b"What does it mean to you to be a union member?To be [a] union member right now, I think is great for what they're doing for me. Im 65 and Nancy [True], the Director [of Local 237 Retiree Division], just got me a program for prescriptions, and she got me into it a few months ago.It's unbelievable, the co-payment, the money back, everything. I can't thank them enough.When you were on the job, what did it mean to you to be a union member?When I was on the job, I never really got in trouble to need the union. I used to see guys: I'm calling the union, I'm calling this. Me, I never really called them, because I never really needed them for anything. I did what I had to doand that was it. If I thought I was right, I was right and thats it and I've never done anything really wrong.What about your co-workers? It sounds like you were pretty independent in your job, but you worked withother people. I was the maintenance man of two buildings and there was one more maintenance man that was the maintenanceman of 344. Theres only two maintenance men there, me and another one. The other guy used to take care of 344 andthat buildings right in front of Bellevue Hospital. It's like a block and a half away from my two buildings. My buildings are on 28th and o 27th Street between Second and Third. His is all the way on First Avenue.What were your responsibilities as a maintenance worker? I took care of everything in the building. Everything on the inside of the building was mine, plumbing, carpentry,general maintenance, electricity, not big things, but like changing switches, changing outlets, that was my job. Theycalled the electrician to put in new wires. Same with the plumbing and carpentry. They would bring someone in. If therewas a big problem, I would shut all the water down, people would have no water, but they won't have a flood. So, I wasthere to secure it and then I called in the plumber for the morning and I put post signs up all over: Sorry for the inconvenience, this happened all of a sudden, your water will be turned back on as soon as possible.You didn't do the janitorial duties, that was someone else, right?No, and I didn't do the snow, I didn't do cleaning or anything like that. Mine was Building One and Building Two,that's what they call them and all I did was everything inside, exit doors, lobby doors, glass in the lobby, glass in windowsin the apartments, plumbing, outlets, whatever.What did you feel like you spent the most time doing? What were the most complaints about?Stoppages: toilets, bathtubs and kitchens were my main thing. I used to have a special snake for each. They used tocall them drop head coil heads or bull heads. I used to line them all up downstairs and as soon as I see the stoppage, I knew which one I needed. Mainly every day was a stoppage, every day.Why do you think that was? Was there something wrong with the buildings?There wasn't anything wrong with the plumbing. Its just the way the people used them. Somebody's going to messup their toilet or somebody's going to mess up their kitchen every day because you're talking hundreds of people. 75 "