Albert Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, admitted here Wednesday that a much-ballyhooed announcement Tuesday of withdrawal of teacher pension funds from Manufacturers Hanover Trust Co. wasn`t related to the bank`s relationship with Phelps Dodge Corp.
On Tuesday Shanker told reporters attending the AFL-CIO conference here that the pension fund for his New York state members was withdrawing $450 million in funds managed by Manufacturers Hanover, at least in part as a solidarity move supporting the United Steelworkers of America in its bitter 20-month strike against Phelps Dodge.
The move, Shanker said, was made unanimously by the fund`s seven trustees, including three union members, and was primarily because of the bank`s poor investment performance.
But he had implied that the withdrawal was also an act of solidarity with the steelworkers. That union is engaged in a bitter strike and ”corporate campaign” against Phelps Dodge`s Arizona copper operations.
What was portrayed as at least an indirect bond to the steelworkers campaign was underlined as Shanker made Tuesday`s announcement jointly with United Steelworkers President Lynn Williams.
Phelps Dodge refused to accept an industrywide labor pact negotiated in 1983. The steelworkers struck the company`s Arizona facilities. Because of that strike, the steelworkers union is trying to exact some revenge, according to union observers, by embarrassing and pressuring the company`s chairman and chief executive officer, George B. Munroe, who also sits on the board of Manufacturers Hanover.
But on Wednesday, a spokesman for the teachers` fund in New York, indicated that only $200 million had recently been withdrawn from the bank. The spokesman added that the $200 million is part of $2 billion that has been withdrawn during the last two years.
