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Back To Basics · United We Scan

• 0:15
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:20
  carriers. For rural carriers, the views
• 0:23
  expressed in this podcast do not reflect the views or opinions of
• 0:27
  the United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
• 0:30
  Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
• 0:34
  your assigned union representative for guidance in
• 0:37
  your local area. Make sure you like this podcast,
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  Please rate this podcast five stars where applicable, and
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  leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:55
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:59
  United We Scan Podcast. A reminder to our audience, the
• 1:04
  views on this podcast are of the presenters and the presenters
• 1:07
  only, and any views expressed do not do not reflect the views,
• 1:12
  opinions, or strategies of the United States Postal Service or
• 1:15
  the National World Letter Carriers Association.
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  Especially anything that comes out of Bill's mouth or mine.
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  Or Kristen's. Or Josh's.
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  I I was told I have a towel. You can tell I'm lying when my
• 1:28
  lips start moving. All right.
• 1:30
  Welcome back, everybody. Episode 45.
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  We're going back to the basics. Tonight I am sounding a little
• 1:40
  bit more perky. Well, yes.
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  Yes, I am. I had a decent week.
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  I only worked one route all week with the exception of Saturday.
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  So that was nice. It was actually really weird
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  being home before 4:00 a few days.
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  Under eval every day. Even yesterday with the box, our
• 1:58
  advos showed up yesterday instead of Tuesday.
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  So I was like, yeah, I'm just going to deliver them.
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  So I was about 3 minutes under evaluation.
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  So hey, it works. How was your week, Josh?
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  It was a week still. Trucking at it.
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  I have that new sub is coming in in the morning and working with
• 2:29
  me in the case and then they send her elsewhere to do
• 2:33
  whatever. So at least she's getting case
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  some casing time and getting used to it.
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  Hopefully she'll it'll make her proficient and they'll get off
• 2:44
  her ass at some point. Maybe I was just realizing
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  looking. Back at my last, this very last
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  pay stub that I have 8127 time, like four or five of them
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  feeding back to June that haven't been processed yet.
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  So I have to have that heart to heart with the supervisor
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  tomorrow, and if she tells me she'll get to it.
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  When she gets to it, I'll ask her for an 8191, so hopefully
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  that'll speed her up. What's an 8191?
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  Grievance. Form.
• 3:21
  Oh, I'm not familiar with those. Yeah, it's supposed.
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  It's supposedly the thing that you always tell us to use when
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  you say file, file, file, and then file some more.
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  Oh, why didn't you just say grievance form?
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  I I'm new here. I I don't know what an 8191 is.
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  Yeah, Josh, you would have to go back to basics here.
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  Thank you. That's right.
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  I I forgot we were doing that, yes.
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  And the 8191 is the rule carrier grievance form, not the 8190
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  which is the city carrier grievance form.
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  And not to be confused with whatever the clerks use for
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  grievance form. Yeah, I have no clue the APWU
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  form or the mail handlers form. Mm hmm.
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  We are rural, We talk rural. Rural is the PS Form 8191
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  Grievance Form. All right.
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  Anything else to add on for your week, Josh?
• 4:26
  No, no. Oh, I forgot still.
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  Don't have my truck back and they seem to be in no rush to
• 4:35
  want to call the VMF to inquire about it, so.
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  I got to write mine up for breaks.
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  Oh, oh oh, some some news. My route went up forbid on the
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  17th. Yup.
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  Yup. Yup, Yup, Yup, the route finally
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  went up. Forbid.
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  In fact she announced it was probably going to be at the 17th
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  the week prior. So the morning of the 17th I'm
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  waiting on them to finish sorting letters or whatever, cuz
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  you know, we're short clerks. But so I walk over and I was
• 5:05
  like, hey, it's to the supervisor cuz the postmaster
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  was on vacation for a few days. And I said it's posted, I just
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  bid. And of course she announced it
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  when I was out loading the truck.
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  But yes. So she actually did post the
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  hard copy like she's supposed to.
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  Yes. Yes, it is hung up on the
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  bulletin board. Yes, it is up there, all right.
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  We just want to make sure because all it takes is, even
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  though they're not going to bid on it, someone else saying, hey,
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  it wasn't posted. Yeah, nobody really cares in my
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  office. Trust me.
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  But why? Nobody wants this route and
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  honestly, it's not my first choice of routes, but you know,
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  I'll take it because, yeah, I don't.
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  I'll I'll tell you what what you know.
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  One of my supervisors when I first started, used to always
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  say go regular, then find your home.
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  You know, and this route could end up being my home.
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  I don't know. You know, I I don't mind the
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  route. It is the second heaviest route
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  in the office. It's, you know, it's not a.
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  AD route, it's just it's heavier.
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  Like I said, it's the second heaviest in the office.
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  It has its days. There's days I can knock it out
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  and be done. It's a it's a 45K.
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  There's days where I can be done by 2:00 and then there's days
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  where I'm rolling in at 7:00. It's just you know how it is.
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  I mean on an average day, not a Monday or a day after holiday, I
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  average between 105 to 100 and. 50 parcels a day after a holiday
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  or a Monday. You know it's 200 plus, but.
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  I don't even count them. You know.
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  Even look, I just know I have a a fuck ton.
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  Right, right. It's, you know, it's.
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  And that that is a technical measurement.
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  Yes, it is. There was something else I was
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  gonna say. Oh, I got my daughter for the
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  weekend. My, my one that lives two hours
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  away. She Yeah, Yesterday was her 13th
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  birthday. Thursday was Ruby's birthday as
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  the the troublemaker. She turned 17 Thursday.
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  Sophia turned 13 Saturday and my parents came up today.
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  This is the first time that they've been up north, I think
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  since early spring. Dad was feeling good, the
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  weather was nice, so they came up to see the girls grilled out
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  for dinner Today. That made my daughter's birthday
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  cake. Yeah, it was.
