Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 15
1 Q. The union rates, were they double or treble the Federal
2 minimum wage, do you remember?
3 A. I would not know. I doubt it would be double or
4 triple, the Federal, but, to be absolutely honest, I do not
5 know.
6
7 Q. But it was higher, substantially higher, than the minimum
8 wage, the union rates?
9 A. I would not say that.
10
11 Q. You do not know?
12 A. I absolutely do not know, but my best guess is that it
13 would not be.
14
15 Q. Do you remember Ray Kroc saying: " The Unions have not
16 been able to touch us with a 10 foot pole. Hell, we have
17 got employees going to football, going to basket, track
18 events, hockey games. We have picnics, theatre parties,
19 soft ball games and on and on"; do you remember that
20 quote?
21 A. I do not remember that quote, but I have had a number
22 of conversations with him regarding the treatment of our
23 employees, and I would say that that sounds like something
24 he might have said.
25
26 Q. I think we asked when you were here before, about the
27 management consultant firm, A.T. Kearney, who did a study
28 for McDonald's and made recommendations regarding Personnel
29 Management techniques. This was in the early 70s. Do you
30 remember that event, that situation, that a study was done?
31 A. I remember that they were retained by our Corporation
32 in the early 70s. John Cooke, I believe, was the principal
33 consultant.
34
35 Q. Yes, and he transferred to McDonald's after that?
36 A. Yes, and shortly after his work with McDonald's, he
37 became an employee of McDonald's. As I recall, to the best
38 that I can recollect, the firm was retained at the time
39 that the Company was growing rapidly. We had made the
40 decision to greatly increase the number of restaurants that
41 would develop, both domestically and worldwide, and we
42 needed to implement people practices, personnel programmes
43 that were going to support our growth effort and support us
44 in our development. We were becoming much more of a
45 professional company, moving from an entrepreneurial
46 company to one that needed more professional systems, and
47 Kearney was able to provide us with the kind of counselling
48 that we needed at that time.
49
50 Q. So they gave advice to McDonald's on those subjects?
51 A. They gave us advice.
52
53 Q. At that time. They made written reports, did they?
54 A. I assume that they probably had summaries for us. I do
55 not recall. I would not have been privy to those written
56 reports.
57
58 Q. It was around this time, when you were expanding, that the
59 rap session idea was brought in, was it?
60 A. I cannot say that was the case.
