Day 185 - 07 Nov 95 - Page 16
1 what I felt, what the lawyers said we had to do to try and
2 stop it. It is not like I felt the lawyers said, "This is
3 what your next step is. This is what you are going to have
4 to do next", type thing. Like, trying to get our cards
5 back was our first step, and that is what Chris Broom told
6 us to try and do: "Start a petition and see if you can do
7 anything with that." The application went up, and on the
8 application itself it said, you know, "If you feel any of
9 these reasons, then write a letter"; so that is what we
10 did, we wrote a letter. It was not that I am going along
11 with, you know, a whole bunch of people; it is what I felt.
12 I felt I want my card back, I do not want a union here; and
13 this application says if I do not want it I had better
14 write them a letter. Well, I wrote them a letter.
15
16 Q. You felt you were old enough to decide you did not want the
17 union, but you wanted it argued on your behalf that other
18 crew members who were the same age as you or younger, or
19 maybe even older, should be prevented from making a
20 decision on their own behalf if they wanted to be
21 represented by a union?
22 A. No, no, that is not true at all, because we let them
23 make up their own decision, if they want to sign a
24 petition. We let them make up their own mind if they want
25 to write a card. Not all 67 people wrote a letter or
26 signed the petition. It was up to them.
27
28 MR. MORRIS: I think it is clear there are crossed wires here.
29 The fact is that, on page 1499, the responding parties are
30 McDonald's Restaurants of Canada Limited and Ballantyne
31 Food Limited, and on page 1502 -----
32
33 MS. STEEL: It is pink volume XIV.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just before we start looking for those
36 documents, say what point you are trying to make.
37
38 MR. MORRIS: (To the witness): One of the grounds is, as we have
39 said, that they did not want people under 18 to have the
40 right to join a union. That was one of the grounds why the
41 application should be dismissed, was it not, that under-18s
42 should not be making that kind of decision?
43
44 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Do not raise your voice. It is much easier
45 for the witness to answer calmly if you keep your voice
46 down.
47
48 THE WITNESS: I do not know what McDonald's Canada -- like, Cam
49 put in his; and Mr. Pugsley, he was talking to the crew as
50 well as to the parents. So, I mean, if Mr. Pugsley thought
51 that this would be a good point to argue because the kids
52 did not want a union to be put in here, and if Mr. Pugsley
53 decided that he was going to go about this this way because
54 Mr. Morris felt, as well, that we should not be making, you
55 know, up our minds to sign something we know nothing about,
56 I mean -- well, I cannot -- what am I supposed to do?
57
58 MR. MORRIS: What do you think about McDonald's Restaurants of
59 Canada and Ballantyne Foods Limited saying that under
60 18 year olds should not have the right to join a union?
