaders representing 200,000 workers from 120 unions under the Nevada AFL-CIO umbrella on Tuesday and Wednesday at the Luxor.

The Nevada AFL-CIO’s three-day convention will be a showcase for the candidates to unveil policy platforms and outline their plans for protecting labor unions, which have come under fire in recent years with state laws that attack collective bargaining and other pro-union safeguards.

Clinton, the former secretary of state for President Barack Obama, and Sanders, Vermont’s Independent senator running for a spot on the Democratic ticket, will speak to Nevada workers and union officials on Tuesday. O’Malley, the former Maryland governor, will speak the following day. The AFL-CIO is closing the event to the media and will pass its list of goals and priorities for the upcoming year. Clinton and Sanders will follow up on their appearances by speaking to reporters Tuesday at town hall meetings in North Las Vegas. O’Malley will meet with media Wednesday at the Luxor.

The politically powerful labor group, which represents 12 million union members nationwide, historically supports Democrats in Nevada and throughout the U.S. In the state, the group has a strong grassroots network and the ability to bus voters to the polls, knock on doors and raise money for candidates.

"The issues that face working people in America are daunting, and we look forward to hearing the candidates’ strategies to create an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and well connected,” Danny Thompson, Nevada AFL-CIO executive secretary treasurer, said in a media release on Monday.

The group has yet to endorse a presidential candidate in the Democratic primary, and it hasn’t sent a signal whether it will. The group is closely watching how the party's frontrunners weigh the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation trade deal endorsed by the Obama administration to refine trade of agriculture, technology, medicine and other goods between Pacific Rim nations.

The AFL-CIO and liberal Democrats oppose the deal, saying that it will kill labor jobs in the U.S. That opposition yields a rare occasion where Obama and Republicans are teaming up against the far left. All three Democratic presidential candidates have met with the AFL-CIO’s national leaders for private conversations on the TPP. The final details of the measure are still in the works and there has yet to be a public vetting by lawmakers and other groups. The measure isn’t likely to come up for a vote until next year.

Clinton has yet to take a stance on the deal. Sanders and O’Malley oppose it.