Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 33
1 sit-down restaurant agreement; no changes, nothing
2 different. It refused to take into consideration, for
3 example, that we had part-time workers that we had
4 employed. They wanted us to fire our part-time workers.
5 That is what they wanted.
6
7 Our employees resisted that, told us not to sign the
8 agreement because they wanted to keep their jobs and the
9 union did not care about whether or not they kept their
10 jobs or not.
11
12 From there, throughout the 80s, we asked the union -- "we",
13 the owner/operators; I did not participate in the
14 negotiations, I do not speak Danish -- the owner/operators
15 continued to ask the union, to my knowledge, for some
16 flexibility in what they considered to be a sit-down
17 restaurant contract. The union refused any flexibility at
18 all until, I want to say, the time period that you have
19 made reference to, in 88/89, they agreed to the part-time
20 issue, they agreed to other things that our employees, the
21 owner/operator's employees, and the owner/operators
22 wanted. They reached an initial agreement, I believe,
23 around this date, with the agreement that they would
24 continue to negotiate to have a full agreement, if you
25 will.
26
27 Then the operators joined with other quick service
28 companies to form an association, at the agreement of the
29 union, so that both sides, the union and the
30 owner/operators, could have a complete agreement that fit
31 the industry, the quick service restaurant industry.
32 Burger King, I believe, was part of that. Whatever other
33 notable quick service restaurants became part of that
34 association, negotiations continued some time mid 90s, 92,
35 93, I cannot be sure. They reached agreement on the new
36 association. They reached agreement on the terms, and
37 I also believe that just recently they negotiated a
38 successive agreement to that original one that I think they
39 had entered into.
40
41 That is the history, if you will, as I know it in Denmark.
42
43 MR. MORRIS: As told to you by?
44 A. The owner/operators, as told primarily by the
45 owner/operators.
46
47 Q. So part the union's continuous concern is to force
48 McDonald's to provide guaranteed hours for employees?
49 A. Sir, if you listened to what I said, they did not care
50 about what the employees wanted or did not want.
51
52 Q. I am asking you -----
53 A. What they wanted was their agreement and no changes
54 until they put some flexibility in.
55
56 Q. They wanted guaranteed hours for McDonald's employees, did
57 they not?
58 A. I do not know the specific terms. I will tell you that
59 the employees of McDonald's petitioned the union to try to
60 get them to be flexible so they could keep their jobs, that
