Day 137 - 19 Jun 95 - Page 54


     
     1
     2   Q.   1976.  Where was that?
     3        A.  That would be in Masons City, Iowa.
     4
     5   Q.   How did it become deorganised or ununionised, what process?
     6        A.  The reverse of what I described earlier, about the NLRB
     7        process, except there was an exception to it.  Do you want
     8        some detail?
     9
    10   Q.   Not a lot of detail because it is not one of the pleaded
    11        issues in this case; I just want to know how it came about,
    12        that is all.
    13        A.  The store -- I am going to have to give you some,
    14        I apologise, to make sense of this thing.  The store was
    15        organised by a union, a national union -- the name escapes
    16        me -- but through the NLRB route that we talked about, the
    17        secret ballot election -----
    18
    19   Q.   There was a petition and an election which went in favour
    20        of the union at one time?
    21        A.  Exactly.  There is a labour contract agreed upon and,
    22        at the end of that three year labour agreement, the
    23        employees sent a petition to the owner/operator and to the
    24        National Labour Relations Board -- they sent it to both --
    25        asking that the union no longer be recognised as their
    26        bargaining agent.
    27
    28        There was a petition filed for a new election, and which is
    29        a customary practice -- in the US if employees no longer
    30        want it, it is called a decertification petition -- and the
    31        union filed unfair labour practice charges, claiming that
    32        the owner/operator had done things to interfere.
    33
    34        The National Labour Relations Board investigated the
    35        allegations; found no merit and dismissed the allegations.
    36        An election was scheduled to be held, but before it could
    37        be held the union withdrew from the process and rescinded
    38        any claims they had to recognise in the employees.
    39
    40   Q.   Since that date it has remained ununionised?
    41        A.  That is correct.
    42
    43   Q.   Do you know of any other cases during your time at
    44        McDonald's but before (because you said that was the most
    45        recent one) 1976?
    46        A.  I am sorry.  Around that time -- boy, we are going back
    47        a way.
    48
    49   Q.   I know we are, yes.
    50        A.  It would be in that same, 75 through 76 -- it may have 
    51        even about been a little bit later than that, it may have 
    52        been in 77 -- there were restaurants in Frezno, California, 
    53        I believe there was either five or six restaurants -- I may
    54        be off by a number or so -- in Frezno, California, owned by
    55        an owner/operator that had had successively agreements over
    56        a number of years, and I cannot tell you, I just know there
    57        were several.
    58
    59        The employees there similarly filed a petition for
    60        decertification.  The matter was blocked, if you will --

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