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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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The polls also revealed that we had very, very large support in the guild division, that the hospital division was divided, homecare was a total question mark. It became clear that we should play to our strength, and that's in the guild, and try to make a dent in Turner's support in the hospital division and win more from the hospital division. One of the things that became clear in the polls is that there was a percentage of members, maybe as much as twenty percent, whom you might say that if Turner was to murder somebody would still vote for Turner, still support her on the ground that she was a black woman being unfairly maligned, and as a heroine who should be supported.

Another aspect that I have not mentioned was the support she got from the international union and from the AFL-CIO. Lane Kirkland came to New York during the month of February for a picture opportunity -- it was just nothing more than that -- to visit the building, it was arranged by Al Heaps, and to take pictures with her. The press didn't use it, but the pictures appeared in the union publication. Turner also arranged with the international union's active support a testimonial in her honor, 150 dollar a plate testimonial honor to be held in the middle of March at the Sheraton Center, with the proceeds to go to AIDS research -- for which we later found out that the international union bought 43,000 dollars worth of tickets, that the international union arranged for the international executive board meeting to take place in New York the day before that event, so that all of these people from out of town would come in and buy tickets and attend the thing, and it was like a packed kind of house. A lot of political people were there who paid tribute to Turner. The Cardinal's name was on the thing, too. But it didn't really give too much to her. It didn't really generate much support on the basis of that event.

Q:

Did Kirkland indicate his support for Turner simply because you always do whatever an international president asks you to do, and Heaps asked him to? Or was there some deeper, more conservative motive than that.

Foner:

I don't know. All I know is what he did. He reacted in terms of Heaps' requests to come and do pictures. He lent his name. He was a co-sponsor of the testimonial for her. Furthermore, we know that the AFL-CIO at the top had impact on the Department of Labor during the whole investigation period, and was a factor in the slowness of the action by the DOL, and that the AFL-CIO leadership only adopted a hands-off policy during the investigation of the election. After Turner was defeated, and where all the press had revealed all the corruption and all the scandal, at that point the AFL-CIO took a hands-off





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