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  It's it was like I said I wasn't dead ass tired from working
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  55.88 hours with a holiday in there.
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  They said. That sounds like my wife and her
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  sister, except your kids have a couple more years between them.
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  They are two years, two days apart.
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  Four years, two days apart. But now, my kids.
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  And my son put his leave in. He got his plane tickets for
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  December and submitted his leave.
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  So we're just waiting to see if it gets approved.
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  So I may have all three of my kids home for Christmas this
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  year. Yay, my son's leave.
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  It gets approved. I'm taking him to a concert at
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  the machine shop in Flint on the 16th of December because I said,
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  hey, if you're going to be home, you're going with me.
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  And yeah, so. There is a little bit more pep
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  in my step right now. Tell me about concerts you never
• 8:37
  replied to my on whether or not you wanted to come visit.
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  I don't think I mentioned. It let me see where you at on my
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  list. I don't know.
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  I have to take her to find you. I got to re login.
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  I had to change my password on Facebook.
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  Where is Josh Josh. Look for the cat.
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  That was the 11th. I don't.
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  I'm not seeing anything. Oh, the Halloween.
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  Mad monster oh. I didn't even look at it.
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  Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't even get a.
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  Chance to go to look at that. That would explain that.
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  James, how was your week? Oh, the normal.
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  There wasn't anything big or exciting to talk about.
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  I did actually file on my route coverage percentage as part of
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  my disputes. And yeah, because my supervisor
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  pulled up that infamous NDI report.
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  And absolutely none of them were below 10%.
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  They were they were all between 0 and 9% on average and my route
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  coverage was 90% and my previous evaluation my route coverage was
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  98%. So there is no way my route
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  coverage could have gone down to 90% if my previous was 98 and
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  concurrent route coverages were above 90%.
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  So I filed a dispute on that. I'm only 5 minutes away from
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  being a 42K so I filed on that specifically.
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  I didn't didn't wasn't able to go over everything on the sheet
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  and and calculate everything with all the other stuff I've
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  been doing recently. But that was a big one, and I
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  think if they raised it up to 9598% like it was, I could be
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  back at 442 K and then I'd have to gain another hour on top of
• 11:00
  that. And my route just doesn't have
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  that. But other than that, we have a
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  temporary OIC in our office is another Postmaster.
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  He's an awesome guy filling in for our postmaster while she's
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  off. But we all get along really well
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  in the office, so I'm happy with that.
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  And I mean other than finding out that a person is getting
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  terminated from the Postal Service for attendance with a
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  local steward who didn't take good care and and the process
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  and making sure that everything was filled out properly,
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  misquoted in specific documents. So it's going to be a tough Rd.
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  for them to to fight this letter of removal, but it's winnable as
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  long as as long as the right people get involved and get
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  involved. Now they need to be contacted
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  religiously daily until they get a hold of them getting up all
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  the way up to the district Rep, the NRO for them, All the way up
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  to if they have to, the Director of Stewart Operations, Director
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  of Labor Relations, or even the President of the union.
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  Because this is a major issue that needs to be resolved.
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  And there's so many flaws in the paperwork, obvious flaws that
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  they could easily get this thrown out because I've seen the
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  paperwork, but they have to do the proper chain of command
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  through the union through their designated junior
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  representatives, as high up as they need to go.
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  But other than that Good weekend ended up going to a cider mill
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  today, having some hot apple cider because it was 45 degrees
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  outside. And I know, I know, some people
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  in Alaska are like 45. That's shorts of T-shirt weather
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  I grilled. Out in my shorts and T-shirt,
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  Barefoot this year? Yeah, but it's nice to have that
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  little bit of warmth while you're waiting for the next heat
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  wave to come through before winter actually sets in.
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  Keep the body from overheating when that 7580 degrees comes
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  once more before the snow starts flying.
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  Yep. Hey, Bill, how's it going?
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  Nice to have you back. Oh well, it's nice to be back.
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  So anyway, yes, I'm back. Wonderful Week told the
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  supervisor on Wednesday as well. I asked her.
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  I said, Would you like me to come in on Saturday since you're
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  going to be short 2 routes? And she says, no, we only have
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  one route down. I said you have two routes down
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  because RD1 won't be in Penn State's playing Ohio State at
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  noon time. How do you know that?
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  I said I don't know, two years of experience during football
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  season. So you know, nevertheless, you
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  know, she ignored it. So of course I came in Saturday
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  to help out and Rd. one called out RD2 was left vacant.
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  And an RD14 went home with a fever 3 vacant route.
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  So the supervisor we had on duty Saturday morning is not familiar
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  that familiar with the rural carriers and says, well what are
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  we going to do? I says I'm going to work my
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  route since I'm on my drop day I'm not allowed to work any
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  other overtime. Well, well, we we can adjust it
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  to Monday, I says. We don't falsify government
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  documents. Anyway, they actually did get
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  lucky and one person came in a little late, took care of 1
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  route, so they only had two routes down.
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  Then a regular carrier who used to be a super sub came around
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  and asked everybody you know who's going to help out.
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  And I'll said, I said I'll take the back end of Vardy 22, and
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  then she looked at me, she goes, but that's your route.
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  I said it's covered. And then, you know, our
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  postmaster gone now. So we're we're in limbo as
• 15:20
  regard to who's actually running the show there, which is funny
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  because that's the same thing. We wondered when he was there
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  who was running the show. But we have a little glass
• 15:30
  office. It's got a big pane of glass and
• 15:34
  you can see right into this office area.
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  There's a knocker in there with tubs and tubs of mail that they
• 15:40
  found thrown into a dumpster. On a city route.
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  Ouch OIG. Will be in Monday morning 0.
