Day 185 - 07 Nov 95 - Page 25


     
     1   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  No, if I did say that, then it may have
     2        crossed my mind that someone at the NLRB had said:  "If you
     3        want to intervene, you ought to write a letter along these
     4        lines", just as if someone who was acting for themselves
     5        goes into the County Court office, they get a bit of free
     6        advice from one of the people working in the office there,
     7        but I did not know whether that was so.
     8
     9   MS. STEEL:   Right, OK.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  When I was saying be wary of going into much
    12        detail, if it is your case that, for instance,
    13        Mr. Ballantyne or someone had said:  "Scurry round and get
    14        as many people as you can to write letters saying that they
    15        did not really need to sign the cards after all", you
    16        should put that, sort of, main feature to the witness
    17        rather than a lot of more peripheral detail.
    18
    19   MS. STEEL:   The impression I got from the witness, which I do
    20        not know whether it is the right one, was that the green
    21        forms said what kind of information you needed to include,
    22        but the witness actually drew up a draft letter with just
    23        those basic things in it which she then showed to other
    24        people.
    25
    26   MR. JUSTICE BELL (To the witness):  Is that so or not?
    27        A.  The green sheets had, like, stuff on it and then it had
    28        a A, B, C or D, the green sheets had that, but mine did
    29        not.  The John Doe letter just that had those few sentences
    30        and, you know, make sure to write down if you mention any
    31        names, their address and phone number.
    32
    33   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  What, if anything, did you say to any of the
    34        other young people who were contemplating writing a letter
    35        about whether they should include a ground A, B, C, or D?
    36        A.  I did not talk to them about what they should put in
    37        their letters.
    38
    39   MS. STEEL:   Did you show the other employees the green form or
    40        would they have looked at it in the store anyway?
    41        A.  It was in the crew room.  There was, I think there was
    42        a -- well, I am not sure how many copies.  I think there
    43        was two or three hanging in the crew room.  I do not know.
    44
    45   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  The reason if you are suggesting that
    46        Mr. Ballantyne does have a part in motivating this you
    47        should put it is that if you do not put it, I am certainly,
    48        unless you call a witness who positively says that he did
    49        from their own knowledge, I am not going to have any
    50        evidence to that effect. 
    51 
    52   MISS STEEL:  Right. 
    53
    54   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You may say, well, draw the inference, but if
    55        you are going to ask me to draw an inference like that, it
    56        is best to put it to a witness so it is out in the open, as
    57        I have said before in other contexts.
    58
    59   MS. STEEL:  OK.  (To the witness):  Did Cam say anything
    60        directly to you about doing these letters?

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