Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 61
1 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Mr. Morris, if you have a case to put, put it
2 but you cannot -----
3
4 MR. MORRIS: I just did not understand what he meant.
5
6 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, I know, but then I am not interested. If
7 you do not know what they mean, you cannot have some
8 allegation to make about them.
9
10 MR. MORRIS: We have said we talk about industrial awards,
11 minimum wage and work conditions in the pleading, and
12 Mr. Stein mentioned "proportion clauses", is that the same
13 thing?
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but, look, the allegation I take there
16 is another entirely. I am not going to assume that any
17 company is antipathetic to unions because it falls into
18 dispute with them from time to time and some independent
19 body, be it a court or a Board of some kind, has to make a
20 ruling. If I were to conclude otherwise, it would be
21 tantamount to saying that the union is always right and I
22 do not know that it is.
23
24 The allegation in the second part of "M" is that
25 restaurants with staff subject to prescribed industrial
26 award minimum work conditions were closed and later
27 reopened with staff not covered by the awards. I take that
28 to be a particular that McDonald's were hostile to unions
29 to the point of closing down restaurants if staff got the
30 benefit of an industrial award at the union's initiative,
31 and then re-opened with staff who were not covered by the
32 awards. In other words, action taken to avoid the affect
33 of the award, but that is what I take the allegation in "M"
34 to be.
35
36 MR. MORRIS (To the witness): Maybe this helps then, where we
37 have pleaded: "In another State", Mr. Stein, "McDonald's
38 were hostile to a Building Workers Union who were mounting
39 a solidarity campaign with McDonald's staff. McDonald's
40 took legal action to stop the campaign". Is that the
41 reference you made to the construction unions?
42 A. It had nothing to do with McDonald's employees.
43
44 Q. No, but you made a reference that you were aware of
45 construction unions mounting some boycott activities of
46 McDonald's?
47 A. That had to do with the construction of restaurants --
48 nothing to do with our employees.
49
50 Q. Yes, so was it the case then that -- I cannot remember if
51 Nancy Leahy mentions it in her statement. She has already
52 dealt with that anyway. So that was around the time that
53 you were there that something like that was going on with
54 construction unions?
55 A. No. I am generally aware that there have been from
56 time to time some issues with construction unions over what
57 contractors should be building our restaurants and which
58 ones should not be building our restaurants. The
59 construction unions have nothing to do with McDonald's crew
60 people or McDonald's employees; it has to do with the
