Day 195 - 04 Dec 95 - Page 06
1 which Paul Jackson belonged. I rather think that Gibney
2 was referring to this organisation tongue in cheek.
3 However, the basic import of what he was saying was quite
4 clear; Jackson was dismissed because he was seen to be
5 organising the workers against the management.
6
7 On one occasion I was talking to a few crew members while
8 I was on duty. I said that I was thinking of joining a
9 union. I , in fact, knew that I could not join a union but
10 I said this just in order to see what the response of my
11 fellow crew members would be. Somehow it then got back to
12 management in the store and the First Assistant Manager,
13 Trudie Jones (now First Assistant Manager at the Norwich
14 store), came and said to me and a group of fellow crew
15 members who were standing around together: 'Who was
16 talking about unions yesterday? We don't want anyone
17 talking about unions in this place'. With that she walked
18 away.
19
20 I also recollect that on one occasion I asked another of
21 the Floor Managers, Steve Harney, why it was that people at
22 McDonalds could not join trade unions. Steve Harney
23 replied that this was because people at McDonald's 'had
24 flexible skills'. By this he meant that they were required
25 to work on any particular duties that management dictated.
26 This was a typical management response to the issue. Most
27 people were not convinced by the argument and they realised
28 that it was basically nonsense.
29
30 It was not uncommon for Trudy Jones to be so unpleasant
31 that she had people in tears, particularly newcomers. When
32 McDonald's first opened a store at Clacton, an event which
33 occurred whilst I was working in Colchester, one of the
34 people whom McDonald's were hiring to work at the new
35 Clacton store was sent for preliminary training to my
36 store.
37
38 Trudie Jones was given the job of training him. She had
39 him on the grills for several hours trying to learn how to
40 cook the burgers. During one such shift at a busy lunch
41 time he could not get the technique correct and eventually
42 broke down in tears just from the sheer pressure of being
43 continually harangued and shouted at. I cannot remember
44 the name of this person but I think that he still works at
45 Clacton. This type of incident happened more regularly
46 with the female staff. Trudie Jones was renowned for
47 putting people under excessive pressure all in the name of
48 'good training'.
49
50 While I was working at the store in Colchester, I was not
51 on the phone at home. Often I was required to work long
52 after my shift was meant to finish, since I was generally
53 working on the 'close' shift. Regularly, I would not
54 finish until 3.00 to 4 a.m. or even 6.00 to 7 a.m.. I told
55 management repeatedly that I did not like having to do this
56 because my wife would be on her own all night, not knowing
57 where I was because she could not be contacted by
58 telephone".
59
60 Sorry, you said "management" in a number of places. Can
