The History of Female Leadership in the NALC
This podcast’s purpose is to give a history of women who have stepped into leadership roles within the National Association of Letter Carriers, and discuss the leaders of now and into the future.
The History of Female Leadership in the NALC
Lamanda Bradshaw
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This episode features Lamanda Bradshaw, shop steward from Branch 1291, Modesto, California.
Welcome to the History of Female Leadership in the NALC podcast. I'm Craig Schaefer. I'm a city carrier in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, branch 1015. Today I'm excited to have a sister from California. If you don't mind, go ahead and introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_01Hello, my name's Lamanda Bradshaw. I'm from Modesto, California, branch 1291.
SPEAKER_00All right. And how long have you been with the NALC?
SPEAKER_01I've been with NLAC about 10 years, letter carrier about 10 years as well.
SPEAKER_00Okay, perfect. So um we'll just go back 10 years. What brought you to the Postal Service in the first place?
SPEAKER_01Uh prior to the Postal Service, I was actually doing HR. Um, but to back up further, what led me to HR to the Postal Service? Um, I was once a physician's assistant. I went through after high school, I went through schooling and became a phlebotomy, um, I'm sorry, a phlebotomy technician, and then a medical assistant, and then eventually a physician's assistant assistant. I worked in the emergency room for two or three years, but I was too much of an empath for that. Like I was having a really hard time sleeping at night after losing patients. Um, there's a lot of death in the ER and a lot of trauma, and you have to go through those stages to get to the next to get out of to get your next credentials. And I just couldn't pass it. So I've been there for about two years, and a six-year-old boy came in with a gunshot wound to his chest from a drive-by shooting at school. My son had just started kindergarten at the school across town from that. So after dealing with that, I had to walk away from there. And I went to HR for an entrepreneur that owned multiple different businesses. And I just handled his payroll and those just HR stuff of, you know, anything that would come in, not dealing with like employee issues, but his new hire paperwork, things like that. But there was no uh benefits to it. So eventually that's what led me to looking for something with benefits as I got a little bit older and ended up at the post office.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Now that is a journey right there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00I I don't see how people that work in the ER, they're special people. There's no way I could do it.
SPEAKER_01I it's so hard. I have tons of family that's a nurses, and that's what kind of had led me there. But I wanted to be more involved with diagnosing and treating than just nursing, so that's why I had taken a different path, but it wasn't for me either. I just too much of an empath at the end of it. Um, I went through several years of counseling to kind of get over the the grief that stuck with me. Having to get families through the grief of losing something is just I I I was taking it home with me. I couldn't separate the two. Maybe I could as I was older, but I was only 25 whenever I was doing that. So I was not able to separate it.
SPEAKER_00No, that's that's that's I can't even imagine. Um so you end up with us, which I'm glad you're here. Um so you know, you you've been around for 10 years or yeah, 10 years at the post office. Uh right, you did say 10 years. 10 years. Okay. Yes, 10. So uh what kind of caused you to decide to kind of get involved with the NALC?
SPEAKER_01Uh it's kind of a little bit of a story too. Um I didn't grow up in a super loving household. Um, by the time I ended up at the postal service, I didn't have any family and very few friends I was with. I was going through a divorce at that time. I had married my high school sweetheart uh and had two boys um that are now 21 and 17. And uh so it was a very challenging part in my life. But my family was not a great family. Um, I was looking for that. So I'm very lucky. I'm after learning meeting so many people throughout the nation, I've learned that my branch is a super special branch. We run like a family. We have a mom in our office, her name's Terry and Vicky, which is like our aunt of our office, they noticed me right away as a CCA and like maybe that I was struggling, and they kind of just took me under their wing. Um, I had a daughter since I've been at the postal service, and by the time I had her, they I was three years in. They knew I didn't have any family by that point. They just kind of figured out COVID was going on. They drove me, they did one of those drive-through baby showers for me. Um, they just showed up in drones, they with all the love that you could possibly imagine since the day I started there. So I my branch is like a family, and we've always had strong stewards and strong leaders, but um, during COVID, they took our steward to become part of Tyreek on the union detail. And we had never not had a steward. And whenever they did, they brought in a tyrant postmaster who was just going around and picking on the people that were quiet, like myself, the people that just wanted to come in and carry our routes. So she was picking on us, picking on us. And thank God for Patrick, which was the steward who had stepped away. He had kind of taught me a little bit. He was the type of person that if you didn't know you're right, you didn't have any. So every time I had gone to him with a problem, he had always taught me a little bit through it. So by the time he was not in the office and this was happening, I was looking around. I felt like I was one of the most knowledgeable people, and nobody was willing to stick up for my family in my eyes. So here I am. Now I've been a steward for three years. I do formally.
