About 1,500 union workers demonstrate outside Trump hotel

By Chris Kudialis

Wednesday, July 20, 2016 | 5:06 p.m.

Nearly 1,500 union workers gathered Wednesday to demonstrate for higher wages in front of Trump International Hotel, 2,000 miles from where Trump was taking center stage at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

"More than ever, we need to use our voices," said U.S. Senate Democratic candidate Catherine Cortez Masto, one of five speakers during the 20-minute rally held in 110-degree heat. "We can't allow bullies like Donald Trump to take advantage of American workers."

The majority of the demonstrators were members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, whose convention in Las Vegas this week also featured a speech from Democratic presumptive nominee Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. Hundreds of members from Local Culinary Union 226 also participated.

Stephanie Wiley, a city school employee from Columbus, Ohio, representing AFSCME local 4, said the group wanted to support all union workers fighting for fair wages.

"We're supporting them for a fair fight in contract negotiations," Wiley said. "They have the right to bargain and negotiate like everybody else."

One demonstrator, Trump International Hotel employee Marisela Olvera, said rally-goers hoped to send a message to the Republican presidential nominee that running a country "starts with your own employees."

Olvera, 41, who said she has worked for four years as a housekeeper at the hotel, said lower wages at the Trump hotel make it difficult for employees to make ends meet.

"We're getting paid over five dollars less per hour than every other hotel on the Strip," Olvera, a mother of two, said in Spanish. "How is that fair?"

A representative from the Trump International Hotel did not return phone and email requests for comment.