Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 15
1 A. Yes, I do know Mr. John Cook.
2
3 Q. Does he still work for McDonald's?
4 A. No, he does not. John has been retired, I want to say,
5 three or four years.
6
7 Q. Did you get to know Mr. Cook when you first joined the
8 organisation?
9 A. Yes, I did.
10
11 Q. Did you work with Mr. Cook?
12 A. Yes, Mr. John Cook hired me.
13
14 Q. He hired you?
15 A. Yes.
16
17 Q. I see.
18 A. He was the Head of Human Resources.
19
20 Q. So you are wearing his shoes; is that right?
21 A. Yes.
22
23 Q. The shoes he used to wear. Did he have a flying squad?
24 A. There was a term "flying squad" that was used in the
25 Company back in the 70s when I joined the Company. It was
26 a term that was used generally around the Company by the
27 Market Department, by the Accounting Department, virtually
28 every department. These were people in Oak Brook who when
29 there were some local needs, whether it be a marketing
30 need, or accounting need, or whatever the needs are, that
31 these people would go to that place and provide the
32 consulting advice. It was not a sinister thing.
33
34 Q. I was going to ask you. This may be a difference of
35 culture or terminology. Does the Chicago Police Department
36 have a wing or body called the Flying Squad?
37 A. Not that I am aware of.
38
39 Q. No. It is just the Metropolitan Police does or used to
40 have such a thing; it has a different connotation perhaps
41 in this country?
42 A. OK. The reason, if I can for a second, in the 70s
43 McDonald's did not have the infrastructure of the 40
44 regions that it has today. It did not have the
45 infrastructure of support departments on a regional basis,
46 so that meant in virtually every department in Oak Brook a
47 handful of people were the folks who needed to attend to
48 issues across the country.
49
50 For example, when I joined the Human Resource group,
51 altogether I think there were seven people in the entire
52 nation. So, if issues came up, recruiting issues or
53 compensation issues, or a labour issue, people who had
54 experience in that area would provide assistance.
55
56 Q. Why the word flying?
57 A. Because they could get on an aeroplane and go.
58
59 Q. It is literal?
60 A. Yes. Aeroplanes in the US, while not obviously in
