Day 152 - 11 Jul 95 - Page 57


     
     1        A.  Mrs. Brinley-Codd asked me about the skinhead incident
     2        and that jogged my memory about the McDonald's Freedom
     3        Fighters.  I could not previously remember them at all.
     4
     5   Q.   I know you could not.
     6        A.  Because they were such an insignificant part of, you
     7        know, however many years ago it was.
     8
     9   Q.   When was your memory jogged in that way?
    10        A.  Yesterday.
    11
    12   Q.   Yesterday.
    13
    14   MR. MORRIS:  We did not know anything about any skinhead
    15        incident either, so .....
    16
    17   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Are you disadvantaged?  Your witnesses are to
    18        come on this.  Mr. Alemi is sitting right behind you at the
    19        moment.  So it will not be very difficult to take
    20        instructions.
    21
    22   MS. STEEL:  There are other witnesses; obviously, we will want
    23        to contact them as well.
    24
    25   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  If you tell me that it is proving difficult
    26        for you to ask your witnesses to come about what you have
    27        just heard in the course of about two minutes of evidence,
    28        tell me about it and we will see if we can solve the
    29        problem.
    30
    31   MS. STEEL:  We just wanted to draw it to the attention of the
    32        court at this present moment that we were not given notice
    33        of any of that.
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You have succeeded in doing that.  Let us see
    36        if it causes you any problem.
    37
    38   MR. RAMPTON:  Back to unions, Mr. Davis:  In your three years as
    39        Assistant and as Manager at Colchester, how often was the
    40        possibility of union representation or unionisation, still
    41        more, at the restaurant ever discussed to your knowledge?
    42        A.  I mean, I never heard it discussed in the actual
    43        restaurant.  There was a, sort of, maybe the odd crew
    44        member who mentioned it to me in the pub that there was a
    45        rumour going around.
    46
    47   Q.   Tell me what the rumour was that was mentioned.
    48        A.  The rumour that was mentioned to me was that McDonald's
    49        did not like unions, but it was like a Chinese whispers
    50        type rumour; they just basically said to me, is this true? 
    51 
    52   Q.   Is this a rumour you had ever heard before?  Is it a rumour 
    53        mentioned to you when you were being trained, for example?
    54        A.  Certainly not, no.
    55
    56   Q.   Has any superior person to you in McDonald's ever mentioned
    57        it to you?
    58        A.  Never.
    59
    60   Q.   So far as you are concerned, are McDonald's anti-union?

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