Day 189 - 20 Nov 95 - Page 09

     
     1
     2   Q.   What was her name?
     3        A.  Mary Bowers.
     4
     5   Q.   What was her position?
     6        A.  She was store manager.
     7
     8   Q.   At?
     9        A.  At Grafton Street.
    10
    11   Q.   She knew that you were shop steward?
    12        A.  Yes.
    13
    14   Q.   Whilst you were outside the store, did you notice any
    15        changes in the staffing at Grafton Street, or were new
    16        people taken on?
    17        A.  Yes.  There were new people taken on.  A lot of new
    18        faces we would have noticed going into work, because our
    19        picket was there from the time the store opened; so we saw
    20        lots of new faces going into McDonald's.
    21
    22   Q.   What about management positions?
    23        A.  In terms of management positions, we know from the very
    24        beginning that there were American -- what was termed in
    25        the media at that stage, they were called "troubleshooters"
    26        from America; there were two of those arrived over.  There
    27        was also some English management.  I recall at least two;
    28        there could have been more.
    29
    30   Q.   Sorry, was that at both stores or just at Grafton Street,
    31        that you know?
    32        A.  I would not know about O'Connell Street.  I would only
    33        know about Grafton Street.  That is where I picketed, at
    34        Grafton Street.
    35
    36   Q.   How do you know about what you call the "troubleshooters"
    37        from America; did anybody in management tell you that, or
    38        what?
    39        A.  I was told by one person in management that they had
    40        brought these people in from America who were normally
         brought in if there was problems at McDonald's outlets; and
    42        by "problems" she was referring to -- at least I took her
    43        to be referring to -- industrial trouble, industrial
    44        relations problems.
    45
    46   Q.   Who was that person?
    47        A.  That was Mary Bowers.
    48
    49   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  How do you spell her surname?
    50        A.  B-O-W-E-R-S. 
    51 
    52   MR. MORRIS:  How did that affect her position?  Did she say? 
    53        A.  I believe she left over the dispute.  She did not feel
    54        very comfortable with the way management were handling the
    55        dispute.  She referred to me on a couple of occasions that
    56        she would have handled it differently, but that they, the
    57        Irish management, were not making the decisions about the
    58        dispute; that it was out of their hands, basically.
    59        The word that she used was that they were "sidelined".
    60