Day 192 - 27 Nov 95 - Page 24


     
     1        A.  No, nothing like that.  "But what I do not want you to
     2        do is talk about it around the workplace"; and I would
     3        say, "What I am doing, with the help of others, is, we are
     4        trying to organise a union in here to ensure dignity and
     5        respect for the employees, as well as job security."  Then
     6        I would tell them, you know, "You may lose your job over
     7        this.  It is illegal for you to lose your job for joining a
     8        union in Canada, but management may lash out and do this."
     9
    10        I also talked to them about, you know, "If Cam comes up to
    11        you and asks you, 'Are you joining this union', you say
    12        whatever you say, but if I were you I would say 'yes',
    13        because then if he fires you it will look, you know, he has
    14        fired you for union involvement basically."  Right?
    15        I would say, "If Cam does approach you privately, grab
    16        another person for a witness, you know, so that you have
    17        support that you can establish that this really went on."
    18
    19        Then I tell them, "If you do not sign the card and you may
    20        be fired, the union will still fight for you, but we will
    21        have a harder time getting your job back, proving that you
    22        were fired because of union involvement."  OK?
    23
    24        I told them that McDonald's may close the store down --
    25        because, in Ontario, under Bill 40, I believe, in your
    26        application for certification you have to name boundaries
    27        of where you are organising, and if they shut down then
    28        they cannot reopen the store without starting from where
    29        they left off in a union; so they have to go out of the
    30        county borders or whatever and open a McDonald's there
    31        without a union.
    32
    33   Q.   This closing down of stores to try to beat union drives, is
    34        that something you had heard about that had happened
    35        elsewhere, or something?
    36        A.  Not that I heard about it in that exact situation, but
    37        it is common -- it is a tactic management uses to defeat
    38        the union.
    39
    40   Q.   What did people -- what were the kind of responses that you
    41        were getting off people?
    42        A.  Some people, they would not understand what the word
    43        "union" meant, and so you would have to explain to them,
    44        well, it is a combined effort of employees joining together
    45        to negotiate their wants and needs into a contract; it
    46        gives them the right to negotiate as a group with their
    47        employer, because there is strengths in numbers; and you
    48        are represented by a person from the union to help you
    49        negotiate this.
    50 
    51        Some people were very grateful that this was happening, and 
    52        they would sign right away.  Others did not want to have 
    53        anything to do with it, which was fine.  Usually, as we
    54        signed people up, people would say, "Well, yes, this
    55        happened to me.  This situation happened to me, and this is
    56        why I want it.  Will it prevent management from harassing
    57        me?  What else can I get out of it?"  You could say, "Well,
    58        you know, I mean, obviously you can negotiate your wages,
    59        your benefits, this type of thing."
    60

Prev Next Index