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How to join the NRLCA and why. · United We Scan

0:34
Hey, welcome to the United, we scan.
0:36
Podcast just a quick. Disclaimer here that any of the
0:39
views and opinions expressed by the individuals are not that of
0:44
the USPS or the NRLCA. This podcast is.
0:48
For entertainment purposes only and if you are in need of any
0:53
assistance, please contact your designated Union representative.
0:58
Thank you. Welcome back everybody.
1:01
Episode 142, take two. If you were the lucky ones
1:06
listening when we recorded in the Discord, then you heard
1:09
everything and well, my recorder did not pick it up.
1:12
So here we are again. We're going to cut it short and
1:15
sweet and a lot less banter than what we originally had.
1:19
Sorry guys, you're not going to get all the fun talk.
1:22
So on that note, Josh, your last couple weeks, how's it been?
1:25
Real quick. Real quick, it's been OK.
1:29
This week has been 10:50 plus hour each day and one of the
1:35
days I ended up getting called back in for a mail for a closed
1:40
business after they would after hours which was what added an
1:45
hour to my day. Like I said, other than that
1:48
it's been OK. It's been Christmas meow.
1:52
How was your week? The last two weeks have been
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pretty chaotic. I wouldn't say that it's been
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the worst Christmas ever, but it's been pretty heavy.
2:04
Last week I worked about like 55.3 hours and then this last
2:09
week I worked 60 hours. So my brain and my bandwidth are
2:16
are pretty well shot and but we're we're in this home stretch
2:20
and we're going to finish strong over the next few days at least.
2:24
So how has your last two weeks been, Kristen?
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Well, my son visited, which was great.
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My youngest daughter's here right now, which is awesome.
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And work in between has been absolutely crazy chaotic.
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He's about just my Monday through Friday.
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I haven't been working my K day, so I've been still doing 51 1/2
2:45
hours each. It's been, yeah, it's been
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crazy. But like I said, just a few more
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days. Just a few more days.
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Y'all Thursday off. Yes.
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So tonight we're going to talk on how to join the union and a
3:00
little bit of why we feel it's a good thing to be in the Union.
3:04
And then we're going to go over leave versus union leave and all
3:08
that good stuff. So take it away guys.
3:11
So I'm going to kind of briefly talk about why it pays to become
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a union member. And across the country right
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now, there's been a lot of like union busting going on.
3:24
And we're pretty fortunate that we have the ability to join a
3:29
union and that the Postal Service has, you know, multiple
3:33
different entities of of different unions.
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But so Wyatt pays to belong to the NRLCA.
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The NRLCA has an effective legislative program in Congress
3:47
and they help to protect the interests of rural carriers
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across the entire country. And they will post updates about
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some of those things that are going on on their union website.
4:01
More recently, they were given some specific updates about the
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government shutdown and you know, they might have, there
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might be different bills that could affect us as rural
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carriers and they and they help give us an update about that.
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The NRLCA holds exclusive recognition to represent the
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rule carrier craft with the United States Postal Service and
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the NRLCA negotiates all labor agreements for the rule carrier
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craft with the USPS, including wages, benefits and working
4:33
conditions. And a big portion of this is
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that the NRLCA was a part of why we have the Poster
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Reorganization Act of 1970 and that ability for us to
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collectively bargain with the Postal Service.
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The NRLCA has been around since the early 1900s.
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And I know like Kristen is, and I have kind of talked a little
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bit about doing, you know, like a history of the NRLCA that we
5:05
can do at a future date. But so there's a lot of history
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that's and and good benefits that have come to rule carriers
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because of the NRLCA. The NRLCA as the only one who
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can represent members of the rule craft in the grievance
5:24
procedures and they also it includes providing protection
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and disciplinary actions. So if you have an investigative
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interview or some people call it the PDI pre disciplinary
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interview, your union steward is a NRLCA member and they're
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appointed by them to come in and and be in there for that.
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The NRLCA has an excellent health insurance program, the
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Rule Carrier Benefit Plan and that's what we had talked about
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here recently because we were in open season and if you are not
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an NRLCA member you cannot sign up for that plan.
