b'Were you ever a shop steward or grievance representative or a chapter chair for union members?Yes. You get these titles, but some of them are just bestowed on you, not official titles. I\'ve done a lot and I\'ve lovedevery minute of it. I consider myself an advocate for the members. I like helping the membership out and extending myself. That\'s why I kind of got involved in being a shop steward and chapter chair. The guys that were stewards beforeme took me under their wing because I showed an interest. They were older fellows that might not continue much longer.They needed the next age group to follow in their steps. They were good and they showed me a lot and I took an interestto it. We had to qualify to come here and there was always a struggle with wages. That\'s why we left the other Local.There\'s been big struggles on wages over the years, with the City.As a shop steward, what were your responsibilities?Basically work rules, taking care of the members, running meetings, presenting them with situations of contract negotiations, of needs by the City, of rules and regulations, also union representation, the bylaws of the union and stufflike that.Can you tell me a bit more about that? Well, each division had their rules and regulations; Health and Hospitals has their rules and regulations, and Depart-ment of General Services, Citywide Administrative Services, has their rules and regulations. It has to do with legal issues,being careful of what you do, what you say, safety regulations. I was also a safety officer for my unit. I had safety meetingsto comply with the City\'s request of safety. Also, I made sure the members walked the line and didnt get into trouble.I didn\'t want to see anybody lose their jobs. Were you also a grievance representative?Yes, if somebody stepped out of line and got in trouble and were brought up on charges, I would represent themembership also.Someone could have a grievance without stepping out of line as well?Yes, they do and I\'ve done that also. I did it not only for my group but for other groups in other divisions as well. I was involved because of what I worked on - elevators, escalators, handicap lifts and everything else. If somebody had asituation with some other division, Health and Hospitals Corporation, Board of Education, Board of Higher Education, theunion would ask me to review some data on it and I would help them out as a grievance rep.As a grievance representative, what would be a situation you might represent someone in?At Baruch College, there was a: "Grievance due to security staff turning on and off escalators."One of my union members was directed to do something with turning on and off certain devices, escalators at the college.There is a sequence on how to turn on and off an escalator, it\'s just not shutting it off. They asked me to come in becausethey were going to have other outside people secure these units, shut them off and turn them on; but our person, this officer, was trained on how to do it. There could be injuries. So that\'s where I come in and explain the elevator-escalatorcode to the administrators. I told them about the right sequences of operation of the units how it should be done. 105 '