1.
New York City
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The City of New York, often called New York City or simply New York, is the most populous city in the United States. With an estimated 2015 population of 8,550,405 distributed over an area of about 302.6 square miles. Located at the tip of the state of New York. Home to the headquarters of the United Nations, New York is an important center for international diplomacy and has described as the cultural and financial capital of the world. Situated on one of the worlds largest natural harbors, New York City consists of five boroughs, the five boroughs – Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, The Bronx, and Staten Island – were consolidated into a single city in 1898. In 2013, the MSA produced a gross metropolitan product of nearly US$1.39 trillion, in 2012, the CSA generated a GMP of over US$1.55 trillion. NYCs MSA and CSA GDP are higher than all but 11 and 12 countries, New York City traces its origin to its 1624 founding in Lower Manhattan as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic and was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664 and were renamed New York after King Charles II of England granted the lands to his brother, New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the countrys largest city since 1790, the Statue of Liberty greeted millions of immigrants as they came to the Americas by ship in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is a symbol of the United States and its democracy. In the 21st century, New York has emerged as a node of creativity and entrepreneurship, social tolerance. Several sources have ranked New York the most photographed city in the world, the names of many of the citys bridges, tapered skyscrapers, and parks are known around the world. Manhattans real estate market is among the most expensive in the world, Manhattans Chinatown incorporates the highest concentration of Chinese people in the Western Hemisphere, with multiple signature Chinatowns developing across the city. Providing continuous 24/7 service, the New York City Subway is one of the most extensive metro systems worldwide, with 472 stations in operation. Over 120 colleges and universities are located in New York City, including Columbia University, New York University, and Rockefeller University, during the Wisconsinan glaciation, the New York City region was situated at the edge of a large ice sheet over 1,000 feet in depth. The ice sheet scraped away large amounts of soil, leaving the bedrock that serves as the foundation for much of New York City today. Later on, movement of the ice sheet would contribute to the separation of what are now Long Island and Staten Island. The first documented visit by a European was in 1524 by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine explorer in the service of the French crown and he claimed the area for France and named it Nouvelle Angoulême. Heavy ice kept him from further exploration, and he returned to Spain in August and he proceeded to sail up what the Dutch would name the North River, named first by Hudson as the Mauritius after Maurice, Prince of Orange
2.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
3.
Postal workers
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A postal worker is one who works for a post office, such as a mail carrier. In Canada, they are represented by the Canadian Union of Postal Workers, the US Postal Service employs around 584,000 people. The bulk of work as, Service Clerks - Sell stamps and postage, help people pick up packages. Mail Sorters - Physically sort the mail to go to the correct place, as automation has become more common, some of these people now operate the sorting machines. Mail Carriers - Deliver the mail, in densely populated areas this is done on foot. In urban areas the carriers use a mail truck and in rural areas carriers drive their own vehicles. Most postal workers in the US make between $36,000 and $43,000 per year, the phrase was not very often used until a spate of workplace violence incidents by postal workers in the late 1980s made headlines. The incidents also led to the coining of the phrase going postal
4.
Trade union
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The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with employers. The most common purpose of these associations or unions is maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment and this may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. Unions may organize a section of skilled workers, a cross-section of workers from various trades. The agreements negotiated by a union are binding on the rank and file members, originating in Great Britain, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution. Trade unions may be composed of workers, professionals, past workers, students. Trade union density, or the percentage of workers belonging to a union, is highest in the Nordic countries. The trade unions aim at nothing less than to prevent the reduction of wages below the level that is maintained in the various branches of industry. That is to say, they wish to prevent the price of labour-power from falling below its value, yet historian R. A. the other the aggressive-expansionist drive to unite all labouring men and women for a different order of things. The 18th century economist Adam Smith noted the imbalance in the rights of workers in regards to owners. In The Wealth of Nations, Book I, chapter 8, Smith wrote, We rarely hear, it has said, of the combination of masters. But whoever imagines, upon this account, that masters rarely combine, is as ignorant of the world as of the subject. Masters are always and everywhere in a sort of tacit, but constant and uniform combination, not to raise the wages of labor above their actual rate When workers combine, masters. As Smith noted, unions were illegal for many years in most countries, there were severe penalties for attempting to organize unions, up to and including execution. This pool of unskilled and semi-skilled labour spontaneously organized in fits and starts throughout its beginnings, Trade unions and collective bargaining were outlawed from no later than the middle of the 14th century when the Ordinance of Labourers was enacted in the Kingdom of England. In 1799, the Combination Act was passed, which banned trade unions, although the unions were subject to often severe repression until 1824, they were already widespread in cities such as London. Sympathy for the plight of the workers brought repeal of the acts in 1824, by the 1810s, the first labour organizations to bring together workers of divergent occupations were formed. Possibly the first such union was the General Union of Trades, also known as the Philanthropic Society, the latter name was to hide the organizations real purpose in a time when trade unions were still illegal. The Association quickly enrolled approximately 150 unions, consisting mostly of textile related unions, but also including mechanics, blacksmiths, and various others
5.