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The NRLCA offers other than health programs, some additional
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insurance programs, dental available to all members, vision
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available to all members, life for regular and PTF carriers
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only and then long term disability for regular and PTF
6:25
carriers only. The NRLC also offers a rule
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carrier auto insurance plan and homeowners insurance and it'll
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be like state specific. The NRLCA provides a monthly
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publication called the National Rule Letter Carrier Magazine to
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keep its members informed on postal and legislative matters
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of vital interests. And then a lot of the different
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state charters, they also have their own monthly newspaper that
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you'll receive for being a member.
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The NRLCA provides information and fellowship for its members
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at county, district and state and national business meetings
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and at informational meetings where all members may
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participate in the democratic process of developing NRLCA
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policy. So voting on our constitution,
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bylaws of our organization, you know, I wouldn't have been able
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to meet, you know, Kristen and and Josh on here without, you
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know, having that fellowship and camaraderie within the union.
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There's, you know, there's people across the entire country
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that I would never have had the opportunity to meet without this
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union. And despite any frustrations and
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stuff, and there's differences that other people have and, and
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what not, but I, I just, I'm so incredibly grateful that I've
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gotten to meet people across the entire country and know that
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you're not alone. And you, you know, you can hear
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the different experiences from different rule carriers and
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different offices. And I just, I, I love it.
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The NRLCA provides an official website for its members at
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www.nrlca.org and it includes accurate, up to date information
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that affects your jobs, your wages and the changing
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environment in the at the Postal Service.
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And only NRLCA members can access the full entire website.
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They also have an app and it's available on the Google Play
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Store and the Apple, Apple Store and it's free to download, but
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you can only access all of the rest of it if unless you're a
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union member. They also will do like push
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notification. So if something new has come up,
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like most recently this last week, there was a change in EMA
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and they did a push notification and you were, it was pretty easy
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to access it and, and have the most up to date information.
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So there's still a lot of union members too.
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I'm just going to add this. There's, there's a lot of union
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members that still do not have that app And I, I just will
9:17
scream it from the rooftops like it is, I'm on that app and the
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weather, the website, it's the same as the website.
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I'm on there every single day and there's so many questions
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that you may have that can just be easily answered just
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searching on that website. I wish it was a little bit more
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user friendly, but I've kind of over the years figured out
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different ways to to access different things, especially in
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that steward reference guide. So because of the union, no role
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carrier could be involuntarily reassigned to another craft or
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job in the Postal Service. Most importantly, because of
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this union, no employee from another craft can be assigned
10:00
into the rule craft. We are protected from that by
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the contract that was negotiated by the NRLCA.
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So let's say that they demoted a manager, they can't put them in
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the world craft and the union is has fought hard to protect that
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for us. Without the union, any one of us
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could be subject to being laid off.
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There would be no consideration of our seniority or rebidding
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the routes when an encumbered route was eliminated.
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If your route was gone, you would be too.
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And I think that's really important to note right now,
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especially in the political climate that's been going on, is
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that the union really has, they've embedded the no layoff
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clause in to our contract. And so career employees are
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protected in there. Without the union, any one of us
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could be reassigned to another craft or job anywhere in the
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Postal Service and displaced employees from other crafts
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could be reassigned as rule carriers, taking future jobs
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away from our own RCA's. So, you know, a lot of the RCA's
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have put in their years and time and that would be like ripped
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away from them. Only members of the NRLCA are
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allowed to vote on officers of the union or hold office in the
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union. So if you don't like the people
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that are making these decisions, you will would not have the
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opportunity to change who they are or vote for them if you are
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not a union member. And then only members of the
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NRLCA can become union stewards. So, you know, even if you're a
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rule carrier in a one rule route office, you know, it's you can
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become a union member and become a steward and you can be your
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steward for your office. We don't have enough union
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stewards. And you know, if, if this is
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something that's like speaking to you and you're wanting to
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help your fellow Co workers, I would encourage you to join the
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union and especially become a steward.
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Now that's not a prerequisite for you joining the union.
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There's plenty of union members that aren't stewards obviously,
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but that's a main. That's one of the main reasons a
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lot of people outside of the Academy join the union.
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Only active members, active craft members of the NRLCA can
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vote on proposed new contracts with the USPS.
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So this last back in June and and May of this last year, we
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had a contract ratification and only about 18,000 people voted
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on it. And that is like the number one
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benefit that you have as a member to voice like you, that
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you're to know that your voice matters in those circumstances.
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And it was just it was a low turn out, which was really
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disappointing. But I hope that the next one and
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encouraging people to join and reminding them that this is a
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benefit that you have in being a member of the NRLCA.
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Only members of the NRLCA have access to union provided
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assistance with workers compensation claims.
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They have a union employee that's a AOWCP specialist that
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you will have access to in becoming a, a union member.
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So if a lot of this information speaks to you, I would, I would
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encourage you to go on to the union website, whichisnrlca.org.
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And on the very front page of the website, it says there's
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like a, you'll Scroll down and it'll say, oh, where did it go?
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Oh my goodness, it'll say quick links and it says how to become
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an NRLCA member. Now a lot of the people that
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join the union are typically joining it at the Academy as an
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RCA. And I know personally, like I
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was on the fence and I had no idea.
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And I, I'm so glad I joined and that I've been a part of this
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for, for as long as I have been like, since I've, since I was on
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RCAI mean like there's, there's so many experiences and people
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that I've met, but a lot of people who are just working
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think it's too much work or they don't understand the steps that
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you need to take to become a member.
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And I would encourage you, you know, if you have a union, you
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were to reach out to them, but also this is another source for
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you. So you go on to thenrlca.org and
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then Scroll down and it says how to become an NRLCA member.
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And so to be able to join the NRLCA, you must be first be
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employed by the USPS and work in the rule carrier craft as a
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regular substitute RCRRCA or ARC.
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If you have any questions concerning the appropriate
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membership dues rate, please consult the dues chart.
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And so if you are on the website, there is like a whole
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chart and it specifies it. It's specific to which if you're
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PTF, if you're regular or an RCA or an ARC or if you're a retiree
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and it'll have the dues. Typically right now the the
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lowest dues, sorry, the average dues in the entire country are
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$840.19 a year or $32.32 a check.
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And for RCASI, think it's about where did it just go?
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It's about like $8.50 a check or I think it's like $296 a year
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and that's the average. But you'll, you'll have to look
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at that chart and it'll, it breaks it down by state us a
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little bit more specific. So then after that you're going
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to go down to step three. It says if you have specific
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questions about the membership in the NRLCAA list of the
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appropriate state secretaries is available by clicking here.
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And so then you can click on there and you can choose which
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state you're in and each of the State secretary treasurers are
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listed on there and it'll have their address and their phone
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number. And I would just get a pen and
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paper or screenshot it and save that information for yourself so
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that you have it 'cause you're going to need it.
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And then Step 4 is you may then complete the NRLCA Form 1187 and
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the it's APS Form 1187. It's a the dues deduction and
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it's authorizing the post office to, to take the dues out of your
17:00
paycheck. You'll need your Social Security
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number, your employee ID number, and then it'll last like your
17:06
basic information, your mailing address, it'll ask your postal
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installation and the zip code of your installation.
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And then it'll also ask for your installation finance number.
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Now your installation finance number is on your PS44240 trip
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sheet. That's like probably the easiest
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place for you to find it or it's on your pay stub or it's on your
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form 50 or you can even ask your manager.
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They use some of them have it memorized.
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So, and that's where you'll, you'll get that information and
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then after that, then you're going to print the form, fill in
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the blanks and mail it to your state secretary of the state
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where you work. And so that's why you wrote down
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that information for your state secretary and then you'll mail
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it in to them. And then don't forget your stamp
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and put your, your information on there.
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And then after your completed form is received and processed,
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you will receive your official membership card and all your
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benefits of membership begin. And then congratulations on
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becoming a member of your union. And I just want to like
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emphasize that because the union isn't one person.
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It is thousands of people coming together to better the rule
18:27
craft. And it doesn't just take one
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person. And there's going to be, you
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know, a lot of the time it's small steps in a better
18:36
direction and there may be some frustration, but it honestly
18:41
takes every single person to make the union what it is.
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And you know, it's there's regardless of if you're a union
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member of the union still has to represent you and but you just
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won't have any say in the inner function of the union.
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So that's why it's it's really important to join.
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The other thing too is if you want and it this might be a
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little bit easier for you is that some people have like the
19:12
union recruitment book and on the back of that book has like a
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1187 form for you to fill out. And you can just mail it in and
19:21
that'll go to the national office and then you'll become a,
19:25
a dues paying member that way. Another thing that we briefly
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talked about earlier too, is that some people are a union
19:34
member and they've moved and they aren't getting their
19:37
newspapers or or magazine. Please make sure that you
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contact your state secretary and that you've given her or them
19:46
the most up to date address that you have so that you're insured
19:52
to be getting everything that you should be getting in the
19:56
mail. Same thing with the Postal
19:57
Service. I mean, you can go on, you have
20:00
to go on to light blue and then I think it's under, I think it
20:04
has like a change of address tab on there.
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So just make sure because we've had, I don't know, I'm in the in
20:11
that if you have an apartment, you put the apartment number
20:14
because I've had a bunch of those right now, but you
20:16
insufficient addresses at Christmas time.
20:19
And somebody also suggested that you could actually even make a
20:23
copy of the 1187 for yourself if you really want.
20:27
As well. So I think that's all of it,
20:30
right? Google search it.
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PS Form 1187. I believe so.
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PS Porn, yeah, but if you go on to the union website, at least
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you can get the secretary, treasurer information with it.
20:42
Well, this is true. Yeah, you can Google it, but it
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brings up. Yeah.
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So that's said, you could and print out the form OK.
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Yeah, you can. You can Google it but it's just
20:53
easier on the union website nrlca.org.
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And that's the biggest thing, and I know I preach in that far
20:59
being a member. I mean, the smallest thing that
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you can do is the easiest and that's vote, whether that's
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voting for ratification on a contract, which I, you know, I
21:09
preach at everyday, that's your choice to vote yes or no.
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But please vote, you know, and then you can vote your local
21:19
officers at a local meeting. You can vote in your state
21:22
officers, you can vote, you know, we put your name in a hat
21:25
to become a delegate. You can vote for your delegates.
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You know, that's, that's where the the stops, the easiest ones
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are, is just voting for the things that you can vote on.
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You know voting in delegates and go into the different
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conferences and conventions as a member or I should say you
21:45
member to attend most of these events.
21:49
Yes. And which means that you need to
21:52
take leave to get off, you need to submit for leave to take it
21:56
to get off of work. I wanted to quickly go over
21:59
leave Article 10, which is our leave, you know, the ability to
22:05
take leave and then Article 24, which specifically talks about
22:09
using leave for union business or events.
22:14
OK, And I do address this is going to be pretty much all
22:18
reading Article 10 leave Section 1 leave funding.
22:22
The employer should continue funding the leave program so as
22:26
to continue the current leave earning level or the duration of
22:30
this agreement, which means that you're going to earn annual
22:35
leave at whatever increment you know from the day you go regular
22:38
to three years. Three years to 15 years is with
22:42
the 1320 or 26 days a year, meaning you earn 4-6 or eight
22:48
hours of paycheck. Section two annual leave a
22:52
minimum units and availability of leave replacement.
22:56
Regular rural carriers shall be granted annual leave in minimum
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units of one day, which means when you submit for the raft,
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when you submit leave, it's all or nothing for the day.
23:08
Units of one day. Rural carriers should be granted
23:11
annual leave in accordance with their personal wishes, provided
23:17
a leave replacement is available.
23:18
It should be the responsibility of each rural carrier to plan
23:22
annual leave at times when a leave replacement is available.
23:25
If a leave replacement is committed to serve another
23:29
regular rural route, a vacant route or a route where the
23:33
regular rural carrier is offended leave as approved leave
23:37
or is in the first four weeks of assignment in the office.
23:42
Such sleeve replacement a regular rural carrier should not
23:47
be unreasonably denied annual equally replacement assignment
23:52
to an auxiliary route, which means that we can request leave
23:56
at our leisure at our you know, when we put you know, we can put
23:59
in for leave. And as long as there is a leave
24:02
replacement available, they there's no reason for them to be
24:06
able to deny it. And the part I didn't catch on
24:08
this is with the 72 hours to three three days for them to I
24:15
it says approve or deny. I say deny the leave because
24:18
after this three days are up, it's automatically approved.
24:21
If they didn't get it back to you right now.
24:23
Moving on to Article 24, Employees on leave with regard
24:27
to Union business. Section 1 Continuation of
24:30
benefits. Any employee on leave without
24:33
pay to devote full or part time service to the Union shall be
24:38
credited with step increases as if the employee had been in a
24:43
pay status. Retirement benefits will accrue
24:47
on the basis of the employee step so attained.
24:51
Provide the employee makes contributions to the retirement
24:54
fund in accordance with current procedure.
24:57
Annual and sick leave will be earned in accordance with
25:00
existing procedures based on hours work.
