Day 174 - 17 Oct 95 - Page 25
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2 MS. STEEL: Why is it that you have not kept a copy of that
3 letter?
4 A. Sorry, of which letter?
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6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, do not bother to answer that.
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8 MS. STEEL: It is not particularly this letter, in particular,
9 but there seems to be a whole stream of letters that
10 are -----
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12 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I know, but it is all so long ago. What I am
13 really interested in is what, if any, part the union
14 played. Here we have got the first phase in the autumn or
15 summer of 1979; we have got the second phase in the spring
16 of 1980. What I want to know is what interest, if at all,
17 the union showed on a continuing basis. I partly ask that,
18 bearing in mind the statements of more than of your own
19 witnesses about how difficult it is to mobilise (if that is
20 the right word) people working in the catering industry.
21 I have to, at the end of the day, get my mind round, if
22 McDonald's are anti-union, whether it actually makes any
23 difference to the conditions of the workers or not.
24 I cannot run away from that.
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26 MS. STEEL: (To the witness) Can I just perhaps make the point
27 which I am trying to make, which is that, basically, the
28 reason that there are lots of documents missing from these
29 files is because you have got something to hide in your
30 dealings with the unions; you were trying to avoid meeting
31 with them, discussing things with them, allowing them to
32 represent the workers who were members of their union; and
33 you are trying to hide those matters from this court now,
34 or from anyone else this might have come in front of. So
35 you have disposed of all those things from your files, so
36 that people could not see the whole story?
37 A. I would not agree with you, Ms. Steel. If we were
38 trying to hide things, we would have not produced the
39 correspondence that we have had with the union and the
40 letters. So I would not agree with you on tht.
41
42 Q. But you cannot explain why it is tht you have kept some and
43 not others?
44 A. No. It is a long time ago, and I cannot tell you why
45 we have this and we have not got that.
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47 MR. MORRIS: Not one of the letters we have looked at from you
48 offers to meet with the union, does it?
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50 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am going to be accused of giving
51 evidence -----
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53 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You do not have to ask a question like that.
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55 MR. MORRIS: OK. The only meetings you had with the union -----
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57 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I can read the letters, and you can ask me
58 (and Mr. Rampton can as well) to draw one conclusion or the
59 other.
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