Day 142 - 26 Jun 95 - Page 14
1 Q. Yes.
2 A. Yes.
3
4 Q. Do you remember any amendment to existing laws or new laws
5 brought in around that time, whether it was 72, 73, 74,
6 whatever, that would have affected minimum wage rates in a
7 high proportion of branches, apart from the normal, you
8 know, yearly or regular increment?
9 A. I am not sure I fully understand your question, but
10 I would assume that this could very well -- the minimum
11 wage has gone up over the years in the United States, and
12 it is quite possible, and I do not really remember, that
13 around that time the wage may have gone from 1.65 to 1.90,
14 if that is what you are asking me.
15
16 Q. OK. We will leave it there. If we go to paragraph 39 on
17 page 18: "On or preceding 21st August 1987", I believe
18 that refers to an actual newspaper quote, "Mr. Jim Kuhn,
19 the chief management consultant of the Plaintiffs, speaking
20 about the USA stated: 'It's the 150,000 kids out there
21 that make us tick. If the unions succeed at McDonald's
22 then my job has failed'." We have a Civil Evidence Act
23 notice from Mr. Kuhn about this?
24 A. Mr. Kuhn.
25
26 Q. Mr. Kuhn, sorry. I will not ask you about whether or not
27 he said it because he deals with it in his
28 statement. Maybe if you get his statement out, it would be
29 helpful. It is No. 17 of volume XIII.
30
31 MR. RAMPTON: No, my Lord, it is No. 30 in volume yellow XIII.
32
33 MR. MORRIS: Sorry, page 30.
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yellow XIII.
36 A. And which tab, 30?
37
38 MR. MORRIS: Yes, sorry. If you notice on paragraph 6 he said:
39 "I did say: 'It's the 150,000 kids out there that makes
40 McDonald's successful'." Then he expands on that. Then
41 in paragraph 7 over the page he says: "I went on to say
42 words to the effect that if unions succeed at McDonald's
43 then my job has failed", and explains what he meant by
44 that, what he says he meant by that.
45 A. OK.
46
47 Q. What I wanted to ask you about is if you go back to
48 paragraph 4 it says: "Sometime in the early 1970s --
49 I cannot now recollect exactly when -- I was interviewed by
50 the authors", sorry, if you look at the sentence above it
51 says ------
52 A. Are you now in paragraph 3?
53
54 Q. Yes. He says: "This quote has been taken directly from a
55 book called 'Big Mac, the Unauthorised Story of McDonald's'
56 written by Max Boas and Steve Chain." Under that he
57 says: "I was interviewed by the authors about McDonald's
58 employment practices with regard to crew." I note in
59 paragraph 2 that he was Vice President of Personnel in
60 1973.
