As I reflect upon my soon to be 48 years of Membership in the National Association of Letter Carriers I remember the words of my grandfather who told me as a child, Sonny if you ever have the chance to belong to a union do not hesitate to take up the mantle of fellowship and join. There is no better association that you can be a part of! Mother Jones was a Union Member and one of the greatest one I ever knew. Becoming a part of the Union Movement is a great and noble calling! When I joined the NALC in 1966 I remembered what he told me and he was absolutely correct in his assessment of Unionism. My grandfather Everist was a somewhat imperfect human but he cared about people and he always stood for what was right and he and my mother who was a member of a union before she became a Judge always agreed that being a member of a Union was the right thing to do. Unions have been very good to me. My Union the NALC has given me and my family good years through a excellent health plan that took care of myself and my wife, especially my wife when cancer struck her down at a too young age and finally took her away. The NALC Health Plan was there for us and especially for her and for that I can thank my Union and the brothers and sisters from my Union who came before me for having the foresight and tenacity to persevere against often difficult odds and circumstances. My Union has time after time stood firm against an often intransigent management and made sure its members got the good benefits and good pay they deserved for their hard work and efforts. My union has stood with the Muscular Dystrophy Association almost since its inception and was the first nation-wide co-sponsor for MDA. They have given in hard work and money millions of hours and millions dollars to help find cures for Jerrys Kids, because thats what Unions do. They care not just for their members but for all Americans. My union has stood up for the hungry in America by establishing a nation-wide Food Drive in partnership with hundreds of Local Food Banks, the US Postal Service, the AFL-CIO, and the United Way to collect food to serve the poor and hungry of our nation including more than one in four children. They started this nation-wide food drive because they care about America and its children. I am proud to have been a part to the Gang of Four that established the first area-wide Food Drive in Oklahoma City, along with Rodney Bivens, Executive Director of the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma, Frank Burns the AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison to the United Way of Central Oklahoma and Barbara Royce, then the Central Oklahoma Labor Council COPE Director and now the AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison to the United Way. Our local food drive which began modestly that first year in 1993 by collecting 120,000lbs of food has now grown into a large community-wide food drive involving hundreds of local unions, community entities, companies and corporations and has over the past several years collected a combined total of food and monetary donations that translate into several million pounds of food to feed hungry Oklahomans each year. I consider that to be one of the most soul satisfying accomplishments of my life. Those are just a few of the many things that Unions all across our nation do to help their fellow Americans. Unions and their members do it not because they have to, but because they care about their nation and their fellow citizens. For Union Members it is as much a labor of love as the love of their families and their jobs. Its what Unions do best! Make America better! I AM A PROUD UNION MEMBER AND HAVE BEEN FOR 48 YEARS COME FEBRUARY 12, 2014! Bob Bearden
Posted on: Fri, 17 Jan 2014 17:44:12 +0000
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