SPEAKER_00So oh wow, very nice, very nice. Uh that that steward position is never a it's a it's a tough job. It's it is, and uh, it's not my it's not my forte. I have other things I enjoy, but I I I will step up and help out when I have to. But yeah, that's a it's a thankless job, but it's definitely necessary when you have a a tyrant come in. You've got to have somebody there. Um, so you know, you you're a steward. Have you held any other positions in the NALC?
SPEAKER_01I'm also um a lickel, which for those that are familiar with it, that has to do with the state association. So I'm part of the California State Association, and Lickle stands for letter carrier congressional liaison. So we all have congressmen that we work with. California is a very big democratic state. So we have, I think, 38 total districts. Um, and my district is at I work with Congressman Adam Gray. So with any letter carrier um things that we have going through that we wanted support on, anything that we're lobbying for, like right now we have the Protect Your Letter Carriers Act, you know, those types of things. I form a relationship with him and his staffers so that we could get his support. Um, I'm pretty lucky. Adam signs on to almost everything that we've had come through. I mean, a couple of things have taken a little convincing, but uh that's benefited us like recently. Modesto's had several male thefts. Like we had eight male threfts and 10 working days um where they were coming and busting the locks out. And I was able to call Adam Gray, which you know, and have that relationship with him. And he got the media involved and it it hasn't stopped, but it's slowed down. And so we're getting some extra attention on it with that. So that position has directly, I think, helped protect my branch as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Well, uh, that was gonna be my question because I really wanted you to kind of explain what a lickel was, because that that's actually one that I don't think I've had anybody have before on on the podcast that's used uh, you know, at least talked about that. So thank you for sharing that. Um, I think that's a position that uh a lot of people forget about, but it's like you said, it's super important. It's you we've got to have that that uh communication and that relationship with our uh representatives, or else we're we're toast.
SPEAKER_01So that's I don't think the yeah, I totally agree. It's come it's the most needed position we have. A lot of people don't realize how tied our job is to the pen, meaning our job could change instantly by a signature of the president, you know. And I don't think that the newer generation carriers have felt the pressure of that, like even myself included, as we here talked about from the older generation carriers. But we did have that scare in 2023 where you know President Trump was gonna put us under the executive order and stuff. So I think they maybe see it a little bit, but what maybe not be recognized, especially for women, was um growing up in the household I grew up in, my voice was taken from me quite young. Like I was taught, you do not speak up, you don't talk about what happens in this household, you were punished for speaking up in very cruel ways. So what the union uh totally, but lickal being a lickal and talking to congressional accessibility, it's given me this voice that I didn't know was hungry inside of me, this voice that people listen to and they respond to, and things change and things get done. And it makes you feel empowered and it makes you feel like I actually matter and that I can actually help my membership or the membership, but whenever I say mine, I mean my local branch, you know, to actually see it directly help them, the people that treated me like family from day one and that I've always wanted to repay. I think that's probably the most rewarding thing I've ever received back in helping people.
SPEAKER_00That's awesome. That really is awesome. I I love the way that you've twisted that kind of into, you know, your where where you grew up and and it has helped you, you know, helped you helping others. So that is that is so cool. I I that is that is really cool. Um the next question, it's it's the ones that I I hate asking, but I feel like they're super important, um, because um a lot of employees and a lot of ladies in in particular deal with these sort of things. And so have you ever had any dealings with any kind of harassment or discrimination at work by it could be by management, or unfortunately, sometimes our our union siblings. Um, and if so, how did you deal with it? And and do you feel like the situation was resolved?
