Alliance Releases New Video Showing Culinary Union Boss Protests Result In Violence

Video Evidence Shows Distasteful Protest Activity Is Illegal By Big Labor’s Own Standards

(November 5, 2013) –Las Vegas, NV – The Alliance to Protect Nevada Jobs (APNJ) responded today to a letter sent on behalf of union bosses at the Culinary Union Local 226 to the Clark County Commissioners by releasing new footage discrediting their argument.

The union letter states that their ongoing protest outside The Cosmopolitan is legal and protected free speech that can only be punished if their picketing amounts to “fighting words.” However, new footage obtained by The Alliance to Protect Nevada Jobs shows a fight breaking out during one of these protests. This video, which was secured on October 12, 2013 outside of The Cosmopolitan, shows a visitor being harassed by a union thug, calling him a “loser” with a megaphone before he was set to enter the facility. The visitor confronts the union thug and the incident turns violent before being broken up by others at the scene.

Last week, APNJ sent a letter to the County Commissioners of Clark County asking them to enforce the law and arrest the Culinary Union leaders who are inciting aggression by attacking tourists visiting Las Vegas, while protesting on the strip. Chapter 12.33 of the county Code makes it unlawful for “any person” “to challenge another person to a fight,” “incite a disturbance” or “interfere with, annoy, accost, or harass any other person with conduct which by its nature would tend to incite a disturbance.” The letter states, “This is precisely what the union is doing at The Cosmopolitan.”

“Union bosses continue to argue that they can essentially do anything they want so long as it doesn’t end in violence, whether it’s insulting tourists, racking up a sizeable bill on Clark County taxpayers, or creating an unsafe environment for Nevada families,” said David McGowan, State Director for the APNJ. “This new footage discredits their flawed argument that these protests are civil and within their rights and shows that, even by their own standard, they are in violation of the law. The actions are doing nothing to advance the interests of the workers they claim to represent, they are only serving to hurt Nevada families, businesses, and taxpayers. Our local officials should do what it takes to hold these union thugs accountable for their actions before it escalates into further acts of violence and gets out of control.”

To view the video, click here.

BACKGROUND:

“ Culinary Union Bosses Argue That Ongoing Picketing Outside The Cosmopolitan Is Only Punishable If It Leads To Violence.”:

“The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear that offensive speech cannot be punished unless and until it amounts to ‘fighting words’. Indeed, even the heinous behavior of the church which picketed servicemen’s funerals was recently held to be protected by the First Amendment. Snyder v. Phelps, 131 S.Ct. 1207 (2011). ‘Fighting words’ must involve ‘those personally abusive epithets which, when addressed to the ordinary citizen, are, as a matter of common knowledge, inherently likely to provoke violent reaction.’ Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343, 359 (2003). ‘To characterize speech as actionable “fighting words,” the government must prove that there existed “a likelihood that the person addressed would make an immediate violent response.”’” (Letter, Richard G. McCracken To Clark County Commissioners On Behalf Of The Culinary Workers Local 226, 10/31/13)

About The Alliance to Protect Nevada Jobs (APNJ):

APNJ is a project of the Workforce Fairness Institute (WFI), whose mission is educate the public on issues related to workforce fairness, and to build greater public awareness of efforts that interfere with the good employer/employee relationships that most businesses enjoy. WFI has taken on similar efforts in other states to shine a spotlight on the questionable behavior union bosses engage in that usually hurts the very workers they represent.

The Workforce Fairness Institute is an organization committed to educating voters, employers, employees and citizens about issues affecting the workplace. To learn more, please visit: https://www.workforcefairness.com.

To schedule an interview with a Workforce Fairness Institute representative, please contact Lauren Tate at (202)-677-7060.

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