On Tuesday’s entry in her Slate.com, Nagle describes meeting the union leader on her new job:
No one nods off for the first speaker this morning. Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association (Teamsters’ Local 831), sweeps into our classroom in the Central Repair Shop (CRS) accompanied by an entourage of five neatly coiffed, muscled men in union bomber jackets. Nespoli, who is silver-haired, has the broad shoulders and thick neck of a football player and the ease of self common to handsome men. He talks like he still works behind the truck, but his blunt language is part of his charisma, and it doesn’t hide his considerable political savvy or his skill at working an audience.
Nagle also takes on the question of women entering a traditionally male-dominated job:
Nespoli then changes focus, assuring us that even though Sanitation was the last uniformed city agency to hire women, the “change-over,” as he calls it, went smoothly. “There is no problem on the job with women,” he says. “If they can stand next to you and do the job, that’s the job. There’s no sexual harassment on the job at all.” I smile at this because I’ve seen female sanitation employees harass male sanitation employees, but this isn’t what Nespoli means.