Service + Solidarity Spotlight: Culinary Union’s Argüello-Kline Retires After 32 Years of Fighting for Union Members in Nevada

Working people across the United States have stepped up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our regular Service + Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Geoconda Argüello-Kline has retired after 32 years of organizing and 10 years of leading the Culinary Union-UNITE HERE as secretary-treasurer. Under her leadership, the union representing workers in Nevada’s gaming industry helped lead the effort to support working families during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic. Argüello-Kline came to America as a political refugee in 1979 and rose through the ranks of the Culinary Union-UNITE HERE to become its principal officer.

“There is truly nothing we didn’t try or do in the fight to protect workers, organize, expand benefits, demand our fair share as companies made record profits, elect political leaders who will represent workers, hold elected leaders accountable for their actions or inactions, and champion issues that are important to working families,” Argüello-Kline wrote in a letter to union members announcing her retirement.