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on national television on Monday night, if a strike took place on Friday night he would want to settle it quickly so that he could get to San Francisco. Otherwise, he couldn't go. Well, since airplanes do not question people whether they are buying a ticket because of a strike or not a strike in another industry, it had no impact at all on that case.

How do you know that that was their reasoning?

We heard that from inside. That was one of the ideas [laughs], that why it was called on Friday night. Unless it's because they wanted it on a Jewish holiday.

The other thing, just proof of the total lack of planning, there were no strike headquarters, there were no strike committees, there were no strike signs! The night before the strike, the organizers spent a night Xing out the word “national” from the blue and white cap -- National Hospital Union -- so that they should not, God forbid they should walk around with 1199 blue and white caps that said “National Hospital Union.” So that was the degree of preparation. [Interview interrupted; tape stops and starts]

The question of the issues in the strike, the hospitals offered four and four, four percent in each of two years, and proposed that -- the union had been raising the question of every other weekend off and you may recall that that issue came up many years ago, and Turner was determined to get every other weekend off in this contract, as her major contribution parallel to the 100 dollar a week thing in 1968. There is no comparison, since 80% of the workers already had every other weekend off in 1984. The managements offered not every other weekend off, but twenty-six weekends off a year -- but not to come every other weekend. And, in addition, if a worker worked more than twenty-six weekends, he or she would receive a bonus of fifty dollars a weekend -- which the members would have grabbed, because one of the problems on every other weekend off, while many members want it there are some members who prefer to work on weekends. If they could get a bonus for working on weekends, they would grab it and run.

Anyway, that was rejected. The members never knew what they were rejecting! As often happens in negotiations, that was never put on the table formally, the four and four and the twenty-six weeks, because once it's on the table and it's turned down then anything that happens has to be better than that. So, rather, that was done in an informal discussion and they put on the table two percent. Turner then used the two percent figure as the proof that they were out to bust the union.