Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 54
1 their wages.
2
3 MR. RAMPTON: Was that something that Ralph Kelly had done that
4 was scrutinized by the NLRB?
5 A. Yes, it was scrutinized by his outside lawyer, and it
6 was the subject of claims made by the Detroit Fast-food
7 Workers to the NLRB.
8
9 Q. Suppose the NLRB had concluded on scrutinizing these
10 comparative cheques, pay cheques, that Ralph Kelly had
11 deliberately distorted the information contained in those
12 pay cheques so as to favour his case and disfavour the
13 union's case, what would the NLRB have done?
14 A. Minimum, they would have set the election results aside
15 and held a new election. Based upon their discretion, they
16 could also certify the union.
17
18 Q. Would that have been a serious matter, so far as the NLRB
19 were concerned, that kind of conduct, if had been
20 committed, falsifying the cheques?
21 A. Yes, falsifying would be, yes. The rules of the NLRB
22 is that that is totally permissible to have two cheques,
23 but you had better be accurate, because you if mislead the
24 employees they would find the fault that we are talking
25 about.
26
27 Q. I understand that. Mr. Stein, I would like you to look at
28 another document which is the statement of Mr. Canter which
29 I am going to ask you, in some part at least, to comment
30 on. You will find it in a powder blue file behind you,
31 I think, called Defendants' Witness Statements No. 2,
32 I think it is. That is divided in two halves, A and B. If
33 you turn to the second half B and then to tab 8 in section
34 B?
35 A. Yes, I have it.
36
37 Q. He says that his name is Daniel Canter. He says: "In 1980
38 I was the organising director for the Detroit Fast-food
39 Workers Union local 222". Do you know what he means by
40 "local 222"?
41 A. No, that is the designation they gave themselves.
42
43 Q. He says he is writing to relate his experience of this
44 particular matter which he says is still vivid in his mind
45 though it happened at the time October 27th 1993 when he
46 wrote it 13 years earlier. He says: "There were several
47 dozen McDonald's franchises in the Metropolitan Detroit
48 area. In early winner 1980, following on the success that
49 we had organising the workers at a down town Burger King,
50 we began talking with employees at about 15 different
51 McDonald's restaurants. There was great interest from many
52 workers as the basic wage in the fast-food industry is
53 minimum wage and McDonald's was no different". Was
54 McDonald's different or not then, Mr. Stein?
55 A. On average, our employees were receiving more than the
56 minimum wage, you know, this gets us into the -----
57
58 Q. He says the basic wage in the fast-food industry is the
59 minimum wage?
60 A. No, no. I think you have seen statistics that show we
