Day 172 - 12 Oct 95 - Page 05
1 policy but we will never negotiate wages and conditions
2 with a union and we discourage our staff from joining."
3 Were they the exact words or were they paraphrased, or
4 what?
5 A. Because they are in quotation marks, they would have
6 been the words he used.
7
8 Q. Was it a long conversation?
9 A. No, it was quite short, quite friendly; cannot have
10 been more than about two or three minutes. I recall
11 ringing him up and telling him of the story I was doing,
12 the Transport and General Workers Union were having
13 difficulty getting representation at the Company, and that
14 is what he said and replied.
15
16 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Did you make a note at the time,
17 Mr. Pattinson? What was your practice?
18 A. The normal journalist practice is to make an instant
19 note, in the same way as you are doing now, because, being
20 a daily paper, you have to publish straightaway or very
21 soon afterwards. So that that story will have either gone
22 in the paper the very next morning or 24 hours later.
23
24 Q. Can remember what you did on that occasion?
25 A. What I did?
26
27 Q. In so far as making any note was concerned of what
28 Mr. Nicholson said?
29 A. Yes. I would have kept the notes in my notebook and
30 taken it to work the next morning, and the story would have
31 been typed up the next day. It is just possible that
32 I actually did the story that night on the telephone and
33 phoned it straight to the office, but I doubt it. It would
34 probably more likely be done the next morning. If you are
35 against the clock and the editor wants the story there and
36 then, you have to do it straightaway on the telephone from
37 your own home and ring a copy taker.
38
39 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Being around the courts, I am familiar
40 with what happens.
41
42 MR. MORRIS: Did you ever get any response by McDonald's as a
43 result of this article?
44 A. No, no response at all. There were no complaints.
45
46 Q. No complaints?
47 A. No praise, no complaints, no feedback, no letter,
48 nothing.
49
50 Q. If we can go to the documents underneath that, there should
51 be a couple of letters on the next page?
52 A. Yes, page 3.
53
54 Q. Is there a couple of letters with the Daily Mirror headed
55 notepaper?
56 A. Yes.
57
58 Q. Were these letters written by yourself?
59 A. Yes, they were.
60