Day 303 - 19 Nov 96 - Page 25
1 managers not to hire any union sympathisers. In 1980 there
2 were disputes with the NGG union and eventually the Company
3 signed a union agreement in 1990, and the letter from the
4 NGG, which McDonald's have brought in as evidence, said
5 words to the effect of "following agreement, following
6 disputes, the Company was now having normal relations". We
7 would say that McDonald's attitude was not normal, by their
8 own evidence there, which they are praying in aid, until
9 they began to work with that particular union, which was
10 finally sealed in 1990, although disputes still continue,
11 according to that letter - disagreements and disputes
12 obviously. But they were particularly abnormal
13 disagreements and disputes up to the time that McDonald's
14 began to actually sit down and negotiate.
15
16 In Philadelphia in 1989 McDonald's stores in Philadelphia
17 were independently surveyed and accused of having racist
18 differential wage rates between inner city stores where
19 mostly black workers worked and the suburbs where mostly
20 white workers worked, and we have heard a lot of evidence
21 about that, including we had evidence from the people doing
22 the report and Mr. Stein, I think, was particularly
23 non-credible in this about this dispute.
24
25 He did say that he had intervened and believed that the
26 campaign was a front for an union recruitment effort, which
27 we would say was his primary concern for going down to
28 Philadelphia, and we also say that he clearly deceived both
29 the court and the people involved who were trying to get
30 information from the Company, particularly thinking of the
31 nuns, sisters, who were trying to get information about
32 McDonald's own claimed survey which Mr. Stein had done his
33 best to prevent anyone getting hold of, and of course we
34 were unable to get hold of it because not only did
35 McDonald's not have any copies but -- yes, I mean,
36 I contacted the people who did the report and miraculously
37 the copy disappeared and could not be disclosed.
38
39 Madrid 1986, four workers who had called for union
40 elections were sacked by McDonald's. The Company was
41 forced to reinstate workers after the Labour Court ruled
42 the dismissals were illegal. Mr. Stein just happened to be
43 going down there that very day. I do not know where this
44 particular part of the evidence would get us but it was
45 accepted that in Beijing there had been protest leaflets
46 circulated about conditions, but whether it was connected
47 to this unionisation we do not know. That was in 1993.
48
49 In Iceland in 1993 when they opened their first store,
50 McDonald's, they refused to negotiate with trade unions,
51 which was traditional -- traditional to negotiate -- but
52 after a strike and boycott threat the Company conceded many
53 of the union demands, but not the deduction of wages
54 automatically from wage packets.
55
56 The Canary Islands, 1993, where McDonald's were fined 13
57 million pesetas for falsely claiming State subsidies. Now,
58 McDonald's challenge, I think -- I cannot remember now what
59 the evidence on this subject was, but some kind of
60 challenge to that -- whether they were rightly or wrongly
