The Empire State Letter Carrier · NY State Association of Letter Carriers Page 6 William B. Cook Director of Legislation, NYSALC P. O. Box 358 Schenectady, New York 12301 [518] 374-1046

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With the new PMG’s directives now known, we can see the plan dismantle from the inside-out---This man is a CANCER, spe-cifically put here by TRUMP with a strategic mission; to cripple the USPS and leave it unable to deliver ELECTION MAIL on time, thereby infusing doubt as to validity of the election results, and to disenfranchise the American Public by destroying the Ser-vice they have been accustomed to..

I personally feel we squandered a viable option to activate and motivate our membership with the demonstrations nation-wide, as our sister Unions did, with the help of our NY Representa-tives and NY Senators. (Many Thanks to our Branches that did participate!) Hopefully, with Congressional and the Court’s assis-tance, we can mitigate some of the damages that have already af-fected the Service.

I sincerely hope that sometime next year, we will be able to

act with some semblance of normalcy and be able to assemble for

our DC Lobbying trip and State Convention with a viable and effective vaccine for all. In the meantime, please be aware of the

warnings of a SECOND WAVE of the COVID -19 disease, esti-

mated to peak mid-November-Mid December…

STAY SAFE, STAY PREPARED…AND VOTE!!!-BY MAIL!!!

SEE THE NALC HOMEPAGE FOR POLITICAL VOLUNTEER WORK

DATES TO REMEMBER-

***November 3, 2020 ELECTION DAY

April 28-30, 2021 NYSALC DC Lobbying Trip

July 24-27, 2021 NYSALC 64th Biennial Convention Rivers Casino and Resort Schenectady, NY

April 6-8, 2022 NYSALC DC Lobbying Trip

NYSALC AFL-CIO 347 W.41 STREET 2ND FL. NEW YORK, NY 10036 (347) 813-9582

NO EXCUSES…

This election will be the MOST IM-PORTANT in YOUR LIFETIME; Your Job, Benefits, Retirement, and Family’s Security are all AT STAKE… NYSALC endorses the BIDEN -HARRIS ticket.…The Trump administration has made clear its disdain for us and plans to decimate and eventually eliminate the Service and its Unions and Privatize what is left. There is NO EXCUSE NOW, as ALL REGISTERED VOTERS CAN APPLY FOR AN ABSENTEE MAIL-IN BAL-LOT…NO EXCUSES… NYC- https://nycabsentee.com/ NYS… https://www.elections.ny.gov/votingabsentee.html

*The link to the entire State AFL-CIO endorsements is here; https://nysaflcio.org/endorsements…

The following are the formal NYSALC endorsements for 2020… These selections have

been made after input from our locals.

(NE= No Endorsement) CD 1 Lee Zeldin ® CD 2 Jackie Gordon (D) CD 3 Thomas Suozzi (D) CD 4 Kathleen Rice (D) CD 5 Gregory Meeks (D) CD 6 Grace Meng (D) CD 7 Nydia Velazquez (D) CD 8 Hakeem Jeffries (D)

CD 9 Yvette Clarke (D) CD 10 Jerrold Nadler (D) CD 11 Max Rose (D) CD 12 Carolyn Maloney (D) CD 13 Adriano Espaillat (D) CD 14 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) CD 15 Richie Torres (D) CD 16 Jamaal Bowman (D) CD 17 Mondaire Jones (D) CD 18 Sean Patrick Malon (D) CD 19 Antonio Delgado (D) CD 20 Paul Tonko (D) CD 21 Elise Stefanik ® CD 22 Anthony Brindisi (D) CD 23 Tracy Mitrano (D) CD 24 NE

CD 25 Joseph Morelle (D)

CD 26 Brian Higgins (D)

CD 27 NE

George Mangold

FALL 2020 George T. Mangold, President GM-56

The Official Publication of the New York State Association of Letter Carriers – N.A.L.C. The Empire State

