Columnist Jeff German: Culinary cries foul on Metro tactics

Sunday, Feb. 9, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

CULINARY Union leaders say they've gotten nothing but grief on the picket line from Metro Police since they filed 75 criminal complaints against Frontier officials a month ago.

They say police have heightened tensions by handing out frivolous citations to strikers for allegedly violating noise levels on the Strip, one of the world's loudest thoroughfares.

At the same time, the union leaders charge police have been slow to investigate their complaints of wrongdoing by Frontier officials.

The union has alleged the Strip resort assaulted pickets, played dirty tricks on them and stole their signs during what has become America's longest standing labor dispute. Several hundred Frontier employees went on strike Sept. 21, 1991.

Police deny they've been harassing the strikers and they insist the union's complaints are being investigated.

But Frontier strike captain Joe Daugherty says none of the 75 pickets who filed complaints against the Frontier have been interviewed by police.

The union, on the other hand, has been cited 11 times within the past month for noise violations at the Frontier and its sister Strip property, the Casino Royale, Daugherty says.

"We've had more citations from police in the last three weeks than we've had in the last three years," he says. "We're not doing anything different than we have since the strike began more than five years ago.

"It's been very upsetting. We file complaints against the company for engaging in illegal activities. And while those complaints have yet to be followed up, they've now increased the scrutiny of the conduct of the strikers."

The citations relate to turning up bull horns and sound systems above levels permitted by a much-criticized county noise ordinance.

The ordinance, which exempts Strip property owners, has been rapped for being unfair.

Today's megaresorts have attractions, such as manmade volcanoes, pirate shows and high-rise roller coasters, that well exceed the noise limits. Yet, pickets standing on the sidewalk are subject to a citation if they can be "clearly heard" 75 feet away.

"It's such a bad law given all the noise on the Strip," Daugherty says. "Things are becoming very antagonistic on the strike line. People are getting mad because the police give an advantage to the Frontier every time they cite us."

Sgt. Will Minor, a spokesman for Metro, says officers aren't going out of their way to infuriate the strikers.

"We're simply going by the laws that we've always gone by," he says. "If there are violations, they get warnings. If it continues, they get citations."

Minor insists the department has been investigating the union's allegations against the Frontier and is sending out letters informing those who filed complaints about the status of their cases.

But Culinary Staff Director D. Taylor remains skeptical.

"I find it peculiar that right when all of these allegations against the Frontier come about, police say we can't do something we've been doing the last five-and-a-half years," Taylor says. "This raises the whole question of the police department's motives.

"They haven't aggressively investigated our complaints against the Frontier, yet they seem very eager in trying to extinguish our constitutional rights on the picket line."

In recent weeks, the Frontier has come under the scrutiny of other law enforcement agencies.

The FBI and State Gaming Control Board have been investigating allegations of unlawful surveillance and dirty tricks.

It has been alleged the Frontier went as far as to wiretap its own phone lines and install hidden video cameras in hotel rooms to eavesdrop on employees and guests.

Covert operations even were said to have been directed at police officers monitoring the strike.

Videotapes of police misconduct are believed to exist.

These allegations, contained in a series of SUN stories the past two months, were raised not by union members, but by former ranking Frontier workers involved in the clandestine activities.

Last week, the Frontier spying scandal took on a new dimension when it was reported in the Washington Post, the newspaper of record in the nation's capital.

Congress last year passed a law creating a federal commission to study gambling's impact across the country. And since then, the casino industry has become a favorite target on Capitol Hill.

Casino insiders fear the Frontier flap could cause undue scrutiny for Nevada's regulatory process, regarded as the best in the world.

Five years ago, the Control Board had a chance to deny the Elardi family a license to operate the Casino Royale, when other allegations of wrongdoing at the Frontier were raised.

Gaming's critics in Washington are looking for anything they can to soil the industry and the Frontier has the potential to provide them with plenty of ammunition.

The latest Frontier accusations seem to have rallied organized labor in Nevada and the rest of the country.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the nation's most powerful labor boss, comes to Las Vegas Wednesday to focus attention on the scandal and its effect on the five-year strike.

His comments are likely to be picked up by the national media.

Then, on Feb. 19 in Los Angeles, Sweeney and his executive council, which includes the country's top labor leaders, will consider taking more action to stir up interest in the Frontier saga.

The national attention should provide comfort to Culinary Union leaders, as they cope with the grief they believe they've been getting from police on the picket line.