b'was memories. Eventually, they received a written apology from the federal government, and a piddling reparation.In 1951, I was unemployed. My wife, Hisayo, saw an advertisement for gardeners at the Housing Authority in theNew York Times employment section. I went for an interview. Mr. Schwank, head of grounds responsibilities, interviewedme. He was a Cornell man and so was I, so we had something in common. It was just a coincidence. I was 32 at the time.I started as a provisional gardener. The title gardener was a general title in the city employment system then. Cityemployment was a new experience for me: If I wanted to become certified, I had to take a test. I passed it with pretty goodgrades, and I was called early. I was pretty happy, because that status is better than provisional.My first contact with the union was at Fort Greene Houses. Fort Greene was a baptism in fire for me. Its a large project in Brooklyn. It was large enough so that we had two gardeners. The other gardener, Harry Abramowitz, talked meinto joining the union. He was a former Parks Department employee [and had been in a union there], so he was more familiar with them. He believed that if theres a union, workers should join it. I was naive and ignorant about unions. My father was a restaurant owner for a while and he had some problems with a union. I was the first member of my family to belong to a union.My yearly salary then was $3,170.At the time we werent sure who was going to be our unionthe United Public Workers or the Teamsters.I was at Fort Greene Houses for a number of years. My job as gardener included taking care of grass areas, shrubs,hedges, major and minor trees, and guarding against insect infestation. I loved outdoor work.Eventually there were a lot of title changes in the Housing Authority. That was when Local 237 came in. Supervisinghousing groundsman took the place of the title of gardener. The difference was that the supervising housing groundsmanhad a little more responsibility than just doing gardening work. We had to supervise people. That way, we could negoti-ate for a higher salary. [The union succeeded in removing some HA titles from the city Career and Salary Plan in 1958,making it possible to negotiate pay increases.]I was a working supervisor, which is a peculiar title. Supervisor usually means you get work done through otherpeople, but the Housing Authority said we had to work. I gave my crew their assignments and then I helped them out bydoing work myself. But I enjoyed the work. Thats why I stayed there. I got commendations for good work at Mill BrookHouses. It was a fairly large project, so I had provisional, seasonal, and some civil service caretakers, but it was smallenough so that my work showed.I kept asking for a transfer closer to home. In the 1970s, I was transferred to Drew-Hamilton Houses near CentralHarlem, on Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard. I liked Drew-Hamilton the best. It was close to my home, and, becauseit was small and since I was a working supervisor, the work I did showed in the appearance of the grounds.In those days the workers were all men. Thats why I was called a supervising housing groundsman. After women came,of course, it was changed, to supervisor of grounds.At meetings leading up to the strike [winter of 1967] we talked about better working conditions, higher wages,better benefits, and above all, about getting a contract, or a memorandum of agreementsomething in writing betweenthe Housing Authority and the union. [Before the city agreed to collective bargaining.]We took a vote on the strike. In the labor movement, the strike is one of our strongest weapons against theemployer. There were some people who didnt want to go out. People are afraid of strikes because they dont get paid.Now, city workers cant strike because of the infamous Taylor Law.8 '