A Tribute to Vincent R. Sombrotto a Great Nalc Leader
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VOLUME LXXXIV NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2013 A TRIBUTE TO VINCENT R. SOMBROTTO A GREAT NALC LEADER VINCENT R. SOMBROTTO, VINCE HAD THE “GUTS,” WAS TRULY, A ONE OF A KIND! TO CALL A NATIONAL STRIKE! HE HAD INNER STRENGTH AND INSIGHT FOR BETTER CARRIER PAY, AND A RAZOR SHARP MIND! AND BARGAINING RIGHTS! SOMBROTTO KNEW HIS PEOPLE, FROM STRENGTHENING OUR HEALTH PLAN, SO HE UTILIZED ONE THING! TO REFORMING THE “HATCH ACT!” HE HAND PICKED DEVOTED MEMBERS, WHAT VINCE HAD ENVISIONED, AND TOOK THEM UNDER HIS WING! KEPT OUR UNION ON TRACK! FOR THOSE CLOSE TO VINNEY, THOUGH VINNIE HAS LEFT US, IT CAME AS NO SURPRISE! HIS ACCOMPLISHMENTS WILL LIVE ON! HE HAD STRONG CONVICTIONS, THE NALC IS STRONGER!, AND VERY STREET WISE! “SOLIDARITY’S OUR COMMON BOND!” IF A PERSON CHALLENGED SOMBROTTO, UNDER VINCE SOMBROTTO’S LEADERSHIP, TO A VERBAL DEBATE! OUR UNION, MADE GREAT GAINS! THEY MIGHT RETHINK, “CHALLENGE,” FOR, IT WAS MORE THAN OBVIOUS, THAT, WAS THEIR FIRST MISTAKE! THE NALC FLOWED IN HIS VEINS! By Mark D. Ramirez, Retired Letter Carrier and NALC Health Benefit Representative After being elected NALC Branch 782 Bakersfield, California National President, Sombrotto returned have written this poem to pay homage to to his route in our great NALC leader—President Emeritus New York City to keep in touch with Vincent R. Sombrotto. He passed away just a members on the few days ago. workroom floor. Continued on page 2... PAGE 1 NALC BRANCH 782 E.A. BAKER UNION UPDATE FEBRUARY 2013 FEBRUARY 2013 NALC BRANCHI 782 E.A. BAKER UNION UPDATE PAGE 1 Continued from page 1... I started working for the US postal Service in November 1977 in Lamont, CA. Vince Sombrotto was elected President of our Union the following year in 1978. When I first started out as a Part-Time Flex- ible (PTF) Carrier in Lamont, I earned $6.68 per hour. Lamont was an associate office of Bakersfield. I became the union steward in 1979 while still a PTF Carrier. I attended my first Na- tional Convention in the early 80’s—and the that we purchase the entire fleet of about twelve first time I heard Mr. Sombrotto speak, I knew aircraft for about $4 million. Vince felt that we this man had a gift! I’m sure most of the attend- should be transporting the US Mail. The PMG told ing delegates realized also. Vince, “We’re not in the airline business!” And, now? We pay FEDEX millions of dollars each year Vince Sombrotto car- to fly our mail around the nation... ried mail thirty years before being elected Over the years (whether it was our COLA, our President of Branch 36 Health Plan, overtime, vacation leave, sick leave, in New York; and, it contract provisions, Hatch Act, and on-and-on), was very obvious, he Vince Sombrotto and the other NALC executive was one of us. He was national officers worked tirelessly to improve the a Letter Carrier! lives of all Letter Carriers and their families. I was the NALC Steward in Lamont for 28 years before I retired. I have been the NALC Health Benefit Representative for twenty-three years for Branch 782. I had the opportunity to My point is that I have been around for play golf with then- a while. National Secretary Treasurer Jim Souza at I hope conventions, and Con- my poem ferences of Presidents. tribute to Mr. Som- Jim would talk about brotto is his years of work- received well ing with Mr. Sombrotto and he would tell me, by all who “Vince is like no one else I’ve ever known.” read it and knew Vince. Jim would say, “President Sombrotto has such a sharp mind! He is able to cite names and dates of I wrote my poem with arbitrations and knows what he is talking about! my deepest admiration If you are going to discuss a union topic with and respect for a great Vince, you had better have your act together, NALC Union Presi- because Vince comes prepared!” dent—a man who had vision, determination, and was one of us: a U.S. Vincent R. Sombrotto had “VISION!” Postal Service Letter Carrier. I remember when Braniff Airlines went bank- rupt. Vince suggested to the Postmaster General MARK RAMIREz PAGE 23 NALC BRANCH 782 E.A. BAKER UNION UPDATE FEBRUARY 2013 No longer am I out ahead of the future, believe me. Take it to the bank that, as a Prophetic words from “Vinnie” Sombrotto legendary football coach once said, “THe erhaps it is not surpris- accurately, how we think about the fuTure is now.” (emphasis added) ing that as the National future—can also influence and shape Let me put this as concretely as I can... President of a 133-year old the