SPEAKER_01I think that um every all of us ladies have dealt with discrimination or harassment at some level, even if they may not see it that way. For example, um at recently at a union event, I was sitting at a table with a lot of people I didn't know. They were all gentlemen, and they were talking about a certain lady from another region who was offered a detail. And all of them were talking about these little snide comments of, oh, I wonder what she did to get it and all these things. And a lot of us don't see that as discrimination anymore because it's happening so often or they think it's just a coy joke. But yes, all the time. They answer the question all the time, as recently as the most recent event I've been to. I I even people that I trust in our union that are, you know, I would call a union brother, we'll just be having a casual conversation. You can mention something along those lines about a sister getting a detail opportunity, and maybe they thought that they were had a leg in there, and they'll say, Oh, well, she just got it because she's pretty. It's the constant upper hand. Like, I feel like women, we always have to work twice as hard because no matter how hard we work, they're gonna say we got it for a different reason. It doesn't matter how that person represents themselves, you know, how that lady, what she's doing, who she's talking to, if she's married, not married, lesbian, straight, anything. It does none of it matters. If we give it, if we're given an opportunity, it's always still to this day backhandedly said that we earned it for a different way. I think that's the most obvious way that we're discriminated against. And I think secondly, in you know, coming up as a steward, I have a lot of people talk down to me whenever I ask a question, a lot of the men. Like if I call to ask a question of, you know, hire people outside of my branch that is a new grievance and I'm not quite sure how to handle it. So I'll call and ask maybe an advocate or something like that. I get the tone that they're speaking down to me, like I'm not understanding it constantly. And I think that I didn't notice it as much until I got around some people who didn't talk to me like that. And that happened through leadership. I graduated with leadership of class 30 and I met some amazing gentlemen in that class that completely changed my perspective. Because prior to that, I kind of thought that every man was a chauvinistic. I'm sorry for saying it. I'm sorry, but it did take the guys from that class to really show me that they seen way beyond that. I was never treated like I was given the opportunity because I was a woman. I've never been spoken to like I was stupid or I didn't understand something for asking a question or maybe asking a question twice because I didn't fully understand the answer by this group of people. And so, yes, have I dealt with it? Has it been resolved? No, I think I don't think that we'll ever get away from it, to be honest. Like it's it's almost like racism, you know. You you want to talk about it, people want to say, oh, I'm not racist, but at the same time, they're gonna say something that at the end of the day sounds a little bit twisted and racist. And I think it's the same thing with discriminating against women. I don't think that we'll ever get for all the way away from it, but I do think that we've made big strides, and I could see us making further strides too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah. And unfortunately, your what you were saying there, uh, I've heard over and over again. And it just, and as I always say, if I walk in the room and me and you walk in together and someone has a question, they're gonna come to me not realizing that I'm a dummy. You they need to be talking to you, and and it's unfortunate for them because they can either go with a a good answer by you or they can go with me, and I would pick going with you every time over anything I say. So yeah, I I I get what you're saying, and uh yeah, and and frankly leadership was an amazing experience because you you do realize that these these people in here, I mean, I I'll be honest, I I know 100% in class 32, there's always one one person that is uh looking around, go, or at least I feel there's one person looking around going, why am I here? I was that guy because I'm looking around and all these killers in this room, and I'm like that was me.
SPEAKER_01We'll have to relate that. That was definitely me. I totally get it. I was that girl that said, What am I doing here? I had none of the experience that everybody else had, but that experience changed my life. Leadership academy changed me a thousand percent. I talked about not having a voice, and whenever I came into leadership, I had just been a steward for a very short amount of time. I was just finding that voice. I very I don't believe I became a local till the end of leadership. And the it the facilitators there, the classmates I had, choosing to put my heart on the line and opening the experience wide open. I I took it all in and it progressed my personal life, my career, it everything. I it just it completely changed me. Leadership did it grew me, I grew in every way possible.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I'm right there with you. The it was an amazing training. It was the greatest training I've ever been to. I mean, I have been to a lot of awesome, awesome trainings by NALC, but leadership is just I I I like I said, I'm still thinking, what in the world was I doing there? Because I it it I felt like I this is yeah.
