Day 124 - 10 May 95 - Page 29


     
     1        A.  And I do not necessarily see in that that your
     2        conclusion that he was bribing or attempting to bribe
     3        Nixon.  It is pretty common to support candidates of your
     4        choice and the Company does not impose, when I say "the
     5        Company", individuals in the Company in senior management,
     6        do not try to impose their will on a judgment of officers
     7        or other Company employees on who they should vote for and
     8        who they should contribute, whose campaigns they should
     9        contribute.
    10
    11   Q.   If I can just move on?  I will go back to something which
    12        came up before which is the subminimum wage.  Do you
    13        remember you asked me to say what it was?  Maybe this will
    14        jog your memory.  Do you remember that in 1972, in fact, on
    15        May 11th, 1972, the US House of Representatives passed a
    16        piece of legislation calling for a subminimum wage, that
    17        is, "a youth differential", which would allow employees to
    18        hire 16 and 17 year old workers as well as full-time
    19        students at 80 per cent of the recently proposed minimum
    20        wage.  Does that ring a bell now?
    21        A.  I think I recall that, that Act.
    22
    23   Q.   That Act was dubbed by the media as "the McDonald's Bill"
    24        because McDonald's at the time was the largest employer of
    25        that age group in the country, do you remember that?
    26        A.  Vaguely.
    27
    28   Q.   Do you remember that McDonald's supported that legislation?
    29        A.  No.  I do not know what our involvement was in that
    30        legislation.  That would not have been an area of
    31        responsibility for me at that time.
    32
    33   Q.   Do you remember that the -----
    34        A.  As I recall ---
    35
    36   Q.   Sorry, yes.  Please say.
    37        A.  -- as I recall, and again, you know, you could get
    38        perhaps a little clarification on that from Mr. Stein, it
    39        seems to me students could be employed at a wage that was
    40        less than a minimum wage for a period of 30 days or 60
    41        days, or hired for the minimum -- what it was, they were
    42        hired for the minimum wage, and the differential between
    43        what was passed and the minimum wage would be reimbursed to
    44        the Company by the government.  They had to submit an
    45        application to the government and the employer would be
    46        reimbursed.  So, in other words ---
    47
    48   Q.   So the government -----
    49        A.  -- so, in other words, the employee -- it was not that
    50        the employee made less; it seems to me that the employer 
    51        was reimbursed for hiring students. 
    52 
    53   Q.   So the government was, effectively, subsidising
    54        McDonald's  ---
    55        A.  For the employment of students.
    56
    57   Q.   -- for the employment of students?
    58        A.  Yes.  Now, that is my recollection and I could be all
    59        wrong on that, but if you want a more definitive answer to
    60        that ----

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