On October 12, 1971, President Richard M. Nixon and George Meany talked on the telephone from 1:32 pm to 1:34 pm. The White House Telephone taping system captured this recording, which is known as Conversation 011-062 of the White House Tapes.
Transcript (AI-Generated)This transcript was generated automatically by AI and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite this transcript as authoritative. Consult the Finding Aid above for verified information.
Hello.
Mr. George Meany, Mr. President.
Hello.
Mr. President, how are you?
All right, fine.
I was just going to say that on just looking out this pretty day, you ought to go out and play golf.
I'd love to, but I'm busy.
I've got to go down, and I know you've been busy.
I've got to go down and pay my respects to Eddie Hebert.
They're hanging his picture today in the armed services room.
Oh, I see.
He's a good man.
He's a good, strong man.
I wanted to tell you, I just got your...
George Schultz has brought in your statement, and I greatly appreciate your willingness to work on this thing.
And you saw the piece of paper which we sent over.
That is my understanding as to what the policy is.
That's all right.
And when I told the press, I told the press about Connolly.
I read the Connolly thing carefully, and then this piece of paper is, and we've also checked it with Connolly, and he totally agrees with it, too.
Yeah, well, and that's perfect.
So you see, we've got Connolly, as I understand it.
Yeah, well, that's all right, except that this piece of paper was a little more precise.
More precise.
Well, I looked it over, and as you noticed, I initialed it.
You've got a copy of it, I think.
Yes, yes.
But I did want you to know that Connolly also has seen it and agrees that that's what he meant to say.
Well, I... Fair enough.
That's fine.
I hope we can do something on this.
I can tell you privately, you'd say between 2% and 3% a year.
I'd settle for, if we could get it down to 3.5%.
Well, look, the main thing is to make progress, and 3.5% is a damn good number.
I'd say so, yes.
Right.
Considering what we've got.
Right.
Well, we're trying to... Oh, incidentally, I will put out a statement today, say I welcome the participation of organized labor, etc.,
And bring down the customer request.
I'm going to, the only thing that we do have some agreement, a disagreement on is on the tax proposal.
But I, of course, have to, as you can imagine, push for those.
I think you're going to beat us on it.
Well, sure, that's fine.
But as you understand, if the darn thing works, which it might, then it's more jobs.
Yep.
Okay.
Fine.
Bye.
Thank you.