Day 247 - 10 May 96 - Page 45
1 matter you may have to grasp -- so long as it is a capital
2 company, you cannot say to a company, "tomorrow morning
3 increase everyone's wages by 25 per cent". It is not on.
4
5 MS. STEEL: If they do not want to, that is up to them, but the
6 point is that it should be up to us to criticise that as a
7 way to organise how things are done.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Well, that is another matter, but I am trying
10 to understand the ramifications because I thought you were
11 suggesting that they could do it if they wanted to.
12
13 MS. STEEL: They could do if they wanted to.
14
15 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What I would like you to address me to in due
16 course is whether the result of that would not be the
17 overnight collapse of the company. Do not answer it now,
18 but I will need your help on that at the end of the day.
19
20 MS. STEEL: Mr. Preston, there are companies which are run on
21 cooperative lines where the people who work within them all
22 get paid about the same and any profits that are made are
23 shared out amongst them. Your company could do that, could
24 it not, if it wanted to?
25 A. Well, right now it cannot do anything other than what
26 it is doing. It cast its dye years ago when it became a
27 publicly held organisation. I cannot undo that.
28
29 Q. I am not talking you, personally, I am talking about the
30 Company.
31
32 MR. JUSTICE BELL: I think you should expressly say who you mean
33 by 'the Company'. Do you mean the shareholders?
34
35 MS. STEEL: The Corporation.
36 A. The shareholders are the Company.
37
38 Q. OK. I suppose the shareholders could decide to do that.
39 Are you a shareholder?
40 A. Yes.
41
42 Q. Right. So you could put forward a motion that the Company
43 should be changed into a workers' cooperative?
44 A. If I wanted to I suppose I could.
45
46 Q. Have you ever done that?
47 A. I see no worth in doing so.
48
49 Q. Has anybody else who is part of McDonald's management
50 structure ever done any such thing, ever put such a
51 proposal?
52 A. I have no knowledge of their personal affairs.
53
54 Q. Right. The reason you see no reason for doing that is
55 because it would mean that you were not making massive
56 amounts of money off the backs of other people would it
57 not? It would not be in your interests, your personal
58 interests?
59 A. I am sorry, I have lost you there. I am sorry, say
60 that again, that I --