Federal government of the United States
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The Federal Government of the United States is the national government of the United States, a republic in North America, composed of 50 states, one district, Washington, D. C. and several territories. The federal government is composed of three branches, legislative, executive, and judicial, whose powers are vested by the U. S. Constitution in the Congress, the President, and the courts, including the Supreme Court. The powers and duties of these branches are defined by acts of Congress. The full name of the republic is United States of America, no other name appears in the Constitution, and this is the name that appears on money, in treaties, and in legal cases to which it is a party. The terms Government of the United States of America or United States Government are often used in documents to represent the federal government as distinct from the states collectively. In casual conversation or writing, the term Federal Government is often used, the terms Federal and National in government agency or program names generally indicate affiliation with the federal government. Because the seat of government is in Washington, D. C, Washington is commonly used as a metonym for the federal government. The outline of the government of the United States is laid out in the Constitution, the government was formed in 1789, making the United States one of the worlds first, if not the first, modern national constitutional republics. The United States government is based on the principles of federalism and republicanism, some make the case for expansive federal powers while others argue for a more limited role for the central government in relation to individuals, the states or other recognized entities. For example, while the legislative has the power to create law, the President nominates judges to the nations highest judiciary authority, but those nominees must be approved by Congress. The Supreme Court, in its turn, has the power to invalidate as unconstitutional any law passed by the Congress and these and other examples are examined in more detail in the text below. The United States Congress is the branch of the federal government. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate, the House currently consists of 435 voting members, each of whom represents a congressional district. The number of each state has in the House is based on each states population as determined in the most recent United States Census. All 435 representatives serve a two-year term, each state receives a minimum of one representative in the House. There is no limit on the number of terms a representative may serve, in addition to the 435 voting members, there are six non-voting members, consisting of five delegates and one resident commissioner. In contrast, the Senate is made up of two senators from each state, regardless of population, there are currently 100 senators, who each serve six-year terms
6.
National Association of Letter Carriers
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The National Association of Letter Carriers is an American labor union, representing non-rural letter carriers employed by the United States Postal Service. The NALC has 2,500 local branches representing letter carriers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Letter carriers were the first postal workers to form their own union. They had tried to organize a union at least three times—in 1870 in Washington, DC, in 1877 in New York City, and in 1880 again in New York City. On August 29,1889, delegates moved quickly, unanimously adopting a resolution to form a National Association of Letter Carriers. On the next day, August 30,1889, they elected William Wood of Detroit as the first president, NALC had 52 locals, called branches, with 4,600 members in 1890, and 335 branches by 1892. In the beginning, the focused on forcing postmasters to honor federal law mandating an eight-hour day for federal employees. In 1893, the NALC won a Supreme Court decision and $3.5 million in overtime pay. Local postmasters vigorously opposed the union, even though it did not sponsor strikes, NALC joined the American Federation of Labor in 1917. By the mid-1960s, NALC had 175,000 members in 6,400 local branches, the history of the National Association of Letter Carriers is documented through archival collections at the Walter P. Reuther Library in Detroit, Michigan. Letter carrier morale plummeted during the mid-1960s as inflation eroded carriers salaries, a growing sense of militancy developed as carriers and their families in big cities neared the poverty level. In New York Citys Branch 36, a storm of protest erupted when President Richard Nixon provided only a 4.1 percent pay raise in 1969, far below what was needed. Despite being barred from participating in a strike, on March 17,1970, the votes were counted in Branch 36, and a long-threatened strike was approved,1,555 to 1,055. At 12,01 a. m. on March 18, picket lines created by Branch 36 went up at post offices throughout Manhattan, within two days, more than 200,000 letter carriers and other postal employees across the country had joined the walkout. Nixon called out 25,000 soldiers to move the mail in New York City, the strike ended after eight days when local NALC leaders assured strikers that an agreement had been reached, even though their word was premature. Round-the-clock negotiations began and on April 2 a satisfactory agreement was reached, the NALC Office of the President, James H. Rademacher Records contain archival material related to the strike. The militancy that came out of New Yorks Branch 36 during the strike changed forever the nature of the NALC, sombrotto was elected national president in 1978, ousting incumbent President J. Joseph Vacca. He moved quickly to enhance the unions lobbying power with Congress, johnson when he vetoed a postal pay raise in the mid-1960s. The union has also supported a number of individual Republican candidates, the rate of postal pay was set by the Congress by federal law, meaning that the Postal Service and its employees were deeply affected by Congress
7.
