Day 188 - 15 Nov 95 - Page 48
1
2 Q. What were you intending to suggest to yourself, if nobody
3 else, by the reference to "investment in cattle production
4 in Thailand"?
5 A. I think that was -- we had had a conversation, again
6 with Paul Hickling -- I had a number of conversations with
7 Paul Hickling -- and we just talked about -- I mean, I was
8 genuinely fascinated by the fact that McDonald's would go
9 into -- he told us at some length about the nature of going
10 into a country like Russia where, in order to ensure that
11 the quality of McDonald's hamburgers as they deemed they
12 wanted to have the quality, they would actually have to
13 move into supervising a -- I mean, maybe by a particular
14 beef farmer's herd. So he was just talking about the whole
15 process of it, which I thought was fascinating. So he
16 would talk about, that is some of the kind of things they
17 did in Thailand. That is actually a reference to the
18 conversation, which was quite a long conversation which
19 ranged around apricots for apricot pies and all sorts of
20 things. He told us in that, for example, about when
21 McDonald's went to Australia, and the Australians did not
22 really like the way the pickle was put on the hamburgers.
23 So it was a very wide ranging -- it is a reference to
24 that.
25
26 Q. I perfectly understand. As it is written, I thought
27 perhaps you were trying to suggest that McDonald's own
28 cattle in Thailand?
29 A. No. I think that was not necessarily -- I do not think
30 it is was necessarily saying it owns cattle in Thailand.
31 I think it was -- he said what they were going to do in
32 Russia, was that they would get exclusive rights to the
33 use of this particular herd, in order to guarantee that the
34 herd was treated, you know, as McDonald's wanted them to be
35 treated. I have no idea whether McDonald's own cattle in
36 Thailand or what, but it was a reference back to that
37 conversation which Jane had been present at.
38
39 Q. Yes, I see. In the last paragraph on that page, you write
40 this: "But they need to persuade themselves that they are
41 doing more than that; otherwise" -- that is say, selling
42 hamburgers -- "otherwise you might wake up one morning and
43 ask myself 'Why am I working 92 hours a week just to sell
44 hamburgers for not very much money?'"
45
46 What people did you have in mind when you asked that
47 rhetorical question in the first person: "Why am I working
48 92 hours a week just" -----
49 A. I think that was talking about the kind of hours that
50 Michael Metcalfe had told us and Mass had mentioned, that
51 he done these three 18 hour shifts on the trot. It was
52 that kind of -- that in order to -- I mean, there is a kind
53 of -- it is not just McDonald's; I think, in order to get
54 into surviving in that kind of atmosphere, you have to
55 convince yourself that it is fun doing this and that is
56 what you really want to do.
57
58 Q. Why do you say that? It might be thought that it is a
59 somewhat patronising attitude.
60 A. No, I do not think it is patronising. I think it is --
