Day 175 - 18 Oct 95 - Page 38
1 and have an open dialogue with the management, or this was
2 the way it purported to be, but the people who worked --
3 already worked there made it really clear to me that this
4 was not the place to go and say what you thought, because
5 eventually -- you would just have your card marked.
6
7 It was a way -- on one hand, it was a pretence, it was a
8 pretence that this two-way conversation could take place;
9 it was also an opportunity for the management to spot
10 potential, as they saw it, trouble makers, and they were
11 also used to intimidate anyone who might be considered to
12 be outspoken.
13
14 The first time I attended a meeting I made a tentative sort
15 of enquiry or a minor sort of suggestion about something,
16 and the Manageress of the store turned on me to try and
17 humiliate me in front of the rest of the staff, and
18 actually in her comments alluded to the fact that, "Oh,
19 Iain is obviously trying to talk himself out of his job
20 here", which I took as a way of saying: "You do not really
21 use this opportunity to criticise us if you want to stay in
22 employment here".
23
24 Q. Just something -- the last paragraph on that page -- about
25 staff wanting to sabotage the stores, to "strike back", can
26 you just say what your attitude was?
27 A. What happened was that during this time we were talking
28 of unionising was in a time when conditions were hard,
29 people were not allowed to discuss, and people began to get
30 very frustrated, and a lot of people started, first of all,
31 in a humorous way, talking about how they could get their
32 own back on the Company. This dialogue then developed
33 into, for some people, a serious idea of breaking into the
34 store and sabotaging it. Various ideas were mooted such as
35 running a hose through the roof and leaving it on all
36 night, and interfering with the fire suppression equipment
37 so that when all the grills were turned on all the fire
38 extinguishers would go off, and that people were so
39 frustrated that they were seriously considering criminal
40 damage to the store, putting them -- also risking getting
41 caught for it as well.
42
43 Q. What was your -----
44 A. Well, our attitude was that that was the wrong way to
45 go about things; rather than staff getting so frustrated
46 and angry that they would start to consider these sort of
47 outrageous antics, we thought there should be a proper
48 voice for the staff where they could air grievances, where
49 they could be represented by trade union and have a proper
50 dialogue with the management on an equal footing. We
51 suggested to those people that they should help us in
52 building with the union.
53
54 Q. Why did you leave McDonald's?
55 A. Because I got a job in the Civil Service, but initially
56 I ------
57
58 Q. Sorry, why did you take a different job?
59 A. Because I wanted to get out of that environment and
60 I wanted to earn more.
