Day 174 - 17 Oct 95 - Page 09

     
     1        because, as it turned out, what happened, they would rule
     2        in favour of the strikers?
     3        A.  That may be so.
     4
     5   MR. JUSTICE BELL: What are you agreeing to there?  Are you
     6        agreeing that you did not go to the Labour Court because
     7        you thought they might rule in favour of the strikers?
     8        A.  I cannot recollect exactly what my feelings were,
     9        my Lord, but it is possible that we did not feel we wanted
    10        to go to the Labour Court because the situation was so
    11        hostile to us at the time, as a general comment.  But
    12        I think it has proved that we went to the Labour Court and
    13        we abided by their decision.
    14
    15   MR. MORRIS:  You were forced to go to the Labour Court, were you
    16        not, because of the determination of the strikers?
    17        A.  We went, yes; we went to the Labour Court by mutual
    18        agreement.
    19
    20   MS. STEEL:  You have just said that you went there by mutual
         agreement.  Is it not correct that on 10th May, 1979, the
    22        union requested the services of an industrial relations
    23        officer to help resolve the dispute and the Company
    24        declined to attend a conciliation conference?
    25        A.  Yes, I would say that is possible we did, because the
    26        strike was particularly nasty; and up to such time as, from
    27        our point of view, until that was called off, we were not
    28        too receptive to any suggestion the union were making.
    29
    30   Q.   It would have been a way to resolve this situation that you
    31        did not like, would it not, to go to a conciliation
    32        conference?
    33        A.  Yes, it could have been.
    34
    35   Q.   But you were not prepared to do that, and the matter was
    36        then referred by the union to the Labour Court; that is
    37        correct, is it not?
    38        A.  Yes, that is correct.
    39
    40   MR. MORRIS:  You have said in your statement that you accepted
         the recommendations of the Labour Court?
    42        A.  Yes, that is correct.
    43
    44   Q.   Yes.  Part of the agreement at the end of the dispute is
    45        that you would take back any existing picketers who had
    46        worked at McDonald's and who wished to come back to work;
    47        that is what you said in your statement.  Is that correct?
    48        A.  Yes, that is correct.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, it was not, was it?  There was one 
    51        exception. 
    52 
    53   MR. MORRIS:  He says that.  Then you said: "James Macken had
    54        been expelled from the ITGWU for conduct unbecoming that of
    55        a member and inimical to the interests of other members."
    56        You do not know that, though, do you?
    57        A.  That is what the union told me.
    58
    59   Q.   But it is not -- you do not know that, yourself?
    60        A.  I do not know which?  Can you clarify?