Letter Carrier Representing Letter Carriers in New York State and Puerto Rico

There is NO EXCUSE NOW, as ALL

REGISTERED VOTERS CAN APPLY FOR

AN ABSENTEE MAIL-IN BALLOT…NO

EXCUSES…

I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

NYSALC Executive Board 2

NBA Region 15 Larry Cirelli 3

NBA Region 11 Mark Camilli 4

Vice President Kenneth Montgomery 5

Director of Retirees John Walsh 5

Director of Legislation William B. Cook 6

Director of Education Joe DeStefano 7

Editor Antoine J. Murray 7

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NY STATE ASSOCIATION

OF LETTER CARRIERS

George T. Mangold – President (Branch 357)

Kenneth Montgomery – Vice President (Branch 210)

Jay Jackson – Secretary

(Branch 29)

Charles Heege – Treasurer (Branch 36)

Andrew Weiner – Delegate at Large

(Branch 562)

Tony Paolillo – Alt. Delegate at Large (Branch 294)

William B. Cook – Dir. of Legislation (Branch 358)

EXECUTIVE BOARD – DISTRICTS

Tinnelly District – Timothy Sheehan (Branch 358)

Central District – Tom Dlugolenski

(Branch 134)

Southern Tier – Genesee Valley Jeff Potter

(Branch 333)

Niagara Frontier District David J. Grosskopf Jr.

(Branch 3)

Hudson Valley District – Pascual Ortiz (Branch 36)

Long Island District – Walter Barton

(Branch 6000)

Caribbean District – John K. Rivera (Branch 869)

NY State Association of Letter Carriers Page 2

The Empire State Letter Carrier FALL 2020

George Mangold Larry Cirelli Mark S. Camilli William Cook President NYSALC NBA Region 15 NBA Region 11 Director of Legislation 347 W. 41st Street 2nd Fl. 347 W. 41st Street 5445 Beavercrest Dr. Suite #7 P. O. Box 358 New York, NY 10036 New York, NY 10036 Lorain, Ohio 44053 Schenectady, New York 12301 347-813-9582 (212) 868-0284 (440) 282-4340 [518] 374-1046 (570) 369-4276 (fax) [email protected] [email protected] [518] 207-9064 (fax) [email protected] [email protected]

Antoine J. Murray – Editor (Branch 41 )

John Walsh – Director of Retirees (Branch 29)

Joe DeStefano – Director of Education (Branch 137 )

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Larry Cirelli National Business

Agent Region 15

The Empire State Letter Carrier


did their job, countless number of people were able to stay safely at home and not ven-ture out and possibly become inflected. You saved countless lives by doing your job, by being there for American people. We need to stay the course. I know of no one who likes wearing masks. I know of no one who wants to wash their hands constantly, no one who wants to continue the practice of us-ing all the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) every day but I need you to do so. America need you to do so. You are irre-placeable. You are doing a service that cannot be replaced by a private company. You are the heart and soul of America and America will not forget your sacrifice. You are heroes. Please be safe. Use PPEs and we will all get through this together.

Caution, Care and Commitment

FALL 2020

This is my third article since the Coronavirus outbreak started. I wish I could tell you that it is over, and our lives can go back to normal. Well, it is not over and life is not going to be the same for a while. I can say that the num-bers are way down and things in the tri-state area are going well. The number of infections to the public have drastically decreased and are staying down. Infections for postal em-ployees are low. We actually have days where there are no new inflections to any postal em-ployees. The numbers are down not because the virus is gone. Inflections in the postal service are not down because the threat is gone. The num-bers are down because you and the public are doing the right thing. The numbers are down because we are following sound medical ad-vice and practices. The numbers are down be-cause we stepped up to do our job, delivering to the American people, and doing it in a safe way, a way that made sense. There are few, if any, jobs in America that did what the postal worker did. We were out on the front lines every day, day after day, week after week and month after month at great personal risk to de-liver the mail to our patrons. Medicine, mon-ies, parcels, birthday cards and notes that brought joy and so much more were delivered to the American public to make this emergen-cy easier on them. Because the letter carrier

