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Public Employee Press
Willie Tucker: 48 years at DOT and
going for more
Willie Tucker Sr. remembers riding the back of the bus along
dusty roads as he traveled home to Tennessee in the early 1950s. The Korean
War, where he served as a paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division, had
just ended and racism was rampant in the United States and particularly
in the Jim Crow South.
Tucker made his way north to New York City and took a job with the Dept.
of Transportation.
Last November DOT Commissioner Iris Weinshall and the Labor-Management
Quality of Work Life Committee honored Tucker for reaching a milestone
48 years on the job as a civil service employee.
My goal is to reach 50 years, and then I think about retiring,
said the spry septuagenarian. Tucker spent decades maintaining the streets
of New York.
He worked his way up to Supervisor, and is a member of DOT Supervisory
Employees Local 1157. His current assignment is at the outdoor garage
under the Pulaski Street Bridge in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
Theres a junkmans fortune here, said Tucker, who
makes sure the aluminum and metal from wrecked cars and crushed guardrails
arent stolen and sold to nearby junkyards for instant cash.
Back in August, after labor-management meetings, Blue Collar Division
Council Rep Bill Fenty said the agency agreed to build Tucker a shelter
to protect him from exposure to the harsh elements. Before this progress,
Fenty said, Tucker sat on a milk crate at the garage entrance with his
clipboard under his arm in the summer heat.
Although the garage assignment didnt offer the same challenges
or overtime pay as removing World Trade Center debris, Tucker said,
I never refuse an assignment. I do whatever Im asked, otherwise
Id risk being fired and losing everything Ive worked hard
to get.
Tucker admits that he has seen a lot of hostility in his lifetime. Still,
every morning he is on time and ready to work. With an iron will, honed
in the military and as a union member, Tucker added, As long as
I am in good health I will stay on this job until I am ready to go. Retirement
is a personal choice. No one did anything to get me here so it makes sense
that I go out on my own terms.
Diane S. Williams
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