Day 180 - 31 Oct 95 - Page 10


     
     1        11.  I have read David McGee's statement and would concur
     2        with much of his description of the incidents surrounding
     3        his attempt to unionise the store.
     4
     5        "Union rights and McDonald's.
     6        12.  As explained in my earlier statement, I was involved
     7        with a number of short-lived attempts to encourage
     8        McDonald's employees to join the hotel and catering section
     9        of the TGWU of which I was the leading officer in London
    10        and the south-east of England at the time.  I set these
    11        initiatives in the context of a wide-ranging series of
    12        activities among hotel and restaurant workers in London
    13        during my period of tenure.  We undertook literally
    14        hundreds of recruitment initiatives, the great majority in
    15        response to specific requests from employees.  Several
    16        thousand catering workers joined the union as a result.
    17
    18        "13.  Particular characteristics of the McDonald's
    19        workforce and wider labour practices militate against trade
    20        union development in the Company.  These include: high
    21        labour turnover.  If the 60 per cent labour turnover figure
    22        at McDonald's referred to in the contentious leaflet is now
    23        more or less accepted as near to the true position, this is
    24        double the 35.4 per cent industry average for the
    25        restaurant sector, according to the latest report by the
    26        Hotel and Catering Training Company [Employment Flows in
    27        the catering and hospitality sector: 1994]."
    28
    29        That document was disclosed about a week ago.  I do not
    30        know if it was put behind Mr. Pearson's statement in the
    31        trial bundles or not.
    32
    33        "It is therefore doubly difficult in this company...."
    34
    35   MR. JUSTICE BELL: It was one of the ones you gave me which
    36        I suggested I put behind the documents I already had behind
    37        Mr. Pearson's statement.
    38
    39   MR. MORRIS:  Yes.
    40
    41   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Carry on reading from the top of the next
    42        page.
    43
    44   MR. MORRIS:  OK.  "It is therefore doubly difficult in this
    45        company to recruit, retain and successfully represent union
    46        members."
    47
    48        You agree with everything written out so far?
    49        A.  I do.
    50 
    51   Q.   This is a second bullet point under paragraph 13: 
    52 
    53        "The company employs a high percentage of workers under
    54        21 years of age, including students in large numbers, who
    55        do not expect to enjoy a long stay at the company, and who
    56        are unlikely to have a trade union background:
    57        Peter Sutcliffe's case was an exception."
    58
    59        Next bullet point: "The employment of a high proportion of
    60        part-time staff on variable shifts makes for difficulties

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