Hillary Clinton urges Las Vegas workers to say no to Donald Trump

Hillary Rodham Clinton made a brief appearance Monday with picketers here at the Trump International Hotel, supporting a powerful local union while criticizing Donald Trump’s rhetoric about immigrants.

“You have to say no to efforts that prevent you from organizing, to prevent you from having the kind of working conditions you deserve,” Clinton told several hundred members of Culinary Union Local 226 gathered outside the hotel. “That means saying no to Donald Trump.”

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Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said that while supporters of the billionaire businessman see him as entertaining, he’s far from appealing to most of the electorate.

“I don’t think it’s entertaining when somebody insults immigrants, insults women,” she said.

On the eve of the first Democratic presidential debate, to be hosted here Tuesday night by CNN, Clinton said she had a message for Trump, who in national polls is leading the crowded field of Republican presidential hopefuls for the party’s nomination.

“If you are going to run for president, then you should represent all the people of the United States,” she said to cheers of “Hillary! Hillary!”

The rally centered on the union’s demand that Trump International Hotel employees be unionized. The hotel is among a handful of non-union hotels along the Las Vegas Strip.

The Culinary Union is the largest in Nevada, with 55,000 service industry workers. More than half of its members are Latino – a key voting bloc that has helped swing this closely divided state to Democrats in the last two presidential elections.

Democratic presidential hopefuls are each working to gain the endorsement of the union ahead of Nevada’s caucuses in February.

In 2008, the union backed then-Sen. Barack Obama over Clinton. A recent CNN poll gave Clinton, Obama’s former secretary of State, a 50%-34% lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in Nevada.

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Michael Campus, a cook at the Trump International Hotel, was at Monday’s rally. He said he wanted to be covered under the Culinary Union so that he’s not “stepped on by bosses.”

“They treat you better when you have a union. They have to treat you better because the union fights for you,” he said.

kurtis.lee@latimes.com

Twitter: @kurtisalee