SPEAKER_01I totally really I get exactly what you're saying because I was in the same boat. I just kept looking around, going, how did they I get selected for this? And I was never um brave enough to ask the question because I don't think I really wanted to know the answer. I was just grateful for being there.
SPEAKER_00It's same. That's uh exactly the same same situation with me. Um, another question that I have is you know, even if it is, if you're if you're literally just doing the steward work in your office, but you're also doing the liquor work as well. Um obviously this time takes a lot of time away from your family and your friends. And so has that caused you any issues with, like I said, with your family or friends?
SPEAKER_01I wouldn't say it's doesn't necessarily cause me issues. I've definitely had to rebalance life, you know, doing the liquor stuff. Um, it doesn't take a whole lot of time from you unless you have a more stubborn congressman that doesn't tend to get onto your bills or you have a lot going on in your area. That doesn't take stewarding, I spend a ton of time doing. I'm also on the overtime desired list. So I work and in my station, we work 10 to 12 hours a day, daily. You know, we were maxed out at 60 hours a week until the last like four months every single week. You could count on it. So we work a ton there. But what I'm gonna be someone that's gonna bring a little bit different of spending all this time doing this for the union. What has it done for me? I mentioned I have kids. I have a 21-year-old son, I have a 17-year-old son, and I have a five-year-old daughter. My boys, they grew up with the mom with no voice. They grew up with the quiet, timid mom that worked a job that just came home and cooked dinner and cleaned the house and didn't have a lot of friends and all that. What they've seen in the last three years from me from the union has changed their entire beings. They come to me and they talk about how proud they are of me and how much they see encouragement in me. I had my 21-year-old tell me he believes he could do anything because he's watched me jump through burdens. My um, my at our most recent union event, local union event, my branch president was teasing my daughter and playing with her. And he was like, Your mom's gonna be the president of our branch someday. What do you think about that? He said, My daughter looked and said, She can have the president of the branch. I'm gonna be the president of the whole United States. So, you know, the the rewards I'm giving, getting back from what my family watching me grow through the journey I've taken through the union. I would give the time a million times over. It's worth it just to see the light in them, the way that they see me, the way that they view me. My 17-year-old, he's still in high school, and he has this just total crazy perspective of what I do with the the with the political side of things. He's so involved in the political side stuff. At this age, he's looking, he's jumping into American history like crazy. And the labor movement, he wants to learn everything about it because he's so inspired to see this change in me. So, yes, it takes a lot of time, but I wouldn't say I've paid a negative price for it at all. I've just paid the good price for it.
SPEAKER_00That is awesome. That is that is awesome. Just all around the way that your kids are seeing you, you know, blossom and and just soar. It's it's great. And and it is super awesome that your daughter is seeing this you because she's only going to get stronger and stronger, and she's gonna be a force to be reckoned with. I have a that's what I feel.
SPEAKER_01Life happened the way it happened for a reason for me. I needed those boy moms going through, I needed to be the boy mom, is what I'm trying to say at that point in my life to have that soft side because going through what I went through as a child, that's what gave me the softness back was having to be the boy mom and be that, and then getting this whenever I needed to take on that fierce attitude to be a girl mom and to raise a girl that the world needs to reckon with, not that should the reward you're not the other way around. Life happens the way it's meant to happen. You got to have faith in the process. That's something that I've learned. It's hard to learn. You want to control everything, especially us women, we don't like 10 minutes, but we are a tad bit controlling. You got to let go and just watch the process because you you never know what you're gonna win at the end of the day from it.
SPEAKER_00Amazing. I love it. I love it. Um, so you know, you I have a feeling that some of the people that you were just speaking of may lead us into this next question or be involved in the next question. But uh, like when you do finally, you know, put the laptop up, turn the phone off, what do you like to do to unwind and relax? And uh do you have any hobbies?
