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Picketers March to Own Drum

ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey – As reported by the Press of Atlantic City: "Shortly after noon Thursday, Raul Villantoy, a food server on strike against Caesars Atlantic City, walked around a Pacific Avenue sidewalk carrying a Royal Dansk cookie can that was splitting at its seams, had a 3-inch-deep dent dug into its metal bottom and showed a hole gouged through one side.

"…Villantoy is one of about 10,000 Local 54 members who went on strike against seven casinos a week ago today, and one of many who pound out a basic beat as they walk their picket lines, trying to get the union's message heard by people who pass them on the street or the Boardwalk.

"The pickets have shown lots of creativity in making their music to strike by, finding the percussion possibilities in everything from water jugs to cheese graters to turkey trays to bleach bottles to dog bowls to picket signs to, in a few cases, actual drums. And they have gotten noticed - but not just by the public they hope to sway onto their side.

"…Under the court orders, strikers at most of the casinos are forbidden from making excess noise between 6 p.m. and 10 a.m., although the union has appealed those orders.

"Still, that leaves eight hours when most pickets are free to use their imaginations to make their point - or at least make their point louder.

"…Take Francisco Rivera from housekeeping and his friend, Edwin Mercado, who were keeping their marching time on the tops of real drums - and who play real music together with more friends every Christmas season, a tradition they brought here with them from Puerto Rico.

"…Still, not all the strikers believe that victory and volume necessarily go together. Mildred Crespo, a housekeeper picketing near Bally's on Pacific, wasn't making a peep any louder than the almost-silent reading she was doing to herself, by herself, from a pink, pocket Bible she had opened to Psalms.

"'Because I know who can answer prayer,' Crespo said softly, in a rare, quiet moment in this loud strike."

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