25:03
Section 1 is anyone that does long term union business, State
25:10
national board members, they anyone in the national Stewart
25:15
System area stewards, ADR's, DR's whether they be full time
25:20
or part time when they are off of work off of their route for
25:26
union business. This covers them so that they
25:29
can use leave without pay to cover that time.
25:33
Section 2 Leave for union conventions and this is the part
25:36
that we were I wanted to get into.
25:38
Employees will be granted annual leave or leave without pay at
25:42
the election of the employee to attend national, state and area
25:47
union conventions and OR and. This part was added the and or
25:52
conferences, provided that a request for leave has been
25:56
submitted to the employee, are paid by the employee to the
26:01
installation head as soon as practical and provided that
26:05
approval of such leave does not seriously adversely affect the
26:10
service needs of the installation.
26:14
Which means that you can choose if you want to get use annual
26:18
leave or leave without pay to go to these conventions and
26:22
conferences at your choice and that they need to reasonably
26:28
make every effort to let you off Section 3 leave a replacement.
26:33
In the event a leave replacement is not available on a rural
26:37
route, the insulation head will make every reasonable effort to
26:43
secure a leave replacement. Which is what I was just
26:45
starting to say that it will do everything within their humanly
26:50
possible to get someone to cover you to allow you to be off.
26:54
I know I've heard people in the past say, well, you're, you're
26:58
going to the convention, you're a delegate, they have to let you
27:01
off. They don't.
27:02
If they cannot find a replacement, they can deny the
27:05
lead, but it's this says that they have to do everything
27:09
within their power to find someone to cover your route.
27:13
Was there anything that you either of you think I missed or
27:16
wanted to add into that? Yeah, I mean the, so the a lot
27:20
of the future dates for the area conferences and the National
27:24
Convention are all posted on the nrlca.org website.
27:29
On the front page there's an area conferences tab and the the
27:34
future dates for the area conferences for SAC South Area
27:39
Conference is January 24th through 26th.
27:43
SWAC, the Southwest Area Conference is February 13th
27:47
through 15th, the Eastern States Conference is March 20th through
27:51
22nd and the Western States Conference is 15th through 17th
27:55
and the Mid States conference is May 1st through 3rd.
27:59
And the National Convention, sorry, I'm trying to get back to
28:03
it for this next year is in Grapevine, TX and it's August
28:09
18th through 21st. And then it has all, it has
28:13
20272028 and 2029 future dates. So if if you're interested in
28:20
going to these union events, you have the ability to put your
28:26
leave in in advance because it's already scheduled and you're
28:31
giving management enough notice to cover and management can, you
28:38
know, even pull Subs from other offices if need be.
28:42
There's a lot of different things that they can do to plan
28:47
for those events so that you have the ability to go.
28:51
And typically the the conferences and conventions are
28:55
right about the same time every year.
28:58
The local and your state meetings.
29:01
The state meetings will be listed in your state newsletter
29:05
or if your state has a website and they will also typically
29:09
post like you're more localized if you're, if you're a county or
29:14
district meetings as well. And if there's informational
29:17
meetings, you know, I know, you know, this last year we had in,
29:23
granted, we aren't going to have in person anymore, but we had
29:27
like the ratification meetings, you know, there's different
29:32
things like that that management should be trying to help you go
29:39
to these things. Right.
29:41
And with the local or, you know, unit, county unit or district
29:47
meetings, especially the spring meet, the spring meeting, which
29:51
is your business meeting where you elect your officers and your
29:55
delegates to go to the state convention labor laws.
29:59
State. Not every state does.
30:00
That labor laws, labor states that you have to have the notice
30:06
postmarked at least 15 days prior and that, you know, you
30:12
have to mention that there are going to be elections being
30:16
held. Yeah.
30:17
And sorry, I didn't mean to like cut you off there either.
30:20
Yeah, I mean, not every single state does functions in that
30:23
way, but they they are labor law and it they are supposed to
30:29
notify you 15 days in advance of of those meeting dates.
30:34
So. Hopefully the soon.
30:36
A lot of them try and plan for the future and so a lot of those
30:40
dates are usually listed on their websites or their
30:43
newsletters. Kristen, do you have anything
30:45
you want to add to that or? Not that I can think of, pretty
30:51
much covered it. Hello.
30:54
I know I'm trying to think hello.
