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      Macron Appears Ready to Tough Out France’s Pension Crisis

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      Amid protests in the streets and in Parliament, the French leader shows no sign of scrapping a law that raises the retirement age.PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election program last year was short on detail. His mind seemed elsewhere, chiefly on the war in Ukraine. But on one thing he was clear: He would raise the retirement age in France to 65 from 62.“You will have to work progressively more,” he said during a debate in April 2022 with the extreme-right candidate, Marine Le Pen. She attacked the idea as “an absolutely unbearable injustice” that would condemn French people to retirement “when they are no longer able to enjoy it.”France heard both candidates. Soon after, Mr. Macron was re-elected with 58.55 percent of the vote to Ms. Le Pen’s 41.45 percent. It was a clear victory, and it was clear what Mr. Macron would do on the question of pensions.Yet his ramming the overhaul through Parliament last week without a full vote on the bill itself culminated in turmoil, mayhem on the streets and two failed no-confidence votes against his government on Monday, even as polls have consistently shown about 65 percent of French people are opposed to raising the retirement age.Had they not heard him? Had they changed their minds? Had circumstances changed? Perhaps the answer lies, above all, in the nature of Mr. Macron’s victory, as he himself acknowledged on election night last year.Looking somber, speaking in an uncharacteristically flat monotone, Mr. Macron told a crowd of supporters in Paris: “I also know that a number of our compatriots voted for me today not to support the ideas that I uphold, but to block the extreme right. I want to thank them and say that I am aware that I have obligations toward them in the years to come.”“Those ‘obligations’ could only be a promise to negotiate on major reforms,” Nicole Bacharan, a social scientist, said on Tuesday. “He did not negotiate, even with moderate union leaders. What I see now is Macron’s complete disconnection from the country.”Marine Le Pen, center, of the far-right National Rally party, says the pension plan would condemn French people to retirement “when they are no longer able to enjoy it.”Thomas Samson/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOpposition parties on both the left and the right have vowed to file challenges against the pension law before the Constitutional Council, which reviews legislation to ensure it complies with the French Constitution.“The goal,” said Thomas Ménagé of Ms. Le Pen’s National Rally party, “is to ensure that this text falls into the dustbin of history.”But the chances of that appear remote.After a long silence, Mr. Macron is set to address the turmoil on Wednesday. He will try to conciliate; he will, according to officials close to him, portray the current standoff as a battle between democratic institutions and the chaos of the street, orchestrated by the extreme left and slyly encouraged by the extreme right. He has decided to stick with his current government, led by Élisabeth Borne, the prime minister, and he will not dissolve Parliament or call new elections, they say.In short, it seems Mr. Macron has decided to tough out the crisis, perhaps offering some blandishments on improving vocational high schools and broader on-the-job training. But certainly no apology appears to be forthcoming for using a legal tool, Article 49.3 of the Constitution, to avoid a full parliamentary vote on a change that has split the country. (Only the Senate, the upper house, voted to pass the bill this month.)This approach appears consistent with Mr. Macron’s chosen tactics on the pension overhaul. Since the debate with Ms. Le Pen 11 months ago, inflation has risen, energy prices have gone up, and the pressures, particularly on the poorer sectors of French society, have grown.French lawmakers held up protest placards after the result of the first no-confidence motion against the French government at the National Assembly on Monday.Gonzalo Fuentes/ReutersYet, while he has made some concessions, including setting the new retirement age at 64 rather than 65, Mr. Macron has remained remote from the rolling anger. Most conspicuously, and to many inexplicably, after the government consulted extensively with unions in the run-up to January, Mr. Macron has refused to negotiate with the powerful moderate union leader Laurent Berger, who had supported Mr. Macron’s earlier attempt at pension changes in 2019 but opposes him now.“Macron knows the economy better than he knows political psychology,” said Alain Duhamel, a political scientist. “And today, what you have is a generalized fury.”A large number of Macron voters, it is now clear, never wanted the retirement age raised. They heard Mr. Macron during the debate with Ms. Le Pen. They just did not loathe his idea enough to vote for a nationalist, anti-immigrant ideologue whose party was financed in part by Russian loans.Mr. Macron is adept at playing on such contradictions and divisions. Because his presidential term is limited, he is freer to do as he pleases. He knows three things: He will not be a candidate for re-election in 2027 because a third consecutive term is not permitted; the opposition in Parliament is strong but irreconcilably divided between the far left and extreme right; and there is a large, silent slice of French society that supports his pension overhaul.All this gives him room to maneuver even in his current difficult situation.When Mr. Macron opted last week for the 49.3 and the avoidance of a parliamentary vote, he explained his decision this way: “I consider that in the current state of affairs the financial and economic risks are too great.”Protesters in Nantes, in western France, on Tuesday.Loic Venance/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesOn the face of it, speaking about risks to financial markets while pushing through an overhaul deeply resented by blue-collar and working-class French people seemed politically gauche. It appeared especially so at a moment when Mr. Macron was turning away from the full parliamentary vote his government had unanimously said it wanted.“Saying what he said about finance at that moment, in that context, was just dynamite,” said Ms. Bacharan.It was also an unmistakable wink to the powerful French private sector — with its world-class companies like LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton — and to the many affluent and middle-class French people who do not like the growing piles of uncollected garbage or the protests in the streets, and who view retirement at 62 as an unsustainable anomaly in a Europe where the retirement age has generally risen to 65 or higher.If Mr. Macron has cards to play, and perhaps broader support than is evident as protesters hurl insults at him day after day, his very disconnection may make it hard for him to judge the country’s mood.Last week, Aurore Bergé, the leader of Mr. Macron’s Renaissance party in Parliament, wrote to Gérald Darmanin, the interior minister, to request police protection for lawmakers.“I refuse to see representatives from my group, or any national lawmaker, afraid to express themselves, or to vote freely, because they are afraid of reprisals,” she said.It was a measure of the violent mood in France.“If we have had 15 Constitutions over the past two centuries, that means there have been 14 revolutions of various kinds,” Mr. Duhamel said. “There is an eruptive side to France that one should not ignore.”The National Assembly in Paris. Opposition parties on the left and the right have vowed to file challenges against the pension law. Joel Saget/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAurelien Breeden More

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      What’s In (and Not In) the $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill

