Union won’t let arrests scare it

David W. Wadell

Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998 | 9:15 a.m.

First published Sept. 27, 1991.

Culinary workers plan to continue demonstrations on Frontier Hotel property despite a federal judge turning down their request for an order to block the arrest of pickets.

More demonstrations outside the Strip resort were planned for the weekend, said Jim Arnold, secretary-treasurer of Local 226. He predicted there would be as many as 200 arrests during a demonstration at 6 p.m. Saturday.

"We're going to exercise our rights under the federal law, even if it takes going to jail again," Arnold said.

Arnold said Southern Nevada labor leaders met early today and agreed that prominent union officials would be among the first arrested Saturday.

More than two dozen strikers were arrested and charged with trespassing last Sunday while they handed out leaflets during a demonstration at the front door of the hotel.

The union contends its members have the right to picket on private property under the National Labor Relations Act and such arrests are unfair labor practices. The National Labor Relations Board is set to hear the complaint Dec. 10.

The legal maneuvering between the Culinary workers and the hotel continued today with both sides scheduled to appear in District Court for a hearing on a move by the hotel to limit picketing.

The hotel has petitioned the local court to require picketers to walk in single file on the sidewalk and maintain a separation of six feet between them. The hotel has also asked that the pickets not be allowed within 10 feet of the hotel's driveways.

A similar suit was dismissed last week, but the hotel refiled its case and it was assigned to a different judge.

"They're just judge shopping," said Johnny LaVoie, the Culinary Union's administrative assistant.

Thursday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Howard McKibben said he was reluctant to approve the union's request for a temporary restraining order, deciding the case should be dealt with by the National Labor Relations Board before the judiciary becomes involved.

The judge, however, may grant an order at a later date. He scheduled a hearing on the union's request for a preliminary injunction for Nov. 11.

During Thursday's hearing in federal court, which was conducted by telephone with the judge in Reno and the attorneys in Las Vegas, Richard McCracken, the union's attorney, said the arrests denied the union members their rights under federal law.

While McCracken conceded the NLRB has the power to seek injunctions, such as the one sought by the Culinary workers, it has rarely used it and even then the process can be lengthy.

Johnnie Rawlinson, a deputy district attorney, argued the police department acted properly in its enforcement of the trespassing law and an injunction was not necessary.

While the hotel was not named in the federal case, its attorney, Steve Cohen, argued against granting the order.

Cohen said union members are verbally abusing the casino's customers who cross the picket line.

"The patrons are being harassed," he said. "They have to run a gauntlet to get in the door."

Culinary workers, who struck last Saturday morning, have been without a contract at the Strip hotel since 1989. The talks broke down in 1990 when the hotel's management put its last offer on the table and implemented it without the union's consent.

Union members contend they are paid as much as $1 an hour less at the Frontier than their counterparts at other Strip hotels and that management has destroyed their health and pension benefits.