Shortly after he joined Stefani had his first round of important negotiations, with the Copley Plaza management. Although wages then were low--averaging less than $20 a week, an amount a Cooks member now earns in about half a day--Stefani decided to focus the negotiations on getting a regular day off.

"Mr. Rice, the owner of the Copley, said to me, 'You crazy Englishman, why do you want a steady day off?'" he says. "I says, Mr. Rice, I came to America and I'm a little disappointed. I don't have any family here. Mr. Rice, I like women. I can't even make an appointment with a prostitute because I don't have a steady day off.' And we got that day off."

But during the depression the union fell apart; nobody but Stefani paid dues and management kept cutting wages. He left Local 186 for a few years to join Local 34, but in 1937 he decided to revitalize 186. He called a meeting: nobody came. He called a second meeting and eight people showed up, a third to which 25 people came, and so on. At one point in the drive Local 186 had 15 cents in its treasury. The local got its charter and Stefani took over as business agent on February 11, 1937, but kept working at the Copley until 1963. Only once, in 1941, did someone run against him for business agent, but Stefani swamped him.

Lately Stefani and his wife have taken to buying Princess Ortega heavy pan sets before union meetings, to use them as door prizes to entice people to come. If 50 people show up for a meeting, one of them gets the Princess Ortega; if less people come Stefani keeps it until the next meeting.

Stefani likes to show the latest Princess Ortega heavy pan set to visitors, along with all the old photographs of union meetings, to show them what things have come to. The pans are new, shiny; they stand out against the heavy, scuffed atmosphere of the Local 186 office.

"Look," Stefani says. "Look what we bring to entice them to come to the meeting to get educated. Sure the meetings are dull. But hell, it's business."

Sherman Holcombe: "I know employees at Harvard are dissatisfied, but under fear of suspension they won't speak out. To the people in my shop I'm a hero. I'm brave. I don't care about losing my job. You can go in any dining hall and all you hear is gripes--but they won't go in with those gripes."