THE CHIEF-LEADER welcomes letters from its readers for publication.
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that all correspondence is subject to the editorial judgment of this
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ROSES FOR BERT

Roses for Bert

To the Editor:

Kudos to Richard Steier regarding his wonderful tribute to the late Bert Rose (March 9 issue). I had the privilege of knowing and working with Bert for nearly half a century.

I first met Bert in 1962 when he was dispatched to the old Borough Hall Welfare Center by then-DC 37 Executive Director Jerry Wurf to deal with the "wild men" of the newly formed Social Service Employees Union. We formed this new union to oppose the DC 37 affiliate Local 371. We believed that as caseworkers (then called Social Investigators) we were underpaid, under-appreciated and horrifically overworked, with turnover levels approaching 40 percent.

Bert was always the consummate unionist and tried to get us to join Local 371 to help invigorate and unite the labor movement in the old Welfare Department of New York City. He and Wurf failed in this attempt because the old-guard leadership was unwilling to change its structure to forfeit some of its power. Notwithstanding this rebuff, this writer remained close to Bert while he was in DC 37, and later in Local 237, IBT.

Bert in his later years became an arbitrator, and he was assigned several cases by me when I served as Deputy Chair/Disputes, for the Office of Collective Bargaining.

Bert never lost his zeal for clean, honest trade-unionism. He remained vital until his beloved wife Hazel passed, never stopping his incessant smoking of cigarettes.

He was greatly loved, and he will be missed.

STUART LEIBOWITZ, President, District Council 37 Retirees' Association