Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 33


     
     1        when I arrived.
     2
     3   Q.   Did you learn what the attitude of the employees was at
     4        this time?
     5        A.  Yes, I did.  The union had turned into a political
     6        situation.  There was at that point in time in Puerto Rico,
     7        there was a movement called the "independentistas".  It was
     8        a political movement.
     9
    10   Q.   Pause there.  Independent?
    11        A. "Istas".
    12
    13   Q.   How do you spell that?
    14        A.  That is a good question.  I am not very good with
    15        spelling.
    16
    17   Q.   That is Spanish, is it?
    18        A.  Yes, that is Spanish.  There is a very similar word in
    19        English, independence, because what this organisation was
    20        mainly trying to do was break away from the United States
    21        totally so they called themselves the "independentistas".
    22        It was radical in nature.
    23
    24   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Yes, the penny has dropped.
    25        Independentistas, I-S-T-As at the end like sandanistas, or
    26        whatever.
    27
    28   MR. RAMPTON:  I see
    29
    30   THE WITNESS:  The union had become ------
    31
    32   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Not at all like "sandanistas", but the same
    33        way of using the -----
    34        A.  If I might, the militancy of the organisation was very
    35        acute.  So, I do not want to compare one group with
    36        another.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, absolutely, but that is all it was ---
    39        A.  It was quite militant.
    40
    41   Q.   I understand the term, yes.
    42
    43   MR. RAMPTON:  Had these independentistas infiltrated the union,
    44        taken it over or what?
    45        A.  Yes, that was my point that I was making; that it had
    46        seized control of the union and in the mind of Miller it
    47        had made it extremely difficult to operate the business,
    48        and that his employees had signed a petition saying -----
    49
    50   Q.   An NLRB petition? 
    51        A.  An NLRB petition and also a written petition, if you 
    52        will, where employees just take a piece of paper and say: 
    53        "We no longer want to be represented".
    54
    55   Q.   We have those here too.
    56        A.  OK.  Handed that to Miller and said that they really
    57        did not want to be represented by this union.
    58
    59   Q.   Right.  So what happened next?  Did the employees make a
    60        formal application to the NLRB?

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