Day 138 - 20 Jun 95 - Page 30
1 to be dismissed?
2 A. That is correct.
3
4 Q. What was your reaction to the finding or the ruling, or
5 whatever it was, by the Madrid labour court?
6 A. If I can -- let me -- when I spoke with him by phone
7 and received the response that I mentioned to you, I was
8 not satisfied with that response, so I then got on an
9 aeroplane and flew to Spain and met with him. Fortunately,
10 in the intervening period the labour court, the Madrid
11 labour court, had rendered their decision, and so when
12 I spoke with Mr. Mira he had their decision. He
13 acknowledged that -- I advised him he should change
14 lawyers, frankly, and he agreed that he would reinstate
15 them, and which he did.
16
17 Q. After they were reinstated were there, what I might call,
18 unionisation elections?
19 A. Absolutely, yes, there were.
20
21 Q. What was the result of that?
22 A. Committees were elected in each of our stores.
23
24 Q. Did the Company do anything -- the Company we are concerned
25 with, McDonald's -- did McDonald's Corporation do anything
26 to inhibit, interfere with or express disapproval of those
27 elections or their result?
28 A. Not at all, sir.
29
30 Q. Is that Madrid restaurant still organised in this sense,
31 that there are committees?
32 A. Yes, it is and so are the other restaurants as well.
33
34 Q. The other restaurants, there are others, are there?
35 A. Yes, there are several others. At that time there were
36 eight, I believe, and all of them had elections at that
37 time. All of them chose committees and all of those
38 committees still are in existence.
39
40 Q. So far as you, the Company, the Corporation, were and are
41 concerned, was that a satisfactory result of this affair?
42 A. Absolutely. If the employees wished to have an
43 election to form committees, then that is what should
44 happen.
45
46 Q. Mr. Stein, back across the Atlantic to Puerto Rico. My
47 Lord, this is page 10, (iv), of the statement, passages 43
48 and 107 of the Abstract. There was a background to this,
49 I think, Mr. Stein, which occurred at a time when you were
50 not at McDonald's?
51 A. Correct.
52
53 MR. MORRIS: Can I just get the relevant pages?
54
55 MR. RAMPTON: The first allegation, Mr. Stein, or it is
56 expressed first time round in this way: "In Puerto Rico in
57 the mid 1960s McDonald's franchisees were sold to a new
58 franchiser who refused to recognise trade unions. A
59 dispute followed and all branches of McDonald's were
60 closed". Then if one goes on to 107 which, my Lord, is on
