b"militant in those days. We were proud and very bold Teamsters. The clippings I have in my garage tell some tales abouttrade unions. I met all the mayors and knew many politicians in New York. I miss every bit of it.On the phoneArtie Rivera of D.C. 37 was stabbed by a Teamster. Organizers came into the hospitals and threatened people. I wasout on release time working for DC 37. I was at Coney Island Hospital and I heard a disturbance. Arty Rivera was stabbed.I asked myself, what am I doing here? If you follow the history of unions, you'll see this was the way it was. I was gladwhen it was over. There was a lot of bitterness.When we lost, I went into 237 and became chair of the Cooks Chapter. I worked with Lois Lundy, Sonny Illery. Manny Cuebas came to speak to us.I enjoyed handling cooks' grievances. Both DC 37 and Local 237 sent me to labor schools, plus I had my street savvy.At one time, I was the grievance rep for all Local 237 titles at Bellevuecooks, security, meat cutters, EKG x and x-raytechs, stores. I went in for one technician accused of letting machines fall on a patient.I enjoyed going down to City Hall to the Career and Salary Appeals Board. Both DC 37 and the Teamsters Local 237have done wonders for the members. Members dont know how blessed they are to have a union. Down here in North Carolina people don't have unions. They say in the papers that this is a good place to work, but theydon't mention that people with decent incomes are working two jobs; people with incomes over $40,000 are working morethan the regular 40 hours, and they take work home. My daughter works for AETNA, and she's told when to work overtime.\x02Aubrey FergusonNYCHA Caretaker, Business AgentMember since 1958In his own wordsThe early yearsMy name is Aubrey Ferguson. I entered the Housing Authority on June 1, 1958, at Astoria Houses. The salary then was $2,300 a year for caretakers. We had 21 different rates of pay for caretakers doing the same work.The Authority at that time gave us $125 increments annually. It took about eight years to get to the top. Those in the titlewere already getting their increments, so you never got to the top. There was no such thing as getting to the top. There was no overtime pay for weekends. After you had worked 12 straight days, your supervisor, depending on howhe or she felt, gave you two days off during the week at their discretion. There was no overtime rate for Saturday or Sunday. And most likely you didnt get the days off that you really wanted, which was Thursday or Friday of the ensuingweek. You got off days in the middle of the week, then came back to work again.There was no three-step pay plan. Even after getting promoted to supervisor, I found that there were still 21 differentrates of pay in the supervisory position although we were doing the same work. And to rub more salt in the wound, I wassupervising people who were making $90 more than me.Your pension: you paid it. Your health care: you paid about 75 percent of it. There was no collective bargaining. The city of New York dealt with us at the Housing Authority the way they felt like it.But in 1967 the union gave the Housing Authority a reality check when we had a strike for three days, and we permeated a harmony among the workers that was never evident before. After we came out of that strike, this great union provided us with a three-step plan, one of the biggest raises in the history of the Housing Authority.196 "