Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 44
1
2 Q. Was a day eventually set for the election?
3 A. Ultimately it was, yes.
4
5 Q. Meanwhile the crew, or the employees, did they have to go
6 somewhere to take part in the election?
7 A. Yes, the election would take place down at the Labour
8 Board, if you will, and that was a 45 minute trip by
9 vehicle from the restaurant.
10
11 Q. How were the crew supposed to get to the election post?
12 A. I think I have mentioned earlier that the crew was
13 meeting on their own, and they chose to get some buses
14 because they wanted to go down there as a team, if you
15 will. All of them wanted to be there the same they way
16 they had acted the night of the strike call. They
17 similarly all wanted to go together and they had a bus, or
18 a couple of buses.
19
20 Q. Did they go?
21 A. They went on -- I need some clarification -- an
22 occasion when the election was not scheduled. There was no
23 election date set. They went to protest down at the Labour
24 Board that no election had been scheduled, that they were
25 out of work because of what was going on, and they all went
26 down to the Labour Board -- I know because we did not know
27 where they were going -- but we saw the buses and, frankly,
28 we followed them because we were told they were going to
29 the Labour Board and why they were going to the Labour
30 Board we did not know. They marched around the Labour
31 Board and the building.
32
33 Q. The employees did?
34 A. They had placards.
35
36 Q. You saw this, did you?
37 A. Yes. It was in Spanish but it was translated for me,
38 and the essence of it was: We want an election. We want
39 it now. We do not want the union.
40
41 Q. I understand that. I think eventually a date was set for
42 an election?
43 A. That really sparked the Labour Board into acting
44 because the media picked up on all of that.
45
46 Q. What actually happened on election day? You said they got
47 into a bus or buses?
48 A. Yes. On the election day, at that point in time the
49 employees had gone to a second union who had intervened in
50 the proceeding, and the employees had told us at that time
51 that they wanted this second union, again a national union,
52 but apparently one that they liked, and that they wanted us
53 to recognise that union. What happened on the day of
54 election, again the staging of the buses, as I mentioned
55 earlier, occurred, but there was a meeting at the
56 Department of Labour in Mexico City. Present at that
57 meeting was representatives of Croc.
58
59 Q. Were you there?
60 A. Yes, I was there. I was in a lot of place that day but
