Day 137 - 19 Jun 95 - Page 54
1
2 Q. 1976. Where was that?
3 A. That would be in Masons City, Iowa.
4
5 Q. How did it become deorganised or ununionised, what process?
6 A. The reverse of what I described earlier, about the NLRB
7 process, except there was an exception to it. Do you want
8 some detail?
9
10 Q. Not a lot of detail because it is not one of the pleaded
11 issues in this case; I just want to know how it came about,
12 that is all.
13 A. The store -- I am going to have to give you some,
14 I apologise, to make sense of this thing. The store was
15 organised by a union, a national union -- the name escapes
16 me -- but through the NLRB route that we talked about, the
17 secret ballot election -----
18
19 Q. There was a petition and an election which went in favour
20 of the union at one time?
21 A. Exactly. There is a labour contract agreed upon and,
22 at the end of that three year labour agreement, the
23 employees sent a petition to the owner/operator and to the
24 National Labour Relations Board -- they sent it to both --
25 asking that the union no longer be recognised as their
26 bargaining agent.
27
28 There was a petition filed for a new election, and which is
29 a customary practice -- in the US if employees no longer
30 want it, it is called a decertification petition -- and the
31 union filed unfair labour practice charges, claiming that
32 the owner/operator had done things to interfere.
33
34 The National Labour Relations Board investigated the
35 allegations; found no merit and dismissed the allegations.
36 An election was scheduled to be held, but before it could
37 be held the union withdrew from the process and rescinded
38 any claims they had to recognise in the employees.
39
40 Q. Since that date it has remained ununionised?
41 A. That is correct.
42
43 Q. Do you know of any other cases during your time at
44 McDonald's but before (because you said that was the most
45 recent one) 1976?
46 A. I am sorry. Around that time -- boy, we are going back
47 a way.
48
49 Q. I know we are, yes.
50 A. It would be in that same, 75 through 76 -- it may have
51 even about been a little bit later than that, it may have
52 been in 77 -- there were restaurants in Frezno, California,
53 I believe there was either five or six restaurants -- I may
54 be off by a number or so -- in Frezno, California, owned by
55 an owner/operator that had had successively agreements over
56 a number of years, and I cannot tell you, I just know there
57 were several.
58
59 The employees there similarly filed a petition for
60 decertification. The matter was blocked, if you will --
