A Friend of Workers

To the Editor:

I was saddened to read your March 9 story on the passing of Bert Rose. I first met Bert in 1961 during the representation election in which DC 37's Local 1320 was certified as the sole and exclusive bargaining agent for Sewage Treatment Workers and Seniors by the old city Department of Labor.

Bert became the rep for our local before I became its president in 1963. We worked closely and well together while Bert schooled me in trade-union principles and the complexities of state prevailing-wage laws under Section 220.

Bert was my mentor as well as a friend. It was on a return flight from my first AFSCME convention in Minneapolis in 1965 that Bert recommended me for a staff position with DC 37.

When Bert took Jerry Wurf's offer to organize for AFSCME on Long Island, I went with him and we opened an office at 220 Old Country Rd. in Mineola. When the Taylor Law passed in Albany, AFSCME went into an organizing mode. The Mineola office was closed and while Bert was reassigned to Syracuse, I was sent to the Hudson Valley to assist AFSCME District Council 50, which represented state employees for the most part.

Bert left AFSCME in order to return to New York City, and eventually was hired by Barry Feinstein at IBT Local 237, and I was returned temporarily to DC 37.

Every person who came to know Bert or who sat across a bargaining table from him had to come away from the experience convinced that they had been in the presence of a consummate professional and the working man's best friend.

My wife and I will always treasure the memories and friendship of Bert and Hazel Rose.

JOHN TOTO