Day 184 - 06 Nov 95 - Page 31
1 Q. The first you heard about it was in August?
2 A. Pardon?
3
4 Q. The first you heard about it was in August?
5 A. That is right.
6
7 Q. Is it your case, your understanding, that people joined the
8 union because they were made promises about improvements in
9 conditions?
10 A. From my understanding, a lot of people were promised
11 things, but they also felt harassed and badgered into it.
12
13 Q. Yes. But apart from the harassment and badgering that you
14 are saying, presumably, if they are being harassed and
15 badgered to join the Mafia, they would not have done that,
16 would they?
17 A. I cannot say.
18
19 Q. But people were made promises. The reason given to people
20 for joining a union was that things would get better; they
21 were making promises about things would get better, yes?
22 A. Not get better, but there would be more things than we
23 were getting right now, like at that time.
24
25 Q. Things like better wages; yes?
26 A. That is what she told me, that, you know, we would get
27 better wages. But she told other people other things,
28 so -- I do not know why other people signed their cards,
29 like, I cannot tell you why every single person signed
30 their card.
31
32 Q. No. Well, you have said in your statement -- if we go to,
33 for example, paragraph 8, over the page on page 3 -- you
34 say that the union was promising or guaranteeing wage
35 increase and job security, that the day they would be made
36 full-time, and full-time staff would get pension and dental
37 treatment. So, were those the kind of things that were
38 going round, promises were being made; that is your
39 understanding, is it?
40 A. When I was there at that meeting, that is what I had
41 heard. Like, this is what was really said.
42
43 Q. Right. So did they actually say: "These are things that we
44 will be negotiating for as a union" ---
45 A. No, he said -----
46
47 Q. -- these matters?
48 A. He said these would be the things that would happen.
49
50 Q. But they would happen as a result of some kind of union
51 negotiations at McDonald's?
52 A. I never heard -- when I was there, I never heard him
53 mentioning anything about a negotiation.
54
55 Q. So was it the case that these were things that were being
56 said, "This is something we expect as basic improvements"?
57 A. These were the things that we definitely would get,
58 like, this was what was definitely going to happen. That
59 is -- when I left for work, when I left that meeting,
60 I understood it as these are the things that are definitely
