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Moe FonerMoe Foner
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Session:         Page of 592

hospital. So the odds were very, very much against you. We knew that eventually we would have to strike. We didn't want to scare the workers at the beginning, but we began to talk about what--and I coined the phrase, “the forgotten men and forgotten women.” But before we get to that stuff, Elliott and Davis began to figure out tactics. We got a headquarters near the hospital and we could have meetings there. We had to -- when we felt we were getting close to a majority -- there were leaflets, obviously, but you tried to get a meeting with the board of directors, so you'd send a telegram and nothing happens. So I suggested to Elliott, why something we did in the student movement, “Let's get a giant telegram.” We got Stanley to figure it out, and we made a telegram that was like from this side of the room to the other side. We stood it in front of the hospital. It was in big lettering, “To Mr. Victor Riesenfeld, President, Board of Directors, Montefiore Hospital. We, the undersigned, have a right to have a union.” Some kind of general kind of thing. And workers would come out and sign it. Asking people to put their names down on something, that was a test. That was their move to the headquarters, and it was there we took pictures of it. Then Elliott would say, “We have to see what they're prepared to do.” We can't have a demonstration inside the hospital because then a worker is caught with his supervisor, and that's too much to ask him or her individually to do. So we would decide we're going to have a demonstration outside the hospital after work. So from 4:00 to 6:00, workers would walk around the hospitals with signs. Then let's now do it at lunch time. So you'd go out of the hospital and go back in. He was always testing.

Q:

Was this Elliott's approach?

Foner:

This was Elliott's approach.

Q:

What was the mood of the workers in general at that time?

Foner:

You could never tell what they were prepared to do, so they had to be stronger by doing things and by encouraging other people to do it and getting to find the natural leaders, who would be prepared to do more than others and to bring -- your department. It was critical. In every department there had to be someone from the committee who would report how many cards you got, what's the situation in your department, what are the grievances in your department. So that when you spoke and wrote, you were very real. It was a masterly organizing campaign. Others were better later on, but this was brilliant.





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