Interview
I [interviewer James Cavanaugh] interviewed Gorman for an hour and a half on August 5, 1980, and for about an hour and a quarter on August 6, 1980, in his office in Chicago. Because of Gorman's advanced age and declining health, Hilton Hanna, who served as Gorman's executive assistant for thirty years, sat in on the interviews. Hanna's interjections are evident from time to time during the interview. Unfortunately, also because of Gorman's health and age, this interview does not have a very high research value. Because of his frailty and poor hearing, he often did not answer the question that was asked. Mr. Gorman also had trouble with dates, details, and the sequence of events. Furthermore, he tended to go off on tangents, which, as an old story teller, had always been one of his characteristics. In short, Mr. Gorman ideally should have been interviewed four or five years earlier.
The best parts of the interview were when he discussed the merger of the Amalgamated with the Fur and Leather Workers and also the merger and merger talks with the Retail Clerks. The most disappointing aspects are the discussions of the United Packinghouse Workers and the Amalgamated's relationship with them. I was unable, for instance, to get Mr. Gorman to analyze the failed merger of 1956. Most of the anecdotes Mr. Gorman relates in the interview are covered in more detail in Hanna's Picket and the Pen. The careful researcher will compare all of Mr. Gorman's statements with other sources.
Abstract to the Interview
The tapes for this interview have two tracks: a voice track containing the discussion and a time track containing time announcements at intervals of approximately five seconds. The abstract lists, in order of discussion, the topics covered on each tape, and indicates the time-marking at which point the beginning of the particular discussion appears.
Thus, the researcher by using a tape recorder's fast-forward button may find expeditiously and listen to discrete segments without listening to all of the taped discussion. For instance, the user who wishes to listen to the topic on “UPWA - AMC&BW MERGER IN 1968” should locate the place on the second track of side one, tape one, where the voice announces the 07:30 time-marking (the voice says at this point, “Seven minutes, thirty seconds”), and at this point switch to the first track to hear the discussion. The discussion on “UPWA - AMC&BW MERGER IN 1968” continues until approximately 09:20 at which point discussion of the next topic (“WHY THE AMC&BW DID NOT AFFILIATE WITH THE CIO”) begins.
Notice that in most cases sentences beneath each headline explain more about the contents of the topic. For example the sentences underneath “UPWA - AMC&BW MERGER IN 1968” give further details on what appears on the tape between 07:30 and 08:20.
The abstract is designed to provide only a brief outline of the content of the tapes and cannot serve as a substitute for listening to them. However the abstract when used with the index will help the researcher easily locate distinct topics and discussions among the many minutes of commentary.
Index to the Interview
There is no separate index for this interview. There is an master index for all the interviews with UFCW leaders.
