Day 275 - 08 Jul 96 - Page 23
1 know that I had read it from cover to cover but I had
2 certainly read quite big chunks of it, and I remember the
3 parts in there basically indicating that if unions so much
4 as tried to gain any kind of foothold McDonald's would be
5 sending round flying squads to chase them out of town.
6
7 So as far as I was concerned, bearing in mind that the
8 book indicated that it had been done with McDonald's
9 consent they were quite happy to be associated with an
10 antitrade-union attitude, and they were quite happy for
11 people to consider that they were hostile to trade unions
12 an they did not want anything to do with them.
13
14 "In October 1990 I went into McDonald's in Seven
15 Sisters Road and inquired about the rates of pay for new
16 employees. The manager wrote the pay rates on the back of
17 a crew information form." Sorry, I am trying to find the
18 form. (Pause).
19
20 Q. Well, you can come back to it if you want just giving a
21 reference, unless there is some particular point you want
22 to make on it now?
23 A. No, not especially, but if I do not find it in here I
24 will come back to it. No, I cannot find it.
25
26 Q. No, well, you can give the reference at any time if you
27 want to.
28 A. Right.
29
30 Q. After you have left the witness box if need be.
31 A. Thank you.
32
33 "I believe that it should be a fundamental right for
34 any employee to be paid a decent wage and to work in a safe
35 environment without risks to health, and to be treated as a
36 human being and not a robot. I also believe that people
37 should be entitled to join trade unions without fear of
38 losing their jobs or retribution by their employers. I am
39 not actuated by excess malice, I am motivated to campaign
40 against McDonald's and other multinationals because of my
41 love for the planet we live on and my love and respect for
42 the people and animals living on it and because of my
43 desire to see a world free from exploitation and
44 oppression."
45
46 I think the next thing I will deal with is, if I could
47 just deal with the amendments that the Plaintiffs have made
48 to their Statement of Claim, which is, I have nothing to do
49 with producing the fact sheet which is the subject of this
50 action. I did not prepare it or compile it, or write it or
51 edit it, or print it or arrange for it to be printed, nor
52 was I party to that; nor did I procure it or assist it or
53 authorise it. As I said, I was not involved in the group
54 at the time when the fact sheet was produced and I know
55 nothing about how it came into being apart from what was
56 reported at meetings, which was that the person or persons
57 who had written it had left the group.
58
59 The basis for the Plaintiffs making that claim, they
60 say, is Mr. Morris's affidavit for the Haringey case. I
