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.
