Day 192 - 27 Nov 95 - Page 32
1 hostile atmosphere towards people who were pro-union and
2 the union in that meeting.
3
4 Q. You said something about "that is what the unions" -----
5 A. That is what unions do. They argue for you, they help
6 you negotiate your contracts; if you have a problem, the
7 problem is represented by a union official, so you do not
8 have to have a conflict one on one with the person that
9 hired you and the person that does your wages, you know.
10 I guess it is more of a -- I view it as more of a mediation
11 form, you know.
12
13 Q. This kind of crew meeting where people were discussing
14 things like unions and your views on the management, had
15 this happened before, this kind of meeting?
16 A. Yes. They usually happen a couple of times a year,
17 I think; not always talking about unions, but they talk
18 about how the store is running, how the equipment is, that
19 type of thing.
20
21 Q. Has anything ever been resolved because of that?
22 A. I found that, you know, it was always short term; like,
23 management crew relations would get better for a week or
24 two, and then they would start to slide again. There was
25 never a long term resolution to really anything. Cam
26 always -- like, Cam promised for a while that we were going
27 to get new tills and new sundae machines and milkshake
28 machines, but by the time I had left I had not seen any.
29
30 Q. What was the atmosphere like in the store towards union
31 activity after this crew meeting?
32 A. People were afraid to show that they were pro-union
33 during that meeting, and even afterwards, for fear that,
34 you know, they might get fired or they would be treated
35 differently from everyone else. It was a very sort of
36 hostile environment.
37
38 Q. How long did that continue for?
39 A. Until the vote.
40
41 Q. Which was the next -----
42 A. Which was February 24th, 1994.
43
44 Q. What was the atmosphere in terms of -- you said something
45 about people were treated like gold, or something?
46 A. Yes. As soon as -----
47
48 Q. What did you mean by that?
49 A. As soon as the restaurant had found out that we were
50 organising a union, managers' attitudes totally changed.
51 I mean, you did not have to worry so much about how
52 management was feeling that day; everyone seemed to be in
53 like a happy mood with one another, except that nobody
54 wanted to explain that they were pro-union. You know,
55 things just got better; you were treated as a human being,
56 you know.
57
58 Q. How long did that continue for?
59 A. Probably until about a month or two after the vote. So
60 the vote was February 24th; so maybe March or April it