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      A big boost for the military, more aid for Ukraine, a preference for the lobster industry over whales and an overhaul of the Electoral Count Act are among the provisions in the 4,155-page bill lawmakers expect to pass this week.WASHINGTON — Billions of dollars in emergency aid to war-torn Ukraine and communities ravaged by natural disasters. A bipartisan proposal to overhaul the archaic law at the heart of former President Donald J. Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. And a divisive oceanic policy that will change federal protections for whales in an effort to protect the lobster industry in Maine.In compiling the roughly $1.7 trillion catchall spending package that will keep the government open through September, lawmakers inserted several new funding and legislative proposals to ensure their priorities and policies become law before the end of the year.It includes funding that will guarantee the enactment of policies first authorized in bipartisan legislation approved earlier in this Congress, including money for innovation hubs established in the semiconductor manufacturing law and projects in the infrastructure law. The package also includes a round of earmarks, rebranded as community project funding, that allow lawmakers to redirect funds to specific projects in their states and districts.Here is a look at some of the provisions that would go into effect if enacted.Military spending is the big winner.The Defense Department would see an extraordinary surge in spending when adding its regular 2023 fiscal year budget together with additional funds being allocated to help respond to the war in Ukraine.All together, half of the $1.7 trillion in funding included in the package goes to defense, or a total of $858 billion. It comes after lawmakers bucked a request from President Biden and approved a substantial increase in the annual defense policy bill passed this month.The 2023 budget just for the Defense Department would total $797.6 billion in discretionary spending — a 10 percent increase over last year’s budget — representing an extra $69.3 billion in funds for the Pentagon, which is $36.1 billion above the president’s budget request.Sprinkled throughout the spending bill are hundreds of high-ticket add-ons that Congress wants to make to the president’s original Defense Department budget, such as an additional $17.2 billion for procurement that the Pentagon can largely distribute to military contractors to buy new ships, airplanes, missile systems and other equipment. The overall Pentagon procurement budget with these additional funds would be $162 billion.One of the biggest chunks of that extra money is for shipbuilding — an extra $4 billion that brings the Navy’s overall shipbuilding budget to $31.96 billion. That will allow it to buy 11 new ships, including three guided missile destroyers and two attack submarines.But that is just the start. There is $8.5 billion to buy 61 F-35 fighter jets made by Lockheed Martin and another $2.5 billion to buy 15 of Boeing’s new aerial refueling planes known as KC-46 tankers.There is also an extra $27.9 billion to help cover Defense Department costs associated with the war in Ukraine, as part of an emergency aid package to the country. That includes an extra $11.88 billion to replenish U.S. stocks of equipment sent to Ukraine — money that again will largely be used to purchase products from military contractors. That supplemental appropriation also includes $9 billion to assist Ukraine with training, equipment and weapons, as well as an extra $6.98 billion to cover U.S. military operations in Europe.— Eric Lipton and John IsmayMaking it easier (for some) to save for retirement.The package also includes a collection of new rules aimed at helping Americans save for retirement. The bill would require employers to automatically enroll eligible employees in their 401(k) and 403(b) plans, setting aside at least 3 percent, but no more than 10 percent, of their paychecks. Contributions would be increased by one percentage point each year thereafter, until it reaches at least 10 percent (but not more than 15 percent). But this applies only to new employer-provided plans that are started in 2025 and later — existing plans are exempt.Another provision would help lower- and middle-income earners saving for retirement by making changes to an existing tax credit, called the saver’s credit, now available only to those who owe taxes. In its new form, it would amount to a matching contribution, from the federal government, deposited into taxpayers’ retirement accounts.People struggling with student debt would also receive a new perk: Employees making student debt payments would qualify for employer matching contributions in their workplace retirement plan, even if they were not making plan contributions of their own.What to Know About Congress’s Lame-Duck SessionCard 1 of 5A productive stretch. More

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      A Times Square Hotel Was Set To Become Affordable Housing. Then the Union Stepped In.

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      At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Paramount Hotel, sitting empty in Times Square, was on the verge of turning into a residential building, offering a rare opportunity to create affordable housing in Midtown Manhattan.A nonprofit was planning to convert the hotel into apartments for people facing homelessness. But after 18 months of negotiations, the plan collapsed this year when a powerful political player intervened: the Hotel and Gaming Trades Council, the union representing about 35,000 hotel and casino workers in New York and New Jersey.The union blocked the conversion, which threatened the jobs of the workers waiting to return to the 597-room hotel. Under the union’s contract, the deal could not proceed without its consent.The Paramount reopened as a hotel this fall, an illustration of how the union has wielded its outsized political power to steer economic development projects at a critical juncture in New York City’s recovery.The pandemic presented a devastating crisis for the city’s hotel workers, more than 90 percent of whom were laid off. But as the union has fought harder to protect them, its political muscle has also drawn the ire of hotel operators and housing advocates, who say the group’s interests can be at odds with broader economic goals.After the conversion failed, the Paramount reopened this fall, saving about 160 hotel jobs.Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesThe union’s impact ripples throughout New York. It can block or facilitate the conversion of large hotels into housing and homeless shelters, a consequential role in a year when homelessness in the city reached a record high of about 64,000 people. The union pushed for the accelerated expansion of casinos, which could transform the neighborhoods of the winning bids. And it was a driving force behind a new hotel regulation that some officials warned could cost the city billions in tax revenue.The union’s influence stems from its loyal membership and its deep pockets, both of which it puts to strategic use in local elections. Its political strength has resulted in more leverage over hotel owners, leading to stronger contracts and higher wages for workers.In this year’s New York governor’s race, the union was the first major labor group to endorse Gov. Kathy Hochul, whose winning campaign received about $440,000 from groups tied to the union. The group was also an early backer of Eric Adams, whose mayoral campaign was managed by the union’s former political director.