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  I'm sure. And I'm sitting there just
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  going, you know, I'm going to love how they try to explain who
• 15:55
  was on what route, throwing this stuff out at any given time.
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  Because they they split up the city routes every Dang day.
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  So, you know, you're either going to fire one person or six.
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  They'll know, yeah, they'll find out who it is.
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  They're very good at that stuff. Oh, they are.
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  But, you know, management couldn't give them, you know, a
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  clue what's the weather about it.
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  But, you know, that's it was a a a moderate day on Saturday.
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  I did, I did get in, get home in time to see my grandson and the
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  weather's been brisk and nice here.
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  I love it, you know, 4550 degrees, you know, you're you're
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  talking my kind of temperatures there, so loving life, living
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  large and stirring the pot. That's what I do.
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  Oh. Yeah.
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  Oh yeah, me too. It's been an interesting time.
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  We have Our five had put in, had leave approved for next week,
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  Tuesday through Saturday, and then our wonderful Princess
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  wanted Wednesday off. And then this became a whole
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  thing with the supervisor. Asking our five if he would work
• 17:10
  Wednesday. He's like, no, I'm a have
• 17:12
  approved leave and I'm not working well.
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  We don't have anybody to cover and he's like I have approved
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  Why should I have to come in so she can have a day off and the
• 17:23
  supervisor's like, well if I have to run that route you're
• 17:28
  going to have a must to come back to on Monday.
• 17:30
  He's like this was Wednesday. He said, you know, if something
• 17:34
  like that happened, I said. Your approved leave.
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  Don't worry about it. Enjoy your time off.
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  Let them deal with it. So now Princess has her Monday,
• 17:44
  K day Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off as well.
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  The must be they found yet somebody else to cover her up.
• 17:51
  Because I know our our, our good friend Rattlesnake, that who's
• 17:55
  listening in will be covering our five next week.
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  Oh, I know what I was going to get down to because we've got 3
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  borrowed Rcas that have been helping us out in the last
• 18:06
  couple weeks. One like, yeah, I won't talk
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  about him. Rattlesnake is awesome.
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  Love him to death. Shouts out to you all the time,
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  dude. And then we have another one
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  that's been coming in and helping.
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  We're taking the Oxford out so I wouldn't have to run double and
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  kind of helping another a little bit here and there.
• 18:23
  We do have three new Rcas in the pipeline.
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  One was an RCA in a post office, 2 S of us, so two towns South of
• 18:35
  us. He resigned there and he has now
• 18:38
  been hired in for our office. We have another brand new one
• 18:42
  that accepted and just a third one so R4R5 and if you go by the
• 18:48
  length of time that the routes that haven't had a sub R3 which
• 18:54
  will be my route. Should be the next one, but I
• 18:57
  have a feeling she's going to screw me and put that one on
• 18:59
  R11. We will find out.
• 19:01
  So don't they get signed by District I?
• 19:03
  Have no clue, no. OK, that's how they do it here
• 19:07
  in Pennsylvania. District assigns a tool now.
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  As far as I know, my postmasters been the one assigning it.
• 19:13
  Like I said, it could be different and then I think.
• 19:18
  When they first get hired on, HR just throws them in a vacant
• 19:21
  route and then local management can.
• 19:25
  Update the form 50 and change them to where they're actually
• 19:29
  needed. What if there's no vacant route?
• 19:31
  Josh. Now why?
• 19:33
  Is there a position posted? If there's why?
• 19:35
  Yeah, why was there a position posted that they hired for well?
• 19:38
  No, you said a vacant route, all right.
• 19:41
  So hear me this one. So they asked R5 if he would
• 19:46
  train his new sub because this is the one that hasn't been
• 19:51
  trained in the past anywhere. The one going on R4 is the
• 19:54
  rehire. R5 used to be the Oji in the
• 20:00
  office until he stepped down, didn't want to do anymore and
• 20:03
  then I stepped up and took that over.
• 20:06
  He does not want to train this up and of course they went to
• 20:09
  try and guilt trip again saying well we don't have any coverage
• 20:12
  for R3 to pull her to do it. So this could get interesting to
• 20:20
  see how these new, I mean that's why I really hope one of them
• 20:23
  comes to R3 because that's going to be great.
• 20:26
  But going by calendar wise, the earliest that I'll have be
• 20:31
  placed on this route, which is November 4th, but more than
• 20:34
  likely it's going to be November 18th, which by the way for those
• 20:38
  we're going back to basic November 18th is the next
• 20:41
  contractual general wage increase 1.3% for all regulars.
• 20:48
  RCA S are 1.3% + 1% in lieu of cola.
• 20:53
  So you RCA S will go up from 1994 to 2038 effective November
• 20:59
  18th and regular as well. You'll have to look at your pay
• 21:05
  tables because of MPTFS, because of whatever steps and tables
• 21:10
  that you're on. Just putting that out there
• 21:12
  that. And that one point 3% is based
• 21:16
  off of. February of 21 salary.
• 21:24
  So if you have an old pay table, an old pay scale from February
• 21:29
  21 you can look it up at. Look up what you were making,
• 21:34
  then and then add 1.3% and the. Value of the 1.3% to current pay
• 21:41
  scale. Yes, yes.
• 21:43
  Yeah, You're going to take that February 21, OK table, you're
• 21:47
  going to times that by 1.3%, you'll get that total and you
• 21:51
  add that to your current salary. So yeah, so that's where I am at
• 21:58
  on all that. So it's been kind of nice.
• 22:00
  Like I said, I'm a little bit more energetic for a change this
• 22:03
  week, unlike last week, I was just.
• 22:05
  I was dead in the water, guys, you were.
• 22:06
  Dragon I had hit that energy wall Saturday.
