b'At that time, we made about $2,000 a year. We worked six days a week and holidays. We also worked nights.We rotated shifts, because the bridges have to be manned 24 hours.The working conditions were not that good. There was a company union there, and you had to be in a clique to getanything. If you were on the good side of the powers that be, you would get your pick. The supervisor would penalize youif he didnt like you and send you to the furthest bridge out of your area, so you could be living in Brooklyn and he couldsend you to the Bronx. We had two divisions B, Q, and R, which was Brooklyn, Queens, and Richmond, and the HarlemDivision.In 1962, I had a temporary supervisor. I had put in for time off to get married about two months in advance, knowing that these people were a little crazy. It was in October, it wasnt prime time, it wasnt the summer or a holiday or anything like that. He came over to me the day before I was supposed to go on my honeymoon and insisted, would I be able to cut my honeymoon short, he needed me. Thats the truth.There werent any promotions. Later on, we started getting exams for different titles. When I left the job in 1986,I was supervisor of bridge operations.Nobody really cared for the company union. I cant remember the name of it. It was more of an association than anything else. They didnt have any clout. They would go to the city with their hat in their hand, and they would say, We know the city is in financial straits . . . Ive never known the city not to be in financial straits.So, we went to Jerry Wurf in about 1962 and we tried to get him to organize us. That was District Council 37. Jerry tried to organize us, but he got in trouble because we already had a union; that was considered raiding. On the Borden Avenue bridge, we had a guy who was a pretty sharp guy. He used to read about Machiavelli and all that. His name was Eddie Dale. Hes the one who really started going out and getting a union. Eddie finally went to Barry Feinstein [then president of Local 237]. Barry put Frank Scarpinato as our advisor- the older, senior. That was his first project, organizing the bridges, which he succeeded in doing. He was our mentor. We got a lot of benefits. We got promotional exams for different titles. We got civil service tests.What was organizing like?The bridges were scattered. You didnt have a central location where you could talk to the men. And you werent allowed to put anything on the bulletin board pertaining to the union. It would be ripped down.Some people at certain bridges were more or less in the inner circle, so they didnt want a change. Everybody isafraid of change. And they were afraid of paying union dues, because we didnt make that much money. So, me and Tony Gannatti would go around to the different bridges to talk to the people on different shifts about getting the union in.We met with a lot of resistance. They had a vote. It was very close. It was won by only about three or four people whopushed us over the top. And Local 237 came in.The conditions on the job had improved tremendously by the time I left. Primarily, in that you had civil servicepromotions, you had bids, you had a fair schedule of work and days off. It was all done fairly because of the union.Prior to the union coming in, we had what you call the Career and Salary Plan. The Career and Salary Plan was aseven-step deal where every year you would get what they called an increment. The last increment, you had to wait threeyears for. Nobody ever attained the top salary because before it came about, they would negotiate another contract. So, we got out of that. I believe the union negotiated the end of the Career and Salary Plan.28 '