Day 155 - 14 Jul 95 - Page 51
1 generally?
2 A. Yes, because you meet up quite regularly, yes, once a
3 month, conferences, annual conferences etc.
4
5 Q. Do you talk about all kinds of things when you talk to each
6 other or do you just stick to purely business?
7 A. No, anything.
8
9 Q. Anything? People have good personal relations, not just
10 polite conversations with each other or what?
11 A. I do not understand what you mean?
12
13 Q. You are talking about the atmosphere in the Company?
14 A. Yes.
15
16 Q. Relations with people below you, on the same level, and
17 above you. People would not be ----
18
19 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What are you getting at here?
20
21 MR. MORRIS: Well, ----
22
23 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Or what are you seeking to get at?
24
25 MR. MORRIS: Considering that you have been at McDonald's for
26 13, 14 years and you have must have had thousands of
27 conversations with employees at all levels about business
28 and also personal matters, yes?
29 A. Personal matters, not really, no. Business, yes.
30
31 Q. When you socialise with your crew members you do not talk
32 about anything outside strictly business then?
33 A. It is not personal to me. If we talk about football
34 that is not personal to me; it is just general chit-chat.
35
36 Q. You discuss matters of general interest then?
37 A. Yes, OK.
38
39 Q. But by some staggering coincidence nobody has ever
40 mentioned the words trade unions in 14 years at any level
41 of the Company at any time in your presence?
42 A. That is correct.
43
44 Q. Even though the whole country might have been in uproar
45 like during the miners' strike for example.
46
47 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, that is quite unfair. My question was
48 not do with that that. It was a question of trade unions
49 and McDonald's. It was nothing whatever to do with whether
50 the miners are having a battle with the police or anything
51 like that. Anybody would discuss that at the time. That
52 is ridiculous.
53
54 MR. MORRIS: I think it is ridiculous and that is exactly why
55 I made that point and then Mr. Rampton made his -- well he
56 is not the witness, so ----
57
58 MR. JUSTICE BELL: There is a distinction in that it might be
59 quite impossible to say whether one has talked to anyone
60 about something like the miners' strike because it might at