SPEAKER_01I definitely uh definitely have hobbies. Um I'm an outdoorsy girl, you know. I live in where I live in California, is we are an hour and a half from the beach and then two hours away from the mountains. So you can go to Yosemite and go on the most glorious hikes, or you could be in Monterey and see the most beautiful beaches you've ever seen. So I'm always taking my kids out. Anytime I spend any time away from home doing a union thing, as soon as I come back, we go out on a little outdoor adventure to reconnect with nature and each other and remind why we do all those things. I'm a huge reader, that's what I do for myself. I love to read. So whenever I first became very active in the union, I wanted to learn everything. So I was spending all my time reading labor movement books and history and all these things, and I had to stop that. I had to put my Stephen King back in there and get my little crazy thrillers going back on so that I could separate myself and remember that I'm an individual and not just this. Because at first I completely consumed myself with the union and then being a mom. Like there was no time for nothing else. So as more time has gone on, I've had to make that little wedge of remembering that I'm an individual. So I try to read, I try to go out on hikes by myself and reconnect with nature any chance that I can get. I always call it touching grass. Whenever you've got to deal with something crazy, if I have a really hard formal A or you know, I'm facing a really tough discipline case, you always go back out, touch grass, get back with nature, remember why I'm doing things. No phones, no, no, none of that. Just reconnect and, you know, have that conversation with myself to always put things back in perspective.
SPEAKER_00All right. Yeah, that that's awesome. Um my next question, I usually stick strictly to, you know, you've been around for 10 years now. By the way, I just want to clarify I was listening when you said you had been around for 10 years, but the whole story of your time in the ER kind of threw me for a loop. And so I was I it I was off there. I was like, I know she said 10 years, but then I was like, did she say 10 years? Because you you really threw me for a loop on that. I'm sorry about that.
SPEAKER_01No, I'm sorry, maybe I should have been giving you a heads up.
SPEAKER_00That was no, that that was uh that was uh wild, I I can't imagine. But anyway, like I said, I was I didn't want you to think I wasn't paying attention. I was just still involved in the in the ER with you there. Uh yeah. So normally I say, you know, you've been around 10 years. Uh, what would be a piece of advice uh for someone starting in the NALC, which is fine if that's what you want to do, but with your life experiences and what you've you know, you're just very you're a very inspirational person, just listening to me talk. Uh just I'm just asking you for a piece of advice for anybody, if it whether it's somebody looking to start their NALC journey or if it's just in life, whatever you want to offer here is up to you because like I said, I uh your story is awesome.
SPEAKER_01Thank you so much for that. You know, um I've been told that a lot to me, it's just my story. You know, uh people always tell me, Oh, you're so strong, and all these things. And I guess I guess this is the Type advice I would leave it with is people will always see what you are. They don't realize what you came from and what made you there. You know, it took me a long time where I kept telling people, I don't want to be this strong. It's just like the prize I got from enduring. What else was I gonna do? Just die, you know, from it was the consolation prize for surviving. But what I would tell anybody thinking about jumping into the NLAC, maybe you've been carrying mail for a little while and you're going through something similar that I did, where you're seeing a tyrant supervisor come in and push your friends around. It's scary. It's and it's easy to say no. But the rewards for saying yes are something that nobody could ever tell you how it's gonna affect your life. Because what you bring to the table is exactly what you're gonna take away from the table, too. I bring a lot of passion. I I cannot operate without passion. I cannot operate without emotion. I'm gonna put emotion and passion into everything I do. So I'm gonna take all that back away from it. So don't be scared to say yes. And whenever you are saying yes all the time, know when you have to say no to. Because stopping and taking a break and realizing you're going too far in, or maybe you're losing your passion because you're giving too much time. Stop and take that breather and say no. Because you know that's my biggest fear in it, is I never want to lose my passion. If I don't have the passion, I don't want to do that. That's that's what will kill me. So don't don't bury yourself so deep where you lose what's got you into it in the first time, first place. For me, that's passion. I'm a passionate person. If I ever see myself losing the passion, I'll know it's time to step away.
