Previous | Next
Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021222324 Page 117118119120121122123124125126127128129130131132133134135136137138139140141142143144 of 592
and it's becoming clearer that they might undergo the test of a strike, which we don't want if we don't have to. And at the same time, we've got Van Arsdale with the political thing. At the same time, we're working the black-Hispanic thing, and we're working the press, the public thing. Mrs. Roosevelt is writing columns.
Where was she syndicated?
My Day. It was syndicated. She was in the World Telegram and Sun. There are editorials appearing in all the papers on this thing.
How many people are on the staffs sustaining this effort?
The full-time people in the hospital campaign: Elliott and Teddy.
Plus yourself?
Plus myself, but I'm doing other things, too.
And Davis.
And Davis, yes.
So the four of you.
That's right. An enormous amount of rank and file participation. I'll tell you about the “Crack of Dawn Brigade.” I gave them that name later on. See, by this time we already have to go to the drugstore workers. Before we went to the drugstore workers for approval. It wasn't difficult, because you go to the drugstore workers and you tell them the stories of the hospital workers, and it's very emotional, because you bring a couple of hospital workers in to talk. The delegates go, “This is our union. This is what we should do.” All right. Okay. So you have all of these things happening, and you're reaching, and you're more and more coming to a climax, what's going to be. I call up Marty Solow, and I say, “Marty, an ad. Quarter-page ad in The New York Times, an appeal to the hospital trustees, help us avert a strike at Montefiore Hospital.” We're building that way already.
You don't have any recollection of the dates?
It's all there. Even the [Leon] Fink stuff is there. I have his stuff, and he must have it in his chapters. It's there. You have a thing like Weingarten calling me one day and saying, “Look, the vote is getting very, very close in the board. Now it's almost even.” He says, “There's a crucial meeting tomorrow morning. If you could get an editorial in the Times tomorrow morning.”
© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help