Vincent Sombrotto went from a rank-and-file letter carrier with no union office to president of the NALC in just eight years — but the road there was anything but simple.

In this episode of The Backstamp, Jamie Gregory looks at Sombrotto’s rise from the Great Postal Strike of 1970 through Branch 36, the National Rank-and-File Movement, bitter internal fights, election losses, democratic reforms, and his eventual victory in 1978. Along the way, we ask what really counts as leadership experience, whether union elections were any less contentious then than they are today, and what Sombrotto’s story can teach us about our own messy union democracy.

The episode closes with a personal reflection on fighting passionately for the candidates we believe in without forgetting that, when the election is over, we are still brothers and si ...