b"What's a kitchen captain?Hes the [Department of] Correction supervisor of the inmates that worked in the kitchen at night. The inmates hadto have a supervisor. I couldn't be a supervisor, because I wasn't a correction officerYes, and I noticed also, you said your title was Civilian Cook.Civilian Cook, yeah. It's just like, being in the military. If you're a civilian in the military, you don't have as much authority as somebody who's in the military. But, it's different on the federal level. There is one other thing I wanted totell you about that wildcat strike. These guys and I got that phone call, and I put three meals out for three days, by myself.I know I burnt my workers out, but I said: Listen Captain Terrell, I'll make something nice for these guys to eat, I'll makesomething fancy for them. I knew how to cook, so I made something fancy for them.One day, this officer comes in the kitchen and he's wearing all this gold. I didn't know what that meant at the time.He came over to me and said: Are you Hepbourn? I said: Yes, sir, what can I do for you? He said: Okay. He lookedaround a little more and then he went over in the manager's office. He was the Chief Deputy at the time on Rikers Island.Like I said, I didn't know who he was. He was one of the big shots, but I didn't know, I didn't know what that gold meant.I spoke pleasantly with the guy, told him who I was, what I was doing. He asked me a few questions. He went into mymanagers office. My manager said that the deputy told him to give Hepbourn whatever he wants, because I put threemeals out by myself.Do you know what happens when inmates don't eat? They start rioting. The meals went out on time,and the jail stayed quiet. OBCC is a very dangerous jail. It's where they put the most dangerous inmates. You can't tellthem: You not gonna eat today. No, no, no, they are not going to have that; they are going to start rioting. People aregoing to get hurt; officers will get hurt. So okay, Hepbourn is there. Listen, the Chief said, give Hepbourn whatever hewants. So, I said: Well, give me weekends off. So that's how I got weekends. Ive been there three months and all of asudden, I got weekends off. So, the other cooks say: Who is this guy? Who does he think he is? He just got here.Littlethings like that pissed them off toward me.They were jealous. Yeah. But like I said, I got the job done from my experience. As I said, I always wanted to be a baker so when I got theopportunity, I took it. I found out it wasn't all what it was cracked up to be. And, it was a different union, Local 3. Someoneonce told me that unions will only do as much as you want them to. Sometime you have to stand on them to get what youwant. You got to make noise sometime. I saw a lot of things wrong in the bakery and I said: Why you guys doing this? Really, you weren't supposed to be doing that, your title is senior baker, why are you doing this job? But my wife said:Listen, Hepbourn, shut up, do your job. I said: Okay, I'm going to keep that in mind. I didn't say a word for threemonths, I put up with whatever I was told to do.We had these little meetings and everybody said: Hepbourn, you're notsaying anything. I said: When I open my mouth, ain't nobody gonna like what I have to say. I waited three months.Within that three-month time, I learned all the different jobs in the bakery, the mixer, the heated room, the slicer, theoven. I learned how to do everything so when I started talking, there wouldn't be any animosity when I said: I ain'tgonna show you what to do the next time you're on the oven, if the bread is soft in the middle. Nobody told me what todo, I learned it myself. When I started talking, nobody is going to like me. Three months pass and guess what? I blew itout. I called their union.I say: I want the shop steward here, because there's a lot of things. I'm not joining your union178 "