Industrial Union -- despite losing two court cases and being compared to an annoying insect.

George Rushe -- now a freelance journalist -- brought a private prosecution against BIU treasurer Collin Simmons, charging him with assault, violently interfering with political liberty and threatening behaviour.

The case followed an incident in July, 1992 when Rushe was ordered out of a union meeting during the bitter Island-wide strike caused by the Bermuda Forwarders dispute.

Last May the charges were thrown out by Senior Magistrate the Wor. Will Francis.

He said the treasurer had taken Rushe's arm and then escorted him out of union HQ.

Rushe had not kept up his union payments and was therefore "not a member in good standing''.

The union was entitled to order members out if they were journalists, the magistrate said.

Rushe appealed, but yesterday Chief Justice the Hon. Mr. Justice Ward dismissed the case.

Rushe began yesterday's hearing by asking for it to be postponed on the grounds that his lawyer, Mr. William Cox, had withdrawn from the case less than 48 hours earlier because of "other commitments''.

But Mr. Arthur Hodgson, lawyer for Simmons, said Rushe had been conducting the case himself up to now.

He asked for it be dismissed because Rushe had not followed the correct procedure. He had complained of legal errors by the magistrate, but had not specified them.

Rushe was treating the courts in a "cavalier fashion'' because of a "private, personal dispute'' with the BIU.

"The BIU is a significant organisation in this Country, doing very important work,'' Mr. Hodgson said. "In the normal course of things one does not find gadflies swatting around it, causing difficulties and distractions. But Mr.

Rushe has done that.'' Rushe had "direct lines'' to Police prosecutors but they had not seen fit to prosecute Simmons, he said.

Now the journalist was "seeking to waste more time''. Rushe asked the judge not to dismiss his case on a "technicality''.

After Mr. Justice Ward dismissed the appeal, Mr. Hodgson asked for an order that Rushe should pay Simmons' costs.

Simmons was out of pocket by $10,000, he said. If he had been found guilty, the fines would not have been that much. And Rushe was "a man of retirement, a man of some leisure''.

Rushe argued the BIU would pay Simmons' costs. He denied bringing a frivolous action or carrying out a "legal or journalistic exercise''.

"It was an attempt to establish a basic democratic principle, that a person who is a journalist has as much rights in this Country as anybody else.'' A private prosecution was not the right procedure for that, Mr. Justice Ward told him. He should have asked for a Supreme Court declaration that his political liberty had been infringed.

There should possibly be a financial penalty to prevent people coming to court "for the pleasure of it''.

But an order for costs had not been made in a criminal case in recent times.

If such a change was to be introduced, a warning would have to be given.

After the case, Simmons declined to say whether his legal bill would be paid by the union.

Rushe said: "Now I shall be following the long, laborious civil route to try to establish this most important principle.''