“H.T.C. is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers,” said Chris Coffey, a Democratic political strategist, referring to the union’s more common name, the Hotel Trades Council. “They’re just operating on a higher playing field.”Origins of the union’s powerHistorically, the Hotel Trades Council avoided politics until its former president, Peter Ward, started a political operation around 2008.Mr. Ward and the union’s first political director, Neal Kwatra, built a database with information about where members lived and worshiped and the languages they spoke. This allowed the union to quickly deploy Spanish speakers, for instance, to canvass in Latino neighborhoods during campaigns.Candidates noticed when the Hotel Trades Council, a relatively small union, would send 100 members to a campaign event while larger unions would send only a handful, Mr. Kwatra said.The Aftermath of New York’s Midterms ElectionsWho’s at Fault?: As New York Democrats sought to spread blame for their dismal performance in the elections, a fair share was directed toward Mayor Eric Adams of New York City.Hochul’s New Challenges: Gov. Kathy Hochul managed to repel late momentum by Representative Lee Zeldin. Now she must govern over a fractured New York electorate.How Maloney Lost: Democrats won tough races across the country. But Sean Patrick Maloney, a party leader and a five-term congressman, lost his Hudson Valley seat. What happened?A Weak Link: If Democrats lose the House, they may have New York to blame. Republicans flipped four seats in the state, the most of any state in the country.To recruit members into political activism, the union hosted seminars explaining why success in local elections would lead to better job protections. Afterward, members voted to increase their dues to support the union’s political fights, building a robust fund for campaign contributions. Rich Maroko, the president of the Hotel Trades Council, said the union’s “first, second and third priority is our members.”Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesThe Hotel Trades Council ranked among the top independent spenders in the election cycle of 2017, when all 26 City Council candidates endorsed by the union won. Some of these officials ended up on powerful land use and zoning committees, giving the union influence over important building decisions in New York.In a huge victory before the pandemic, the union fought the expansion of Airbnb in New York, successfully pressuring local officials to curb short-term rentals, which the union saw as a threat to hotel jobs.Mr. Ward stepped down in August 2020, making way for the union’s current president and longtime general counsel, Rich Maroko, who earned about $394,000 last year in total salary, according to federal filings.The union’s sway has continued to grow. Some hotel owners, speaking on the condition of anonymity, say they are fearful of crossing the union, which has a $22 million fund that can compensate workers during strikes. In an interview, Mr. Maroko pointed out that the hotel industry is particularly vulnerable to boycotts.“The customer has to walk through that picket line,” he said, “and then they have to try to get a good night’s rest while there are people chanting in front of the building.”The Hotel Trades Council’s contract is the strongest for hotel workers nationwide, labor experts say. In New York City, where the minimum wage is $15 an hour, housekeepers in the union earn about $37 an hour. Union members pay almost nothing for health care and can get up to 45 paid days off.During the pandemic, the union negotiated health care benefits for laid-off workers, suspended their union dues and offered $1,000 payments to the landlords of workers facing eviction.Along the way, the union has become known for its take-no-prisoners approach to politics, willing to ally with progressives or conservatives, with developers or nonprofits — as long as they support the union’s goals.“There may be no union which has more discrete asks of city government on behalf of its members,” said Mark Levine, the Manhattan borough president, who was endorsed by the union. “You can’t placate them with nice rhetoric. To be a partner with them, you really need to produce.”Political wins during the pandemicLast year, the union scored a victory it had sought for more than a decade, successfully lobbying city officials to require a special permit for any new hotel in New York City.The new regulation allows community members, including the union, to have a bigger say over which hotels get built. The move is expected to restrict the construction of new hotels, which are often nonunion and long viewed by the Hotel Trades Council as the biggest threat to its bargaining power.Budget officials warned that the regulation could cost the city billions in future tax revenue, and some developers and city planners criticized the rule as a political payback from Mayor Bill de Blasio in the waning months of his administration after the union endorsed his short-lived presidential campaign in 2019. Mr. de Blasio, who did not return a request for comment, has previously denied that the union influenced his position.In the next mayoral race, the union made a big early bet on Mr. Adams, spending more than $1 million from its super PAC to boost his campaign. Jason Ortiz, a consultant for the union, helped to manage a separate super PAC to support Mr. Adams that spent $6.9 million.Mr. Ortiz is now a lobbyist for the super PAC’s biggest contributor, Steven Cohen, the New York Mets owner who is expected to bid for a casino in Queens.The union, which shares many of the same lobbyists and consultants with gambling companies, will play an important role in the upcoming application process for casino licenses in the New York City area. State law requires that casinos enter “labor peace” agreements, effectively ensuring that new casino workers will be part of the union.A new threatDuring the pandemic, as tourism stalled, there was growing pressure to repurpose vacant hotels. With New York rents soaring, advocates pointed to hotel conversions as a relatively fast and inexpensive way to house low-income residents.But the union’s contract, which covers about 70 percent of hotels citywide, presented an obstacle. A hotel that is sold or repurposed must maintain the contract and keep its workers — or offer a severance package that often exceeds tens of millions of dollars, a steep cost that only for-profit developers can typically afford.A plan to convert a Best Western hotel in Chinatown into a homeless drop-in center was scuttled by city officials after the effort failed to win the union’s endorsement.Ahmed Gaber for The New York TimesEarlier this year, Housing Works, a social services nonprofit, planned to convert a vacant Best Western hotel in Chinatown into a homeless drop-in center. There was opposition from Chinatown residents, but city officials signed off on the deal. It was set to open in May.Right before then, however, the Hotel Trades Council learned of the plan and argued that it violated the union’s contract.Soon, the same city officials withdrew their support, said Charles King, the chief executive of Housing Works. He said they told him that Mr. Adams would not approve it without the union’s endorsement. Mr. King was stunned.“Clearly they have the mayor’s ear,” Mr. King said, “and he gave them the power to veto.”A spokesman for the mayor said the city “decided to re-evaluate this shelter capacity to an area with fewer services,” declining to comment on whether the union influenced the decision.The Chinatown hotel remains empty.An obstacle to affordable housingIn the spring of 2021, state legislators rallied behind a bill that would incentivize nonprofit groups to buy distressed hotels and convert them into affordable housing. They sought the Hotel Trades Council’s input early, recognizing that the group had the clout to push then-Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to oppose the bill, according to people involved in the discussions.The union supported the conversions, but only if they targeted nonunion hotels outside Manhattan. Housing groups have said that, unlike large Midtown hotels, nonunion hotels are not ideal candidates for housing because they tend to be much smaller and inaccessible to public transit.As a compromise to gain the union’s support, the bill allowed the Hotel Trades Council to veto any conversions of union hotels.“While we certainly support the vision of finding shelters and supportive housing for the people that need it,” Mr. Maroko said, “our first, second and third priority is our members.”One housing advocate involved in the legislation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said she warned elected officials that the veto provision would diminish the law’s effectiveness.The law, which passed last year, came with $200 million for conversions. Housing experts criticized the legislation for not sufficiently loosening zoning restrictions, prompting another law this spring that made conversions easier.Still, no hotels have been converted under the new law.Now, with tourism rebounding, housing nonprofits say the window of opportunity has largely passed.