Day 192 - 27 Nov 95 - Page 18
1 the store. There was a programme set up, PAL. I do not
2 know what it stands for.
3
4 Q. PAL?
5 A. PAL. There was an envelope outside of Cam's office
6 that you could write to Head Office and explain what
7 problems you were having at the store, what you liked about
8 the store; and you could either send your name with it or
9 it could be anonymous.
10
11 Q. Did people make use of this?
12 A. People did, but -----
13
14 Q. How do you know?
15 A. I helped people write letters to them, and people
16 talked amongst the crew that, yeah, we had written letters
17 to complain about such and such. But there was never
18 really any response from Head Office McDonald's.
19
20 Q. So, there was only response after complaints at rap
21 sessions where you said that people had an opportunity to
22 make complaints. Did anything change?
23 A. With rap sessions, I believe field consultants from
24 Head Office are brought down, and you are allowed to talk
25 with him. His name was Ali in, our store; I do not know
26 what his last name was.
27
28 Q. Ali?
29 A. Day staff women had lodged complaints with him, and he
30 said that he would met up with them later, you know, and
31 get -- they were supposed to write up documents, but he
32 never showed up, and he would always cancel meetings.
33 After a rap session, the restaurant was fine for about two
34 weeks and then it started going downhill again.
35
36 Q. When did you first consider organising a union branch at
37 the store?
38 A. I first considered this in December of 1992, because we
39 had a left wing government in provincial power and they
40 were bringing in new labour legislation. I discussed it
41 with three other people. It was around Christmas time,
42 because I was dating Pete Mortson, and I was over at his
43 house; and Sabina Iurillo was there with her boyfriend at
44 the time, Chris Morison; and I spoke to them about it, and
45 they all seemed keen on the idea.
46
47 Then January 1st is when the labour legislation went
48 through, so I called the Canadian Auto Workers Union -- it
49 is a large union in Canada -- and asked hem to organise.
50
51 I began organising. I got the cards. I had not signed
52 anyone up, and they were through for some reason. So I let
53 things go for a while. That was January of 1993. I let
54 things go until probably August of 1993, after I got back
55 from camping.
56
57 Q. Sorry, when did you go camping?
58 A. I think it was the 2nd to 8th August, 1993.
59
60 Q. Right.
