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
