One of the benefits of sustained involvement with representation of craft employees, as I have been fortunate enough to experience, is the opportunity to reflect upon the qualities of leadership through first-hand observation. This topic has been on my mind a lot recently, since Garden State Letter Carrier Editor, Jeff Fox, asked me to write a tribute in observance of the retirement of Al Ferranto, who I have worked with for more than 30 years. It occurred to me that the normal reaction to adversity by most people is to pause and exercise caution, if not retreat entirely. A very select few, however, embrace adversity and the challenges it creates. We call these people leaders. Their vision becomes our reality.

When I first met Al Ferranto, he was about 24 years old, but his passion for unionism was already deeply entrenched. During the Postal strike of March 1970, at the age of 21, he had been labeled as a union agitator for his travels to post offices around Bergen County, New Jersey, advocating solidarity with those already out on strike. Within a couple of years, he was elected President of Branch 2032 in Westwood, with about 80 members. It was around this time that our paths first crossed, as I had become President of Branch 4282 in Park Ridge, just to the north. Along with several other Letter Carriers in the Pascack Valley, we began holding impromptu meetings in a bar on Al’s route. Even then, in the early 70’s, we talked of merging together, and attempted to do so. We were unsuccessful. Al was undeterred.

“He worked tirelessly to provide the leadership and

resources necessary to address the threats …”

By the fall of 1975, we were ready for another attempt at merging, this time with Branch 991, a merged Branch centered in Ridgewood. The merger passed. Unless you consider being Steward of a four man substation in Woodcliff Lake as significant, Al enjoyed no personal gains from the merger. Within two years, it became painfully apparent that the merged Branch was running on fumes financially, and a group of concerned unionists, with Ferranto among the leaders, lobbied hard for a dues increase against the wishes of the incumbent President. We won the dues increase and lost the President, who resigned with no forewarning. Al was thrust into the void as President, a position he tackled with his usual energy and determination.

For the next year, the focus of Branch 991 became a return to financial stability. Late in that year, Al voiced support for the candidacy of Bob Vincenzi for National Business Agent, a politically unpopular stance in New Jersey at that time. Ferranto was basically ostracized wherever he went in the state, but he welcomed the challenge. When Vincenzi prevailed in the election, he tapped Ferranto for one of the RAA positions in the regional office. Al would later relinquish this position in order to become full-time President of his Branch.

To attempt to document the events of the next six years would require several editions of this publication. Suffice to say, there was a whirlwind of activity on Ferranto’s part, representing his membership by day, and pushing the boundaries of that membership through merger negotiations at night. The same Branch of just over 300 that he inherited in March of 1978 grew to one of the largest in the NALC by January of 1985, most notably through mega-mergers with Branch 38 in 1983 (with the lower Branch number surviving) and Branch 2951 in 1985. These consolidations provided career opportunities for several NALC activists, myself among them.

As the flurry of merger activity began to wane, Ferranto looked for other avenues for progress. When he became disenchanted with educational opportunities for Stewards, he designed his own. The Branch 38 Annual Rap Session in Atlantic City has taken its place as one of the most anticipated educational opportunities around. Early in 1988, he challenged his Branch to fulfill a dream, to be the first NALC Branch to raise $100,000 for Muscular Dystrophy, an idea that appeared outlandish at first. By the time the National Convention rolled around that summer, he was ready to announce that the challenge had been met.

Starting in the early 1990’s, Ferranto’s talents were recognized by National President Vincent Sombrotto with a succession of more responsible positions on the NALC Executive Council. His initial appointment as National Trustee was followed in 1994 with his candidacy on the administrative slate as National Business Agent. During Al’s one term in that NBA’s chair, he used his foresight to introduce a number of innovations that are still employed years after his service ended.

The final stop in Al Ferranto’s NALC career came with his election to the position of Director of Safety and Health at NALC headquarters in 1998. Under his guidance, that position became elevated in importance even before the focal point of his tenure, the anthrax attacks on postal employees in the fall of 2001. During those trying days, he worked tirelessly to provide the leadership and resources necessary to address the threats, while dispelling unwarranted panic and the dissemination of misinformation that often accompanies times of crisis. The portrayal of Letter Carriers as the heroes of this period was, at least in part, testimony to Ferranto’s ability to artfully communicate with the membership what was fact and what was fiction.

Al has decided in the last two months to step down and ease into retirement. An objective analysis of his career, considering where he began and where he finished, brings to mind adjectives such as “remarkable” or “fulfilling”. However, perhaps his greatest legacy as an NALC operative are the legions of talented activists whose involvement as career trade unionists are directly linked to his lifetime obsession: to elevate representation to professional status and ensure that Letter carriers always have an effective and responsible voice speaking on their behalf. In the final analysis, this dream and its tangible results will endure into future generations of NALC representation, long after those reading this have departed.