• 22:11
  I had worked 10 hours after pulling 55.88 hours with a
• 22:16
  holiday in there. My office does not deliver
• 22:18
  Amazon on holidays or Sundays. I did go in on the holiday to
• 22:22
  case mail. I was there for two hours and 15
• 22:25
  minutes. So yeah, I I had hit that.
• 22:28
  My body was tingling Saturday. I was that tired.
• 22:31
  So I have gotten a little bit more rest since then.
• 22:37
  So yeah, I got a little bit more pep in my step tonight, which, I
• 22:40
  don't know. That could be a good thing,
• 22:41
  could be a bad thing. So like I said, we're going back
• 22:44
  to basics. Where did you wanna start on
• 22:47
  that? James or Josh or whoever wants
• 22:50
  to well. Start on something.
• 22:52
  One of the things one of our listeners had posted her message
• 22:58
  that was posted in one of our chats about X days.
• 23:03
  Yep. Also, I'm just gonna let me,
• 23:06
  yes. I'm going to say how X days, how
• 23:11
  they work up until, before, during and after the guarantee
• 23:16
  period. All right.
• 23:18
  But let me add on tack in real quick because I just got
• 23:20
  reminded in the stage chat that yes, this is the last
• 23:24
  contractual raise for this current contract that expires
• 23:30
  May of 20, May 20th of 2024. This is the last contractual
• 23:36
  raise for Rcas. Those that are in career
• 23:41
  positions may potentially have a COLA come January, February,
• 23:44
  just depending on inflation and all that good stuff.
• 23:47
  So this is the last contractual raise of this contract cycle.
• 23:52
  I want a Coca-Cola, Harry. I have a black cherry burners, a
• 23:57
  black cherry burners next to me and salted caramel crown and
• 24:03
  watermelon schnapps. And the reason why that is
• 24:06
  because in February is when our national leadership goes into
• 24:10
  contract negotiations with postal management.
• 24:14
  City carriers are in their negotiations right now.
• 24:17
  Ours start in February. God help us all.
• 24:22
  Additively start in February. Yes.
• 24:26
  And they can last a year or more.
• 24:30
  Depending on how strong our leadership actually puts their
• 24:33
  foot down towards management on this contract.
• 24:36
  And I'm not holding my breath. I was just going to say I'm not
• 24:39
  holding my breath. And honestly guys, just because
• 24:44
  there's a wage increase in there doesn't mean you have to vote
• 24:47
  that contract in, you know, outweigh the pros and the cons
• 24:52
  when contract gratification comes out.
• 24:54
  But we'll touch on that when that gets closer to that time.
• 24:57
  And yes, X days and the new guarantee year started October
• 25:05
  7th, 8th. 7th, 7th Let me look at the calendar around there.
• 25:11
  Yes, October 7th. When our new evaluations came
• 25:14
  out, yes, October 7th. This is when the new guarantee
• 25:17
  period started. Now if you could explain because
• 25:22
  this kind of falls in line at the time when the new guarantee
• 25:25
  period starts which is technically like a fiscal year.
• 25:30
  But hold on a second and then I'll have you touch on a little
• 25:32
  bit more because as still in RCA I'm aware of it but not quite
• 25:36
  familiar with it enough to explain it.
• 25:40
  And how these weeks from October 7th leading up to Christmas
• 25:46
  overtime period factor in on how your overtime rate works for
• 25:51
  Christmas overtime I will get we'll get to that in a minute it
• 25:55
  real quick. So I'll put this out here with
• 25:57
  with that days with the beginning of the new guarantee
• 26:00
  period. If you're not on the relief day
• 26:02
  work list or if you are on the relief day work list you work
• 26:05
  your relief day and you choose and you get a DACA 3.
• 26:09
  As you guys know if you are on the relief day work list you
• 26:12
  have a choice. You can choose DACA 5 or DACA 3,
• 26:15
  DACA 3 being a 50% pay plus the next day, DACA 5 being the the
• 26:21
  150% pay the overtime. So Deck of 350.
• 26:26
  Percent plus and no days off, No extra time off, just 150% for
• 26:31
  the day so if you earn in it any.
• 26:35
  Go ahead, you're is it just mirrors?
• 26:39
  She row banding. No, it's you because you.
• 26:43
  Yeah. Let her finish, OK?
• 26:46
  OK all. Right.
• 26:47
  I'm gonna hop out and hop back in while she's finishing, All
• 26:50
  right. Deck of Threes, you work your
• 26:53
  relief day and you under a DAC of three, you're going to get
• 26:58
  your 50% pay for the day plus the next day to use.
• 27:01
  But in the beginning of the guarantee period it started
• 27:04
  October 7th and goes through October or excuse me, December
• 27:09
  22nd. This year you have to take that
• 27:12
  X day within the same pay period.
• 27:16
  If you cannot, our management doesn't have the coverage to
• 27:22
  give you that X day in the same pay period.
• 27:27
  Then it will automatically convert to the DACA 5 and pay
• 27:31
  you out at the 150% pay, yes. And any the system.
• 27:36
  Will, Yes. The system will do it.
• 27:38
  The system will. Not let them enter the code 3
• 27:43
  unless there is an X day in in conjunction with it.
• 27:48
  So if you have a Friday relief day and it's week two and you
• 27:53
  have to work that Friday of week two, you only have the choice of
• 27:58
  the five during this these eight week 812 weeks, whatever it is
• 28:03
  from October. 7th No. Any X, any X days that were
• 28:08
  earned prior to the beginning of the guarantee period are then
• 28:12
  banked until the end of the until after Christmas overtime.
• 28:17
  So starting December 23rd you would then be able to use any
• 28:22
  previously banked X days and then it goes back to X days.