“It’s not like hotel owners are clamoring to sell the way they were two years ago,” said Paul Woody, vice president of real estate at Project Renewal, a homeless services nonprofit.How the Paramount deal endedIn the fall of 2020, the owners of the Paramount Hotel began discussing a plan to sell the property at a discount to Breaking Ground, a nonprofit developer that wanted to turn it into rent-stabilized apartments for people facing homelessness.But as the deal neared the finish line, Breaking Ground failed to anticipate pushback from the Hotel Trades Council. In a series of meetings last year, the union said its obligation was to fight for every hotel job and it proposed a range of solutions, including keeping union employees as housekeepers for residents. Breaking Ground, however, said the cost was too high.The nonprofit even asked Mr. Ward, the union’s former president, to help facilitate the conversion. Mr. Ward said he agreed to call Mr. Maroko to gauge his interest in Breaking Ground’s severance offer.This spring, lobbying records show, union representatives met with Jessica Katz, Mr. Adams’s chief housing officer, and other officials about the Paramount. Soon after, Ms. Katz called Breaking Ground and said city officials would not be able to make the conversion happen, according to a person familiar with the conversation. A spokesman for the mayor said the city “cannot choose between creating the housing the city needs and bringing back our tourism economy,” declining to comment on whether the union swayed the decision on the Paramount.The failed conversion saved about 160 hotel jobs, and the Paramount reopened to guests in September.It was a relief for workers like Sheena Jobe-Davis, who lost her job there in March 2020 as a front-desk attendant. She temporarily worked at a nonunion Manhattan hotel, making $20 less per hour than at the Paramount. She was ecstatic to get her old job back.“It is something I prayed and prayed for daily,” she said. More

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      Video Game Workers at Microsoft and Activision Take Steps to Unionize

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      Microsoft has remained neutral during a labor organizing bid as the Xbox maker seeks regulatory approval for its Activision acquisition.A few months after Microsoft announced plans to acquire the video game maker Activision Blizzard, the tech giant said it would remain neutral if Activision workers sought to unionize once the deal went through. Now, a major union is testing Microsoft’s appetite for organizing at a company it already owns.A group of more than 300 employees at ZeniMax Media, a Maryland-based video game maker owned by Microsoft, has begun voting on whether to form the company’s only union in the United States.The vote, among quality assurance employees at ZeniMax, which includes prominent studios like Bethesda Game Studios, is taking place under an informal agreement in which Microsoft is staying neutral. Workers can sign a union authorization card, as some began doing last month, or weigh in anonymously for or against unionization on an electronic platform that opened on Friday.The process will conclude at the end of the month and is more efficient than a typical union election, which is overseen by the National Labor Relations Board and can involve legal wrangling over the terms of the election.The same day that voting began at Microsoft, a group of workers in quality assurance, or Q.A., at an Activision-owned studio near Albany, N.Y., won a union vote, 14 to 0. That result followed a successful union vote in May by about two dozen Q.A. workers at an Activision studio in Wisconsin, a first for a major North American video game maker. Activision’s planned acquisition by Microsoft, for about $70 billion, is facing antitrust review by regulators.The organizing campaigns at both companies have been under the auspices of the Communications Workers of America, which also represents employees at telecom companies like Verizon and media companies like The New York Times.Together, the developments appear to add momentum to a wave of union organizing over the past year at previously nonunion companies like Amazon, Starbucks and Apple. The recent campaigns also suggest that video game workers, who for years have complained of long hours, low pay, and sexual harassment and discrimination, may be increasingly receptive to unionization.More on Big TechMicrosoft: The company’s $69 billion deal for Activision Blizzard, which rests on winning the approval by 16 governments, has become a test for whether tech giants can buy companies amid a backlash.Apple: Apple’s largest iPhone factory, in the city of Zhengzhou, China, is dealing with a shortage of workers. Now, that plant is getting help from an unlikely source: the Chinese government.Amazon: The company appears set to lay off approximately 10,000 people in corporate and technology jobs, in what would be the largest cuts in the company’s history.Meta: The parent of Facebook said it was laying off more than 11,000 people, or about 13 percent of its work forceA 300-worker union would be “quite groundbreaking” and could propel Q.A. workers, and even other game workers like developers, to unionize at other large studios, said Johanna Weststar, an associate professor at Western University in Ontario who studies labor in the industry.A Microsoft spokeswoman said that the organizing campaign was “an example of our labor principles in action” and that the company remained “committed to providing employees with an opportunity to freely and fairly make choices about their workplace representation.”The union campaign at Microsoft would affect Q.A. workers at several gaming studios that are a part of ZeniMax Media, including Bethesda, which makes hit franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Fallout.Microsoft, which makes the Xbox series of consoles, acquired ZeniMax for $7.5 billion, a splashy pandemic purchase that helped it compete against rival Sony and its PlayStation consoles, as well as broaden the appeal of Xbox Game Pass, its video game subscription service. The deal closed last year.The first new major, exclusive-to-Xbox game stemming from that purchase, Starfield, is expected to be released next year by Bethesda. Some of the workers who test it may do so as union members.Three ZeniMax employees said that while helping to make video games was a job they had once dreamed of, their Q.A. roles had taken a toll.Victoria Banos, who has worked at one of the company’s studios in Maryland for over four years, said many of her co-workers endured a ritual known as “crunch” a few times each year. It involves working shifts longer than 10 hours during the week and several hours on Saturday, sometimes for weeks in a row, to ensure that a game works properly before the company releases it.