Are You Reaching Out with Best Practices for Member and Community Mobilizing?

The work we do as postal workers to provide public services is a calling. Those who work for justice often make it their lifetime devotion. We become empowered through inspiring moments and teachings based on the principles of non-violence: helping workers in need, sacrificing for others, and having respect for others and for oneself. It is that work that ends up deepening our daily lives. We embrace compassion and peace to uplift our workers and our community. It is all about embracing a life of tolerance and equality, and that is why we have government, independent, and non-profit workers to unify all people.

Many activists from different generations are coming together to engage in collective strategies that create a sustainable movement to fight for the issues that matter the most to us. To create a better world, we must have faith in each other and how our diverse beliefs, backgrounds, and perspectives unite in solidarity for justice. Relationship- building creates a strong community. We must take the government out of the hands of the oligarchy and put it back in the hands of our beloved community.

One recent example of community coming together for the collective good occurred when Jalyna West, a union representative and the secretary-treasurer of the Mid- Hudson Area Local in New York, contacted the Civil Service Employees Association (CSEA) Region 3 to request permission to set up a table at their conference highlighting our fight against postal privatization. She and her husband, who is a CSEA member, worked to mobilize support to stop privatization of the Postal Service! They handed out flyers and collected 132 signatures in support of our public Postal Service, after just four hours of tabling at the CSEA Conference.

Speaking about the experience, Jalyna said, “I always look for opportunities to get the word out about the attack on the Postal Service. My husband has been a member of CSEA for 23 years and second VP of Local 550. [On] April 3rd, we set up our table after I had mentioned the attack on postal workers, and members asked about how they could help, and I mentioned I had a petition they could sign and fact sheets to hand out. A table was given to us to educate CSEA members. We were also able to get support from Jessica Ladlee of CSEA; Dutchess County Legislator Terracina Brown; Daniel Atonna, candidate for City of Poughkeepsie; Alyssa from MHA; Lisa Kaul, Veterans Programs; Aymar Blair, Dutchess Comptroller; Brenda Lawlor, Dutchess County Legislator; and Pat Ryan, our House Representative for New York.”

That’s what I call stepping out and mobilizing our community! We can win; we just need to step out to get the support! ■