Adelson tangling again with Culinary

Grace Leong

Wednesday, April 2, 2003 | 10:44 a.m.

Sheldon Adelson's Venetian resort on the Las Vegas Strip and the Culinary Union are in another legal battle.

This one is over the union's dissemination of an alleged Jan. 6 settlement of unfair labor practice charges filed in 1999 by the National Labor Relations board over alleged actions by the hotel-casino to keep union protesters off its sidewalks.

The Venetian, in documents filed Friday with the NLRB, accused Culinary Local 226 of violating federal labor laws when Jose Pineda, a union representative, allegedly "falsely impersonat(ed) a federal employee" and distributed a "falsified document purporting to be an NLRB-provided Notice to (Venetian) employees."

Describing the document as a "draft of a potential resolution" of the NLRB's charges, The Venetian said that "portions of the document were printed in blue ink, to enhance the apparent authenticity of the document."

"In addition, the name of ... (Venetian owner) Sheldon Adelson, was typed on the documents distributed by Pineda to give the false impression that Adelson had signed or otherwise endorsed the document. In truth, Adelson never signed any such document," The Venetian said.

Pineda was also accused of distributing a Spanish-language version of the document without The Venetian's authorization and allegedly stating to Venetian employees that he was distributing the document because The Venetian allegedly failed to do so.

NLRB deputy regional attorney Steve Wamser said the NLRB has not yet ruled on The Venetian's allegations that the document Pineda had distributed was false.

Wamser and union attorney Richard McCracken said The Venetian had reneged on an informal settlement signed Jan. 6 by Venetian attorney Richard Rosenberg, Wamser and an NLRB regional director when it allegedly refused to post notices of the settlement at its premises.

"The union was passing out copies of a genuine document," McCracken said. "Rosenberg had signed the settlement with the NLRB and the union but The Venetian reneged on it. I offered to take Adelson's name off that notice if that's what's bothering them, but they refused. The Venetian is upset at the fact that the notice was being circulated."

But Rosenberg disagreed, saying the document was a "forgery" and that Adelson "never agreed to the proposed settlement because he didn't believe he had violated the law when he sought to protect his private property rights in 1999."

Adelson has long been at odds with the Culinary because of his refusal to cooperate with the union's efforts to organize his resort.