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Mark Camilli National Business

Agent Region 11



polling, surveys, candidate questionnaire (one that Mr. Trump didn’t bother to fill out and return) and the 2018 White House Postal Task Force that called for service cuts, revoking collec-tive bargaining rights and potential privatization of our great service. I also considered the responses to our questionnaire and voting history of the other candidates. After a review of that information the choice was clear and unanimous – all of us on the council voted to endorse Biden/Harris for the 2020 Presi-dential election. We all have personal convictions and beliefs on many of the wedge issues that can divide our country. I ask that for this election, please consider your livelihood and the future of your career along with your retirement benefits and support the Biden/Harris ticket. Stay safe, social distance and wear face coverings when social distancing is not possible. Hopefully – together, we can get to that normalcy we all crave.

It is hard to believe that summer is coming to an end and fall is here. I think we are all ready for some normalcy in our lives, but each day we are reminded that we are living in abnormal times. We can take great pride in knowing that the USPS and the letter carriers who serve is a primary reason that is keeping our country up and running through this pandemic. We also know it comes with great sacrifice. Letter carriers are normally used to delivering peak parcels for four to six weeks during the holiday season. This year, carriers have been delivering that parcel workload for at least six months and it has not let up. Your hard work has not gone unnoticed. One of the biggest positives from recent events is the overwhelming support of the American public for the USPS. The postal service and its new PMG have found itself in the spotlight. While some of the fodder makes good political theater, some of the operational issues were far from it. The horror stories were real. Custom-ers did not receive mail timely. Paychecks, correspondence and advertising mail was extremely delayed. Worse – im-portant (perhaps) life saving medical prescriptions were also delayed. Elected officials, branch leaders, activist groups and the American people raised their voices loud and clear. Both House and Senate committees held hearings trying to get to the bottom of the mess, but also to make sure the USPS will be able to handle the upcoming elections. I want to thank the many branches across Region 11 that have been reporting de-layed mail to our office. The information gets forwarded to NALC headquarters who in turn works with USPS operations to get the reported incidents corrected. I am happy to report that many of the delays have been corrected. We are still expe-riencing limited and isolated events, but I am confident that we will have them corrected soon. I also want to thank NALC President Fred Rolando and the rest of the executive council. Fred and crew worked tirelessly to head off major operational changes that the USPS took upon themselves to make. NALC HQ successfully filed three national level grievances on the Consolidated Casing Initiative (CCI), Expedited Street/Afternoon Sortation (ESAS) and Sorting Equipment Rationali-zation (SER). All three programs have either stopped or will be ending soon. As this abnormal year approaches its final quarter, it comes with a National election. I know you all have heard in previous election cycles that each one was the most important for the future of our country. Not to sound cliché, but this time around, I think we can all agree – this election is the most important election for the future of our country. It is also the most important election in terms of our pay, benefits and the very agency we work for. In August of this year, I had the opportunity to meet with the NALC Executive Council and vote on who we as a council would endorse for the Presiden-tial election. This was an action that I did not take lightly. I based my individual decision on as much information as I could. Along with the council, we looked at our membership

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John Walsh Director of Retirees


There is a lot happening in the Postal world this past month, with the new Postmaster General causing all kinds of havoc- from dismantling mail sorting machines to the removal of blue mailboxes around the country. It seems every day brings a new surprise that leads to further confusion from our members and confusion from our members of congress. Now we are on the

