b"coolersfrom the water cooler in the hallway to the burn blanketsthey had to put on burn patients, cooling blankets. If I had to doit over again, I would go to Higher Education. It's a cleaner job.Hospitals were difficult; you were dealing with sick peoplenotthat you were dealing with them on a personal basis, but you hadto work in their rooms, and there were some things you had to seethat you don't want to see.When did you become a shop steward?In the mid to late 70s. I didnt become a shop stewardMike Shaw (second from left) with Local 237 Presidentimmediately. We had a shop steward by the name of John Ayers Barry Feinstein (left) and business agents Arthur (Sonny)helluva nice guy, very intelligent, a good shop steward. He was a Illery) and Alfred James at the Teamsters convention inmaintenance worker. That was after Julie Friedman, I believe. 1986 in Las Vegas. Said Shaw: We had breakfast inBarry's room at 7 o'clock, every morning. One day I didn'tJohn asked me if I wanted to be his alternate. I became the alter- get back to Caesar's Palace until 10:30 or 11 o clock atnate, and Pete Castellucci [Citywide Assistant Director] made me a night because we were at the convention center all dayreal shop steward. There were two shop stewardshe didnt take long. We saw the FBI take Jackie Presser off the stage the whole nine yards. To me it was new and very exciting.it away from John, he just gave it to me also. And from that timeon I was a shop steward until Pete Castellucci left. Then FrankScarpinato [Local 237 Citywide Division director] called me intohis office and we had a little talk, and he made me a grievance rep.What were some of the issues you had to deal with as a shop steward?Mostly it was attendance or lateness. There was one point when I went to central payroll and I brought back over$15,000 on two separate occasions for differential overtime money that my guys werent paid. I took all their overtimesheets home and figured it out on my own time, and came up with the figures. I went down to see Lou Kreiger and I said,Look, here it is. I said, These guys gotta get paid. And we got paid. Two guys got $5,000 apiece in overtime differen-tial pay, shift differentialthe whole nine yards, the whole package. It went from $24 or $25 on up, depending on howmuch overtime they put in. That was probably one of my biggest things.The other big thing was when we lost two guys that got killed in an explosion in Bellevues basement. It was beforePete Castellucci retired. One morning when I got up, at 4:30, a quarter to 5, in the morning, there was a note from mydaughter on the kitchen table that said, Call Pete Castellucci whatever time you get up. So, I called him and he said to getover to Bellevue Hospital right away, two guys got killed in an explosion. Two maintenance workers. It was awful. Youhave no idea. An acetylene tank and an oxygen tank blew up. They tried to indict one of our members for causing the explosion. I worked with the Fisher [the unions] attorneys. They came down and we worked on measurements, on locations, on the geography of the building and all that. I continued to be a steward, and a grievance rep, and a maintenance worker. I wore three hats. At first, I handled only maintenance men, but then word got out and everyonestarted coming to me. Usually shop stewards handle their own title.121 "