AUPE picketer racism and sexual assault - incident report

The final portion of an incident report submitted by a member.

Perhaps the most egregious incident so far happened on Sunday morning, at about 9:45.  My daughters and I were heading out to church, leaving early because of the strikers.  I had my phone in the holder, but unfortunately what happened was out of frame and there were too many other sounds for the audio to pick it up.  As we left our spot, several strikers moved to block the driveway, turning their backs to us, with the exception of one man, who paced back and forth.  A SG came over with a video camera, confirming with me that I was a resident.  There were more strikers in front of the raised beds.  We saw a (white) woman in the sidewalk in front of the underground entrance.  She had dropped something and was stomping around, trying to keep it from blowing away.  It turned out to be a $5 bill.  After picking up the bill, she walked over towards the group in front of us.  Seeing the (black) security guard, she called out, “I thought you people liked girls with big asses?” while laughing.  I believe she repeated the statement at least one more time.  We were totally stunned to hear such a blatantly racist comment!  Then the pacing guy reached where she was and turned around to pace back, at which point she reached out and either slapped or pinched his butt!  As far as I know, this would constitute sexual harassment.

Based on her behaviour, my older daughter wondered if this woman were under the influence of something.

(See update and videos below.)

This morning (Monday), my husband was feeling well enough to go into work.  Because of the strikers, he walked in, carrying his work laptop in a backpack and using a cane.  This is not going to be good for his pain levels. When I drove my daughter to work later, we were again blocked, but only for a short time, as they were more interested in mobbing the red vehicle of a replacement worker.  Thankfully, given that it was about 6:30am, they remained quiet.

At this point, I wish to again state how much I appreciate the security guards.  I am positive that their presence has prevented things from being much worse, as has all the video recordings.  I have found the union strikers to be aggressive, obnoxious, intimidating and insulting.  Racist and sexist can also be added to the list for at least one of them.  For a group that is demanding “respect”, they are incredibly disrespectful. 

I am aware that there is no way SAIL can meet union demands, and to be honest, I am glad of it.  Thanks to their behaviour, the AUPE has removed any possibility of support or sympathy for their position.  As an Artspace member, I am completely against meeting any of their demands.

While I understand that people are allowed to strike at their place of employment and business, it is ridiculous that they should be picketing our private homes and disrupting our personal lives.  The SAIL office is their place of work.  Our homes are not.  Members who need SAIL’s services are clients, not places of business.  To define member units as part of their workplaces would be like a cable company considering client homes as workplaces because there are cable boxes in them.

Also of concern is the fact that, after being told “no”, they continue to harass people.  No means no and stop means stop.  To continue to bother people after clearly been told to stop constitutes harassment.  I am also disturbed by the strikers bringing children to participate.  I do not object to the children being there, but I do wonder about children wearing signs and chanting.  Obviously, minors cannot be union members, and I question the legality of having children actively participate in a strike.

Worse is the negative effect this strike is having on people’s health.  AUPE claims to care about the client members, yet their actions are causing harm.  We aren’t even in the high rise, and we do not need SAIL services, yet their behaviour is having a negative effect on the health of my husband.  It is even having a negative effect on our ability to homeschool my younger daughter; their chanting, for example, has prevented her from practising her guitar due to the volume.  I hate to imagine how much worse it is for members in the lower levels of the high rise!

I want to thank the board for acting on behalf of Artspace members during this stressful time.

Note that the woman who made the racist comment to the security guard, then manhandled another picketers buttock, does not seem to have been back since.  The man who's butt she grabbed, however, is a regular among the paid picketers.

Update: Oct. 8, 2014

There is now video of the incident mentioned at the top of this incident report.  Based on that, we now know that the person who made the racist comment was Rachel Shepherd, and she has been a regular among the AUPE picketers.  Also present was AUPE VP, Karen Weier.  The man who's butt got slapped was picket captain, Jaime Urbina-Maclean.  The security video also shows Rachel slapping a woman's butt.  That picketer appears to be a striking SAIL employee.

Below is video from 3 different cameras.