Nevada’s most influential unions are telling their members that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders will take away their healthcare plans, just 10 days ahead of the state’s Democratic primary vote.
The state’s Culinary Union, which represents casino and hotel workers in Las Vegas, sent flyers out to all of its roughly 60,000 members saying a Sanders presidency would destroy their healthcare plans. The union provides its specially-negotiated healthcare plan to 130,000 Nevadans and has often served as a kingmaker in the state’s Democratic primaries, according to the Nevada Independent. (RELATED: Bernie Sanders Holds Off Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar To Take New Hampshire Primary)
Nevada, get ready to Early Vote! February 15th – 18th
????We vote. We win. For our families! #FirstInTheWest #NVCaucus #NVEarlyVote pic.twitter.com/6kKf1weZt4— The Culinary Union (@Culinary226) February 12, 2020
The flyers feature an issue-by-issue breakdown the six top Democratic candidates and their positions, including Sanders, Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Tom Steyer.
The flyer includes three categories: “Healthcare,” Good Jobs,” and “Immigration,” and Sanders is the only candidate who they say would “end culinary healthcare.”
The union sent out a similar flyer about healthcare last week, but it didn’t name any candidates, the Nevada Independent reports. (RELATED: Media Does Bernie Damage Control After New Hampshire)
“A history of blood, sweat, and tears secured our healthcare, not politicians promises. We fought for our healthcare,” it reads, “Politicians have never sat at our bargaining table or been on a 24/7 6 years, 4 months, and 10 days strike line – like we have to make an employer pay for healthcare. We will not hand over our healthcare for promises.”
Sanders could be facing a repeat of his 2016 performance in Nevada, with unions stepping in at the behest of former Sen. Harry Reid to bar his advance at the last minute.
“Senator Harry Reid…had spoken to D. Taylor, the head of the [Culinary] union’s parent group, to make sure its members could have paid time off to participate in the caucuses, a move that operatives in the state believed helped tip the race in Mrs. Clinton’s favor,” the New York Times reported at the time.
After Nevada, South Carolina will be the next state to hold its primary, on Feb. 29. Sanders prospects in the state are similarly bleak, having a large minority population that is expected to vote largely in favor of Biden.