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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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groups of members in two geographical areas on what was a six or seven week series of sessions. It was sort of open-ended, but there were topics that they covered where they discussed things like how they came into the union, their attitudes to the job, their attitudes on questions like crime, on teenagers -- a whole series of things -- on the economy, Reagan, political action. They were extremely effective, in the sense that the material was very, very fine. Mark Levy, in particular, out in Long Island was having a fantastic time with it. We taped the Long Island sessions and transcribed them, and the materials were good. The idea was to produce a booklet on members' attitudes on these subjects. We also got Earl Dotter to do a series of photographs, going into the shops and photographing workers on the job, at the union, activities, various kinds of activities.

We also got Mark Levin to videotape various activities on the job, in the union, etcetera, and produced with Dotter's material a series of photographs that were enlarged and put on permanent display in the conference room of the union. They were used for a calendar, 342 calendar, which each month with a photograph by Dotter accompanying the month, that I thought was an effective way because the calendars were then put up in each meat department of every supermarket in the city, and was a visible evidence of the union presence in a rather attractive manner. The videotaping was transformed and edited into a videotape titled “A Slice of Life” that was shown at some meetings of members. We also revamped and redesigned the publication. I brought in a designer, Sandy Cate from the outside. We employed a new editor, Gretchen Donart, who is still the editor of the publication. Did a number of things along that line that were interesting and helpful, and I thought were a contribution.

Q:

Also the eightieth anniversary --

Foner:

Oh! A history of the union on the eightieth anniversary, which was celebrated at Westbury Music Fair, which was supposed to be a performance by Barbara Mandrell who was in a car accident and was replaced by Peter, Paul and Mary. That was the event.

We purchased tickets for various events. I would insist that members should pay for them, and they would want to give them away -- purchased tickets for concerts and some opera tickets.

It was not very, very effective kind of work for me or for the union, for that matter, but largely because the structure of the union was so very different from anything I had been involved in. I would meet with the officers and go over programming, and they would say “Terrific. Great, great” and then nothing would ever happen. After a while you got the





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