“You’re expected to drop whatever you have going on in your life and work whenever they need you to,” said Ms. Banos, who works on The Elder Scrolls Online. She added that ZeniMax had recently made these overtime hours voluntary, but that many employees still felt pressure to work them.She estimated that her hourly wage of $25.50 left her tens of thousands of dollars below what she would earn annually if she performed a similar job at a different kind of software company — like one that makes financial or security software.Other gaming industry Q.A. testers have echoed these points, citing crunch as a continuing problem and arguing that the industry gets away with paying them less because of the allure of its products and the idea that they should be happy to earn an income playing games. Workers say the mind-numbing process of repeatedly testing specific actions for glitches is far different from playing a game for fun.Some ZeniMax workers also said they preferred more liberal policies on working from home, and they complained that the company’s method of allocating training opportunities, additional responsibility and promotions was often arbitrary or opaque. They said they hoped a union would help create more transparent policies.Andrés Vázquez, who has been based at a ZeniMax studio in the Dallas area for more than seven years, said he had yet to be promoted to the next job level, senior Q.A. tester, even though some co-workers who joined the company around the same time had been promoted beyond that level. Whenever he has raised the issue with managers or human resources officials, he said, “I get corporate lip service.”The Microsoft spokeswoman said the company was talking to employees to ensure that they were not taking on too much work, but she did not comment on the other concerns.Still, the workers praised Microsoft for following through on its promise of neutrality. Unlike workers at Starbucks and Amazon, they say, they have not been summoned to meetings in which supervisors seek to dissuade them from unionizing, and they do not feel that the company has retaliated against them for trying to form a union. (Starbucks and Amazon have denied accusations of retaliation.)“It’s been an incredible weight lifted off our shoulders,” said Autumn Mitchell, another Q.A. employee based in Maryland, who has worked on Starfield, the forthcoming game.Workers at the studio near Albany also cited concerns over pay and hours in their decision to unionize, as well as accusations of harassment and discrimination at the company.Amanda Laven, a Q.A. employee involved in the union campaign at the studio, said workers were frustrated that the company had tried to stop their union election on the grounds that it involved only Q.A. workers rather than the whole studio. The National Labor Relations Board had rejected Activision’s attempts to stop the union election at its Wisconsin studio on similar grounds, but the company appealed to the labor board in this case as well.“It’s just a stall tactic,” Ms. Laven said in an interview before the vote count.An Activision spokesman said that the company’s operations in New York and Wisconsin were “very different” in their setup and that it believed the entire Albany studio should be eligible to vote. The spokesman said the company was “considering various legal options,” including seeking to overturn the election.Activision workers seeking to unionize could find the company more receptive in the future.In June, Microsoft announced an agreement with the Communications Workers of America in which it pledged to stay neutral if any of Activision’s U.S. employees sought to unionize after it completed its acquisition. Activision has about 7,000 employees in the country, most of whom are eligible to unionize.Microsoft had a motive for seeking the neutrality agreement: The politically powerful communications workers union had raised questions about the acquisition, which regulators were vetting. The union said its concerns about the acquisition had been resolved after it reached the neutrality agreement.The company hinted at the time that it would extend the neutrality agreement to current Microsoft employees, saying it was prepared to “build on” the deal. The union essentially tested that proposition when it sought to organize Q.A. workers at ZeniMax, and Microsoft followed through.Microsoft may have had an additional reason to take a neutral stance. Showing that it has a healthy relationship with organized labor could help the company navigate the acquisition under the union-friendly Biden administration as scrutiny of the deal intensifies.As if to underscore the point, the union’s president, Chris Shelton, met with the chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission in October and urged regulators not to block the deal.Karen Weise More

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      United Auto Workers Appear to Rebuke Leaders in First Vote by Members

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      Insurgent candidates showed strength, citing corruption scandals and calling for a tougher bargaining approach. The union president seems headed for a runoff.Shawn Fain, a challenger who has been a United Auto Workers member for 28 years.Sarah Rice for The New York TimesRay Curry, president of the United Auto Workers.Paul Sancya/Associated PressThe first United Auto Workers election open to all members appears to have produced a wave of opposition to the established leadership, signaling the prospect of sweeping changes for a union tarnished by a series of corruption scandals.As the count neared completion on Friday, the current president, Ray Curry, was in a close contest with an insurgent challenger, Shawn Fain, with each getting slightly under 40 percent. The remaining votes were scattered among three dark-horse candidates.If those results are confirmed by a court-appointed monitor overseeing the count, Mr. Fain and Mr. Curry will head for a runoff election in January.“If these results hold, it can only be seen as shocking,” said Harley Shaiken, a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley, who has followed the U.A.W. for more than three decades. “It’s a major upset for the incumbent administration. The union is entering a new and profoundly different era.”In an interview as the results were tallied, Mr. Fain said he believed the vote reflected a desire for broad change, citing not only the corruption scandals but also an inability to win broad wage and benefits improvements over the last decade as the three Detroit automakers rang up significant profits.“I think it definitely shows the pulse of the membership and the pure fact that they’re fed up,” said Mr. Fain, an electrician who has been a member of the union for almost three decades. “I think the members want to get this union back in line and see the election as their shot.”A union spokeswoman said Mr. Curry would make a statement on the election after the results were certified.The strength of outsider candidates aligned with Mr. Fain was seen in voting for several other national and regional positions. In a two-way race for secretary-treasurer, the union’s second most powerful post, an ally of Mr. Fain had more than 60 percent of the vote.In addition to the union’s 400,000 active members, 600,000 retired members were eligible to vote in the leadership election, though not to seek office. About 106,000 ballots were cast.Since its founding in 1935, the U.A.W. had used a system in which its president and other senior officials were chosen by delegates to a convention, with results often shaped by favors and favoritism rather than the views of the rank and file.This year’s “one person, one vote” election was one of the measures that the union had agreed to as part of a settlement of a federal investigation that uncovered widespread corruption at the top of the organization. A dozen senior officials, including two former U.A.W. presidents, were convicted of embezzling more than $1 million in union funds for luxury travel and other lavish personal expenses.Last year, a court appointed a monitor to ensure that the union followed through on anticorruption reforms.Mr. Curry, 57, a former assembly-line worker from North Carolina who holds a master’s degree in business, was named president in 2021 with the task of instituting those changes after years of scandals tarnished the union’s image. He has held senior positions in the union for a decade, and many U.A.W. members see him as the candidate of the establishment.Mr. Fain, 54, and his slate are backed by a dissident group, Unite All Workers for Democracy. He has called for a wholesale turnover in the union’s leadership and a more confrontational approach to negotiating with manufacturers.The election comes at a critical time for the union. The U.A.W. is working to organize several battery plants that the three Detroit automakers have built or are building with partners — factories not automatically covered by its contracts with the manufacturers. Workers at one, a General Motors plant in Ohio that opened last summer, are scheduled to vote on U.A.W. representation on Wednesday and Thursday.G.M. is building two other battery