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A London man is calling for striking Western University workers to cool the rhetoric on the picket line after an incident involving his wife and three-year-old daughter.
Striking workers swore at the pair and delayed a therapist’s appointment for his daughter Monday morning at Elborn College on Western Road, Bill Dixon says.
“There was just my wife and my daughter in the car and all these big guys saying threatening words. It’s completely unacceptable,” he said.
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“They have every right to strike, but when you are blocking for medical appointments, it’s not acceptable.”
The union representing those workers say an incident like the one Dixon described didn’t happen.
Chris Yates, vice-president of CUPE Local 2361, said he checked with the picket line captains.
“By no means was anyone cursing or swearing at anyone the whole day. That is one of the main tenets of our protocol, to remain courteous,” Yates said.
But pickets will be told to make sure anyone with a medical appointment at Elborn College gets through the line as quickly as possible, he said.
“This is a newer spot for our people picketing and they were making sure people were waiting the set period of time. Now, we know what’s going on at this line, we’re going to have a protocol in place to make sure that if someone shows up and has an appointment, that’s somebody we need to get in as quickly as we can,” Yates said. “We’ve got a handle on that site now.”
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CUPE Local 2361 represents 330 caretakers, landscaping staff and trades workers at Western University who have has been on strike since Aug. 30.
Western has closed some roads on campus, so picket lines have been set up at other entrances to university facilities. That’s caused traffic headaches around the campus.
The university’s Elborn College, on Western Road just north of Sarnia Road, offers a master’s in physical therapy.
Dixon’s daughter has Down syndrome and has a speech therapy appointment there every week, Dixon said.
Last week, there were no problems, but this week, his wife found the entrance blocked by pickets who were letting one car through every 10 minutes, he said.
When his wife said she had an appointment to get to, the pickets responded – with a lot of profanity – that they didn’t care, Dixon said.
They also threatened not to let her in at all and break her headlights, he said.
“They were using profanities and going on and on. My wife is completely rattled. My daughter’s appointment was a waste of time because she was all frazzled.”
The pair ended up about a half hour late for the appointment, Dixon said.
Pickets are only supposed to hold up vehicles roughly three to four minutes maximum at a time, but each day the union discusses the timing with the police officers on duty at the picket line, Yates said.
“That’s not at all why we’re out here,” he said of the claims about threats and profanity. “A lot of the people we see every day, especially students and staff, we need to work with when we get back to work,” he said.
“We’re not having a strike against them at all. This is an issue between the employer and ourselves.”
A dispute over staffing and pay levels is at the centre of the strike.
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