Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 46


     
     1
     2   Q.   The reason you have not put forward any such motion or
     3        suggestion is because it would mean you would no longer be
     4        reaping the rewards of other people's hard work, getting
     5        your profits from the shares that you hold?
     6        A.  Ms. Steel, I work as hard as anybody in McDonald's.
     7
     8   Q.   But?
     9        A.  I have for 30 years.
    10
    11   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  Leave it there, because at the moment this
    12        does not seem -- on such knowledge as I have of the way the
    13        companies limited by shares operate, I just do not think
    14        this is realistic.  But there you are, you address me on it
    15        at the end.
    16
    17   MS. STEEL:   I think the whole thing can be solved quite simply,
    18        which is that McDonald's could recognise that other people
    19        are entitled to hold a point of view that they pay low
    20        wages, and then we could all go home and forget about this.
    21
    22   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You still have not told me who you mean by
    23        McDonald's.
    24
    25   MS. STEEL:  The Corporation of which Mr. Preston is a ----
    26
    27   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  You must tell me who you mean there so I can
    28        understand.  Do you mean the chief executive tomorrow could
    29        do this, or do you mean that a meeting of shareholders,
    30        including for all I know about a million small shareholders
    31        in North America, or what?
    32
    33   MS. STEEL:   If they wanted to, McDonald's could recognise we
    34        have a right to criticise them for paying low wages and
    35        then we could forgot about all talking about this and go
    36        home tomorrow.
    37
    38   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  That is a different point, and I want you to
    39        leave it there, but what I want you to do at the end of the
    40        day is explain to me how it can be done -- you may have an
    41        explanation how it can be done -- so that the Company still
    42        survives and still employs anyone at all.
    43
    44   MS. STEEL:   But that is not a relevant question.  The relevant
    45        question is, are other people entitled to have different
    46        political beliefs from believing in a capitalist society
    47        and will they have the right to express those beliefs,
    48        which McDonald's do not seem to think we should.
    49
    50   MR. JUSTICE BELL:  I will say it once more.  You can ignore it 
    51        if you want, but at the end of the day I would like your 
    52        assistance on how it can be done.  Quite apart from any 
    53        entitlement to criticise, how it can be done.  I would like
    54        you to make a note of it, and I would like you to come back
    55        to it at some stage during your submissions, because when
    56        we come to argue about low I would like you to tell me if
    57        this is low, and you may succeed in persuading me that
    58        their pay is low, what level of pay would not be low, and
    59        then whether how, you say, the level of pay which is not
    60        low could be achieved.  You may well explain it to me.

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