Vincent Sombrotto
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Vincent Raymond Sombrotto was a letter carrier at Grand Central Station in New York City, and the 16th president of the NALC between 1978 and 2002. He was born in Manhattan in 1923, Sombrotto became an official member of the NALC in 1947 and played a huge part in the U. S. postal strike of 1970. Sombrotto helped to expand the NALC into more than 100 cities and he retired in 2002 and finished with over than 300,000 members but died in 2013 aged 89 at Port Washington, New York. He is survived by his wife Rae,7 children and 14 grandchildren, Vincent Raymond Sombrotto was born on June 15,1923 in Manhattan, New York. His parents were Raymond and Agnes Sombrotto and his mother supported the family by working as a seamstress. During World War II Vincent Sombrotto, wishing to serve his country, after World War II Mr. Sombrotto worked as a truck driver. He took a job sorting mail at Christmas in a local Post Office. For most of the next 30 years he worked as a letter carrier delivering mail from Grand Central post office in Manhattan New York, in July 1969 Mr Sombrotto supported a mass sick call of Postal Workers in Bronx New York. On March 1970 members of National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 36 met in Manhattan, New York City, Vincent Sombrotto and the members of the NALC began picketing the next day. At first the strike was just in New York City but soon it grew to more than 210,000 workers across the entire country, at the time, postal employees were not permitted by law to bargain collectively. Striking postal workers felt they had low wages and that working conditions were poor, unsanitary. The immediate trigger for the strike was an act of Congress to increase the salaries of workers by only 4%. As the strike grew to a scale and began to disrupt mail delivery across the United States. Nixon used the military and the National Guard as strike breakers, instead of backing down, workers became more vocal and the strike gained even more support. Workers from other government agencies also announced that they would strike if Nixon pursued legal action against postal employees, Nixon spoke to the nation again on March 23, asking workers to return to their jobs and announcing he would deploy the National Guard to deliver mail in New York. This announcement was accompanied by Proclamation 3972, which declared a national emergency, the national emergency Proclamation was never revoked. Nixon then ordered the force to 24,000 military personnel to begin distribution of mail, the strike of postal workers in 1970 severely tested the working relationships within the federal government. The Department of Labor played a role in mediating the strike
8.
