Reprinted from the AFL-CIO’s blog Now by Kenneth Quinnell on March 2, 2021.
This year, for Women’s History Month, [the AFL-CIO is] taking a look at a group of leaders who are currently active making women’s history across the labor movement. Check back daily for a new profile and meet some of the people working to improve not only their community, but also to improve conditions for working people across the country. Today’s profile is Geoconda Argüello-Kline.
Geoconda Argüello-Kline was raised in Managua, Nicaragua, and came to the United States as a political refugee in 1979. In 1983, she moved to the Las Vegas Valley and worked as a guest room attendant at the Fitzgeralds Hotel, where a difficult contract fight spurred her desire to obtain better working conditions and protect her family. She became involved in the Culinary Workers Union-UNITE HERE Local 226 as a negotiating committee leader and a picket line captain. In 1990, she joined the union’s staff and since then has held many positions and worked tirelessly for the working people of Nevada and beyond. Under Argüello-Kline’s leadership, no other organization in Nevada has done more to support working families during the COVID-19 pandemic than the Culinary Union.
