Day 302 - 18 Nov 96 - Page 14


     
     1
     2        And I have a vague recollection that tips that were given
     3        went to the company and we were challenging Mr. Beavers
     4        that this was actually said to be illegal, but he did not
     5        know anything about the California authorities' legal
     6        action about lie detectors and tips, so....
     7
     8        This may seem a long time ago, but the point is we are
     9        saying that the McDonald's system that exists worldwide is
    10        a very unified system and obviously the existence of the
    11        operations manual, which every store in the world has, only
    12        confirms that, but also McDonald's highly standardised
    13        approach to their business was largely developed in the
    14        States -- well, it was completely developed in the States,
    15        and therefore what happened in, say, up to the mid '70s or
    16        even late '70s set a pattern for the whole world in terms
    17        of everything, in terms of advertising, in terms of
    18        employment practices, the lack of quality of the food,
    19        everything else really.
    20
    21        And it is our general submission that, as was touched on,
    22        I think, last week, that we are talking about a systemic
    23        approach by McDonald's and a systemic reality.  We are not
    24        talking about, you know, the odd store here doing something
    25        that no other store would do, or, you know, some particular
    26        quirky way of doing a schedule or whatever.  We are talking
    27        about standard practices that obviously exist in all
    28        stores.
    29
    30        Now, they obviously may exist to one extent or another, but
    31        the problem is the organisation of work and the pressure to
    32        make maximum profits.  Therefore, if we can see through our
    33        witnesses, if you can see, and I am not going to go into
    34        the detail of our witnesses to hardly any extent because
    35        I think that they all speak for themselves very well, but
    36        where you see a pattern between our witnesses, and there
    37        are many patterns, across different countries even, then it
    38        is obvious that it reflects a global system or at least an
    39        extremely widespread system and practices and procedures,
    40        because the same pressures are on the managers in every
    41        store.
    42
    43        No doubt that also applies for McDonald's witnesses, the
    44        same lines, the same catch phrases and propaganda and the
    45        same corporate one-sided loyalty and views will leap out of
    46        the pages of the evidence and the witness statements of
    47        McDonald's witnesses, and we would submit that the relevant
    48        part of the evidence of McDonald's witnesses is where that
    49        corporate line cracks or has been shown to be contradictory
    50        or admissions are made or ludicrous positions are taken
    51        that are unsustainable, because that is in fact the real,
    52        if you like, interface with reality that has come out of
    53        their evidence.
    54
    55        So again, and I just do not have time to go through their
    56        evidence and the submissions, so that is a general
    57        submission about the effect of McDonald's witnesses on this
    58        subject.
    59
    60        Just going back to the '70s in America, he admitted that

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