Day 196 - 06 Dec 95 - Page 28


     
     1        those types of things, I am convinced he did.  As far as
     2        the clock cards are concerned, I do not know whether that
     3        was something that we just did at branch level or people
     4        outside knew of that, although I got the impression that
     5        other people knew, but I do not know for sure on that
     6        subject.
     7
     8   Q.   Just going on to the McDonald's Freedom Fighters --
     9        I should be able to finish this statement in the next five
    10        minutes -- can you remember how it started?
    11        A.  Yes.  I mean, it started as a bit of a joke one Bank
    12        Holiday when there was a group of the lads -- I was there
    13        as well -- and we were actually drinking.  It was a Bank
    14        Holiday afternoon.  It came up at a ----
    15
    16   Q.   That was at the pub, was it?
    17        A.  Yes, pub, yes.  It came up as a bit of joke.  It
    18        started off as bit of light-hearted way of them expressing
    19        themselves.  I do not think it ever meant to be more than
    20        that.  It was taken a little bit too seriously by some
    21        people, both management and then the crew members started
    22        to think that they had a little bit -- if they all stuck
    23        together they could actually use it to their advantage.
    24
    25   Q.   In what way, sorry?
    26        A.  To try -- I mean, there was one thing about the crew
    27        room being locked if I remember, that they all sort got
    28        together and said they wanted it back open, because it had
    29        not been tidy and it was locked they had not had been
    30        allowed to use it.  There was another incident where
    31        something else happened.  I cannot remember what it
    32        actually was, but I know they went down to the Citizen's
    33        Advice to get advice on what their rights were on it.  So
    34        it went from a few lads having a laugh in a pub, and it
    35        then got taken seriously.
    36
    37        At the time I had just gone from Security to Trainee
    38        Manager, possibly Second Assistant at that time, it had not
    39        been very long, and the management, i.e. Frank Stanton and
    40        that took it seriously as a bit of a threat, and it was
    41        discussed at a meeting that -----
    42
    43   Q.   Threat to what?
    44        A.  That the running of the store, that the fact that they
    45        were causing trouble, they were a disruptive influence.
    46
    47   Q.   Is that what we he was saying or what your view was?
    48        A.  At that time as well, because I was new to the
    49        environment, some of the things they were doing I started
    50        to feel that they were -- you could not actually run your 
    51        shift or you not do what you wanted because they would 
    52        actually band together and say: "Oh, no, we do not think 
    53        that is right"; where before it was a one-off thing, you
    54        could get away with it, so it did actually hamper -- there
    55        was one occasion when they threatened to walk out on a
    56        close for some reason -- I cannot remember now -- because
    57        they actually stuck together as opposed to being an
    58        individual.  There was a meeting.  It was decided that
    59        these people had to go.  I cannot remember exactly who was
    60        at the meeting.

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