Day 139 - 21 Jun 95 - Page 21

     
     1   Q.   But like what?
     2        A.  That McDonald's was unfair -----
     3
     4   Q.   With its labour practices?
     5        A.   Everything.  Anything they could find fault with, they
     6        were trying to influence the community.
     7
     8   Q.   Wages?
     9        A.  Wages was not a big issue.  It was an issue, but it was
    10        not something they dwelled on.
    11
    12   Q.   So they were criticising you on environment/index.html">litter, things like that?
    13        A.  Yes.  As I mentioned, they criticised us on anything
    14        and everything they could think of.
    15
    16   Q.   The main thing was the lack of union representation and
    17        rights?
    18        A.  They wanted to represent the employees, yes.
    19
    20   Q.   That was the main publicity and reason for the dispute?
         A.  That was one of the things that they publicised.
    22
    23   Q.   Was it the main thing?
    24        A.  I would say they would focus on it a lot, but I cannot
    25        say it was the main thing.
    26
    27   Q.   Is there something else that sticks in your head as
    28        being -----
    29
    30   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What other things do you remember?  In what
    31        other respects were they critical of McDonald's in
    32        their -----
    33        A.  They were critical of our food; they were critical of
    34        our charitable work that we did in the community; every
    35        good thing we had done in the community they were critical
    36        of and said we either should have done it better or it was
    37        for reasons other than why it was done; anything and
    38        everything.  They tried to build an image of McDonald's,
    39        our negativism.
    40
    MS. STEEL:  But the focus was on unions, in any event?
    42        A.  Focus was on their union, and not unions in general.
    43        If you are asking me about unions and focus, they were not
    44        talking about other unions, they were talking about
    45        themselves.
    46
    47   Q.   How long was this going on for?
    48        A.  Four months, five months.
    49
    50   Q.   Were you involved over the whole of that time? 
    51        A.  Yes. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Initially -----
    54        A.  Let me correct one thing.  I believe that their
    55        organising activity had been well underway before the
    56        operator or I ever became aware of it, so I cannot tell you
    57        the entire scope of time that they were involved with it,
    58        because it appeared, when we got to the NLRB hearing, that
    59        they had been working at this for some time.
    60