plants in Tennessee and Michigan. Ford Motor is building two in Kentucky and one in Tennessee. Stellantis, which was formed through the merger of Fiat Chrysler and the French automaker Peugeot, intends to build a battery plant in Indiana.Next year, the U.A.W. is set to negotiate new labor agreements with the three automakers, and challengers to Mr. Curry campaigned on promises of taking a more confrontational stance. Members have demanded a resumption of cost-of-living wage adjustments, once a key element of U.A.W. contracts, which had been forgone in recent years when inflation was mild and the automakers were struggling to survive.Members also want an end to two-tier wage and benefit packages. Workers hired in 2007 or earlier have a standard wage of $32 an hour and are guaranteed pensions. Workers hired after 2007 start at lower wages and can work up to the top wage over five years. They also get a 401(k) retirement account instead of a lifelong pension.In the last decade, the automakers have rebounded strongly and now earn substantial profits. In the first three quarters of this year, G.M. generated $8 billion in net income. Ford and Stellantis earned less but still posted solid profits.Decades ago, the U.A.W. wielded immense political power, and at its peak represented more than 1.5 million workers. It lost clout as the Detroit automakers scaled back in the face of rising competition from foreign-owned competitors like Toyota and Honda. Despite attempts, it has not been able to organize workers at any of the foreign-owned auto-assembly plants that have sprung up across the South and the Midwest.Around 2014, the union became the focus of an investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit. The inquiry revealed that top officials had embezzled membership dues and money set aside for training centers and used it for expensive cigars, wines, liquor, golf clubs, apparel and luxury travel.More than a dozen U.A.W. officials pleaded guilty. Gary Jones, a former president, served nine months of a 28-month sentence before being released from federal prison this year. Mr. Jones’s predecessor, Dennis Williams, was released after serving nine months of a 21-month sentence. More

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      ¿Quién controlará el Senado? Los trabajadores de casinos podrían ser la clave

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      Los empleados de la hostelería tienen particular influencia en Nevada, donde el poderoso sindicato culinario de Las Vegas está convocando a sus integrantes para que ayuden a definir las contiendas reñidas.LAS VEGAS — Carlos Padilla caminaba hacia su camioneta pick-up y cargaba un bolso lleno de materiales de campaña y una agenda para moldear el futuro de Estados Unidos. Faltaban veinte días para las elecciones de medio mandato y Padilla, un chef pastelero, se dirigía a la sede de la Unión de Trabajadores Culinarios Local 226.La reunión a la que acababa de asistir había sido mitad sesión de negocios, mitad mitin político. Hubo consignas enérgicas (“¡Dos, dos, seis!”, “Si votamos, ¡ganamos!”) y discursos de políticos que pedían el apoyo de los 400 meseros, cocineros, garroteros y encargados de limpieza que estaban reunidos. Al igual que Padilla, todos pasaron el resto del día tocando las puertas de los votantes en una ciudad que desde hace tiempo ha sido un eje electoral en este estado pendular y en otros lugares.Incluso en el mundo de la mano de obra organizada, los trabajadores de la hospitalidad nunca han sido una gran fuerza. Sin embargo, las visitas de campaña a la sede del sindicato por parte de candidatos presidenciales (Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden) a lo largo de los años dan fe de la identidad inusual de este local que se caracteriza por el poder político.La fuente de ese poder son los 60.000 miembros del sindicato, quienes trabajan en los restaurantes, bares, casinos y hoteles que impulsan la economía de Las Vegas y Reno, ciudades en Nevada. Gracias a los contratos negociados por el sindicato, disfrutan de una seguridad laboral y estabilidad financiera que son poco comunes en la industria de la hospitalidad. Los salarios de los miembros promedian los 26 dólares por hora, según representantes del sindicato, y reciben aumentos cada año. Los empleos cuentan con prestaciones como seguro de salud, capacitación gratuita para avanzar en sus carreras e incluso ayuda para hacer el pago del enganche de una casa.Carlos Padilla, miembro del sindicato Unión de Trabajadores Culinarios Local 226, hacía campaña de puerta a puerta en Las Vegas, en octubre.Saeed Rahbaran para The New York TimesPadilla, de 53 años, está entre los cientos de miembros que toman días libres pagados (otro beneficio contractual) para hacer campaña a favor de los candidatos que el sindicato apoya.“Soy miembro del sindicato desde hace 29 años. He hecho cualquier cosa que me han pedido para ayudar”, comentó.El sindicato local (cuyos miembros a menudo lo llaman solo la Culinaria o 226) no siempre se ha impuesto en las contiendas del estado pendular, o swing state, que es el nombre que reciben los estados en disputa. Sin embargo, la diversidad de sus miembros incluye distritos electorales que los profesionales de la política creen que tienen acceso al poder. Alrededor del 55 por ciento de los miembros son mujeres y el 45 por ciento son inmigrantes. El miembro promedio es una mujer latina de 44 años.Otra gran ventaja es su experiencia en las campañas puerta a puerta. El ejército de trabajadores de la hospitalidad que pertenecen al sindicato ya ha tocado más de 750.000 puertas durante esta temporada de campaña, según los líderes sindicales, quienes creen que pueden influir en la elección a favor de los candidatos en gran medida demócratas que apoyan. Muchos candidatos luchan por su supervivencia política, la más notable es la senadora Catherine Cortez Masto, quien está en una cerrada contienda contra el aspirante republicano Adam Laxalt que podría determinar qué partido controla el Senado.Al preguntarles sobre cómo contrarrestarían la capacidad del sindicato de cambiar la decisión de los votantes, los representantes de la campaña de Laxalt respondieron con un comunicado en el que el candidato culpa a los demócratas de la inflación y los altos precios de la gasolina. “Lucharé por impuestos más bajos”, decía el documento “y lucharé contra los cierres del gobierno y los mandatos que dejan sin empleo a los trabajadores”.Una excepción a la inclinación del sindicato hacia los demócratas fue su respaldo a Brian Sandoval, un republicano, en su campaña de reelección de 2014 por la gubernatura. Sandoval no estuvo de acuerdo con su partido en temas importantes para el sindicato, tales como la reforma migratoria y la Ley de Atención Médica Asequible.Ningún republicano en la legislatura estatal votó por dos proyectos de ley recientes respaldados por el sindicato y relacionados con la pandemia: uno que brinda protecciones en el lugar de trabajo para trabajadores de la industria de la hospitalidad y otro que garantiza su derecho a regresar a sus antiguos trabajos.Barack Obama en la sala del sindicato previo a los caucus presidenciales demócratas de Nevada en 2008, durante su primera campaña electoral a la Casa Blanca. El sindicato lo apoyó. Ozier Muhammad para The New York TimesFundado en 1935, el sindicato se afianzó al reclutar trabajadores de otros lugares para que trabajaran en la desértica y pujante ciudad. Sus filas crecieron junto con la industria del juego de Nevada, y no siempre de forma armónica. Una huelga, que inició en 1991 en el hotel casino Frontier, duró más de seis años.Jim Manley, consultor político que fue ayudante del exsenador Harry Reid, dijo que en 2008 el sindicato se volvió imprescindible al ayudar a Obama a vencer a John McCain por 12 puntos porcentuales en Nevada, a pesar de que McCain era originario del vecino estado de Arizona.Hoy, la industria de la hospitalidad es el principal generador privado de empleos y los miembros del sindicato están enraizados en la estructura de poder del estado. Jacky Rosen, la senadora júnior de Nevada, fue miembro del sindicato y mesera en Caesar’s Palace.Las elecciones de la próxima semana serán las primeras desde la muerte de Reid. Fallecido en diciembre pasado, Reid era un político aguerrido cuya relación cercana con el sindicato resultó mutuamente beneficiosa. “La duda es si la maquinaria de Reid es tan efectiva como lo fue en el pasado”, dijo Manley.Jon Ralston, un periodista veterano de Nevada especializado en política, opinó que, para ganar una elección de medio mandato que parece favorecer a los republicanos, los demócratas de Nevada necesitan que el sindicato aumente la cantidad de votantes demócratas que acudirán a las urnas en el condado de Clark, que incluye a Las Vegas.