Day 143 - 27 Jun 95 - Page 47
1 Q. I presume you do not know much or anything about the
2 specific working conditions for McDonald's crew employees
3 in Denmark?
4 A. I know that we were paying above the orange book -- the
5 same agreement I mentioned earlier -- I know that Burger
6 King was paying the orange book and they were paying people
7 less than McDonald's. I know that Burger King was not
8 obeying, that even though they were signatory to the orange
9 book, they were not obeying the terms of the orange book;
10 they were doing things less and that the union was not
11 enforcing that orange book as it applied against Burger
12 King until later when they did bring a law suit some years
13 later against Burger King. I do know that.
14
15 Q. You seem to have spent quite a lot of time enquiring into
16 Burger King then when you were in Denmark?
17 A. No, when I would meet with our owner/operators and
18 I would try to get an understanding of what was happening.
19 One of the issues that came up was the union had said to
20 the owner/operators: "Why do you not just sign the
21 agreement?" The owner/operators said, no, there were
22 things in there such as dismissing part-timers that they
23 could not live with.
24
25 They were advised by the union that they should just sign
26 it, and as to those things that they could not live with
27 they did not have to obey it. The owner/operators took
28 position, as well as I did, you do not sign something with
29 someone saying: "Oh, do not worry about it; we will not
30 enforce it". I was advised that that was the way they
31 worked with Burger King for a number of years. Just
32 shortly before we signed our agreement, Burger King was
33 sued by the union for those things that they had not lived
34 up to over many years.
35
36 So, I recall those discussions because we were trying to
37 figure out, how do we solve this issue? How do we solve
38 this problem? Can we somehow get the union to modify its
39 hard and fast stance that it would be this orange book and
40 nothing else? Then I was told: "Well, there is this other
41 alternative and that is they say they will not enforce
42 things in the orange book" which caused me, frankly, to
43 roll my eyeballs to the back of my head.
44
45 Q. So you are all for not having -----
46 A. I am all for if I sign something, I live up to it.
47 I will not sign something and then disrespect it or disobey
48 it.
49
50 MR. JUSTICE BELL: You do not have to pick that up. No sensible
51 person would sign an agreement of that kind of potential
52 importance on the assurance of the other party that they
53 would not enforce part of it.
54
55 THE WITNESS: My Lord, my point is -----
56
57 MR. MORRIS: You were not involved with the negotiations between
58 Burger King and the union, were you?
59 A. No, I was not.
60
