Venetian fighting union activity at Strip building site

Bill Gang

Tuesday, July 15, 1997 | 9:38 a.m.

The 6,000-room Venetian hotel-casino looms as a huge prize for the Culinary Union.

The problem for the union is that owner Sheldon Adelson isn't willing to sign an agreement to make the resort on the site of the old Sands casino a union property.

In a pre-emptive strike to muzzle the union, Venetian lawyers asked District Judge Myron Leavitt on Monday for a temporary restraining order against what they called noisy and intrusive union demonstrations.

The resort came within a whisker of winning its order until union attorney Richard McCracken pointed out that an identical legal action had been filed in federal court in Las Vegas and Judge Philip Pro had refused Friday to grant a restraining order.

Leavitt had even outlined the restrictions he was willing to put on the union's activities, but he said he wouldn't make any rulings as long as the companion case was pending in federal court.

It is expected, however, that Leavitt's limits could be put into place next week if the federal court action is dismissed, as Venetian attorney Rodney Jean promised it would be.

The case will return to Leavitt's courtroom on Monday to determine if that has been done.

What became clear at Monday's hearing is that the labor disagreement has the potential to grow into a full-fledged, long-term dispute such as the one that has scarred the Frontier hotel-casino for the past five years.

Although construction of the Venetian is in its infancy and not scheduled to be completed until early 1999, the Culinary Union has launched a street-side offensive to muscle an agreement from the reluctant resort.

Jean complained that the union has been using bullhorns and high-decibel amplifiers to harass potential customers visiting the resort's "preview center" where a mock hotel room has been built and furnished.

Beginning July 9, the union set up the system that "blasted at an ear-splitting level ... a painful, loud and dangerous health condition," Jean complained.

Demonstrators chanted "No contract, no peace" and called the chain-link fence installed at the sidewalk to be "Sheldon's wailing wall."

Jean characterized the comment as "kind of anti-Semitic."

The amplified music and chanting reached levels of 122 decibels -- above what OSHA permits in workplaces -- above what the union would allow its members to endure on the job, Jean argued.

Jean lamented that the fight over the demonstrators "may be the beginning of a long, drawn-out labor dispute."

McCracken agreed "it is going to be a long-term situation ... a battle" and charged that the resort is trying to use the court action as a "propaganda device."

He urged Leavitt not to issue a restraining order against union activities -- such as blocking driveways and jamming sidewalks with pickets -- that have not yet occurred.

But the judge said he was inclined to grant those restrictions along with limiting the amplified protests to informational statements and labor-oriented music designed to get the union's message out to the public.

Leavitt said he also would like to see the union post a $5,000 bond in the event of violations.

But in the end, the matter became moot when McCracken revealed the federal court action that actually was filed by a California security firm hired by The Venetian.

Because of that interstate contract, the security firm had the right to seek a federal court restraining order while The Venetian, as a Nevada company, is limited to fighting its legal battles in state court.