Donald Trump’s treatment of women and workers continues to receive media scrutiny this week as one union calls for a national boycott of all the real estate mogul’s businesses.
Unite Here launched the boycott earlier this week, saying Trump Hotel Las Vegas has failed to honor its obligation to bargain with its unionized workforce, which is represented by Culinary Union, Unite Here’s largest affiliate.
“After a disgraceful anti-union campaign against their own workers, the hotel still refuses to negotiate with their employees,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, secretary-treasurer for the Culinary Union. “We call on allies and workers to stand in solidarity in a national boycott until Donald Trump, the ‘Great Negotiator,’ comes to the table.”
In addition, allegations have surfaced this week related to a 2012 class action lawsuit brought by employees of Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.
As local news Fox 11 reported, the suit was over “working conditions, such as not being paid for missed meals and breaks.” Among the allegations in the suit, as the Los Angeles Times noted, were that Trump only wanted “good-looking” women working there, and ones that didn’t meet that standard should be fired.
In a declaration reported by SFGate.com, “Donald Trump always wanted good-looking women working at the club,” said Sue Kwiatkowski, a restaurant manager at the club until 2009. “I know this because one time he took me aside and said, ‘I want you to get some good looking hostesses here. People like to see good looking people when they come in.’ ”
Perhaps gaining more corporate media attention this week was the fact that Trump, “heedless of the possible fallout with women and Latino voters,” as NPR put it, has continued attacks on former Miss Universe Alicia Machado.
Machado wrote on her Instagram account that it “is not the first time the candidate insists on discrediting someone or insists on demoralizing women, minorities, and people of certain religions through his hateful campaign. This is definitely one of his most frightful characteristics. Through his attacks, he’s attempting to distract from his campaign’s real problems and his inability to be the leader of this great country.”
Meanwhile, a Suffolk University poll released Friday shows rival Hillary Clinton with a 6-point edge over Trump—44 percent to 38 percent—among voters in the battleground state of Nevada. That’s an increase from the 2-point lead she had over Trump in the August poll.
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