Day 140 - 22 Jun 95 - Page 59
1 MR. MORRIS: I have, yes.
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: What does it have on it, what is it?
4
5 MR. MORRIS: It is the Philadelphia Tribune. It says: "Rethink
6 your McDonald's position". It is near the back. It is
7 about the fourth from the back, June 12th, 1990.
8
9 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Have you got it?
10 A. No, I do not.
11
12 Q. It is 6 sheets from the back of 54?
13 A. Yes, I have it.
14
15 MR. MORRIS: Then at the bottom paragraph in the first column it
16 says: "The Tribune points out that some of the franchises
17 are owned by African Americans" -- this is in the City of
18 Philadelphia -- "It is it true that under 25 per cent of
19 McDonald's Philadelphia restaurants are owned by African
20 Americans". Is that true?
21 A. I do not believe that that is true at all. I would
22 have to say that the vast majority of our operators in the
23 City of Philadelphia are black.
24
25 Q. At this time?
26 A. Yes, at that time. I was there, sir.
27
28 Q. "But the Tribune editors effectively point out that 75 per
29 cent of McDonald's inner city employees are African
30 American". That is true, is it?
31 A. I cannot verify that.
32
33 Q. But a majority anyway?
34 A. I cannot verify that at all either. The City of
35 Philadelphia is a large city; it has many different ethnic
36 and interracial groups in that city including a large white
37 population. I cannot verify that.
38
39 Q. In the next paragraph it says: "The numbers of people
40 working full-time and still earning less than the poverty
41 levels" -- this is in general in America -- "has increased
42 by 43 per cent between 1979 and 1987 in this country". Do
43 you know what the poverty level -- is there some official
44 poverty standard, or various poverty level standards with
45 which wages can be compared with?
46 A. I do not have knowledge of that area. I am not aware of
47 it.
48
49 Q. Do you have similar things as there are in this country?
50 I think the European institutions have set a decency
51 threshold, and I cannot remember which institutions in
52 England set poverty standards. Does no one do that in
53 America?
54 A. There may be, but I am not aware of it.
55
56 Q. So, you do not have any standards against which you can
57 judge whether McDonald's crew member's wages could be said
58 to be low or high?
59 A. We do surveys of other employers and, as I think I have
60 mentioned before, we aim to pay at the top of that survey.
