Donna Kelly-Yu, left, a member of Culinary Workers Union, Local 226, talks with resident Amando Punzalan in a neighborhood near East Flamingo and Boulder Highway Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020. Yu was furloughed from her casino job but got a temporary job from the union to canvas before the election.
Friday, Nov. 6, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Hospitality workers knocked on half a million doors in Las Vegas and Reno neighborhoods on behalf of the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket during a two-month period that concluded Election Day, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 announced Thursday.
The get-out-the-vote effort, which targeted registered Democrats and unaffiliated voters, comprised about 500 furloughed or laid-off workers with the Culinary Union and its parent organization, UNITE HERE.
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The 500 canvassers spoke to more than 100,000 voters: 42,000 who didn’t vote last election, 40,000 Latino voters, and 20,000 Black voters, the union said.
The organizing, which began Aug. 1, surpassed the numbers from the 2018 midterms, when 350 workers knocked on 370,000 doors, and 2016, when canvassers visited 350,000 homes, the union said.
Additionally, the union sent hundreds of thousands of emails and text messages to people who “opted in” and sent 5,600,000 pamphlets over the mail to union members and eligible voters across the country.
In the next few days, as the outcome of the election in Nevada becomes clearer, the union will find out if its efforts paid off. Biden’s lead over President Donald Trump in Nevada was a razor-thin 12,000 votes as of Thursday.
It also wasn’t an ordinary election year with the pandemic pummeling the hospitality industry in Nevada. Most of the canvassers, such as Donna Kelly-Yu, a dispatch butler at Caesars Palace, were furloughed or laid off since mid-March when Nevada shut down nonessential businesses. The canvassing position paid a wage comparable to her normal job.
Although properties have had limited openings, about half of the more than 60,000 Culinary Union members in Nevada remained jobless. The canvassers wore masks and socially distanced as they spoke to voters.
“The unprecedented turnout in Nevada, which was led by those most directly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, is a mandate on Donald Trump’s failed leadership,” said Geoconda Argüello-Kline, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union, in a news release.
