b'Naval Yard there had been no union, and we were angrybecause in the private shipyards the workers made two orthree times our salary for the same amount of work. So we[at the Water Department] figured there would be a littlejustice in having some representation. The other featurewas that anybody could get into the union. With a cityunion, anyone that comes in has to be accepted, and lateron they mandated it more or less because you had to paydues whether you were a member or not. So that wasattractive to usthat we would all have representation. Once a year we had a meeting at the Hotel Diplomat. We wouldThat was D.C. 37. have libations plus a little food and an entertainer, John HartterThen we found out that Henry Feinstein had decided said. Holding the microphone for the accordionist/singer is JoeMuratore, who broke Hartter in when he was rst hired by thewith some other people that we might be swallowed up Water Dept. Others identied are John ORourke (left), Jerryby the whole because we would be a little group in a large Herel (at the left of the pole), John Fiorillo (lower left), and Billgroup. So it sounded attractive to us to pull out, so we Norton (holding the pole), another of Hartters partners.pulled out with Henry. We started with Henry, and we stayed with Henry. When Bob Wagner was going to run [for mayor], thats when we started electioneering. There was no proselytizing by your group in the field, but there was adeal, and we volunteered, working in our spare time or whatever time we were given, did electioneering [distributing campaign literature]. We would meet in one of the halls or wherever they congregated and be assigned to a location, anarea I went with Bill Norton and the fellow Joe Muratore who broke me into the water meter business. We knew how toget into buildings we werent supposed to get into. We knew how to get in through the service entrances and how to getupstairs, and we distributed our literaturewhich was strictly a no-no, but we did it anyway.We also did poll taking. We worked from lower Manhattan to the Harlem area. Sometimes we were looked at withsuspicion, but whatever data we did manage to get together helped us. We were willing volunteers. We campaigned forWagner because he was for the unions. He was the son of the real Bob Wagner, who was the father of all unions as far as we were concerned. To me, the payoff, if you want to use the word, was that he would represent us in the fight to get aunion, and we were returning a favor.Henry Feinsteins wife worked in our office. She worked for the Water Departmentfor a period of time. My association with her was practically nil. I dont know how Henry Feinstein came to the Water Department. I wasnt privy to it. That went through the various chiefs. Theyre the ones who actually introduced himtheborough chief, Jim (James) McCormick, my immediate supervisor. The union was something that was needed, they allbenefited by it, whatever their title. I dont know whether he [Henry Feinstein] had a steady job or whether he was stillworking for Wagner [as his driver; in the early 1940s, before becoming president of the newly chartered D.C. 37, Feinstein was head of a group of auto enginemenchauffeurs/motor vehicle operatorsin Council 209 of the Civil Service Forum] .I dont know the details, thats beyond my knowledge.Chapter Status and the Benefit FundWe became Teamsters when Local 237 got the charter, in 1952. There were approximately 200 water use inspectors,give or take. Before that we were in D.C. 37. We left D.C. 37 in 1952.Our reward for the work that we did was chapter 23 '