Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 25


     
     1        managers not to hire any union sympathisers.  In 1980 there
     2        were disputes with the NGG union and eventually the Company
     3        signed a union agreement in 1990, and the letter from the
     4        NGG, which McDonald's have brought in as evidence, said
     5        words to the effect of "following agreement, following
     6        disputes, the Company was now having normal relations".  We
     7        would say that McDonald's attitude was not normal, by their
     8        own evidence there, which they are praying in aid, until
     9        they began to work with that particular union, which was
    10        finally sealed in 1990, although disputes still continue,
    11        according to that letter - disagreements and disputes
    12        obviously.  But they were particularly abnormal
    13        disagreements and disputes up to the time that McDonald's
    14        began to actually sit down and negotiate.
    15
    16        In Philadelphia in 1989 McDonald's stores in Philadelphia
    17        were independently surveyed and accused of having racist
    18        differential wage rates between inner city stores where
    19        mostly black workers worked and the suburbs where mostly
    20        white workers worked, and we have heard a lot of evidence
    21        about that, including we had evidence from the people doing
    22        the report and Mr. Stein, I think, was particularly
    23        non-credible in this about this dispute.
    24
    25        He did say that he had intervened and believed that the
    26        campaign was a front for an union recruitment effort, which
    27        we would say was his primary concern for going down to
    28        Philadelphia, and we also say that he clearly deceived both
    29        the court and the people involved who were trying to get
    30        information from the Company, particularly thinking of the
    31        nuns, sisters, who were trying to get information about
    32        McDonald's own claimed survey which Mr. Stein had done his
    33        best to prevent anyone getting hold of, and of course we
    34        were unable to get hold of it because not only did
    35        McDonald's not have any copies but -- yes, I mean,
    36        I contacted the people who did the report and miraculously
    37        the copy disappeared and could not be disclosed.
    38
    39        Madrid 1986, four workers who had called for union
    40        elections were sacked by McDonald's.  The Company was
    41        forced to reinstate workers after the Labour Court ruled
    42        the dismissals were illegal.  Mr. Stein just happened to be
    43        going down there that very day.  I do not know where this
    44        particular part of the evidence would get us but it was
    45        accepted that in Beijing there had been protest leaflets
    46        circulated about conditions, but whether it was connected
    47        to this unionisation we do not know.  That was in 1993.
    48
    49        In Iceland in 1993 when they opened their first store,
    50        McDonald's, they refused to negotiate with trade unions,
    51        which was traditional -- traditional to negotiate -- but
    52        after a strike and boycott threat the Company conceded many
    53        of the union demands, but not the deduction of wages
    54        automatically from wage packets.
    55
    56        The Canary Islands, 1993, where McDonald's were fined 13
    57        million pesetas for falsely claiming State subsidies.  Now,
    58        McDonald's challenge, I think -- I cannot remember now what
    59        the evidence on this subject was, but some kind of
    60        challenge to that -- whether they were rightly or wrongly

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