present.” years from now—the Postal Service will be organization representing This is why, of course, our effective- a very different institution. workers whose venerable ness in both anticipating the future For Letter Carriers working for this new, employer, one with its own and in implementing the programs and redesigned, reformulated Postal Service, Pdistinguished past, is now facing an un- policies designed to meet that future, our jobs will be different. The basic certain and predictably unpredicatable shape it and, to the extent possible, contours of our work have not changed future. I have long been struck by the master it rather than be mastered by it, dramatically from the inception of the city symbiotic interplay of past, present and determines whether the future will be delivery craft during the Civil War until the future. In fact, I have remarked in past kind to us and whether our past is worth present time, but during the next few years biennial reports to the delegates to our celebrating. this will change and change dramatically. conventions—and, since these reports If you feel these stabs at philosophical Yes, we will still be carrying mail, but as first appear in thePostal Record, to the musings are replicating the (in)famous I have pointed out only recently, we will entire membership—that the present is Cyclone roller coaster at Coney Island, undoubtedly be carrying more than simply at the intersection of the past and future. I can tell you that’s exactly the way letter mail, and we will be spending much I first hit on this theme in my report to I feel when pondering my almost 24 more time on the street and less in the the 1984 Las Vegas Convention: “While years as national president—the ups and office, perhaps selling as well as deliver- it is commonplace to note that ‘the downs, the highs and lows, the sense ing. We also may work at widely differ- past is prologue,’ it is less frequently quite often that I’ve been down this ent hours and will not necessarily all be acknowledged that the present too is road before. Still, what I am proudest of performing the same kinds of tasks. And, in prologue—prologue to the future.” Two as I take a long look back over my years fact, Letter Carriers will—I surmise—con- years later, I reinforced this point when as National President are my modest tinue to evolve as the 21st century Postal reporting to the delgates in St. Paul, successes in persuading the member- Service finds its sea legs in the years and Minnesota: “...the goal of any organiza- ship to prepare for the inevitable future. decades ahead. tion should not be simply to triumph I could have taken a different course, Revolutionary change. Upheaval. Maybe today but to build for tomorrow.” one I believe fruitless, by holding up a even turmoil, although I would hope not. Underlyng this fealty to historical large stop sign and imploring the future But whatever the scope of change, the continuity if not historical inevetability, to screech to a halt or take a hike. That speed of change, the force of change, the of course, is the belief that the present would have been well and good if I National Association of Letter Carriers unfolds into the future either purpose- were willing to turn this union and its must be both nimble and stolid, flexible fully (when we truly understand where members into road kill, for the future, as and steadfast, must both plan for the future we’ve been and especially where we we all know, is relentless. It pauses for and adapt swiftly and with dexterity to want to go) or accidentally and chaoti- no man, woman or child and certainly immediate challenges when there is no cally (when we march stoically ahead, not for head-in-the-sand rhetoric. blueprint to guide us, must be united as this head down, neither glancing backward union mediates the many disparate voices or forward). o say that we are not at a cross- clamoring to be heard. This union must As I reread my 11 previous bennial roads, one where the future will be knowledgeable, alert, resourceful and reports beginning with my report to the Ttorque sharply from the pres- imaginative. Atlanta Convention of 1980, I am aware ent may cause some of you who have Most of all, this union must remember of the extent to which we plan for future read previous biennial reports to yawn the past but not be shackled by it. effectively only to the extent that we dismissively. It will take a very special organization, see the future clear-headedly—with a Perhaps my voice wasn’t loud enough very special leaders and, most of all, very degree of both presience and realism.