Day 301 - 15 Nov 96 - Page 38

     
     1        management could direct, restrict or ban employees'
     2        activity and behaviour under threat of disciplinary action
     3        and summary dismissal.  But he could not, when asked, think
     4        of a single right that workers had except where there was
     5        statutory protection, such as to get the exact wages, to
     6        get their wages that they had contracted for.
     7
     8        So, the point being that management are armed with not only
     9        managerial rights, which they can use and abuse, with all
    10        kinds of sanctions that they can use, up to summary
    11        dismissal, but Mr. Nicholson could not think of a single
    12        right that workers had except that which was statutory
    13        protection.
    14
    15        Coming on to unions.  You may think, quite unsurprisingly,
    16        McDonald's does not want unions.  In fact, I think most
    17        revealing in terms of the way it came out, the point  about
    18         -- this was by Mr. Magen from Ireland, who let slip under
    19        questioning that the reason he did not want the union in
    20        Dublin was he did not want to lose control of his
         business.  The point is, if workers have rights, then it
    22        means conversely, obviously, the other side of the coin,
    23        that management does not have all the rights.  And if
    24        workers have collective organisation and voice,
    25        representation, then the management does not have a
    26        completely malleable and individualised workforce who they
    27        can easily push around.
    28
    29        Unions have a lot of experience, to say the least.  They
    30        are probably the number one, they are probably the
    31        organisations with the most membership in the world, and a
    32        lot of them have an unbroken history of experience.
    33        Therefore, McDonald's inexperienced, youthful workforce who
    34        come in as individuals, and McDonald's do everything they
    35        can to -- well, whatever.  The point is that to have the
    36        backing of experienced union representation officials,
    37        literature, advice, whatever, legal advice, would obviously
    38        greatly assist McDonald's workforce.
    39
    40        Mr. Nicholson started with the view that the company was
         not anti-union and all staff had a right to join one.
    42        Obviously, there is nothing anyone can do to stop people
    43        joining a trade union, especially if they do not find out
    44        about it.  The leaflet does not even say that.  The point
    45        is, though, union activity.  He said the company was "very,
    46        very much in support of performance related pay.  Those who
    47        work well are paid well. For that reason, we would rather
    48        not deal with trade unions."  I think that is a direct
    49        quote.  That is from day 116, page 33, line 53.
    50
    51        Now, this is quite interesting, because this is a
    52        recognition that it is the McDonald's system and the
    53        practices that they are protecting from trade unions.  The
    54        performance related pay, as we have heard, is a joke, in
    55        that it is so small, you have to get such high scores to
    56        get such tiny increases spread out over a very long time,
    57        and, because of the turnover, most employees will not get
    58        even more than one or two tiny increases.  So that is
    59        obviously completely inadequate as a way of addressing the
    60        problem of low pay.