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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

The governor's counsel said, “Let me think about it,” and then he called me one day and said, “It's going to happen, but not exactly the way you want it. But trust me.”

And one day they called me to tell me that the governor had interrupted his campaign tour with Carlino in Nassau to bring the party to his office in Rockefeller Center.

Q:

Had editorials appeared by this time?

Foner:

Oh, all the editorials were there. They were all there, calling for “Rocky” to step in. We waited in the office to see what would happen, because the governor said that the hospitals wouldn't sit in the same room with Davis. So we had Bill Michaelson there representing us, and we -- meaning Davis, myself, Elliott -- sat in the office, waiting. I got a call from Hank Paley saying, “Moe, we got it.” Have I told this already?

Q:

I think you did go over some of those details in an earlier interview.

Foner:

Should I repeat? “We got it.” And he said, “It's a great victory.”

And I said, after Davis had primed me, “What about the back pay?”

And he started screaming, “Whoever heard of back pay for strikers? Are you guys crazy?” And he hung up on me.

Q:

This is Paley?

Foner:

Hank Paley, calling from the meeting. About twenty minutes later, Harry van Arsdale comes in, says he wants to meet with me, Davis, and Bill Taylor. Comes into the office. Davis closes the door, walks to a phone, calls up Judge Friedman, who had said that if the strike isn't over, Davis goes back for six months.

Q:

To jail.

Foner:

To jail. Calls him and says -- we hear him, and he said, “Look. What happens if we settle? Okay, thanks, Judge.” Puts down the phone and he says, “Judge said it's all okay.” And then he says to Davis, “What's this nonsense about back pay?”

Davis said, “Harry, these workers deserve something.”

So Harry walks to the door, opens the door to leave, and as he's leaving, he turns around and winks.

Then we got Murry Kempton to come by, to tell. Then we got the back pay. It was big headlines all over the paper.





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