Richard Nixon
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Richard Milhous Nixon was an American politician who served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until 1974, when he became the only U. S. president to resign from office. He had previously served as a U. S, Representative and Senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Nixon was born in Yorba Linda, California, after completing his undergraduate studies at Whittier College, he graduated from Duke University School of Law in 1937 and returned to California to practice law. He and his wife Pat moved to Washington in 1942 to work for the federal government and he subsequently served on active duty in the U. S. Navy Reserve during World War II. Nixon was elected to the House of Representatives in 1946 and to the Senate in 1950 and his pursuit of the Hiss Case established his reputation as a leading anti-communist, and elevated him to national prominence. He was the mate of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Republican Party presidential nominee in the 1952 election. Nixon served for eight years as vice president and he waged an unsuccessful presidential campaign in 1960, narrowly losing to John F. Kennedy, and lost a race for Governor of California to Pat Brown in 1962. In 1968, he ran for the presidency again and was elected by defeating incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Nixon ended American involvement in the war in Vietnam in 1973 and brought the American POWs home, and ended the military draft. His administration generally transferred power from Washington D. C. to the states and he imposed wage and price controls for a period of ninety days, enforced desegregation of Southern schools and established the Environmental Protection Agency. Nixon also presided over the Apollo 11 moon landing, which signaled the end of the moon race and he was reelected in one of the largest electoral landslides in U. S. history in 1972, when he defeated George McGovern. The year 1973 saw an Arab oil embargo, gasoline rationing, the scandal escalated, costing Nixon much of his political support, and on August 9,1974, he resigned in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office. After his resignation, he was issued a pardon by his successor, in retirement, Nixons work writing several books and undertaking of many foreign trips helped to rehabilitate his image. He suffered a stroke on April 18,1994. Richard Milhous Nixon was born on January 9,1913 in Yorba Linda, California and his parents were Hannah Nixon and Francis A. Nixon. His mother was a Quaker and his father converted from Methodism to the Quaker faith, Nixons upbringing was marked by evangelical Quaker observances of the time, such as refraining from alcohol, dancing, and swearing. Nixon had four brothers, Harold, Donald, Arthur, four of the five Nixon boys were named after kings who had ruled in historical or legendary England, Richard, for example, was named after Richard the Lionheart. Nixons early life was marked by hardship, and he quoted a saying of Eisenhower to describe his boyhood, We were poor. The Nixon family ranch failed in 1922, and the moved to Whittier
9.
Winton M. Blount
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Winton Malcolm Blount, Jr. known as Red Blount, was the United States Postmaster General from January 22,1969 to January 1,1972. He founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of the construction company, Blount International, based in Montgomery. Blount was the last Postmaster General when the position was within the presidential Cabinet, born in Union Springs, Alabama, Blount served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II, having trained as a B-29 pilot. However, the war ended before his training was completed, in 1946, Blount and his brother William Houston Blount started a building contractor company, Blount Brothers. In 1961, Blount was elected President of the Alabama Chamber of Commerce, in 1968, in 1964, Blount was appointed by U. S. President Lyndon B. In 1969, Blount was appointed as the Postmaster General by U. S. President Richard Nixon, Post Office Department from a Cabinet-level department of the U. S. government to a special independent executive agency. He was thus the last Cabinet-level Postmaster General, and he served as the first director of the new U. S. Postal Service, henderson persuaded the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Apollo 11 astronauts to photograph the Moon for an image on a postage stamp. More than 140 million moon stamps were sold, in 1971, Blounts profile was depicted alongside that of Benjamin Franklins on the face of a silver proof coin commemorating the inauguration of the new Postal Service. The commemorative coin was offered in a carrier with one bearing a Philadelphia postmark from the old Post Office. In 1972, Blount ran a campaign for the United States Senate. He easily won the Republican nomination in the first-ever GOP primary election held in Alabama, Representative James D. Martin of Gadsden,27,736 to 16,800. Another 6,674 votes were cast for two other candidates including State Representative Bert Nettles, an attorney then from Mobile who was considered a Moderate Republican, Martin had been the unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial nominee in 1966 against the late Lurleen Wallace. Blount then faced in the election the long-term incumbent Democrat, John Sparkman. From May 1972 to November 1972, future U. S. President George W. Bush transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to serve as the director in Blounts campaign. Blount attempted with success to link Sparkman with Nixons reelection opponent. Senator George S. McGovern of South Dakota, Alabama editor Ray Jenkins described the alleged McGovern-Sparkman connection as just a little too much bull. for the most unsophisticated Alabama voters, It was an insult to them in a way. Nixon concentrated on his race against McGovern and hesitated to offend a leading Senate Democrat, when presidential press secretary Ron Ziegler was asked if Nixon supported Blount for the Senate, Ziegler replied, Well, he doesnt oppose him. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew did campaign for Blount, the Democrats depicted Blounts wealth as a source of shame, not the fruits of a successful business
