Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 69


     
     1             got paid in any one week was ú35.  For this,
     2             I was doing 15 to 20 hours of very hard physical
     3             sweaty work.  I once followed up the fact that
     4             my wages appeared to be far too low and did not
     5             seem to correspond with the number of hours that
     6             I believed I had worked.  They showed me my
     7             clock card in order to substantiate the amount
     8             that they had paid me and these appeared to
     9             tally.  However, I still did not believe them.
    10
    11             I actually felt quite guilty when I left
    12             McDonald's because I felt that I should have
    13             seen the union enrolment through to the end.
    14             However, my personal problems were very pressing
    15             at the time and I just did not feel that I could
    16             stay.  I handed on the union material to another
    17             employee who said that he would see the union
    18             work through to the end, but I do not know if he
    19             did.  I am no longer in touch with that person.
    20             I so much wanted to see the union issue through
    21             to the end that I even considered joining the
    22             McDonald's in Manchester just to start a union.
    23
    24             So far as I am aware, there is only one
    25             McDonald's store in the entire British Isles
    26             that is unionised.  This is the store in
    27             Dublin.  Otherwise McDonald's is totally
    28             ununionised.  I regularly heard it said by other
    29             crew members that if anybody starts a union
    30             'they will get rid of you'.
    31
    32             Whilst working at Seven Sisters I heard a rumour
    33             regarding the store which was completely shut
    34             down by management because the crew formed a
    35             union.  Several employees at the Seven Sisters
    36             Road had cited this story when I was trying to
    37             recruit members for the TGWU.  The story was
    38             used as the basis for saying 'they will sack us
    39             all if they find out'.
    40
    41             So far as I was aware, there were no regular
    42             dismissals from my store.  People were sometimes
    43             suspended, however, for reasons such as
    44             'answering back to management'.  I was once
    45             suspended because I took a left over hamburger
    46             home after the store had closed without asking
    47             permission.  In my store, staff were allowed to
    48             take home food that was left over when the store
    49             was closed if they asked permission.  Permission
    50             was never refused.  On the occasion when I was 
    51             suspended I did not ask and was suspended for 24 
    52             hours.  (It is interesting to note that I have 
    53             seen stated by McDonald's own literature, I
    54             believe in the Crew Handbook, that staff are not
    55             allowed to take food home at the end of the
    56             day.  It must be thrown out).
    57
    58             Everyone who worked at the Seven Sisters store
    59             had burns at one time or another.  I remember
    60             noticing one black girl in particular who had

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