The Culinary Workers union is one of the most powerful labor groups in Nevada and has yet to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary. | AP Photo Sanders staffers posed as union members in Vegas

DES MOINES, Iowa — Campaign staffers for Sen. Bernie Sanders donned union pins to gain access to worker dining rooms in Las Vegas, the powerful Culinary Workers union said Thursday.

“We can confirm multiple reports of Bernie Sanders’ campaign staffers attempting and gaining access to employee dining rooms at Las Vegas Strip properties where over 57,000 members that we represent work,” said Geoconda Arguello-Kline, Culinary Workers Union Local 226 secretary-treasurer.


Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver confirmed the action and offered an apology.

"We have reminded our staff that that is not appropriate and that they should not do it again," Weaver said. "In addition, I have spoken with the political director of the Culinary Union to express the campaign’s regret at this having occurred and our support of the union’s fight for workers’ rights. The political director was extremely gracious and we are glad to have this resolved."

The journalist Jon Ralston reported Thursday that several Sanders campaign staffers wore Culinary Workers union pins to gain access to at least four hotels in Las Vegas.

The Culinary Workers union is one of the most powerful labor groups in Nevada and has yet to endorse a candidate in the Democratic primary.

The union backed Barack Obama over Clinton in the Democratic primary in an acrimonious battle still fresh in the mind of Nevada Democrats, and it remains a major source of voter mobilization in the state. The union plans to register 10,000 more of its union members to vote in the next six months, it has said.

The union made headlines this cycle when it protested outside of the Trump International Hotel before a Democratic debate in October, a rally which Clinton attended.