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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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which was in somewhat better condition. We had a good talk about it with the men. They were all very much satisfied with their agreement. They just loved being members of the union.

I then discovered that they were making a great effort to regularize the activities in the hiring hall and not have all the men come in and just wait around for the chance to be called. They hadn't yet got it into full operation, but they were setting up a telephone board and were insisting that every registered longshoremen should have a telephone - if not a personal one, then someone in the apartment house where he lived who would agree to take his calls. In that way they could be sure that they called the men in rotation, at least that's what they said. Now, of course, the employer's representative said, “They don't mean anything by that. They don't ever call anybody but actual, active members of their union, believe me, Miss Perkins. That's who gets called for these jobs.”

Before I left the hiring halls Bridges appeared with two or three officers of the union from their office, which was not immediately adjacent to the hiring hall, but somewhere further uptown. He came in because he heard I was there. One of the things I remember is how differently he looked than when I saw him backstage at the AF of L





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