Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 54
1 Association and the San Francisco Joint Board of Culinary
2 Workers, Bar Tenders, Hotel, Motel and Club Service
3 Workers?
4 A. Not at all. I had no involvement whatsoever in
5 anything involving San Francisco.
6
7 Q. Were you aware of that at the time?
8 A. I had some general knowledge that there was a matter in
9 San Francisco involving McDonald's, but that was being
10 handled by the Littler & Mendelsohn firm in San Francisco.
11 That is a very distinguished firm of labour lawyers in
12 San Francisco.
13
14 Q. So in 1974 you were taken on by the Company?
15 A. Yes.
16
17 Q. What were you doing for the next four years or so?
18 A. I was a Labour Relations attorney specialising in the
19 entire gamut of Labour Relations which would be employment
20 practice law, equal employment opportunity, wage and hour,
21 the union organising areas as we have referred to it, and
22 any matters involving litigation with employees.
23
24 Q. In 1978, was it, you were made Vice President? Is that
25 right?
26 A. I was made Assistant Vice President, yes.
27
28 Q. What was that of?
29 A. Excuse me, that was of Labour Relations.
30
31 Q. Did that change, the work that you were doing?
32 A. No, it really did not, except I became the person
33 responsible for it. I was, if you will, the top person
34 responsible for that specific area.
35
36 Q. Prior to that had there been someone in that position?
37 A. No. As I think I mentioned, I was the first lawyer,
38 labour lawyer that McDonald's had inside the Company.
39
40 Q. So this post was created. Was that because of specific
41 problems that the Company was having at the time with trade
42 unions?
43 A. No.
44
45 Q. And feeling a need to deal with it?
46 A. The majority of work was not in the trade union area.
47 The majority of work -- at that time in the United States a
48 great deal of legislation had been passed concerning
49 equality, employment opportunity, and that was the bulk of
50 the work at that time as employers were doing their best,
51 and McDonald's was doing their best, to become familiar
52 with the legal requirements and the things they needed to
53 do to make sure that they complied with the proliferation
54 of legislation in that particular area.
55
56 Q. Was there also a lot of work around that time concerning
57 the federal minimum wage and changes to the policy of that
58 and the subminimum wage?
59 A. No. Let me say this. We have a Government Affairs
60 Department at McDonald's, so if there was anything dealing
