b"don't take it upon yourself. You want to call somebody else, let them deal with it and you stay aside. Some agents were solaid back and didnt want to do this, they don't want to do that. I tell them: Listen, you have a choice. It's either you callthe office and let them know you don't want to be here or you got to do what youre supposed to do. My approach to you is, You don't want to do stuff, here's your resignation letter. I'll sign it for you and you tell the officers I gave you permission to get out of here.What did it mean to you to be a union member?It means that you got security. It means that you have someone that can representyou if you ever get into trouble. I never did, the union never had to do anything. I know what to do and I know what's required. One time, one of myagents came to my school and she's telling me what she got to do, when she got to eat, when she got to go, the way shegot to go to post, where she got to do it. I say: I have no problem with that, I have no problem, but I think this is not theplace for you. Here is your phone. You call the office and tell them that you don't want to be here. She says: What youmean? I said: You're telling me what you want, what you don't want, where you gonnabe. I'm telling you that you can'tdo that, not here. So just call the office and tell them to send you to another school, not here. It is hard to get rid of certain people, so they bounce them around. When they send them to my school, it is the end of the line for them. I don'twrite them up. I don't fire them. I'm going to work on them. They are going to commit themselves because when I tellsay: Okay, make a phone call. I give you permission to call andtell them you don't want to be here. But they are notgoing to do it. I'll sign papers for a transfer and say just tell them you don't want to be here. They not going to do it because that's the end of the line for them.Did anyone question you on this?Yeah. This lady figured I did her wrong and called the union. When the union people came down, they said I was aunion man trying to protect her. I'm not doing anything to hurt them, I'm just showing them the facts. This is the way theprocess goes.What does it mean to you to be a union member now that you're retired?Now that I retired, I still have a lot of interest in my work. I still have the same desire to improve myself. I meet people in the street and they say: Oh man, we'd love to have you back. I say: No, I did my time. Now I'm just resting.I'm not resting, but I'm enjoying myself, I try to be as active as I can. I am the chairperson right now for the retiree Bronx-Westchester committee. Last year, I was vice chairman. I help out over here at the union with whatever comes up. I'll volunteer and I'm ready to go.I do a lot of volunteer work all over the place for my church as well. I got a group of guys, 30 of us, all retire correctionofficers, school safety officers, postal workers, sanitation workers, air force people. They are retirees from my home town,from my country, Panama. We all meet at a diner in Brooklyn, every Wednesday, so I'm committed to that also.How old were you when you joined the union in 1981?I was about 25, 26 years. I'm 71 now, September I'll be 72 years old. I retired in 2006. I started out making $16,000and retired at about $37,000148 "