|
1. I am a Senior Vice President and member of McDonald's Corporation's Board of Directors, I am also a Member of the Board of Directors of the World Institute of Black Communications CEBA (Communications Excellence to Black Audiences) program.
2. I have read the leaflet, "What's Wrong with McDonald's?" and the pleadings in this action in particular the Defendants allegations about the employment by McDonald's of women and black people. These allegations I refute totally.
3. I joined McDonald's in 1963 as a part time crew member, while a student a George Washington University in Washington D.C. Prior to starting work with McDonald's I l had worked part time for the Government having passed my Civil Service exam and was at the time waiting to hear from the Government whether I was to be offered part-time employment. Whilst waiting for the Job offer I started work with McDonald's. When the Government finally offered me employment I declined the offer because I enjoyed working at McDonald's as there was a good working environment in the store and the crew were happy and in my opinion and experience they were treated well. The pay was about $1 per hour which, whilst not quite as high as Government pay rates, was nonetheless a good rate at that time; most importantly the flexible work schedule at McDonald's allowed me to work without affecting my studies or social activities.
4. During my second year at McDonald's, whilst still at University, I became a shift manager; my responsibilities included training other crew members, running shifts and on occasion being in charge of the store when the manager and assistant manager were absent. During this period I also completed my basic management course. The store manager was very keen for all crew members who showed management potential and capability to be trained for management positions. During my junior year at college I was promoted to Assistant Manager. The following year I joined McDonald's full time and within a year I was promoted to Store Manager in Washington.
5. As both an Assistant Manager and Store Manager I was responsible, together with the other managers, for recruitment of crew members for the resturants of which I had control. McDonald's was very much an employer of first choice with many young people and there was little problem with recruiting, which was mostly done by placing 'help wanted' signs in the store window. At that time in the 1960's the crew was all male, and equal opportunities was a little known concept. Nonetheless McDonald's saw the need to integrate women into the workforce, partly due to the proliferation of other retailers and the increased competition for workers, However even then, it was clear to me from discussions I had with managers of other retail establishments, that employees who had received a McDonald's training were highly valued by our competitors who preferred, where possible, to employ McDonald's trained employees.
6. Over the next three and a half years I managed several restaurants in the Washington area. During this period I can recall that there were only a few incidents of staff discontent which I dealt with myself. On each occasion I was able to identify and resolve the problem myself within the store without recourse to senior management. I was then promoted to Area Supervisor for the Corporation. Up to that time I had been employed by a franchisee. As an Area Supervisor I had direct responsibility for seven company restaurants and my Job was to ensure that these restaurants met their sales and profit goals, were properly staffed, efficiently run and that the crew members and management team were being trained properly and were content.
7. In 1970 I moved to Chicago where I was promoted to Director of Urban Affairs and Assistant Licensing Director for the corporation. This was a new position designed to assist the regions in the Corporation in recruiting both employees and licensees from minority groups. Mr. Fred Turner, the then Chief Executive Officer of the corporation, made it clear to me that what was expected of me in this job was to intergrate the company by trying to ensure that the profile of the Stores' employees mirrored that of the local population. The rations behind this was not to gain cheep labour but because it made good business sense for the Corporation to have the staffing and indeed ownership of its stores representative of the local community. It was also ethically the correct thing to do. Over a couple of years we made measurable progress in this respect.
8. In some predominately white areas this integration did cause problems and some customers were clearly deterred by the fact that they were being served by a black person. Whilst there was also reaction initially when a black worker was promoted over a white worker, we worked to educate our employees to overcome the problem. The objective that the composition of a stores workforce should reflect that of the local community was the Corporation's unstated policy throughout the 1970's. In the early 1980's Dennis Dietzel was appointed by Fred Turner to pursue this goal by Affirmative Action. He was the Corporation's first Affirmative Action Director. This involved monitoring demographic statistics across the Country and then positively recruiting and promoting from specific groups to try and reflect those figures. There were some people in the Corporation at that time who did not agree with the policy or integration but over the years they were either converted to this policy or decided to leave the corporation realising its objectives and principles did not accord with their own
9. In 1971 I became New York District Manager and then Regional Manager of the Washington D.C. area in 1974. In 1976 I became Regional Vice President and in 1980 I was promoted to Senior Vice President and Zone Manager. My initial responsibility was for McDonald's operations in the Mid-West areas. In 1987 I took over responsibility for McDonald's operations in six regions: San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Phoenix and Sacramento, which I retained until the end of 1993. At that time I had responsibility for the supervision of approximately 1200 stores, However, both as a Regional Manager and a Zone Manager I maintained day to day contact with the stores so that as well as receiving reports on operations I could observe first hand how stores were managed and operating.
10. In 1984 I was elected to the Board of Directors of McDonald's Corporation and in October 1993 I was appointed Chief Liaison Officer for the Corporation.
11. During my 30 years at McDonald's there have been occasions when I have felt some of the regions in the United States were not achieving the appropriate racial mix in their stores and I have provided guidance and assistance on how to improve the balance. McDonald's has always been in the vanguard in this area. We were one of the first companies to hire black people and promote them through the organisation and as far as I am aware we are one of the few fortune 500 companies that has a black Executive Director on it's board. We are recognised as a clear leader in the hiring, training and promoting of women and minorities, particularly in the food industry and have received frequent requests from other companies asking how we have managed to achieve such successful diversity. To a large extent we are happy to share this information.
12. Our efforts In this area have been recognised with numerous awards from both black and Hispanic groups, as well as by local governments and community leaders. The Success of our efforts to integrate our workforce to mirror the local Population and to become part of the local community was shown up starkly during the rioting last year in Central South Los angeles following the Rodney King affair. McDonald's had 33 restaurants in this area. which was predominantly a black and Hispanic one. During the rioting and looting McDonald's stood out as one of the few businesses which remained virtually untouched: none of the 33 restaurants suffered anything more than minor damage, whilst businesses on either aide of our restaurants were looted and burned to the ground. From discussions with community leaders following the rioting it became clear that McDonald's restaurants were left unharmed because we were looked on as one of the best employers in the area and a part of the community.
13. In the other countries, (as and when the need arises,) in the McDonald's system we will pursue the same policy by Affirmative Action and we are presently preparing a corporate strategy on global diversity.
1. I make this additional statement.
2. McDonald's has, over the course of many years and through much effort, come to acquire a very good and well deserved reputation. The leaflet "What's Wrong with McDonald's" contains many highly defamatory allegations about McDonald's, which are injurious to its business and reputation. Due to the seriousness of the allegations and widespread distribution of the pamphlet McDonald's brought suit against the individuals responsible for the distribution of the leaflet,
3. McDonald's has had a long-standing policy of picking up litter in the general vicinity of its restaurants. This policy originated with Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's and has been in existence for as long as I can remember. This policy arose out of Ray Kroc's philosophy that the McDonald's restaurants needed to be a good neighbor and give something back to the community where they did business, and keeping the area around its restaurants clear of litter was one way of doing that.
| date signed: |
January 12, 1994
|
| status: | Appeared in court |
exhibits: Not applicable/ available
transcripts of court appearances:
related links: