Union administration
Director of Safety and Health
Manuel L. Peralta Jr. was reelected director of safety and health by acclamation in 2022 at the 72nd Biennial Convention in Chicago.
Peralta was hired as a letter carrier in 1979 at the Brookhurst Station in Anaheim, CA, and he quickly joined Garden Grove Branch 1100. In 1980, he was trained and appointed as a shop steward, later also becoming a branch trustee. Until 1990, Peralta also served as an equal employment opportunity (EEO) representative, handling complaints through all steps, including formal hearings before the EEO Commission.
“I was inspired to become a union activist by a neighbor named Jim Linton, who was a truck driver and member of the Teamsters,” Peralta said. “Jim had talked to me about unions and their value in our society since I was an 8-year-old. He helped me get my first union job before I came to the Postal Service, and it was because of his influence on me that I joined NALC the moment that I was able to do so.”
In 1984, Region 1 National Business Agent (NBA) Brian Farris began assigning Peralta to present grievances before arbitrators. In 1985, Peralta became a Branch 1100 vice president; four years later, he became executive vice president. During this period, he also served as NALC co-chair of the Employee Involvement steering committee in Long Beach.
In 1990, NALC President Vincent Sombrotto appointed Peralta as a regional administrative assistant for Region 1, which covers California, Nevada, Hawaii and Guam. Peralta was elected Region 1 NBA by acclamation during the 2006 Biennial Convention in Las Vegas. He was elected director of safety and health by acclamation in 2010 during the 67th Biennial Convention in Anaheim. In 2014, Peralta was reelected by acclamation at the 69th Biennial Convention in Philadelphia. He was elected again by mail balloting of NALC members in 2018.
“From the beginning of my involvement with NALC,” Peralta said, “I have worked to learn the contract, learn what our members need, to learn how to put a good grievance file together, to learn how to present grievances through the steps of our procedures and then to learn how to best present our cases in front of arbitrators. My hope through the years has been—and continues to be—to teach these skills to others and to inspire others to get hooked on representing our members like I was inspired by all my union mentors.”
Peralta attended California State University at Fullerton. He has been married to his wife, Gina, for more than 46 years. “I could not have dedicated myself to the demands of representing the membership without her total support,” Peralta said. “She has raised my adult son Michael, my adult daughter Amy—and me.”
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