Day 001 - 28 Jun 94 - Page 48


     
     1        due course in the evidence.
 
     2        Finally, my Lord, and on employment this is perhaps really
              the most important question of all, certainly so far as
     3        the plaintiffs are concerned, it is this:  Do McDonald's
              cynically exploit the weak position of women and ethnic
     4        minorities in the labour market so as to provide
              themselves with cheap labour?
     5
              If your Lordship will forgive me, I will answer this
     6        question in an indirect way.  The plaintiffs' second
              witness in this case will be a Mr. Robert Beavers.  He is
     7        the most senior representative of the first plaintiffs who
              will be giving evidence.  He is a senior vice president of
     8        the Corporation and a member of its board of directors.
              He will explain why, like the second plaintiffs, the
     9        Corporation in America thought it necessary to bring this
              action and to press it to a conclusion; it also happens
    10        that he is black.
 
    11        He will describe his own experience of McDonald's from his
              first job as a part-time crew member while he was a
    12        student at the George Washington University of Washington
              DC, right up to his present position of eminence in the
    13        Corporation.  He will also explain McDonald's policies and
              practices in relation to equal opportunities. The effect
    14        of his evidence will be this:  McDonald's has a record of
              second to none in the employment of people from ethnic
    15        minorities.  It has a policy which requires that the
              ethnic composition of the crew of a particular restaurant
    16        should reflect the demography of the local population.
 
    17        In consequence of the single-minded pursuit of this
              policy, McDonald's has received numerous awards and
    18        commendations from the black and Hispanic communities in
              America.  As a further consequence, Mr. Beaver will tell
    19        your Lordship, after the almost total destruction of
              central South Los Angeles which occurred when the white
    20        policeman accused of assaulting Rodney King, a black man,
              were acquitted, 33 buildings in that area were left
    21        virtually intact, 33 buildings alone.  Those 33 buildings
              were McDonald's restaurants.
    22
              My Lord, I add with some sense of anti-climax that the
    23        evidence of Mr. Beaver who speaks for the first plaintiffs
              will be reflected in the evidence of a number of witnesses
    24        from the United Kingdom who are either black or female or
              both.  Their evidence is to bound at witness bundle, that
    25        is yellow bundle 10, sections B/5 to 12.
  
    26        My Lord, finally -- I am keeping well to schedule you 
              Lordship will be pleased to know -- I come to 
    27        rainforests.  The issue, as I state it, is this:  Have the
              plaintiffs ever been responsible, directly or indirectly,
    28        for the destruction of any part of the world's
              rainforests?
    29
              My Lord, this too is an important issue, in some senses,
    30        for a slightly different reason, but perhaps mostly
              because it is one of those allegations which seems to have

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