Day 181 - 01 Nov 95 - Page 23
1 A. I think it was Warren Street.
2
3 Q. OK, I do not mind. He said: "No, you cannot go in, but
4 you can stand outside and talk to them and distribute
5 literature", did he not?
6 A. I do not remember him saying: "You can stand outside",
7 but I do remember on that occasion wanting to be sure, and
8 I was asked to do this by the Branch Secretary of the trade
9 union at that time, Mr. David Turnbull, who is now a
10 full-time official. I remember being asked by the Branch
11 Secretary to clear it with management, "Could you go in or
12 could you not?" So I did -- that is completely unconnected
13 to the David McGee approach.
14
15 Q. Of course, I mentioned that, Mr. Pearson, because you said
16 you had no line into McDonald's, you did not know how to
17 talk to them. That is not the case.
18 A. This was afterwards.
19
20 Q. Never mind.
21 A. Well, it does matter.
22
23 Q. Why?
24 A. Because the McDonald's, the first McDonald's experience
25 I had, a substantial one, was David McGee, and from that,
26 and next time you go to McDonald's and the time after, you
27 just want to be a bit more careful, which is what I did.
28 So I approached the employer to see what would be the
29 situation of going in versus not going in. That is what
30 I did. I do not see the connection with David McGee.
31
32 Q. Mr. Pearson, I suggest that when it matters to you, you are
33 quite willing to ring up McDonald's and talk to them; when
34 it does not matter, in the case of Mr. McGee, you do not
35 bother?
36 A. It is a case of my professional judgment and, in my
37 professional judgment, I did the right thing and
38 I discussed this sort of issue with colleagues all the
39 time, and I do not remember any of us finding these
40 situations easy, any of us having pat answers about going
41 to law, or whatever. You just deal with them in the rough
42 and tumble of the industrial relations situation that you
43 are in. It may be the wrong decision or the right one, but
44 it is the decision I took, and I think it was the right
45 one, and it did not make Mr. McGee happy.
46
47 If I may say so, it did not make me happy either (since
48 those are the words you used earlier), but you have to get
49 on with it, and that is what I did. We thought the best
50 next thing to do was to go to the restaurant, some of us,
51 at an appropriate time and leaflet the restaurant. Of
52 course, Mr. McGee had left by the time we had organised
53 that.
54
55 Q. Hang on, I thought you said it was Warren Street was the
56 one you went to?
57 A. No, I did say Warren Street, but I said we were
58 contemplating as part of my -- I did say this yesterday; it
59 is on the record -- that we considered the possibility of
60 going to Seven Sisters to leaflet the restaurant.