SPEAKER_00I don't even have anything to add to that. That is awesome. That is, I I I every time I talk to you, all these ladies on here, you guys just leave me speechless every time. And I'm not a speechless person. Uh, but you your stories are just amazing, and yours is just a it it it really is. Uh you're an amazing person, obviously, to have been through everything you have and still, you know, standing here and such a positive, positive person. You could have you could have gone a very different direction, and here you are. So, you know, your your branch is very fortunate to have you. I have no doubt that you will be your branch president if you want to be. So, because it sounds like you could you're gonna do whatever you want to do, uh, whether it's your branch, state, whatever you want. It sounds like you if you're if you're wanting to do it, it's gonna happen. Um, so my questions are up. I I'm I'm out. Uh, so I'm gonna throw it back to you and just ask you, is there anything that I missed? Anything you want to add? The the floor is yours.
SPEAKER_01I don't think you missed anything. I think your questions definitely line it up. If I wanted to add anything, um, I kind of want to put a special emphasis on the relationships that I've built through the Leadership Academy and stepping outside of my comfort zone. Because when we first step up, we're just involved in our branch, and that's still going to be your local people. But whenever you start stepping up a little bit further and you meet people nationally, I mentioned how lucky I am to have my branch. I have my mom Terry here, and then my branch president, Mr. John Collins. I know he will listen to this. Thank you so much for leading our branch for the last 40 years and putting us in this place where he's retiring next month, and we are so sad to see him retire the Postal Service. Um, I hope he stays on as our branch president for as long as he's willing to. But John has really just given all the ladies in our branch so much inspiration to move forward. He really, if he will give us any opportunity we want, anything we need. And then I have Brian Boyd is my mentor. Um, a lot of people may not know his name. He's been retired for a little while, but he was an RAA for Region One. And whenever he came into our branch as our chief steward, he came to me and he seen me kind of, you know, I talked to him, I'm having this problem. And he'd tell me, you're so knowledgeable. You spit out what article that problem's coming from and how to fix it. But my daughter was so young and he really just stayed patient with me and kept coming over and talking to me about it becoming a steward. And then whenever I came into that union meeting, Matt, he was the first one to hand me a J Cam and said, here's an 8190, which is a grievance form. Let me show you how to fill it out. And then he has he really, I don't think he realized what he was getting into that I was gonna just run for the moon and go a thousand miles a minute. But he has paced me the whole way. Anytime that I've needed to take a break, he's reminded me to take a break. Anytime I needed encouragement, he's given me encouragement. So without John, Terry, and Brian, I don't think I would be here. And then those leadership besties, you know, Marta Rhodes, she has impacted me substantially. I've never had a friend in my life like her. And I would have never met her without the without the Leadership Academy. I could go on for days about naming people, especially, you know, Morgan, Norris, Kelsey, James, Casey, Veronica. Like, I don't know. I can name days all day long about people that have changed it. But without those people, there's no way I would be standing here as this woman that I am right now.
SPEAKER_00The the Leadership Academy, when you go in there that first night, they tell you you look around the room and you're gonna make lifelong brothers and sisters out of all these people in here. And I swear I sat there and thought, there's no way I'm gonna remember any of these people. And now I I consider them all like family. Every single one of them are amazing, yes, amazing leaders and amazing people. And I'm right there with you. I totally understand where you're getting at. And I wish every single steward, every single person that is in the NALC that has any drive to do anything further, I wish they could all go through leadership because it is an amazing, amazing uh training. Um, well, uh I'm like I said, you've left me speechless here. I don't even know what to say anymore.
SPEAKER_01So uh I've appreciated this opportunity, Craig. Um, I hope that you continue doing it. I know I've gained inspiration from listening to ladies on the previous podcast, you know, or your previous episodes that you've had. Um, it's been a great opportunity. I hope that I inspired someone to step up and become a steward or maybe even a lickel. Um, you know, the the union could use everybody who's willing to step up. We could always, we're always stronger together.
SPEAKER_00Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Thank you so and and I can't thank you enough for coming on here and and sharing all your story and everything. I mean, you you could have not and you chose to. And so thank you so much. I really do appreciate you. Um, and thank you to everyone that is listening and be safe and be kind.