Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 52


     
     1        or a special inducement to the workforce to vote in favour
     2        of Ralph Kelly as opposed to the union was a celebrity
     3        visit by Earl Campbell, who was a well-known football
     4        player; what comment do you have about that on McHappy Day,
     5        I think?
     6        A.  Yes.  McHappy Day is something that during that period
     7        of time was an annual event that took place in Michigan,
     8        Illinois, other states, in, frankly, all of Canada as well
     9         -- it originated as a Canadian thing.  What it was, it was
    10        a charitable event where you invited celebrities, if you
    11        will, it could be local politicians, it could be athletes,
    12        actors, actresses, to visit stores.
    13
    14        The purpose of it was that we are trying to get additional
    15        customers to come to our stores on that day, and a portion
    16        of the sales were donated to charity.  So, these folks, in
    17        general, were supporters of the charity that the money
    18        would be going to and volunteered to come in and
    19        participate, so that customers knew they would be there.
    20
    21   Q.   Was Earl Campbell a local hero?
    22        A.  Yes, what was -- he was a local hero in Detroit
    23        although he played for a different football team than
    24        theirs, but he was a national hero, if you will.
    25
    26   Q.   Mr. Stein, the important question:  Was this visit by Earl
    27        Campbell set up specially as way of persuading the
    28        employees to vote for Ralph Kelly in the election?
    29        A.  No.  He took no part in the election whatsoever.  There
    30        was no -- nothing to do with unions with his visit.
    31
    32   Q.   What about McBingo?  What is McBingo, for a start off?
    33        A.  McBingo is a training tool.  It is used -- I do not
    34        know if bingo is played in the UK where you call out  -----
    35
    36   Q.   Yes, it is.
    37        A.  OK.  The way it works at McDonald's is there are
    38        specific training prerequisites that are set out for each
    39        station and, as people have demonstrated that they qualify,
    40        they meet the standards, they receive, if you will, numbers
    41        or we call them -- what was the money called -- it was
    42        called -- we have not done these for a while; they are were
    43        very popular back then -- McDollars or something like
    44        that.  They would accumulate so much money over the
    45        training period.  There would be a targeted training period
    46        of time.  It might be two months, three months, four
    47        months.  As people became proficient in various areas, they
    48        would earn, not real money, but other currency.  Then that
    49        would culminate ultimately in people in a raffle, if you
    50        will, where people can pledge so many dollars to buy 
    51        certain t-shirts or things like that. 
    52 
    53   Q.   Was this something that was specially put on during the
    54        course of this election campaign or not?
    55        A.  Yes, it did fall during that campaign, but it also fell
    56        in all the other stores in that Detroit area.  It had long
    57        been scheduled.
    58
    59   Q.   My fault, I did use the word "specially".  What I meant by
    60        that was, as a special inducement to the workers to vote

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