verge of an election where the stakes could not be higher. As I write this article, we have just received the news of the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. In 2016 President Obama wanted to appoint a new justice and was denied as it was an election year. Those same politi-cians that denied Obama that are now reversing course and they want to take the nomination of the current President, even though we are 42 days from the election. The selection of a Supreme Court Justice can and will have long term consequences to this country for years to come. Items like health care, equal rights and discrimination are things that affect our mem-bers and will be decided by the Supreme Court. We in New York have been fighting for years trying to get mail in voting. Using the U.S. Mail to cast your ballot only makes sense. I know there are those that do not think it is secure, but lets not forget- we use the U.S. Mail for banking information, to get and send checks, our census is done through the mail, as is our taxes. If we trust the U.S. Mail for all these important items why not the vote? There is a lot of confusion concerning this issue as if the Postal Service has some kind of control over the legitimacy of the ballots.. Understand, our job is delivery.. it is the job of the election commission to worry about voter fraud. We just take the ballots from point (a) to point (b)…. that is it. As I write this, we are also in the home stretch of our latest Contract fight with the Arbitration scheduled to begin on Wednesday. I know National is still negotiating and I really hope that they are successful, and they can negoti-ate a settlement that is fair to our members and pays our people for the work they have performed. I am hopeful our CCA’s can get converted to a career position quickly;… maybe even going back to PTF’s someday and get career credit for the time they spent working for the American public. This job of being a letter carrier has grown to be more dangerous every day. In Rochester we had a carrier kidnapped for several hours by a drug dealer and her children threatened; other places carriers are being shot and even killed just doing their job and delivering the mail. We continue to hear sto-ries of carriers saving the lives of customers across the country, putting themselves in harms way to help others. It is high time the Postal Service recognized these facts and pays letter carriers accordingly. While we have not been together for any of the state lobbying meetings in Washington, nor have we been together at the convention this year due to the pandem-ic, it should not stop our efforts. We need to fight harder now more than ever as there is much more at stake. We need to be vigilant with our con-gressional leaders like Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and make sure they put pressure on the Senate to get our bills heard and passed in the Senate. The House has done their job with the Heroes act and H.R 8015.. Now we need the Senate to step up and do their job. Your job now is to show up at the polls, vote early or vote on election day, vote in person, or vote by mail, --it doesn’t matter just as long as you vote. There is too much at stake for you to sit silently and allow someone else to decide who our next set of elected officials will be. You must be heard, loud and strong and the easiest way to be heard is....VOTE!


Vice-President

Kenny Montgomery

As we age we can look back and say I remember “WHEN” ! The Older we get, the more knowledge we have. It can be knowledge from watching someone do a task a different way than you did, saving some time. It can be that I see things different than someone younger. We all, older Folks , now have time to think back about our history. It might be history of our neighbor hoods, our growing up days, or maybe our adulthood. I will tell you a little about my growing up. I lived in the city, not far from my grammar school and not far from my high school. We did not bus to either school. I don’t re-member anyone busing to school. I had a group of friends from my neighborhood. We had a park, one street over, that we hung out at, and of course the corner store. Once we hit high school, we all seemed to find classmates to hang with at school and our neighborhood friends became more distant. When we used to go to McGown park we would play all sports. We would challenge other parks to football, baseball, and basketball. Many times we would have disagreements, sometimes even fights. You have to remember, we used to play tackle football with no equipment, so disagreements were common. Our fights usual consisted of shoving and sometimes, punches would be thrown. It made the rivalries that more interesting for the next time I we would meet. I moved back to this city about 15 years ago from the suburbs. I am not near the old neighborhood or the parks that we hung out at as a kid. The city has changed. When we got into a fight at one of our games, it was just that a fight. Now the fights in this city between young people are not shoving or punching but shooting. It seams that one part of the city shoots someone in another part of the city. Then the retalia-tion starts, and the another shooting. It used to be in the nighttime, now it is even in day time that the shootings hap-pen. In my day, I can not remember a shooting from amongst the parks we played against, not just in our neighborhood but in the city. If you even pulled a gun on someone, you would be considered a coward, and I believe tossed out of your group of friends. In fact I don’t believe any of my friends had a gun until they started to hunt, and then it was a shotgun. I just have trouble understanding how society has changed so much. I remember when Tip O’Neill, former speaker of the House of Representatives would work with some Republicans to get bills passed. Now each party has dug in and it is hard to see Anyone giving in. If you remember not so long ago Pres. Obama could not get any board of governors for the Postal Service appointed . He could not get a judge appointed because the senate was controlled by the Republicans. I don’t see either party willing to give especially now so close to elec-tion time. And now I have passed adulthood and am consid-ered “OLD hood”. Oh, have times changed….

