Day 144 - 28 Jun 95 - Page 62
1 what is happening.
2
3 Q. So the Company has figures on how many people left in given
4 months and how many people in total were employed by the
5 Company at the end of the year?
6 A. Yes, the computer can do that; not by individual but by
7 numbers, they can give me total numbers.
8
9 Q. You mean US-wide?
10 A. No, I do not get what they are.
11
12 Q. No.
13
14 MR. MORRIS: To move on to France, there has been a continuing
15 trade union dispute in Lyon in France, has there not,
16 between the unions and McDonald's for a number of years?
17 A. I do not know of a continuing dispute over a number of
18 years. My information with regard to France, the French
19 system, I need it tell you up front, is a very complex
20 system. I do not understand it in detail because it is so
21 different from the US. I do know that we have a collective
22 agreement there, the Company has a collective agreement,
23 and I believe most of the operators, if not all, are party
24 to that agreement. I know that there have been some
25 problems with -- above the agreement they have things
26 called "personnel delegates" and there is another thing
27 I cannot think of right now. I think there has been some
28 disagreement over some of those elections or one or two of
29 those elections in Lyon. You need to understand that my
30 understanding is those elections take place in every store
31 every year, have taken place for many, many years, and that
32 there would be an isolated situation in Lyon. That is
33 something the French company is handling and the French
34 Human Resource people and their lawyer. I do not have a
35 lot of detail I can give you on the French law or the
36 French practice.
37
38 Q. Have you visited France?
39 A. Yes, I have.
40
41 Q. Which year was that or which years? Have you visited
42 frequently?
43 A. No, it is not frequently and it is not over Labour
44 Relations. The only time there was anything on Labour
45 Relations goes back to either the late 70s or early 80s
46 when I sat down with an outside lawyer to try to understand
47 the French system and then discovered that it was -- I am
48 used to the common law systems and this one was complex and
49 would clearly not be able to figure it out any better.
50 Frankly I would only be a handicap and the outside counsel
51 certainly understood it and knew it. So that is the only
52 time that I have ever gotten into a Labour Relations issue
53 in France.
54
55 Q. When was the last time you visited France on behalf of
56 McDonald's?
57 A. I would have been there probably, except for vacations
58 and a meeting that would not have had anything to do with
59 the French company, putting that aside, the last time --
60 I remember the subject matter, now the time -- I would say
