Culinary Union loud, strong at Venetian

Tuesday, July 15, 1997 | 9:36 a.m.

Hoisting signs overhead as Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A." blared through portable speakers, union activists once again picketed outside The Venetian resort construction site despite the developer's efforts to keep them off the Strip sidewalks.

About 50 adults and a few children stood shoulder to shoulder Monday evening outside the green draped fence, some swinging their hips and stepping in time to the music that included Aretha Franklin's "Respect."

Organizers and protesters presided over the sunset assembly with bullhorns in hand and without trepidation, bolstered by a judge's decision earlier in the day to delay a decision on the developer's request for an injunction barring raucous demonstrations.

"Sheldon Adelson may be rich, but he doesn't own the Constitution and he doesn't own the public sidewalk," Jim Arnold, Culinary Union secretary-treasurer, said about the prominent Las Vegan who is building the $2 billion hotel-casino fashioned after the romantic Italian city.

A news release circulated by the Culinary Union midday Monday announced that demonstrators were committed to picketing at the site "even if it means being arrested."