Say No to the Trump Hazard: UNITE HERE's Culinary Union joins campaign to urge USGA and PGA to sever ties with Donald Trump

LAS VEGAS, Aug. 16, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the Culinary Union announced it is joining the campaign by Golfers Opposing Bigotry to end golf's partnership with Donald Trump. The group is urging the USGA and the PGA to stop holding major championships at Trump properties and not to enter into any new partnerships with the businessman because "[his] hateful rhetoric and exclusionary policy proposals are divisive and dangerous." The Culinary Union has officially endorsed the group's online petition.

The Culinary Union has been calling on the USGA to move the 2017 U.S. Women's Open from Trump's New Jersey course because Trump represents a hazard to women with his sexist remarks and his refusal to recognize as equals the largely female workforce at his Las Vegas hotel, who won a union election last December. The Culinary Union kicked off its #TrumpHazard campaign at the U.S. Women's Open last month with an aerial banner that read "Golf: Say No To Trump #TrumpHazard."

"We want to negotiate a contract with Mr. Trump as equals," said Carmen Llarull, a housekeeper at Trump Las Vegas. "Until Mr. Trump starts showing respect to hard-working women like us, he shouldn't be allowed the honor of hosting an important women's event like the Women's Open."

"People of color and women have long fought discrimination within the golf community," said Jeffrey Sammons, a Golfers Opposing Bigotry founder and professor of American history at New York University.  "The golf industry and the hotel industry are very intertwined, so we're excited by support from hospitality workers in Las Vegas and from across the country."

Another petition co-author, Dr. Calvin Sinnette, who is emeritus professor of pediatrics at Howard University School of Medicine and a National Black Golf Hall of Fame inductee, called Mr. Trump a "blatant racist and misogynist" in a letter to the USGA, while a third petition co-author, Dr. Cedrick Smith, a Hampton University All-America golfer who now works in Houston, stated in his 2015 letter to the USGA that solidarity with Latino and immigrant communities drove him to denounce golf's relationship with Trump.

Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent over 57,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 270,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.

The Culinary Union is Nevada's largest immigrant organization with over 57,000 members - a diverse membership that is approximately 55% women and 56% Latino. Members -who work as guest room attendants, bartenders, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, and kitchen workers- come from 167 countries and speak over 40 different languages. The Culinary Union has been fighting for fair wages, job security, and good health benefits for working men and women in Nevada for over 80 years.

The Culinary Union is encouraging Nevada locals, political candidates, and tourists to avoid staying at/or patronizing hotels under an active labor dispute such as Station Casinos, Palms Casino Resort, and the Trump Hotel Las Vegas. To see the full list properties with an active labor dispute, go to: VegasTravelAlert.org.

CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226

SOURCE UNITE HERE