Striking Vancouver union worker charged with assault: police

Last Updated: Monday, October 1, 2007 | 8:43 PM PT

CBC News

A striking union member in Vancouver's civic strike is facing a charge of assault after an altercation on the picket line outside the Orpheum Theatre Saturday night.

The B.C. Labour Relations Board granted an interim order last Wednesday, preventing striking Vancouver civic workers from picketing at the concert hall's stage door.
(CBC)

Vancouver police said William George McClure, a city clerk who belongs to CUPE Local 15, was involved in an assault against a 55-year-old violist.

"We were called after there was an altercation between one of the people who works at the Orpheum and another person that was standing outside the Orpheum," Fanning said Monday. "They got into an argument and a man was assaulted."

The city's inside workers, represented by CUPE Local 15, were supposed to stay 10 metres away from the stage door during the Vancouver Symphony of Orchestra's opening night Saturday, following a B.C. Labour Relations Board ruling Wednesday.

But McClure, 54, allegedly crossed the zone and engaged in a heated conversation with the victim, police said. He then allegedly struck the victim in the groin, something police consider a minor assault, police said.

Alan Gove, a spokesman for the Vancouver Symphony of Orchestra, said extra security personnel had been hired for Monday night's performance.
(CBC)

No one from the union, which represents 3,500 full-time and seasonal workers responsible for services such as community centres and city-run daycare facilities, was available for comment Monday night.

Alan Gove, a spokesman for the VSO, told CBC News that extra security personnel have been hired for the performance Monday night. They were to be stationed outside the stage door.

"Just a little bit more of it," Gove said. "We learned something Saturday night that we can't make any assumptions."