b"caretakers, supervisors, ground keepers. Everybody. Then I became the first Latino to be appointed as a special assistantto the president. But even though I was a special assistant to the president, I still had those responsibilities as a businessagent. If he needed something special to be done, he (Barry) would assign it to me. One of the projects that he gave mewas to get members to come to the union and attend meetings. At 6 o'clock, we have meetings with caretakers and theywere having difficulties getting members to come to the union, especially Hispanics. So what I did was, I coordinated withNorris Jackson, he was Director of the Housing Division. We used to go to different meetings, to different Projects in allfive boroughs and have meetings. I will speak to the Hispanic workers, because we were having a problem communicat-ing with Hispanic workers. Some of them might have language barriers. I was bilingual, so I used to meet with them andthey used to volunteer to be in my committee. They would call me out when they have problems, if they needed help, explaining the benefits or anything that they needed. They'll communicate with me and Norris and then through that, I would speak to Barry and I'd say: Look Barry, you know, we got situations in this place or that place. And I will keep himup to date on what was going on and that was part of my duties as an assistant to the president. I did this in my projects aswell in other areas that needed help. When I was a truck driver, I used to speak to a lot of people, truck drivers from otherareas that we used to meet at the dumps. We used to talk, so, I was pretty well-known in all the areas. Being that I alsowas the coach and the manager for the team, I was well known because of the games that we used to play throughout theboroughs. So they knew who I was. I was very well spread and like I said from the beginning, in the Housing Authority, I used to help the young people and I used to go to meetings, stuff like that.In 1980, I became a trustee. I continued as business agent, assistant to the president, I was the first Latino trustee inthe union. And that also expanded my responsibilities, business agent, assistant and also being on the board.Did you ever sleep?Well, it's funny that you say that. Working for the union, you're very active. Being in the position that I was in, I hadto go to dinners, functions, travel to different states and that's what I used to do. I had other responsibilities, negotiatingcontracts. You could get home maybe 12, 1 o'clock in the morning.Busy, busy, busy. As time went on, I was getting moreresponsibilities. The more they gave me, the more I did; I was learning more and more. I never had a problem.I was ableto help the members, which was my main goal. I enjoy the work, I enjoy the job, because all my life all I wanted to do wasto help people. How long did you serve as a trustee?I was a trustee in 1985, then from a trustee, I became the Secretary -Treasurer and that happened in 1992.When I became Secretary-Treasurer, I had to be in the union hall. I was still rep in the funds and I used to administer the funds, I used to do all the functions of the union.Before I became a Secretary-Treasurer in 1985, I was given an assignment by Barry. He gave me the assignment toorganize Jacob Javits. We were one of the first unions to go into Jacob Javits. We had the experience of cleaning and security; this is what Local 237 does. I tried to get them to sign cards in the mornings and in the afternoon to becomemember of the union. So, once I was able to do that, they became members of the union and I organize them in 1985.It was very challenging, because we are a public employees union and there's a difference between being a public employee and being private. Jacob Javits dealt more with private. It's way different. We had a problem at the beginning.50 "