Stacey Stowe: THE rat took a nose dive on Third Avenue, pooling on the sidewalk like a downed parachute. Chaz Rynkiewicz swung into action.
“Uh-oh,” said Mr. Rynkiewicz, assistant organizing director of Local 79, the union representing construction and building laborers. “Technical difficulties.”
“Get me a new fan,” he shouted, and began gathering the vinyl remains of the 15-foot balloon that is put up in front of job sites and corporate offices to shame developers and contractors who use nonunion workers. “Abe, you pull that string, I’ll pull this one.”
With the efficiency of emergency room personnel, Mr. Rynkiewicz, Abe Delgado and two other burly men connected the new fan, then hoisted the ropes. Quickly, the black-eyed, bucktoothed rodent was reinflated.
For eight years, Mr. Rynkiewicz, 37, has been a rat wrangler for Local 79. He was there when a rat was threatened with arrest. He was there when a rat was stabbed by a person opposed to the construction of a Staples store in Brooklyn.
“They gutted it,” he said, eyes downcast. “Right in the belly.”
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