“Es así de sencillo”, escribió en un mensaje de texto y agregó que el sindicato “tiene los recursos humanos y la experiencia para hacerlo”.Padilla comenzó como chef pastelero en Treasure Island, un casino y hotel, hace casi 30 años, tras mudarse a Las Vegas desde Flagstaff, Arizona. Empezó a interesarse en el trabajo del sindicato cuando su cuñado, un trabajador siderúrgico, lo llevó a un mitin. “Resultó que era la Culinaria la que organizaba el mitin”, dijo. “Estaba impresionado”En los últimos dos años, Padilla ha pasado más tiempo realizando campañas de puerta en puerta que horneando pan o pastelitos. En la antesala de las elecciones de 2020, cuando lo despidieron de su trabajo debido a los cierres por la pandemia, el sindicato le pagó para que hiciera campaña puerta a puerta.Luego se mudó temporalmente a Georgia, donde se unió a otros trabajadores que ayudaron a que Raphael Warnock ganara la segunda vuelta que le dio a los demócratas la mayoría de un voto en el Senado. (Los funcionarios sindicales dijeron que los encuestadores probablemente regresarían a Georgia si la campaña por el Senado llega a una segunda vuelta).La congresista Susie Lee, que está en una reñida contienda por la reelección, se dirigió a los integrantes del sindicato en una visita reciente a su sede. La presentó la senadora Jackie Rosen, de rojo, quien fue mesera y miembro del sindicato.Saeed Rahbaran para The New York Times“La gente a la que elegimos es la gente que nos ayudó a mantener el seguro de salud y las prestaciones de desempleo durante la covid”, dijo Padilla. “Ayudamos a la gente que nos ayuda”.Tenía un mensaje parecido para los votantes en octubre, cuando recorría un barrio de clase obrera en la zona norte de la ciudad. Era en el distrito del Representante Steven Horsford, quien fue líder de la Academia Culinaria de Las Vegas, una escuela para trabajadores de la industria que opera el sindicato.Una votante, Deborah Gallacher, le dijo a Padilla que no sabía si votaría este año pero que Horsford “ha tocado a mi puerta. He votado por él siempre que ha estado en la boleta”.Padilla le respondió, “es momento de volver a hacerlo”.Iba con Rocio Leonardo, de 30 años, trabajadora del Resort y Casino Aria. Leonardo, que de niña se mudó de Guatemala a Las Vegas, también hizo campaña en 2020, aunque no es ciudadana y no puede votar. “Hago esto porque siento que es algo positivo para mis hijos”, dijo.Leonardo se aproximó a una casa que tenía banderas de la Infantería de Marina colgando de la puerta de la cochera. Tocó dos veces la puerta, mientras unos perros ladraban de manera inquietante. La mujer que al final salió a la puerta estaba en una llamada telefónica y lucía molesta, hasta que vio la camiseta del sindicato de Leonardo.“Yo también soy Culinaria”, dijo. “Tienen mi voto”.Mientras se alejaba, Leonardo marcó que la mujer “no estaba en casa” en la base de datos de votantes de su teléfono inteligente con el fin de que un trabajador de la campaña regresara para asegurarse de que vote.Esa perseverancia, aunque es tediosa, ha tenido resultados.Padilla en campaña puerta a puerta con Rocio Leonardo, una trabajadora de Guatemala que no puede votar. “Hago esto porque siento que es algo positivo para mis hijos”.Saeed Rahbaran para The New York TimesTed Pappageorge, el secretario-tesorero del sindicato, indicó que elegir aliados para cargos públicos fortalece la posición del sindicato cuando negocia en nombre de sus miembros. “No hacemos cosas sindicales para poder ganar en la política. Hacemos política para poder ganar en contratos sindicales”.Pappageorge expresó que el sindicato está especialmente motivado en este ciclo electoral, ya que los contratos de cinco años con empleadores de la gran mayoría de sus miembros en Las Vegas concluirán el año próximo. “Vamos a tener negociaciones realmente difíciles”, afirmó. “Creemos que podríamos tener huelgas”.El sindicato también está presionando a los políticos locales para que apoyen un programa que busca combatir el rápido ascenso de los costos de las viviendas. Leonardo señaló que el año pasado los caseros aumentaron la renta mensual de la casa que comparte con su esposo y cuatro hijos de 900 a 1400 dólares.“Pensé que era un error”, dijo.Padilla, que tiene tres hijos, comenta los costos de vivienda con todos los votantes que puede. Dice que cuando sus caseros aumentaron el precio del alquiler en 400 dólares, le dijeron: “No hay ninguna ley en Nevada que indique que no podemos aumentar la renta tanto como lo deseemos”.Durante un breve descanso en la campaña puerta a puerta, Padilla comenzó a reflexionar. “Por eso, me tomo esta elección muy en serio”, aseveró. “Siempre hay una lucha”.Brett Anderson empezó a colaborar con la sección Food en julio de 2019. Fue crítico de restaurantes y redactor de reportajes en The Times-Picayune, en Nueva Orléans, de 2000 a 2019. Ha ganado tres premios James Beard, entre ellos el Premio Jonathan Gold a la Voz Local y en 2017 fue nombrado reportero del año de Eater por su cobertura del acoso sexual en la industria de los restaurantes. @BrettEats More

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      How These Las Vegas Workers Could Swing the Nevada Midterm Election

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      Hospitality workers enjoy unusual clout in Nevada, where the powerful Las Vegas culinary union is rallying members to tip close races.LAS VEGAS — Carlos Padilla walked to his pickup truck with a shoulder bag full of campaign literature and an agenda for shaping the future of the country. It was 20 days before the midterm elections, and Mr. Padilla, a pastry chef, was on his way out of the headquarters of the Culinary Workers Union 226.The meeting he’d just attended was part business session, part political rally. There were energizing chants (“2-2-6!” “We vote, we win!”) and speeches from politicians pleading for the support of the 400 assembled servers, cooks, bussers and guest room attendants. Like Mr. Padilla, all would spend the rest of the day knocking on voters’ doors in a city that has long been an electoral pivot in this swing state, and beyond.Even in the world of organized labor, hospitality workers have never been much of a force. But campaign visits to the union hall by presidential candidates — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden — over the years attest to this local’s unusual brand: political power.The source of that power is the union’s 60,000 members, who work in the restaurants, bars, casinos and hotels that drive the economies of Las Vegas and Reno. Thanks to union-negotiated contracts, they enjoy job security and financial stability that are uncommon in hospitality businesses. Wages for members of the local average $26 per hour, according to union officials, and rise every year. The jobs come with health insurance, free training for career advancement and even help in making a down payment on a home.Carlos Padilla, a pastry chef at the Treasure Island casino-hotel, handed campaign literature to Deborah Gallacher, a prospective voter.Saeed Rahbaran for The New York TimesMr. Padilla, 53, is among the hundreds of members who take paid leaves of absence from their jobs (another contract provision) to campaign for candidates the union supports.