Day 140 - 22 Jun 95 - Page 09
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2 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You may think it is obvious, but there may be
3 a lot of guesswork in it, you see, depending on whether it
4 is or is not obvious to the person you are asking questions
5 of. It is just simpler, I suggest, to put what you say the
6 significance is, get your answer; then, if you think you
7 can make ground on the answer, ask further questions.
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9 MR. MORRIS: I put that, is it not obvious, Mr. Stein, that if
10 there has been a union dispute in a particular store and
11 the workers there are sympathetic to an union, but if they
12 are transferred out, even though there may be votes in
13 other stores, their influence would be diluted, and it is
14 possible that thereby none of the stores would have a
15 majority to keep a union active?
16 A. I reject what you are saying. I think I just
17 mentioned, elections took place in every store. In my
18 estimation, that would be silly, to do that.
19
20 Q. What about the NLRB position on workers being transferred
21 away from a particular workplace when there is some kind of
22 ongoing union dispute?
23 A. If transfers are a frequent happening, as exist in a
24 McDonald's environment, there is absolutely nothing wrong
25 with it at all. The issue is: was it done for business
26 purposes? That is the issue; and we transfer people for
27 business purposes all the time.
28
29 Q. Is that part of the agreement between McDonald's and their
30 crew, say in the United States, that there are times when
31 they have to accept a transfer to another place?
32 A. It is possible.
33
34 Q. There may be times?
35 A. It is an understood practice, so I will say yes.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: This is, as I understand it, in the context
38 where you have someone who is running a relatively local
39 network of stores, be it a licensee with four stores ---
40 A. That is correct.
41
42 Q. -- in Philadelphia, or a joint venture partner with a
43 number of stores in Madrid?
44 A. That is the context. I think -- we do not transfer
45 them from a licensee to another licensee or -----
46
47 Q. What about between McCop Co stores?
48 A. No. They stay within that business unit, if you will,
49 my Lord. You would see transfers -- for example, if there
50 are several franchisees or joint venture partners in
51 Madrid, they would transfer people within their own
52 organisations, but they would not transfer people usually.
53 It would be highly unusual to transfer people from one
54 organisation to another. They run their business as one
55 entity or one unit. That is one of the factors in the US
56 concept of multi-store units: do you really want it as one
57 organisation with frequent transfers, and all that.
58 Transfers is a key issue in unit determinations in the US,
59 a key factor as to whether or not there is a multi-store
60 unit or is not a multi-store unit.
