Day 192 - 27 Nov 95 - Page 13
1 there. And then somebody said, well, why do you want a
2 union here? I said, 'For respect, dignity and job
3 security.' And they said, 'Who doesn't give you respect?'
4 I said, 'The managers don't.' And I said, 'I'm sure that
5 some of you must agree with that.' Then Cam piped up and
6 said, 'What managers? What don't you like about
7 them?' 'I've already tried to tell you,' I said, 'and it
8 hasn't worked.' And he says, 'Well, why don't you meet me
9 tomorrow after school?' 'Nope, sorry, I'm busy,'
10 I said. 'Cam, why don't you get back to me about this?'
11 Because he always told people to get back to him about
12 things. So I sort of turned it around. It was beautiful.
13
14 "Then he started talking about full-time benefits, and how
15 they have packages for part-time workers, and one lady
16 said, 'What package? I've been working here for a year and
17 I haven't seen any benefits.' So then he says, 'Get back to
18 me about that.' It was sort of a stupid meeting.
19
20 "All the way through this I was in school. I had two jobs;
21 one after school and then McDonald's on weekends. I worked
22 until 8 or 9 at my other job about three or four times
23 during the week, and then I'd come home and I'd do union
24 stuff for about two or three hours. I'd be on the phone
25 with the lawyers, and then I tried to do homework, but it
26 didn't work. I was too tired to do anything. School
27 suffered. My marks dropped. My social life took a new
28 twist. I started hanging around with my committee more.
29
30 "There were allegations of me locking people in my car. In
31 my car the locks don't even work! There were charges of me
32 intimidating this 300-pound guy."
33
34 Then over to the next page, halfway down the second
35 column:
36
37 "Cam had all these juvenile cartoon drawings, I'm
38 surprised that people didn't feel sort of insulted by the
39 way that he presented the work atmosphere at McDonald's.
40 It was like you were in grade one or two.
41
42 "We held a couple of committee meetings with a business
43 agent from the union, a week before the vote. We tried to
44 do house calls, and spread literature out, and call people,
45 and do whatever we possibly could to educate them and make
46 them aware of what a union really is - in case they'd
47 forgotten or management had twisted it in their minds.
48
49 "Rui was up here for that. He headed a couple of meetings,
50 from a week before the vote until the day before. Those
51 all seemed to go very well, because he could talk to youth
52 on their level. He became a friend. He was there to try
53 to support people. He always said: 'What it all boils down
54 to is, do you personally want a union or not? It's up to
55 you.' He got people thinking for themselves.
56
57 "The night before the vote, the company organised a crew
58 rally to motivate people to vote no. Cam was saying a
59 speech. I got there late, and when I walked in the door
60 Cam started stumbling over all his words. I felt great.
