My father, Jhan Robbins, son of Russian Jewish immigrants grew up in Brooklyn. His father Morris Rabinkoff, left Odessa in 1905, facing imprisonment for his involvement in the demonstrations on the Odessa steps in support of the Potempkin mutineers. Morris got on a NY bound ship at age 17 and never saw his parents again. Morris became a members of Hotel and Restaurant Workers Local 1 in Brooklyn. He made his living working as a waiter at various Brooklyn restaurants. My father Jhan had a full-time job while going to high school at the Brooklyn Freidman’s Department Store. He was a member of the Retail & Wholesale Clerks International Union. He became a steward at age 15. He and his fellow workers struck Friedman’s in 1934 to win an increase in their 25 cents per hour wage. A week into the strike, the owner Mr. Friedman, knocked on the Rabinkoff family apartment door late one night. My grandfather Morris opened the apartment door. Mr. Freidman introduced himself to my grandfather. “Mr. Rabinkoff, your son Jhan, he’s a smart boy. He could go places!” That was all my grandfather had to hear. Morris looked Freidman in the eye and yelled: “Drop dead!” and slammed the door in his face. The strike was successful. The workers got their raise and they won their union. My grandmother Anna, Morris’ wife worked at age nine with her brothers and sisters. They performed “homework”, textile work that was brought home from their parents factory. My fathers’s parents and my mother June, a member of the Newspaper Guild, instilled in me the power and the justice of the Union, and how critical it is to support and build the Union. Its 2014 and I’ve been a Teamster for over 41 years. I’ve passed this on to my daughter and son. There is power in the Union brothers and sisters, and together we will win!