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William B. Cook Director of Legislation, NYSALC P. O. Box 358 Schenectady, New York 12301 [518] 374-1046 (mobile) [518] 207-9064 (fax) [email protected]


The June 23rd primaries in New York State are now history. As promised here are the numbers of voters and how they voted.

Total Voters: 1,883,269 100%

Voting on Election Day at the Polls: 1,027,234 54%

Absentee Ballots: 731,131 38%

Early Voting: 118,108 6%

Affidavit Ballots: 4,479 0%

Court Ordered Ballots: 1,747 0%

Other: 570 0%

For the first time that any state is allowed to vote via absentee ballot without the restrictive excuse; NYS’s 38% is a significantly high num-

ber when compared to other previous states. The total absentee ballots cast in the off year 2016 primary was 115,178. Much has been publi-

cized about what went wrong in the NYS Primaries with the absentee ballot, but let’s think about what went right.

With only a few weeks to prepare the NYS Board of Elections started to shift gears in April when, under a gubernatorial order, allowed ab-

sentee ballots to be used by those registered voters who claimed that under the medical excuse with COVID19 as the excuse. As fast as they

could the BOE ramped up and did an exceptional job tabulating 38% of the vote as absentee ballots. Other states that have gone down this

road, allowing their voters to use the absentee ballot had months and years to prepare. So, for anyone to claim that the absentee ballot effort

in NYS failed, it is simply not true; it is a false narrative.

This spring and summer the state legislature voted to approve and the governor signed into law, a change to the definition of the medical

excuse that is one of the “excuses” a voter can cite to use the absentee ballot. Without going into more detail, the NYS legislature since Jan-

uary 2019 has had a primary goal to remove barriers to the ballot box for registered NYS voters.

Now we are on a critical path that will prove that we can vote by mail successfully in New York State in a presidential general election. The

importance of this task cannot be understated. Once proven successful, the state legislature will again vote for the second required time to

allow the question to come before the voters to remove the required excuses from all absentee ballot applications! Prepare yourselves folks

because that constitutional question will be a major action item a year from now.

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Joe DeStefano Director of Education

Antoine J. Murray Editor


.

THE TIMES THAT WE ARE LIVING IN NOW HAVE CHANGED DRAMATICALLY.. WITHIN A FEW SHORT MONTHS, LIFESTYLES HAVE BEEN SHIFTED; OUR CHILDREN’S SCHOOLING AD-JUSTMENTS AND THE STRESS OF THE JOB AND HOME LIFE COLLIDE… OUR LEADERS SEND US MIXED MESSAGES. MANY OF US STRUGGLE WITH HOW THEY WE ARE GOING TO MAKE IT FROM DAY TO DAY. ALTHOUGH OUR CARRIERS ARE RESILIENT AND PUSH THROUGH IN THESE TROUBLED TIMES, THERE ARE A FEW THAT NEED HELP. THEY NEED TO KNOW THAT THEY ARE NOT IN THIS ALONE- THAT IT IS OKAY TO EMBRANCE THE UNKNOWN. WE ALL NEED HELP IN ONE WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM FROM TIME TO TIME… BEFORE WE CAN DO OUR JOB OR TAKE CARE OF OTHERS, WE MUST FIRST MAKE SURE WE ARE GOOD- THAT OUR MEN-TAL HEALTH AS WELL AS OUR PHYSICAL HEALTH IS ON POINT. SO PLEASE BROTHERS AND SISTERS, TAKE THE TIME TO TALK TO AND WITH SOMEONE… FRIENDS, FAMILY, E.A.P. SERVICES, ETC… WE HAVE TO BE GREAT BE-FORE WE CAN DO A GREAT SERVICE FOR OUR COMMUNITIES, FAMLIES, CO-WORKERS, AND FRIENDS… WE WILL SURVIVE IT ALL TOGETH-ER.

