Day 174 - 17 Oct 95 - Page 31
1 about your anti-union point or Miss Holmes or Mr. Mrozek,
2 the next stage being, I assume, 1985.
3
4 MR. MORRIS: Yes. If I just ask a final point about the
5 aftermath of the strike.
6
7 (To the witness) The effect of not meeting with the union,
8 when you had union members at the end of the strike, and of
9 dismissing and discriminating against union activists --
10 exactly how many is open to debate, but we know for certain
11 it was applied to Jimmy Macken, Anne Holmes, and
12 Sean Mrozek says it applied to him, but we will have to
13 wait for him to give evidence on that -- the effect was to
14 break the union organisation after the strike?
15 A. No.
16
17 Q. You just hoped it would all fizzle out and you would be
18 left with a happy position, in your estimation, of having a
19 nice, non-union company again?
20 A. No, I do not agree with that, Mr. Morris. We took the
21 strikers back into our employment.
22
23 Q. You had to, because that was part of the agreement that
24 they won?
25 A. We took them back.
26
27 Q. Yes; and then your tactics, from the moment they walked
28 back into the store, was to get rid of them by one means or
29 another or to demoralise them so that the union
30 organisation would fizzle out?
31 A. I do not agree with that.
32
33 MR. MORRIS: OK. We will just have a think to see if there is
34 anything more on this issue.
35
36 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes. Take a seat, Mr. Mehigan.
37
38 One thing which you may bear in mind when you call
39 Mr. Pearson or Mr. Turnbull -- because I do not know the
40 answer -- is the extent to which union activity tends to be
41 initiated by union officers or by members of the union in
42 particular workplaces, or whether it just varies from
43 situation to situation, because I do not know the answer to
44 that.
45
46 MR. MORRIS: Yes. I mean, we would appreciate any questions you
47 wish to ask our witnesses.
48
49 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No. This is not directed at Mr. Mehigan.
50 What I do not know is whether you can say as a general rule
51 union interest in approaching an employer to increase wage
52 rates or change conditions of employment in some respect is
53 normally initiated by employees at the workplace who happen
54 to be union members or is initiated by union officers, if
55 it occurs that things might be different, or whether the
56 truth is that it varies from situation to situation and
57 there is no general rule. I am not familiar enough with
58 the subject. I do not have any knowledge of my own.
59
60 I imagine it might be different, depending on the degree of
