Local 237 President Carl Haynes was sworn in Jan. 3, for his third five-year term. The following members of the Executive Board also took oaths of office: Vice President Richard Hendershot; new Secretary-Treasurer Gregory Floyd; new Recording Secretary Patricia Stryker; Trustee Evaristo (Abbey) Pabon Jr.; and new Trustees Noreen Hollingsworth and Ruben Torres.


Jakwan Rivers swears in the new Executive Board of Local 237. They are, right to left, Carl Haynes, president; Patricia Stryker, recording secretary; Gregory Floyd, secretary-treasurer; Richard Hendershot, vice president; trustees Evaristo “Abbey” Pabon Jr., Noreen Hollingsworth, and Ruben Torres.

The Marguerite Feinstein room at union headquarters was filled with Local 237 members and guests when Haynes opened the ceremony with welcoming remarks and introduced Local 237 member Jakwan Rivers to conduct the swearing- in ceremony. “We could have had a dignitary swear us in,” Haynes said, “but it’s so much better to have a member of our union do the honors.”

Rivers is a maintenance worker at the Long Island Facility, a housing development in Queens, and is a member of the Street Team, a rank-andfile group that gave up personal time to campaign for the Haynes Team prior to the election.

Following the swearing-in, Haynes stated that his primary mission was to “serve the members,” and he thanked several individuals for being “with us through thick and thin.” Haynes also recalled the ups and downs of his first day ever as president on April 12, 1993: “It was a joyous moment…then they told me the union was in trusteeship!” Much has changed for the better since then, but some things never change. “In a union, when you solve one problem two more jump up; that’s the nature of the business,” Haynes said. He also noted that the election was a close one in which members were “telling us something: We need to do better.”

Re-committing his presidency to “tightening up operations,” Haynes assured members that his first order of business is to get retroactive contracts for the Citywide and Housing Divisions. “It’s not easy. We have to fight to let the city know they can’t push something down our throats,” warned Haynes, adding, “With your help and support we’ll get it done.”