Chapter 6 Rehired!

Chapter 6 

Rehired

Dad finished The Walk.  He accomplished his goal. He proved to everyone that he was more than fit to do the job he felt had been unjustly taken from him. He even got some good publicity.  But after he got back to Pompano Beach after almost three months on the road, life didn’t change for him. He still had to earn a living, and jobs were just as hard to find as they were when he left.  The fact that he had to explain to prospective employers why he was fired from the Post Office, his last substantial job, must have presented a huge obstacle to him.

At one point, he decided to look for work in Sarasota, where he had the following letter published in the local newspaper. The letter is a good example of Dad’s determination to find humor in disheartening circumstances. He had gone to Sarasota to live briefly with Mom, who thought it would be a good idea for them to rekindle their marriage (they had been divorced in 1969,) to provide some stability for Ginger, their youngest child, still in high school at the time.

March 16, 1983

Sarasota Herald Tribune

To the Editor:

As a new Sarasota resident, I am interested in the local paper. Since your readership is largely made up of retirees, this letter might be of interest. In November, 1982, I walked from Pompano Beach to Washington D.C to demonstrate that I am capable of carrying out the duties of a full-time letter carrier.

I had been employed as a letter carrier since July 1966 in Pompano Beach. I had a personal dispute with a new supervisor and was ordered to submit to a mental evaluation or be dismissed. I reported and was found to be fully competent mentally. “No indication of any mental disturbance whatsoever” was the doctor’s written opinion. In January 1978 I was terminated as a Civil Service employee. Reason given: “Physically unable to perform the duties of his position. “  A Postal Service supervisor, with no medical qualifications, declared I was “entitled to disability retirement.”

I have never been furnished with any further information about the specific nature of my alleged disability. I have invoked the Freedom of Information Act in attempts to find out what is supposed to ail me. This situation has persisted for five years.

I have experienced considerable difficulty finding employment. This might be because I have always listed the Postal Service as my most recent employer. Prospective employers seem to be adversely affected by what is probably given as “reason for termination of employment by Postal Service managers. When I have followed up on applications, personnel managers have usually been distant with me, as if they were afraid that I might come too near.

I’ve wondered if I am a victim of some dread communicable disease. Is it possible that I am a carrier of a plague, and that the government is afraid of a nationwide panic should the public become aware of my condition?

John J. McNulty

He returned to Pompano Beach and applied to the USPS many times, but when he was offered a job driving postal vehicles in Miami, for example he turned it down. He would not be shuttled off to some far-flung outpost within the Postal Service. He wanted, and deserved, his own job- delivering mail out of the Pompano Beach Post Office. He wanted to prove to Tellian and Munnell, who were both still working there, that they could not get away with firing him without just cause. This is the same struggle he had been consumed with for almost five years, and here he was, in all practical ways, right back where he started.

He continued his personal campaign,  writing letters, making phone calls, and following up on the personal visits he had made to the offices of senators and bureaucrats in Washington.  In April of 1983, less than five months after he got back to Florida, he received a letter from the USPS. It was a “call-in notice” for a job at the Pompano Beach Post Office! It was for an entry-level job as a part-time flexible letter carrier. It was not a reinstatement of his original position, and it certainly did not come with an apology or payment of lost wages, but it was enough for Dad. He accepted it. He had just earned the right to start again at the bottom of the heap, working an unpredictable schedule, delivering mail and parcels on any one of the office’s 20 routes, with no minimum guarantee of work hours each week. To Dad, this was a triumph.

On his first day back at work, just a few days after his 59^th birthday, he was contacted by the NBC news television network, asking him for a live interview in its Miami affiliate studios. After arranging for an unpaid few hours off from work the next day, he was chauffeured in a limousine from the loading dock of the Pompano Beach Post Office to Miami for a live interview with host of the show, Bryant Gumbell.

Thom, who was working as a carrier at the same post office at the time, called me that morning to tell me to turn on the TV. Thom told me later that he and Dad both knew that this was an important day, and that it was probably the first time anyone in our family had ever ridden in a limousine. They exchanged knowing looks as Dad closed the limo door. I will always be grateful for the opportunity I had to see my dad on the Today Show (which, in 1983, was a pretty big deal.)