• 28:28
  You know you can bank them after that to use it agreed upon at a
• 28:32
  later date. But there is and I'm going to
• 28:35
  let you guys that have been regulars a little bit longer
• 28:37
  explain how the time from the beginning of the new guarantee
• 28:41
  period up to the Christmas overtime period reflects in how
• 28:46
  the overtime that you potentially earn at Christmas
• 28:48
  overtime. I'm going to let you guys take
• 28:50
  that one. I am not.
• 28:53
  That's more Bill, that's more your Forte, please.
• 28:59
  This is the worst I'm not. Sure, exactly.
• 29:01
  I know it's anything over your evaluation for the week you get
• 29:07
  actual hours paid at overtime. So if you're on A45K, if you run
• 29:13
  it in 48 hours for the week, those three hours are paid at
• 29:19
  over at the overtime rate. Sorry about that.
• 29:24
  I was just saying, wait a minute, I'm not hearing nothing
• 29:27
  this. This this is one of the sort of
• 29:30
  subjects that I've ever encountered in my life with this
• 29:33
  union because of the fact that based on your evaluated hours.
• 29:40
  If you go above your hours, those hours are then calculated
• 29:45
  into your overtime rate. So the first time this happened
• 29:49
  to me, I hit the ceiling because the Secretary Treasurer of our
• 29:53
  state explained it that every hour over your evaluation
• 29:58
  between the 7th of October and the beginning of Christmas
• 30:01
  overtime are factored in computated and they establish
• 30:07
  your overtime rate. Based on your total hours, which
• 30:11
  means ladies and gentlemen, you may expect to get time and 1/2
• 30:14
  for overtime. But if you are over your
• 30:17
  evaluated hours for that period between October 7th and the
• 30:22
  beginning of the Christmas overtime period, you are getting
• 30:25
  a reduced pay rate on an overtime table.
• 30:29
  The formula that they have for this makes my head hurt because
• 30:35
  of the fact that if you have a A48K.
• 30:39
  And you're going to be like in my case, I I'm over 57.36 hours,
• 30:45
  you know, a week. They take those excess hours
• 30:48
  above the evaluation. They create a extrapolated
• 30:54
  algorithm for the lack of a better word, and your overtime
• 30:58
  rate could actually be 1.4 your daily rate, 1.3 your daily rate.
• 31:04
  If you are severely over your evaluation in that time period,
• 31:09
  you may be getting 1.2% of your daily rate, not one and a half
• 31:17
  1.2. And this is one of those things.
• 31:22
  It's it's the same way with the 2080 and the 2240 problems.
• 31:26
  If you work it, you should get paid for it.
• 31:28
  If you're over your hours, you should be getting time and a
• 31:31
  half if you work Sundays. RCA should get time and a half.
• 31:34
  If you work holidays, you should get double time.
• 31:38
  This union has failed us for the past 25 plus years in this
• 31:43
  regard. Like I said it there is a
• 31:46
  formula and oh God, I have it somewhere it but it it's
• 31:51
  complicated, it's convoluted and it's basically it's fusing just
• 31:56
  to make sure you don't figure it out.
• 31:59
  But you can actually make less than time and 1/2 for working
• 32:02
  overtime during the overtime period.
• 32:04
  Does that clear it up? Yes.
• 32:07
  Thank you. I like, I said.
• 32:09
  I I am familiar with it but not well versed in it as of yet.
• 32:14
  So I wanted you know, one of you, one of you guys that have
• 32:17
  been around a little bit longer than I to to to to touch that
• 32:20
  one. I actually knew it put in a
• 32:23
  comment. Go ahead, Josh.
• 32:26
  I would say if someone put in the comments, the overtime
• 32:29
  period is December 2nd through the 22nd, the three weeks prior
• 32:34
  starting the first Saturday in December and then the first
• 32:38
  three weeks after that. And frankly.
• 32:40
  That irritates the crap out of me, yeah.
• 32:42
  Frankly, that's horseshit too. I think it should be the full
• 32:46
  pay period, not half a pay period.
• 32:48
  Let me start there. But honestly, and I know there
• 32:51
  has been resolutions in the past for this, that Christmas
• 32:55
  overtime period technically should be starting around
• 32:58
  Thanksgiving and going right up to New Year's.
• 33:01
  Am. Am I?
• 33:02
  Am I right? Guys start.
• 33:04
  Yep. It should start the pay period.
• 33:06
  I agree. With that.
• 33:07
  That it should start the pay period that Thanksgiving is in
• 33:11
  and end the pay period that January 1st is in.
• 33:16
  That's the only way to handle the volume of parcels that we
• 33:20
  are now dealing with on a yearly basis.
• 33:24
  Because they start just before Thanksgiving and they end after
• 33:28
  New Year's. And technically, as all of us
• 33:30
  that have been around a while knows, that the day after
• 33:33
  Columbus Day is the unofficial kickoff.
• 33:37
  And I will, we won't talk about that one.
• 33:39
  But I will. I will formally disagree with
• 33:42
  James on this. I don't care when the pay period
• 33:45
  starts. The city carriers contract has
• 33:48
  nothing to do when the pay period starts.
• 33:52
  It doesn't start on on a Saturday.
• 33:54
  They go into their overtime at a specific date in November and it
• 34:00
  carries past new year. I want Thanksgiving Friday to
• 34:06
  the first full completion of a week in January.
• 34:10
  Don't tell me you can't do it because it's a different pay
• 34:13
  period. If you can do the for a city
• 34:15
  carriage, you can do it for us, Bill.
• 34:17
  If they can do 1 1/2 for us. Versus 2 full, they can shift it
• 34:25
  and add a week in the front and a week or two in the back.
• 34:29
  Yep. If they can calculate out a 65%
• 34:33
  money order for for carriers that lost their paychecks, they
• 34:36
  should be able to do it. Sorry if they did, if they can.
• 34:39
  If they can factor your coverage factor, they ought to be able to
• 34:42
  do it, Yeah, I agree. Yeah.
