Day 145 - 29 Jun 95 - Page 52
1 Mr. Stein will say, I will put the question in a different
2 way. This is a question to which, if possible, I do know
3 the answer. (To the witness): Mr. Stein, what was your
4 contact with Mr. Gallein during the course of the Tyson
5 dispute?
6 A. I had first received a letter from him threatening a
7 worldwide boycott of McDonald's concerning our continuing
8 to purchase Chicken McNuggets from Tyson.
9
10 Q. Did he carry out that threat?
11 A. Yes, but I can also tell you other contact I had with
12 him during that period.
13
14 Q. Very well.
15 A. He rang me up. He called me, this would be, well, at
16 the time of the Tyson matter, so we are talking mid-80s, on
17 the earlier side of the mid-80s, he called me on the
18 phone. He asked me whether or not we were going to
19 continue to purchase Chicken McNuggets from Tysons. I told
20 him that we intended to do so. He told me that he would be
21 sponsoring a worldwide boycott of McDonald's concerning
22 that. I told him that I did not think that was proper or
23 legal and I went through the secondary boycott discussion
24 that I think we had here earlier, and he said he still
25 intended to move forward. I asked if we could possibly
26 have a meeting to discuss it further so I could let him
27 know what all the facts were, because I did not think
28 McDonald's was doing anything improper, and that if he
29 heard what the real facts were in the situation then he
30 would not want to proceed with what he called a "worldwide
31 boycott".
32
33 Q. Let us try to keep it short. Did you have that meeting
34 with him?
35 A. Yes, I did, I had that meeting.
36
37 Q. Please let me ask the questions. You had the meeting with
38 him?
39 A. Yes, I did.
40
41 Q. Did you succeed in persuading him that his proposed boycott
42 was misconceived or not?
43 A. It was at a time when the United Food and Commercial
44 Workers were already indicating that they were abandoning
45 their boycott, so we did not specifically get into the
46 Tysons thing. He did not want to get into Tysons -- excuse
47 me, he did not want to get in a long narrative concerning
48 the Tyson matter. I told him, though, I pressed him at
49 that meeting, that we really needed to discuss it because
50 I thought that his action had been improper, and that he
51 should have looked behind the situation before he declared
52 the boycott.
53
54 Q. Did he or did he not accept that?
55 A. No, he did not accept that. He told me that -- we had
56 exchanged what our backgrounds are and he told me that
57 I should know from my experience, that is the leader of an
58 organisation such as his, that it is more in a political
59 environment where he has to support his constituent members
60 and take strong positions on behalf of his constituent