Dad appeared on the screen with Gumbell, who was in New York, by way of a live video feed. He was wearing his blue postal uniform shirt, pens and notebook in his pocket, and he began fielding questions without having any kind of rehearsal or prior knowledge of what Gumbell might ask. He delivered a succinct and serious answer for each one of the interviewer’s questions, and at the end of the three- minute interview, Dad left Bryant Gumbell smiling. 

Here is a transcript of the live interview on national TV.

Gumbell:

When John McNulty was fired as a mail carrier in Pompano Beach Florida four years ago, the reason given was his poor health, but  McNulty fought the dismissal without success.

So last year he decided to walk the 1000 -plus miles to Washington DC. just to show the Post Office what kind of health he was in. Whether or not that did  it , McNulty is back delivering the mail in Pompano Beach Florida. And this morning he is with us from the studios of our affiliate in Miami, WCKT-TV.

Mr McNulty- what gave you the idea that walking to Washington would get you your job back?

McNulty:

Well, I guess everything else I tried had run into a dead end, and this was about the only option left to me that didn’t involve anything illegal or violent. (Smiling)

Gumbell:

It took you 12 weeks. Were you pushing the pace? How tough was it?

McNulty:

It was tough at times but I don’t think it was a real push.  I think with any kind of effort I could have done a little better.

Gumbell:

You’re only returning (to work) now six months after your trek. What took so long to get reinstated?

McNulty:

(Seriously) Well I can’t answer those questions. It takes a while for communication to travel through the various offices, and I think I owe our senator, Paula Hawkins, a little bit of credit, as well as you people in the news media. You have shined a light on it for me, for which I am thankful.

Gumbell:

What do your peers think- your fellow workers at the Post Office? You’ve been 19 years on the job there.

McNuty:

I’ve had 11 years service, plus time in the military. Well, according to the warm reception I received yesterday morning when I went back - including supervision- I’d say they’re in favor.

Gumbell:

I’m just curious-you had the fight with them over a number of years. Why didn’t your own postal union help you out a little bit?

McNulty :

(Seriously) I don’t think it would be appropriate to discuss what did or did not happen with the union. Thanks, though, for asking.

Gumbell:

(Chuckling) That sounds like a man who has further actions in mind to redress some of his grievances. Is this the end of it- getting your job back?

McNulty:

Oh, no. This is a very big step, and I am very grateful to everyone who helped me make this step, believe me I am. I have a lot of faith in myself, and I do intend to pursue it.

Because what was done was not quite legal.

It wasn’t right.

 And it was not just.

And, well, I’m not going to lay down and play dead.

I’ve told my kids for years- you should fight City Hall.

I’ve tried to set an example. I think I owe it to them, don’t you?

Gumbell:

I think you’ve set a heck of an example.

Mr McNulty, I know you’ve got many miles ahead of you so we’ll let you get back out on the job. Be careful of the dogs!

McNulty:

Thank you very much.

(Smiling, and pointing to a long scratch on his arm, ) Especially my own!

Gumbell had asked Dad if he planned to keep up his fight with the Post Office, and Dad assured him that he certainly did, even now that he was back at work.

Over the course of the five years he was fighting his dismissal, he hired and fired two law firms, losing $10,000 in the process, because he refused to take their advice and settle his case out of court. He did all of his own research and wrote reams of correspondence. He pursued his case diligently.

When Dad had told me, in 1967, when I graduated high school and was about to enter teacher’s college, that, if things had been different he would have liked to go to college himself-  to study law,  I  was incredulous. After all these years, I think I understand how serious he was. Maybe this struggle with the Postal Service became, in a way, Dad's own personal law career.

In May 1983,  back on the job, again working under Supervisors Munnell and Tellian,  he was worked and overworked and harassed just as he had been before. But he endured for another nine years, until he could decide for himself that he was ready to retire. It wasn't until he had reached the age of 67 that he had enough years on the job, along with military service, to retire. It was on his terms this time, and he left with his dignity intact, knowing he earned every penny of his pension.