• 34:46
  Don't, Don't. Get me started.
• 34:47
  The numbers game is really annoying when it comes to
• 34:50
  Christmas overtime, as Bill explained.
• 34:53
  Yeah, like I said, I I do have the formulas it it it's probably
• 34:58
  in one of my boxes that's got to be at least 18 or 20 years old
• 35:02
  that I I I've got buried downstairs.
• 35:04
  But when I sat there and tried to calculate the errors, I I I
• 35:08
  got a migraine and I'm sitting there going, OK, I'm going to
• 35:11
  call NASA up and see if they can plug the numbers in for me,
• 35:14
  because it was Oh my God. It it was torturous.
• 35:19
  It really was. This is where they need to need
• 35:22
  to implement the KISS system. Keep it simple.
• 35:26
  Stupid. Well.
• 35:30
  I don't understand why it doesn't work in my office
• 35:32
  because we got a lot of stupid people in there.
• 35:37
  Don't put yourself down, Bill. You're very smart.
• 35:40
  Well, I I told her Penn State was playing Ohio State at noon.
• 35:44
  It wasn't coming in. It's pretty bad when you you
• 35:49
  also make a bet on it and they look at you like why would you
• 35:53
  bet $1000? Because I know it's not going to
• 35:56
  happen. That's why.
• 35:58
  Yep, Someone. In the chat asked about O days.
• 36:02
  I'm going to read this real. Time let me let me read the
• 36:05
  whole thing real quick. Completely random question, but
• 36:08
  can I ask about O time? My truck has been dying for
• 36:11
  months and then on my holiday day Saturday it wouldn't start
• 36:16
  my subhead management try and then wrote it up and took
• 36:19
  another truck after it wouldn't start.
• 36:22
  I come in at 7:00 on Tuesday after holiday and I let them
• 36:26
  know I have no truck at that time.
• 36:28
  I wait until 9:30 when I pull down and ready to go.
• 36:32
  I have no trucks still. She told me they were down 6
• 36:36
  trucks. So why am I special?
• 36:39
  I proceeded to put my mail back up and started casing my DPS
• 36:42
  into my mail because it's clear I'll not have a truck at 10:30.
• 36:46
  I reminded them again my after my DPS is cased and down that I
• 36:50
  have no truck, nothing from management.
• 36:54
  At 11:30 I reminded them again and then inform postmaster
• 36:58
  because she is off her meeting. My postmaster told me I wasn't
• 37:02
  getting O time because she gave me a truck when I went to her
• 37:06
  from a sub. Is that an argument?
• 37:10
  If you didn't have a truck. And you're on a government
• 37:14
  vehicle assigned route and there is no truck available.
• 37:19
  You're on no time. There is no argument on that.
• 37:22
  Management's in the wrong here. They can't give you a truck from
• 37:27
  another route until that route is completed because the trucks
• 37:32
  are assigned to the routes. And then?
• 37:35
  If they give you a truck that's assigned to a route, part of
• 37:38
  that is you have to fill the truck up before you return to
• 37:41
  the office because it's. If you use a truck, it's not
• 37:45
  assigned that's assigned to another route.
• 37:46
  You have to actually fill it up before you return to the office.
• 37:50
  But if you're waiting for a truck and there's no truck
• 37:52
  available, it's automatically O time.
• 37:54
  And O time is separate from your route evaluation and you bank O
• 38:01
  time. I mean, it doesn't matter how
• 38:03
  long it takes, but once you hit 8 hours, you get a paid day off.
• 38:09
  Yep. And that O time starts at the
• 38:14
  moment you are pulled down and ready to roll out your
• 38:17
  conveyance out to start loading. So the instead of hitting start
• 38:22
  load you would start your stopwatch and like James said,
• 38:27
  you keep a log of how long you were sitting there.
• 38:32
  Waiting for a vehicle and till the moment they hand you the
• 38:37
  keys and then you stop the stopwatch and you write that
• 38:39
  length of time down. The caveat to that is if you say
• 38:44
  the heck with it, I'm going home.
• 38:46
  Put me in for a sick day or annual or whatever you choose.
• 38:51
  L op. Whichever you choose you lose
• 38:53
  the O time because you take you're getting paid.
• 38:56
  It's an all or nothing thing And like James said.
• 39:01
  It doesn't matter if it takes you a day, a week, a month, a
• 39:05
  year, five years to get to those eight hours.
• 39:10
  Once you get to those eight hours, you can you submit it the
• 39:13
  same as you would any other leave.
• 39:15
  And then you check on the bottom there it says other and you put
• 39:20
  O day and I make a copy of my log where it shows that I've
• 39:25
  earned 8 hours and that I'm. And then the that day that I
• 39:29
  actually the day before or the day after, I'm taking off with
• 39:33
  the OI, subtract the 8 hours off my log and I will try to
• 39:39
  remember. Tomorrow if I have a chance to
• 39:41
  scan in a copy of the log, I use, which is a DACA tracker,
• 39:45
  and I'll get it to Kristen so she can upload it into the file
• 39:49
  section and. This also works for.
• 39:52
  This also works for if you're broken down in the field in a
• 39:55
  government vehicle. So if you're.
• 39:58
  Postal truck won't start. Or.
• 40:02
  Something breaks on, it gets a flat tire wheel falls off, door
• 40:08
  falls off. If a door falls off, you do not
• 40:11
  drive that vehicle. Things like that issue then yes.
• 40:15
  If the back door won't open, that's not a not an issue to
• 40:19
  park the truck, but if a door is open, it is an issue.
• 40:24
  Things like that. You get O time for while sitting
• 40:28
  waiting for the record to get there, and that O time does not
• 40:32
  stop until you have another operating vehicle to drive.