“I’m a 29-year union member,” Mr. Padilla said. “Anything they’ve ever asked me to do to help, I’ve done.”The local — often referred to by members simply as Culinary, or 226 — hasn’t always prevailed in this swing state’s races. But its diverse membership includes constituencies that political professionals believe hold the keys to power. About 55 percent of members are women, and 45 percent are immigrants. The average member is a 44-year-old Latina.Canvassing expertise is another big advantage. The union’s army of hospitality workers has already knocked on more than 750,000 doors this campaign season, according to union leaders, who believe they can tip the election in favor of the largely Democratic slate they’re currently supporting. Many candidates are fighting for their political lives, most notably Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, who is in a tight race against the Republican challenger Adam Laxalt that could determine which party controls the Senate.Asked how they would counteract the union’s ability to turn out voters, Mr. Laxalt’s campaign responded with a statement blaming Democrats for inflation and high gasoline prices. “I will fight for lower taxes,” it read, “and I will fight against government shutdowns and mandates that put workers out of a job.”The State of the 2022 Midterm ElectionsElection Day is Tuesday, Nov. 8.A Pivotal Test in Pennsylvania: A battle for blue-collar white voters is raging in President Biden’s birthplace, where Democrats have the furthest to fall and the most to gain.Governor’s Races: Democrats and Republicans are heading into the final stretch of more than a dozen competitive contests for governor. Some battleground races could also determine who controls the Senate.Biden’s Agenda at Risk: If Republicans capture one or both chambers of Congress, the president’s opportunities on several issues will shrink. Here are some major areas where the two sides would clash.Ohio Senate Race: Polls show Representative Tim Ryan competing within the margin of error against his G.O.P. opponent, J.D. Vance. Mr. Ryan said the race would be “the upset of the night,” but there is still a cold reality tilting against Democrats.One exception to the union’s Democratic tilt was its endorsement of Brian Sandoval, a Republican, in his 2014 re-election campaign for governor. Mr. Sandoval broke with his party on issues important to the union, like immigration reform and the Affordable Care Act.No Republicans in the state legislature voted for two recent union-backed, pandemic-related bills — one that provides workplace protections for hospitality workers, and one that guarantees their right to return to their old jobs.Barack Obama spoke at the union hall before the Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses in 2008, during his first run for the White House. The union endorsed him.Ozier Muhammad for The New York TimesFounded in 1935, the union established itself by recruiting workers from elsewhere to take jobs in this burgeoning desert city. Its ranks grew alongside Nevada’s gambling industry, not always harmoniously. One strike, which began in 1991 at the Frontier casino-hotel, lasted more than six years.Jim Manley, a political consultant who was an aide to former Senator Harry Reid, said the union became impossible to ignore in 2008, when it helped Mr. Obama beat John McCain by 12 percentage points in Nevada, even though Mr. McCain was from neighboring Arizona.Today, the hospitality industry is Nevada’s biggest private employer, and union members are entrenched in the state’s power structure. Jacky Rosen, Nevada’s junior senator, is a former union member and Caesar’s Palace server.Next week’s elections will be the first since the death last December of Mr. Reid, a political brawler whose close relationship with the union was mutually beneficial. “The question is whether the Reid machine is as effective as it was in the past,” Mr. Manley said.To win in a midterm election that seems to favor Republicans, Nevada Democrats need the union to drive up Democratic voter turnout in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, said Jon Ralston, a veteran Nevada political journalist.“It’s that simple,” he wrote in a text message, adding that the union “has the bodies and experience to do it.”Mr. Padilla started as a pastry chef at Treasure Island, a casino and hotel, nearly 30 years ago, after moving to Las Vegas from Flagstaff, Ariz. He became interested in union work when his brother-in-law, an iron worker, took him to a rally. “Turned out it was Culinary that was holding this rally,” he said. “I was in awe.”In the past two years, Mr. Padilla has spent more time canvassing than baking bread and pastries. In the run-up to the 2020 elections, when he was laid off from his job because of pandemic shutdowns, the union paid him to canvass door-to-door.He then moved temporarily to Georgia, where he joined other hospitality workers helping Raphael Warnock win a tight runoff election that gave Democrats a one-vote Senate majority. (Union officials said canvassers would likely return to Georgia if the current Senate race goes to a runoff.)Representative Susie Lee, who is in a tight re-election battle, addressing members during a recent visit to the union hall. She was introduced by Senator Jacky Rosen (in red), a former union member and Caesar’s Palace server.Saeed Rahbaran for The New York Times“The people we elected are the people who helped us keep our health insurance and unemployment benefits during Covid,” Mr. Padilla said. “We help the people who help us.”He brought a similar message to voters in October as he canvassed in a working-class neighborhood on the north side of town. It was in the district of Representative Steven Horsford, a former head of the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, a school for hospitality workers run by the union.One voter, Deborah Gallacher, told Mr. Padilla that she didn’t know yet if she would vote this year, but that Mr. Horsford “has knocked on my door. I voted for him every time he’s been on the ticket.”Mr. Padilla responded, “It’s time again.”He worked alongside Rocio Leonardo, 30, a room cleaner at Aria Resort & Casino. Ms. Leonardo, who moved to Las Vegas from Guatemala as a child, also campaigned in 2020, although she is not a citizen and can’t vote. “I do this because it feels like something positive for my children,” she said.Ms. Rocio approached a house with Marine Corps and prisoner of war flags hanging from the garage. She knocked twice on the door, as dogs barked ominously. The woman who finally came to the door was on a phone call and looked upset — until she saw Ms. Rocio’s union T-shirt.“I’m Culinary, too,” she said. “You’ve got my vote.”Walking away, Ms. Leonardo marked the woman as “not home” in the voter database on her smartphone, so a campaign worker would return to make sure she voted.Such persistence, while often tedious in practice, has delivered results.Mr. Padilla canvassing with Rocio Leonardo, a hotel room cleaner from Guatemala who can’t vote. “I do this because it feels like something positive for my children,” she said.Saeed Rahbaran for The New York TimesElecting allies to public office strengthens the union’s hand when negotiating on behalf of its members, said Ted Pappageorge, the union’s secretary-treasurer. “We don’t do union stuff so we can win in politics,” he said. “We do politics so we can win in union contracts.”The union is especially motivated this election cycle, Mr. Pappageorge said, because the five-year contracts with employers for the vast majority of its Las Vegas members will expire next year. “We’re going to have really difficult negotiations,” he said. “We think we may have strikes.”The union is also pushing local politicians to support a program to combat the fast-rising cost of housing. Last year, Ms. Leonardo said landlords raised the monthly rent for the house she shares with her husband and four children to $1,400 a month, from $900.“I thought it was a typo,” she said.Mr. Padilla, a father of three, brings up housing costs with as many voters as he can. When landlords raised his rent by $400 last year, he said they told him, “There’s no law in Nevada that says they can’t raise the rent as much as they want.”During a brief break from canvassing, he shook his head in dismay. “I take this election seriously because of that,” he said. “There’s always a fight.”Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and Pinterest. Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice. More