Nevada’s largest union group is backing
Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto in her bid for the U.S. Senate.
Nevada’s American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, or the AFL-CIO, is endorsing the state's former attorney general Cortez Masto’s run for outgoing Senator Harry Reid’s seat.
Danny Thompson is with the labor group, which represents about 120 unions with more than 200,000 members. Thompson says those members come from professions including " the culinary workers on the Las Vegas strip, firefighters, police officers, building tradesmen, electricians, brick layers, city, county state workers, nurses and hospital personnel, and others."
Thompson says the group is supporting Cortez Masto because of her support for raising the minimum wage, ensuring equal pay, and her stance of global trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP.
“We don’t want those trade deals." Thompson says. "We can’t compete with someone who makes two dollars an hour with no environmental or safety laws.”
The TPP has been a contentious issue during election season with Presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump both opposing it.