• 40:37
  So if the tow truck driver comes and picks you up and takes you
• 40:40
  back to the office, the time you spend loading your stuff from
• 40:44
  one truck to the other is part of that O time.
• 40:48
  Yes? Until you return to that spot on
• 40:51
  your route where you left that route, that O time still counts.
• 40:56
  It's. Just like when because.
• 40:58
  They decided to case back up and do the DPS that they cancelled
• 41:02
  her owe time. She was told I was trying to get
• 41:05
  help them out since I wasn't going to have a truck until two.
• 41:07
  I never cased my DPS, but I guess I should have first.
• 41:11
  OK, but the owe time should have started as soon as you were done
• 41:13
  casing that DPS. That's the most important part
• 41:16
  is you were done with everything and waiting on a truck.
• 41:21
  So yes, you went back and started casing your DPS.
• 41:23
  That stops the owe time. Because you're doing work with
• 41:27
  mail and then resume the clock once you finish pulling back
• 41:31
  down. It's the same with wait time.
• 41:34
  When you're waiting for them to throw packages and things, you
• 41:37
  can't be doing any work while you're waiting.
• 41:40
  You can go to the bathroom. You could go outside and take a
• 41:45
  break, but you. Do not clock out for lunch on
• 41:49
  the scanners. You do not clock out to lunch.
• 41:52
  You let that time add up on the scanner.
• 41:55
  You also get that wait time as 8127 as a regular carrier, which
• 42:02
  is green card for RCA unless you're going to be over 40 hours
• 42:07
  and you're getting paid for it anyway.
• 42:09
  Yeah, and but you log in on the green card anyway, just in case
• 42:15
  you don't hit that point and then if you get to that point.
• 42:19
  Another convoluted system. There you also get paid out that
• 42:24
  8127 time, that pay period. Management will try not to pay
• 42:30
  you out for more than an hour of 8127 time because they have to
• 42:36
  report that to their district manager.
• 42:39
  It's a thing that came down from national that anything over an
• 42:42
  hour has to be reported to the district manager and a lot of
• 42:45
  managers. Have bad district managers and
• 42:48
  they don't want to be sitting there and reporting, oh, I had a
• 42:52
  guy who had to wait an hour and a half for parcels to be thrown
• 42:56
  because then that manager is going to get upset.
• 42:58
  They're paying out that money. And as I said last week, these
• 43:02
  district managers are looking for any and every way to cut
• 43:06
  every penny they can out of every rural carrier, every city
• 43:09
  carrier, every clerk, every mail handler they can to earn felts.
• 43:14
  From just from national management.
• 43:17
  So they don't want to report that to their district manager
• 43:19
  because then, oh, that's money. We're spending more money that's
• 43:21
  going to cost me my belt. So that manager gets more upset.
• 43:24
  Oh oh time. Once you've earned the oh time,
• 43:29
  it's the same as an X day. You have 12, supposed to be 12
• 43:33
  weeks to use it within. However, because it's on a log,
• 43:39
  not in the system, there's no way for them to really know
• 43:45
  except for the dates that you put when it was earned versus.
• 43:50
  And if you're not able to take the time off because they keep
• 43:53
  denying everyone's leave, you have that as it you know also,
• 43:57
  all right. I want to touch on real quick
• 43:59
  since we just had a holiday and we have a couple more coming up
• 44:01
  this next month under this current contract, which was a
• 44:06
  new thing. If you are having to work, what
• 44:10
  would be your holiday? So if a holiday falls on a day
• 44:14
  that is technically your relief day, your J day, your K day, so
• 44:20
  be it, and that course reverts. Your holiday day reverts back to
• 44:25
  the previous to the day, work day prior, the one prior to
• 44:30
  that. You now have a choice of taking
• 44:34
  getting no pay for the day. And getting an additional annual
• 44:39
  day or getting this this the straight pay with the exception
• 44:45
  of Christmas, Christmas holidays, the only one that is
• 44:48
  actually at 150%, which I think it should be all of them
• 44:53
  honestly. But that DACA code to add to
• 44:57
  have the additional annual leave in lieu of paying for working
• 45:02
  your holiday is a DACA G. If you're getting paid, you're a
• 45:08
  DACA V as in Victor. And if you're choosing to do
• 45:12
  annual it is a DACA G, as in good for you didn't.
• 45:18
  Want to answer one of the things in the chat that said I banked
• 45:22
  15 hours of O time and my supervisor doesn't know how to
• 45:25
  give it to me. That's a DACA code OO for O
• 45:30
  time. Yes, thank you.
• 45:32
  And then? Once they when they put in, when
• 45:39
  they go to the drop down menu for it'll say like K day H for
• 45:43
  holiday. Whatever DAC of code.
• 45:46
  When they choose O off that drop down list, it's going to have a
• 45:50
  secondary drop down list which has a couple of things which are
• 45:54
  the only things that are authorized for them to use an O
• 45:58
  day for. I forget where exactly what all
• 46:02
  of the justifications are for an O day.
• 46:07
  I think it's either. It's vehicle breakdowns and then
• 46:11
  possibly grievance settlement are the 2 main reasons, but
• 46:16
  vehicle breakdown is going to be your absolute main reason for
• 46:20
  them to use it. And that is O time is only for
• 46:24
  government vehicles, correct? And so I'm I just pulled this
• 46:29
  up. These are all the DAC of codes
• 46:32
  you could see on your paycheck. So A is annual leave for
• 46:38
  carriers that use annual leave time they've earned or will
• 46:42
  earn. That's DAC of Code A DAC of Code
• 46:46
  B is non rural V day holiday work, regular carrier working in
• 46:53
  two O 4B position on his or her designated holiday.
