Arlene Holt Baker is the executive vice president of the AFL-CIO. 

In the gambling capital of the country, labor and management are putting their chips on one very safe bet: training for workers.

Yesterday, I had the unique opportunity to visit the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, a labor-management trust. The academy is the result of a collectively bargained labor-management partnership with UNITEHERE!'s Las Vegas Culinary Workers Union Local 226, Bartenders Union Local 165 and employers, including 26 major hotels and casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

The academy provides training for hourly workers, many of whom are immigrants, who want to enter the hotel industry. It also provides upgrade education and training for current union members looking to brush up their skills and have greater career mobility in the hospitality industry.

As Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan travel the country peddling their budget that would decimate Medicare, cut Social Security and give millionaires more tax breaks they don't need, union activists are reminding voters what their economic plans mean for working families. AFGE and other unions protested outside Sheldon Adelson's Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nev., yesterday during a Paul Ryan fundraiser. 

Mitt Romney “doesn’t know a thing about responsibility,” AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka will tell delegates of the Heat and Frost Insulators today in Las Vegas at their 2012 convention. Romney’s plan to better the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers at the expense of the middle class is not the kind of America we want. 

It’s been made abundantly clear in recent weeks that Mitt Romney doesn’t share the values the majority of American workers hold.

What unites working families is much more powerful than anything that divides them. AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka expressed his desire to unite the labor and immigrant communities at the National Council of La Raza convention in Las Vegas, Nevada today.

Trumka spoke about the shared values the two groups have in common and how they are committed to working together to build a stronger America and a robust economy for future generations.

Here is an excerpt of his remarks: