Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 37
1 Mexico City?
2 A. Saul Kahan. He was a joint venture partner.
3
4 Q. When did you first go to Mexico City, as I might say, on
5 the affairs of Mr. Kahan?
6 A. That would have been earlier in 1985, prior to the
7 opening of his first restaurant.
8
9 Q. What was the purpose of your going there before Signor
10 Kahan opened his restaurant?
11 A. Saul Kahan had received demands from two competing
12 unions in Mexico long before he ever hired any employees.
13
14 Q. Can you remember the names or acronyms of the two unions?
15 A. Yes, I am going to have real trouble with the names but
16 I can give you their ------
17
18 Q. Let us have their letters then?
19 A. OK, one was CROC, C-R-O-C.
20
21 Q. C-R-O-C?
22 A. Yes. That is a national -- there are two national
23 unions in Mexico and one of them was CROC. Excuse me,
24 there are many national unions but there are two that tried
25 to -- that had contacted Saul Kahan. One was CROC who I
26 mentioned; the other is CTM, commonly known as CTM. Both
27 had demanded that Mr. Kahan signed an agreement covering
28 his employees.
29
30 Q. How many employees roughly was it intended that he should
31 have when he opened?
32 A. A couple of hundred for the first store. It was
33 anticipated that there would be additional stores ---
34
35 Q. Later on down the road?
36 A. Yes, so he needed to hire not just for that store but
37 for additional ones.
38
39 Q. Tell us, if you know, what is the process under Mexican law
40 by which a union may gain recognition in a workplace?
41 A. OK, there is legal machinery process. On paper, it
42 looks somewhat similar, quite similar actually, to the
43 National Labour Relations Act, different but a process.
44 The process is that if, in fact, a union wishes to be
45 represented, wishes for an employer to recognise them as
46 the representative of their employees, that they file a
47 petition with the Mexican Labour Board seeking that
48 recognition, and the process is different than in the
49 United States, and that is the first step really in the
50 process, is to put -- when they file their petition, they
51 call for what they call a strike date and, that is, they
52 set a date and a time where they will go to the store, the
53 union will go to the store, and they will approach the
54 employees who are working and tell those employees that
55 they wish to represent them, ask them to stop working, and
56 that, essentially, serves like an election, if you will.
57 If the employees want to be represented by the union, they
58 cease working and then the employer is obligated to
59 negotiate and bargain for a labour agreement. There is an
60 election, potential election process -----
