Day 173 - 16 Oct 95 - Page 40
1 there.
2
3 MR. MORRIS: Yes. (To the witness) That would cover union
4 literature leaflets?
5 A. It would cover all literature.
6
7 Q. And union meetings?
8 A. All literature.
9
10 Q. And union meetings?
11 A. All literature.
12
13 Q. And meetings, unauthorised meetings?
14 A. I do not know what you mean by "meetings".
15
16 Q. It says: "Holding unauthorised meetings on Company property
17 is a disciplinary or dismissal offence."
18 A. In other words -----
19
20 Q. So would that cover a union meeting?
21 A. It could cover any meeting.
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It may be Mr. Morris is being very thorough,
24 but he is just checking there can be no doubt that it
25 covers union meetings and union literature?
26 A. Yes. It covers all eventualities of any literature.
27
28 Q. Let me just put it. What is being suggested to you is that
29 that particularly had in mind union meetings and union
30 literature, rather than other meetings or other literature;
31 that you were particularly keen to stop union meetings
32 being held on the premises or union literature being
33 distributed on the premises?
34 A. Yes. I certainly did not want to lose control of my
35 business.
36
37 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just pause a moment.
38
39 MS. STEEL: Just going back to what I was asking you about
40 previously, you said that one of the reasons why you did
41 not reply to the letters was because there was a lot of
42 industrial strife and there were a lot of strikes at the
43 time. I did not really understand why that would prevent
44 you answering the letter?
45 A. Well, for a couple of reasons. There was already quite
46 a few serious strikes in the country; second of all, the
47 letter, from memory, did not identify anybody who was a
48 member of the union; and if it was a serious complaint,
49 I am sure they would have followed up to it.
50
51 Q. Can you just explain, if there are a lot of strikes in the
52 country, why that should mean that you would not want to
53 reply to the letters?
54 A. Well, from memory, I had conversations with some other
55 business people who had union agreements, and they had had
56 a particularly tough time in dealing with the union and
57 running their business.
58
59 MR. JUSTICE BELL: It is fairly obvious to me -- but I will put
60 it in case I am wrong -- it sounds to me as if you were
