Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 73
1 A. Yes, it did.
2
3 Q. That measure by the employees was effective. What about
4 the position of the McDonald's restaurant operators,
5 whether company or licensed, that were victims of this
6 fraudulent leafleting?
7 A. Owner/operators in the three areas I have mentioned
8 earlier, St. Louis, Kansas City and Arkansas, filed a suit
9 for defamation.
10
11 Q. Libel?
12 A. Libel. At that point in time I was contacted by George
13 Murphy who was the General Council of the United Food and
14 Commercial Workers.
15
16 Q. He was the union's General Council?
17 A. The union's General Council. He asked me if we could
18 get to together to try to resolve this matter, that it was
19 an embarrassment to the union, and they would like somehow
20 to settle it and resolve the law suit and the entire
21 matter.
22
23 Q. To cut a long story short, did you resolve it?
24 A. Yes, we did.
25
26 Q. On terms favourable to your people or to his?
27 A. Favourable to our people.
28
29 Q. What were the terms of the settlement agreement?
30 A. The major part of it was that the United Food and
31 Commercial Workers paid $1.1 million in damages.
32
33 Q. To the franchisees?
34 A. That is correct.
35
36 Q. Did it pay anything to McDonald's Corporation?
37 A. No. The way the arrangement was worked out was we did
38 not want any of the money directly. We wanted the money to
39 go to the operators in the three state area, the three
40 areas that we talked about, who had been hand-billed and
41 picketed.
42
43 Q. Was that on the basis that the union had circulated,
44 distributed or caused to be circulated and distributed
45 written material falsely alleging that McNuggets were
46 dangerous to human health?
47 A. Yes, sir.
48
49 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I have finished with Tysons.
50
51 MR. JUSTICE BELL: We will take a break.
52
53 (Short Adjournment).
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: Mr. Stein, next and last but one on my list at
56 least, something called Fresco Bruce Church in 1983/4, that
57 is the date given in the pleading. My Lord, the allegation
58 is on page 406 of the Abstract. Mr. Stein, it read as
59 follows: "In or around 1983/4 in the USA McDonald's
60 continued to purchase the produce of Fresco Bruce Church
