Day 194 - 01 Dec 95 - Page 09

     
     1        and I banged my hand into the metal frame of the freezer
     2        room door.  This caused a deep cut in my right thumb.  This
     3        incident was logged in the store's book for accidents at
     4        work.  I bandaged up the wound, which seemed to work at
     5        first.  As the morning went on, blood started seeping
     6        through the bandage.  Because the lunchtime rush was coming
     7        up, I was encouraged by the Store Manager to stay at work.
     8        Eventually, I had to leave because blood was dripping from
     9        the bandage on to the cooking surface where I was frying
    10        the hamburgers.
    11
    12        "Because of a number of practices at the store that I and
    13        my colleagues felt were unfair, we talked about joining a
    14        union.  These practices included the ways promotions and
    15        pay rises were decided and the way some of the managers
    16        treated staff.  I joined the Transport and General Workers
    17        union.  I urged other workers to join the union, but no one
    18        did, largely due to fear for their jobs.  One junior
    19        manager advised us that McDonald's did not like trade
    20        unions."
    21
    22        I will come back to that in a minute.
    23
    24        "In the summer of 1987 the store had a lot of problems with
    25        mice.  A pest control firm eventually sorted out the
    26        problem.  Mice droppings would often be found within the
    27        trays of buns.  This could either have been caused by mice
    28        at East Ham or at the depot at Hemel Hempstead where the
    29        deliveries came from.
    30
    31        "Managers such as Mr. Lucas Thaw and Mr. David Sexton did
    32        not take this problem seriously.  They used to throw away
    33        the individual bun with the droppings in, rather than waste
    34        a whole plastic sheet full of buns."
    35
    36        Did you see this, yourself?
    37        A.  Yes.  It happened for many months that this would
    38        happen, that buns would come with droppings in them.
    39
    40   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Leave it there.
    41
    42   MR. MORRIS:  I wanted to check.  (To the witness):  You saw the
    43        managers themselves throw individual buns away?
    44        A.  I did, yes.
    45
    46   Q.   And not the tray?
    47        A.  Yes.
    48
    49   Q.   "A colleague Andrew Wilson and I were told off for making
    50        it too obvious that we were chasing mice behind the 
    51        counter, which might have made the public suspicious." 
    52 
    53        You wrote that on 23rd July 1993; is that correct?
    54        A.  Yes.
    55
    56   Q.   And you stick by that as your evidence; yes?
    57        A.  I do.
    58
    59   Q.   Based on your own experiences?
    60        A.  Yes.