NYSALC Dir. of Leg Bill Cook Rep-resentative Paul Tonko NY 20, and

LCCL Rabbit Riley at press conference on USPS

Senator Gillibrand, Representa-tive Tonko, Rabbit Riley, Sena-tor Schumer, and NYSALC Dir. Legislation Bill Cook at media

event on USPS

Senator Gillibrand with LCCL Rabbit Riley

Br.3 President David J.Grosskopf jr. speaks while

Representative Brian Higgins NY26 looks on at the Buffalo

USPS media event ..

NYSALC LCCL Doug Fordyce addresses the crowd at the Buffalo USPS media event

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Marc T. Ashmon Asst. to the President For Legislative & Political Organizing

Legislative Political Organizer (LPO) is a new full time position created by the NALC to serve the membership in a variety of ways, including educating members on

the current state of legislation, training & assisting state associations & branches to help carry out our plan,

meeting with members of congress & educating mem-bers on the importance of the LCPF.

Marc T. Ashmon has been a letter carrier for 25 years & is a Leadership Academy graduate of class 16. Prior to

his appointment as LPO he held various positions in the NALC- branch president for 9 yrs., route inspection

team, NALC observer & NJ State Food Drive Coordina-tor. Marc’s territory as LPO includes 10 states, 4 Re-gions (11,12,14,15) and the Caribbean (Puerto Rico &

Virgin Islands)

We Are a Family – Voting for Our Livelihood During these unusual times, letter carriers spend more time at work than they do at home. By spending so much time together we inevitably form strong bonds. We are there to talk each other off the ledge, whether it’s facing the seem-ingly endless task of getting that last parcel delivered or pivoting for someone when we thought the day was over. Each day we are making sacrifices for the good of the service. That’s what family is about. As a family, there are good times and bad times, ups and downs. We all have our favorites (and those we’d rather trade in) but even when our least favorites decide to transfer or retire, we suddenly realize how much we’ll miss them. With such a diverse workforce, it’s no surprise that we don’t like the same things. Some of us like country and some of us enjoy the blues. Yet, we still manage to pick a radio station we can all live with. We may not initially agree with a decision, but we later realize it was for the greater good of the family. Though we are all letter carriers, we are still individuals who have our own feelings, thoughts, and beliefs. However, we must try to find common ground on issues that affect our entire family. Right now, we are facing a national election and the outcome could have long term effects on our wages, benefits and our jobs on a whole. Depending on how long you’ve worked for the Postal Service, I’m sure you’ve heard this phrase ad nauseam – “this is the most important election of our future,” but this time there is no exaggeration. Based on the current administration’s actions towards our agency, it is NOT supportive of our family of letter carriers. Consequently, this is the election of our lifetime be-cause we are voting for our livelihoods and the livelihood of our family. The NALC Executive Council’s decision to endorse Biden-Harris was based on the input of our membership through polling, surveys, and responses to our candidate questionnaire, a questionnaire that the current administration disre-garded. Additionally, there were several discussions with Vice President Biden which confirmed his support of the USPS. Our family’s political pick must be the one who supports us, regardless of which side of the isle they’re on. I know many of us have strong opinions on political and social issues, but I plead with you to consider what’s at stake. When you cast that mail–in ballot or go to vote in person, I urge you to think about the future of your career as well as the retirement benefits you currently have. Ultimately, I just want what’s best for our family of letter carriers. In Unionism and Solidarity, Marc T Ashmon, LPO [email protected] cell #: 202-288-7440

Documents

The Empire State Letter Carrier · NY State Association of Letter Carriers Page 6 William B. Cook Director of Legislation, NYSALC P. O. Box 358 Schenectady, New York 12301 [518] 374-1046