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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

said, “We're planning to pay it. We're not waiting for you.” They really were concerned about the members' unrest about the thing, morale was so bad. But they weren't going to wait for Turner. They just paid it.

Q:

Did they unilaterally reduce their benefit contributions, and so on, also?

Foner:

Yes.

Q:

And has that resulted in the weakening of the financial condition of the funds?

Foner:

No, the funds are still in very good shape. The haven't paid into the training fund -- alot of the give-backs have been put into effect already. They're in effect. In other words, the bad things they carried out, the good things they didn't. They put the minimum back. Doris had no way of doing anything about it! She would go to Albany -- Axelrod is close to her.

Q:

He is?

Foner:

Yes. We know that Axelrod, for some strange reason Axelrod thinks that she's a brilliant person.

At any rate, there was the situation. The end of the strike. As the months kept going, every month in the publication, every meeting, “We're going to get that five percent with full back pay.”

Q:

I'm not clear. It was supposed to be paid on August 26th?

Foner:

Yes. Back to August 26th.

Q:

When were they actually going to put it?

Foner:

Well, as soon as Doris signed on to the give-backs, which she never did. She would say, “Well, it's always been in this union that we never got the increase until much later on, that it took time.” I remember she pointed to a compulsory arbitration decision where we went to arbitration, and then we didn't get an increase. Arbitration ran against us and we didn't get an increase. So she was saying, “That year we didn't get an increase, and nobody said anything to Leon Davis that he was destroying the union. But me, because I'm a black woman, they're out to kill me.” Okay. But every month in her publication, in her column, “We're working on that five percent. We're going to get it with full back pay.”





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