Day 301 - 15 Nov 96 - Page 41

     
     1        It is important to know what you would say is defamatory,
     2        because when I look at the evidence, one allegation may be
     3        justified - and I stress "may" - and the other may not.  So
     4        I want to know what you think about that.  I know you say
     5        they are both justified, but I will have to see what
     6        conclusion I come to on that.
     7
     8        Do you say it is defamatory to say of a large employer that
     9        they are anti-union?
    10
    11   MR. MORRIS:   I think so, yes, because -----
    12
    13   MR. JUSTICE BELL:   Just pause a moment.  (Pause)  You were
    14        going to say why.
    15
    16   MR. MORRIS:   For a start, it is recognised in all international
    17        conventions the right of trade union activity, for what
    18        they are worth, but I presume they have persuasive power in
    19        the British courts or something, and, as far as I am
    20        concerned, the right to organise, to freely associate, to
         distribute information, to contact outside third parties
    22        are all part of basic human rights that nobody in the world
    23        has any right to prevent.
    24
    25        Hence, I would say McDonald's crew handbook is a direct
    26        attack on basic civil rights against the most vulnerable
    27        people.  Here we have predominantly young, inexperienced
    28        people in a state of low pay, poor conditions, being
    29        prevented by a huge multi-national highly profiteering
    30        company and being prevented from organising themselves and
    31        doing exactly the kind of things that the company
    32        managerial grades are doing, which is organising, planning,
    33        spreading information around and making sure the company's
    34        interests are -- so it is a complete hypocrisy, apart from
    35        anything else.  Anyway, it is a basic human right.
    36
    37   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Shall we have the five minute break there and
    38        then you can press on until quarter to four or just
    39        before.
    40
                          (Short Adjournment)
    42
    43   MR. MORRIS:   In the light of the previous material, we know
    44        that in Germany in 1979 the personnel department in Germany
    45        sent a memo to all managers calling on them to refuse
    46        employment to anyone with union sympathies.  Apparently the
    47        person was shifted to another department and was not
    48        sacked.  And why should they be, because, after all,
    49        someone with union sympathies would entirely come up
    50        against the prescriptions against union activity which
    51        exist in the Crew Handbook.  So that, we would say, is an
    52        entirely honest course of action to take, this memo to
    53        managers.  The point was it came to the attention of the
    54        public and created a controversy which meant they had to do
    55        something.  They did not sack the person, they shifted him
    56        to another department, so they could not have been that
    57        upset about it.  They were probably upset that it came
    58        out.
    59
    60        So that example is indicative.  That is from another