b"A strike was something I had never experienced before, although I had heard about them. There were a lot of bitterwords between the factions involved, but thats natural in our country.When you go on a strike, there has to be a good reason for management to want to negotiate with you. At theHousing Authority, they needed fuel oilit was winter. Other Teamsters drove the trucks that delivered the oil, and ofcourse, if we hit the bricks, they would back us up. That gave us more negotiating strength.By yourself, you cant get what you want from your employer, but in unity, you have more bargaining power. Thatsthe union. If I had a grievance, I could go to the union and they would listen. The union could correct things much betterthan I could alone, because unity gave us strength.Our medical plan, the welfare fund, the retiree fundall those benefits came through the union. Thats why I believeso much in uniting.I was a charter member of the Retiree Division, with Maggie Feinstein [the founding director]. Many members fromthe Housing Authority came to the Retiree Division, from many different titles. The Retiree Division allowed us all to gettogether, whereas on the job there were protocols.\x02Anthony AnnattoneNYCHA Maintenance Man, Superintendent, Shop StewardMember since 1952The following is an edited version of Anthony Annattone s oral history interview from August 2002.Starting as amaintenance man in 1951, he retired as a superintendent 32 years later in 1983. He was one of the locals earliest shopstewards. Speaking of Local 237, Annattone said, Sally Rags [Salvatore Raguso, an early organizer] and Mr. Feinstein[Henry, founding president] were good people. They started it, they really put their life into it. They did a job for allthese people. People who have retired and who have been involved with the union should kiss the ground thesepeople walk on.The Early UnionThere was a Bookbinders Union at Clason Point. A guy named Smitty signed us up, but apparently it wasn't very I don't know what the word would be, but we were getting nowhere with the Bookbinders Union. We were only making$2,400 a year when I started and we had no benefits at all. It was a five-and-a-half day a week jobyou worked a half aday on Saturdays. It was a rotation, though, between the three maintenance men. And we did get 36 days a year vacation that was the only benefit we had. No medical, nothing, nothing at all.The following year when I went to EdenwaldArtie Cordioviola (Artie was my partner then; he's my partner today,even we are still in very close contact after all these years) and I met a fellow named Salvatore Raguso, whom we got toknow as Sally Rags. He was a wonderful gentleman, very nice. He came up and told us they were forming a union, theTeamsters. He talked to us about it and told us about all the benefits that could be had with a strong union. And wedecided to join.9 "