Day 199 - 11 Dec 95 - Page 16


     
     1        guidelines that included a promise not to interfere further
     2        with the employees' rights.
     3
     4        If that was the stick, the carrot was the contests and
     5        celebrations and parties designed to show the workers
     6        that 'Mickey D's" -- Mickey D's I think is American
     7        slang -- "really was a great employer, and that the workers
     8        would certainly suffer the loss of these sorts of special
     9        benefits if they voted for the union.  Most prominent in
    10        memory was 'McHappy Day' which occurred just a few days
    11        before the election at which time a very famous
    12        professional football star named Earl Campbell was brought
    13        in by management to give a pep talk about why it was
    14        unnecessary to have a union (Campbell's own union -- the
    15        National Football Players Association -- lambasted publicly
    16        for doing so).
    17
    18        Campbell's visit astonished many workers but no more so
    19        than the 'disco' sponsored by the Company one (or perhaps
    20        two) nights before the election.  All of the workers
    21        illegible to vote (approx. 150) were bused to the disco and
    22        I am pretty sure (though not absolutely) that those who
    23        missed shifts because of their attendance at the disco were
    24        paid as if they had worked.  To substitute for these absent
    25        workers other McDonald's Restaurants assigned some of their
    26        own employees from unaffected franchises (that is, not
    27        owned by Kelly and thus not eligible to vote) to work at
    28        the three Kelly franchises.  It was well understood by the
    29        workers that the only reason for such attention was the
    30        upcoming union election.
    31
    32        In the end, the two-pronged strategy produced a victory for
    33        the Company.  Our supporters could not hold on to their
    34        co-workers in the face of constant meetings with
    35        management, inducements and fear.  The union support went
    36        from having two-thirds signed up on cards to receiving just
    37        one third in the election.  The Company won a grand victory
    38        in their eyes, but not without having had to break the law
    39        at least a few times and, more importantly, having
    40        repeatedly broken the spirit of fair play that is supposed
    41        to obtain in American industrial relations.
    42
    43        There are other stories from other McDonald's but they are
    44        not quite so vivid and, in any case, would just repeat the
    45        basic outlines of what I have written.  The material
    46        resources of a huge multinational corporation were brought
    47        to bear in a most antagonistic fashion against a small
    48        group of young workers.    I do not believe that McDonald's
    49        can feel at all proud of their behaviour in Detroit in
    50        1980. 
    51 
    52        Let me state in closing that I am willing to testify for 
    53        the Defence to the facts outlined in the above statement.
    54        Sincerely, Daniel Cantor."  That is dated 27th October
    55        1993.
    56
    57   MR. MORRIS:  We cannot find one of our documents that goes with
    58        the New Zealand trade union representative statements.  I
    59        do not know if the Plaintiffs have a copy?
    60

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