30:58
Well like one of the comments that says when you when you fill
31:02
out the PS1187 make and keep a copy of it for yourself just in
31:07
case something happens and it has to be resubmitted.
31:09
Yeah, I I mentioned that. Where you don't.
31:12
All right, we're ready to wrap it up.
31:15
I know, I'm sorry. I saw, I saw this.
31:17
I saw this comment on there earlier.
31:20
Yes, guys, thank you for sticking around so we don't have
31:23
to try and do this later this week.
31:28
Yeah, I don't know if that's. Always happens.
31:31
I'll wait for yeah. Hey, my mic worked for two
31:35
episodes tonight so I'll wait for Meow to mute herself to do
31:43
my outro. Oh, for me to go.
31:47
Yeah. Go ahead, Josh, your final words
31:51
for. This we are in the final week,
31:54
we are in the final stretch here tomorrow, Monday.
31:59
The last Monday or or Christmas is typically the busiest
32:06
delivery day of the year. Or unlike baseball, where there
32:09
is no crying, crying is allowed in the post office.
32:13
So if and when you get overwhelmed tomorrow, take a
32:18
step back, take a deep breath, two or three if you need to, and
32:22
then step back in. Be safe, hydrate, and we'll
32:25
catch you next time meow. Well, thank you guys.
32:29
I know I'm a little, I'm slop happy over here, tired and I'm
32:34
I'm ready for this Christmas season to be wrapped up and
32:37
done. I'm ready for 2025 to be, to be
32:42
done. It's been a year, but thank you
32:46
guys. I, I hope that this helped some
32:48
people. I know we're, like we said,
32:51
we're in the last crazy stretch of, of everything going on.
32:56
And I know that there's been not so fun weather across the
33:02
country. So just make sure that you're
33:05
prepared for that just in case, you know, you never know what's
33:09
going to happen. And I, I know this last week I,
33:13
I wasn't drinking enough water and was getting real grouchy and
33:18
then not feeling too great. And then I drink some water and
33:21
went, oh, I should have been drinking water all along.
33:24
So I need to heed my own advice. But in this next week, I mean, I
33:29
know that the holidays can bring up a lot of different feelings
33:34
for people. And you know, when you're
33:38
getting, you're freaking out because you got, you know, 300
33:41
parcels sitting in front of you. Don't be afraid to call EAP if
33:46
you got if you really need to. And the phone number for EAP is
33:52
1800 EAP for you. It is also, Oh my gosh, I just
33:57
had it. It's 1-800-327-4968.
34:04
And seriously, there's no shame in it.
34:06
It's, it's a source for you and anybody that lives in your
34:10
household if you need, if you need it.
34:12
I know not everybody celebrates Christmas.
34:15
Some people celebrate Hanukkah or you don't celebrate anything.
34:19
And you know, you just, it's just that time of year for you.
34:22
And we're still sending you some well wishes and we'll get
34:28
through this next week. And Yep, the Festivus.
34:32
Happy. You.
34:33
It's Festivus for the rest of us.
34:36
I mean, what is it? Today's the first day of winter,
34:39
isn't it? You winter solstice but longest
34:43
night. Of the year.
34:46
And then we start getting that, so we start getting longer days
34:51
again. Yep, we get more light starting
34:54
tomorrow. Yep, gradually.
34:56
So it'll be good for that Monday, so, but all right, well,
35:03
you guys all have a good holiday and I'll, I'll turn it over to
35:06
you, Kristen. Thank you guys.
35:08
Thank you guys yes, this is the final stretch.
35:13
We we we've all made it as much as we've probably have cursed it
35:16
cried and and whatnot. We we're just about there.
35:20
That light is starting to shine brighter at the end of this
35:23
tunnel, that's for sure. So on that note, guys, please
35:27
stay safe this week. Those that are getting the
35:30
weather. I I've been dealing with all
35:32
sorts of weather last two weeks and working 12 hour Mondays.
35:37
So I'm expecting the same tomorrow.
35:39
So yes, please stay hydrated. I too have to remember to take
35:44
extra water with me. That is definitely important
35:46
even in this time of year, that cold, drier air really does a
35:50
number on you with your hydration.
35:52
So stay safe everybody. Have happy holidays and Merry
35:57
Christmas from all of us to you. And we may be back next week.
36:03
We'll see what's going on. So take care everybody and have
36:06
a Merry Christmas.