Day 094 - 01 Mar 95 - Page 18
1 A. It could be quoted -- is that a fact?
2
3 MR. JUSTICE BELL: No, you are being asked, you see, whether you
4 would accept that it is?
5 A. Yes.
6
7 Q. Just answer the question, and we will see whether it gets
8 us anywhere at the end of the day.
9
10 MS. STEEL: It is also the union of these inspectors that is
11 making the complaints as well?
12 A. Yes.
13
14 Q. What action has McDonald's taken to investigate these
15 complaints thoroughly, or do you just feel that you are not
16 concerned about them, you have written them off?
17 A. If you want to make a bald statement, I do not care.
18 We have our own system that is far better than inspectors.
19 I do not rely on inspection when it comes to chickens
20 because our operations are -- we have a very strong
21 relationship with the Tysons and the Equities. Our plants
22 run more efficiently, a lot better when it comes to
23 inspection than any in the plant that is in the US that
24 does not have a HACCP plant and most of them do not. We
25 were one of the first and we might have been the first to
26 implement a HACCP.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Pause there. What you are saying is you do
29 not have to investigate a complaint if your state of
30 knowledge is that it is wrong, that is what you are saying?
31 A. That is correct. We see our operations every single
32 day. Our operations have not been -----
33
34 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, very well.
35
36 MS. STEEL: Who sees your operations every single day? Are you
37 talking about operations in the restaurants?
38 A. One at a time. We see operation -- I am one of many
39 people who visit the plant who see the plant, who see the
40 facilities. It is quite obvious by doing that that those
41 claims are thoroughly unsubstantiated.
42
43 Q. Are you saying that there is someone from McDonald's at the
44 Tyson plant every day of the year?
45 A. No.
46
47 Q. How often are visits made?
48 A. It depends. I do not know how often the other people
49 visit the plants. But I can tell you, of all the people
50 that visit the plant probably I am the one who visit them
51 the least. There are people in the Quality Assurance
52 Department that have direct responsibility, who visit the
53 plant more often than I do, far more often.
54
55 Q. But you do not know how often they visit?
56 A. That is what I said.
57
58 Q. If an inspector at a Tyson plant made a comment such as:
59 "Would you want to go out to a pasture with a chicken, cut
60 him up and then drop him into a fresh manure pile and eat
