The one group that is optimistic about Biden’s chances in the state is the culinary union, which plans to ramp up canvassing efforts in the late spring and summer and deploy nearly 500 members to knock on more than a million doors.
Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer, predicts that workers – and their families – will not forget that Biden was the first sitting president to join a picket line last fall, when he appeared in solidarity with striking United Auto Workers members last fall.
And while inflation and spiking housing costs remain major concerns for members, unionised workers – unlike most other voters across the country – are acutely aware of how well the economy is doing, he argued.
Jobs are plentiful and development is booming, said Mario Sandoval, 58, a server at the steakhouse in Binion’s Gambling Hall. It’s just that wages and benefits haven’t kept up, which is what the union is trying to address in current negotiations with resorts. “But the economy’s doing good – it’s good to me,” Sandoval said. “Inflation is going down. Gas is down. There was all this talk of a recession and I’ve seen no sign of it.”