LV union fined for illegal protests

Brian Seals

Thursday, Oct. 22, 1998 | 12:41 p.m.

Las Vegas union confrontations with construction companies are becoming violent and have spilled over into the courtroom.

District Judge Mark Gibbons fined three unions and a union organizing group $500 for contempt of court Wednesday for violating a court order governing picketing practices at Precision Concrete, after testimony that included tales of fights between union backers and non-striking workers.

Neither side was particularly pleased with the outcome. Precision attorney Greg Smith urged tougher penalties.

"We're not having much of an affect here," Smith said. "I'd urge the court to put more teeth into it."

But Timothy Sears, an attorney representing the unions, said any violations of the restraining order were minimal.

"If those are violations, it's pretty small potatoes," Sears said as he left the courtroom.

Precision Concrete had asked the judge to find the unions in contempt, saying the unions trespassed on one Precision job site and obstructed the entrance to another.

The unions disputed the allegations, which stemmed from incidents Sept. 24 at the Sunrise Casino job site and Sept. 25 at the Concord Warehouse job site.

At the Sunrise Casino project, the unions were accused of obstructing an entrance gate -- a violation of the injunction. The unions contended they were striking peacefully and that no one was prevented from entering the gate.

Union organizer Leonard Taylor testified he was struck after stepping in between a non-striker and Precision worker. A melee ensued, and Taylor said he was hit by a rock in the chest. When displayed in the courtroom, the rock appeared to be about the size of a soccer ball.

"As soon as I got my breath, I dialed 911," Taylor said.

The fight eventually dissipated, the non-strikers returned to work and police later arrived. Both sides accused the other of being the aggressor. But Gibbons cut short the accounts of the brawl, instead focusing on conditions of the injunction.

He ruled the pickets were formed in a way that gave the appearance of obstructing the gate. He advised the organizers to have pickets strike along side the gates rather than in front of them.

At the Concord Warehouse site, the dispute stemmed over whether picketers trespassed on the job site and for how long.

Daniel O'Shea, an organizer for the carpenters' union, testified a group of drywall workers stopped by the job site on the spur of the moment to show support for Precision workers.

About 40 of the drywall workers entered the site and stood along a ditch. Some of the strikers crossed the ditch to give the workers water bottles before being told they were trespassing.

O'Shea said there were no signs or fences indicating trespassing was forbidden, and the strikers withdrew when told they were trespassing.

Smith noted the injunction prohibited trespassing. O'Shea said he was not aware of the terms of the injunction.

Gibbons ruled that there had been trespassing for at least a short period of time.

He reiterated the terms of the injunction and ordered them translated into Spanish for the Hispanic workers involved.

The concrete workers' union and the Building Trades Organizing Project, a group devoted to organizing the building trades, have targeted Precision as one of several companies it wants to organize.

In addition to Precision, Kukurin Concrete has also been targeted.

Like Precision, Kukurin and Lewis Homes -- a builder that employes concrete subcontractors -- have obtained orders preventing trespassing by union supporters and barring obstruction of entrance gates to the companies' respective job sites.

Various protests and sit-in strikes spurred the companies to obtain the court orders.