• 46:57
  So if you are a 2O4B working a holiday, you would get a deck of
• 47:01
  code B Deck of code C is continuation of pay used with an
• 47:08
  on the job injury to pay the carrier the route evaluation for
• 47:13
  up to 45 calendar days. D is donated.
• 47:17
  Leave when you've been incapacitated for available
• 47:20
  Postal Service duties due to a serious personal health
• 47:23
  condition. Which includes an incapacitating
• 47:26
  pregnancy. DACA code E is limited duty,
• 47:30
  injured on duty and working in a limited duty status.
• 47:33
  F is full day union leave without pay, so that is for any
• 47:39
  time you are doing union business.
• 47:43
  That includes union officials, regular carriers, union steward
• 47:47
  or other union officer, and including conventions and other
• 47:52
  union business. G is annual leave in lieu of
• 47:56
  holiday pay. We just discussed that H is
• 48:00
  holiday leave, so when we have a holiday and the regulars get
• 48:03
  paid for that, they'll see an H on their paycheck.
• 48:06
  L is leave without pay. M military leave with pay.
• 48:12
  N is military leave without pay O other leave which is O time
• 48:19
  leave when granted. They have to give an
• 48:21
  explanation. P work hours other than rural A
• 48:25
  lot of our mapping facilitators were paid under classification.
• 48:30
  P Regular carriers pay the evaluation of the route minus
• 48:34
  EMA. For other work such as Academy
• 48:36
  trainer R is worked relief day. Carrier entitled to an X day
• 48:42
  within 12 weeks. S is sick leave.
• 48:46
  T is training U absent without leave.
• 48:52
  Used when a regular is a wall instead of deck of code.
• 48:55
  LV as holiday worked W injured on duty leave without pay, X for
• 49:03
  X day relief day taken, Y non rural relief day worked, carrier
• 49:08
  works his or her relief day and other than rural delivery
• 49:12
  example Academy trainer etcetera, Z is steward duty.
• 49:18
  Then there's the numbers Is. Two is administrative leave,
• 49:24
  three is deck of code three with 50% and the next day four is a
• 49:30
  day of reflection. Regular carrier receives one day
• 49:33
  of administrative leave for the day as a result of an issuance
• 49:37
  of a 14 day paper suspension. 5 relief day work with 150% pay, 6
• 49:44
  court leave, seven Wounded Warrior leave, 8 emergency sick
• 49:49
  leave. And nine public health leave
• 49:53
  FMLA used when requested for public health.
• 49:56
  That's the entire list of deck of pay codes, All right.
• 49:59
  I wouldn't say I wanted to touch base with the H for a holiday.
• 50:04
  For example, with veteran's day coming up, it's Saturday.
• 50:07
  A lot of carriers have Saturday as their relief day.
• 50:11
  That makes. They still have their relief
• 50:13
  day. It's still Saturday.
• 50:14
  Their holiday shifts to Friday. If they actually are off Friday
• 50:19
  for the holiday, it would be a code H If you have to work that
• 50:24
  Friday, which is your holiday, you have the V code which is
• 50:30
  paid for the holiday plus your evaluation for the day or the
• 50:36
  new ones. What G, as in golf, is an extra
• 50:40
  annual day in addition to your eval for the day.
• 50:45
  So that is something that's new in you know as Kristen mentioned
• 50:48
  in this contract that you can choose either getting paid or an
• 50:51
  extra annual day. So that's a few on which one you
• 50:58
  want to take. You want the money or the day
• 50:59
  off later? All right.
• 51:01
  There was another thing we want. We had asked to touch on trying
• 51:06
  to think of what it was. Do you remember James our?
• 51:11
  Our. Brain waves work in here.
• 51:13
  Let's. Go there was another question
• 51:16
  with the one that asked about the X days.
• 51:19
  Go back to Christy with the O days.
• 51:21
  The the O time accumulation never expires.
• 51:26
  It's not in the 12 week period, it's not in a year I I've I've
• 51:31
  carried O time over for 2 1/2 years and documented it all and
• 51:35
  then when I got to my 8 hour mark I cashed it in.
• 51:38
  So your O time is not based on a 12 week, you know, one year
• 51:42
  period. It's total accumulation and
• 51:45
  never expires. And Z time.
• 51:47
  OK, I'm going to touch on the Z time.
• 51:49
  That is for regular carriers that are local stewards and you
• 51:55
  are working on stewards stuff. Then that is where you log your
• 52:00
  Z time and when you reach 8 hours you get AZ day, a day off.
• 52:06
  For RCA's that are stewards, that would be green card time.
• 52:13
  The way around it, actual. Time on a green card?
• 52:15
  Yep. Oh.
• 52:16
  Thanks for reminding me Kristen, because I have 23 days of Z time
• 52:24
  when when I tell people to file file file I do 23 days.
• 52:29
  I'm going to take January off. There you go.
• 52:35
  So one of the things that I have seen in many places is.
• 52:41
  A lot of talk about parts of the contract that would be important
• 52:46
  to carriers. The whole contract is important,
• 52:50
  but I think one of the biggest ones that we should be talking
• 52:53
  about is Article 5. It's a very short article, but
• 52:59
  it's one of the most important articles in the whole contract
• 53:04
  when dealing with management. Would you guys agree?
• 53:06
  Yes. Oh yeah.
• 53:08
  Yep. So.
• 53:10
  When when dealing with management, the biggest biggest
• 53:13
  thing about it is, is we have contracts, we have Mous, we have
• 53:17
  Step 4 agreements and things like that and and the biggest
• 53:22
  thing about it is, is management cannot make a decision by
• 53:27
  themselves. Article 5, literally, is a
• 53:30
  prohibition of unilateral action.
• 53:33
  The employer will not take any actions affecting wages, hours
• 53:37
  and other terms and conditions of employment as defined in
• 53:41
  Section 8 D of the National Labor Relations Act, which
• 53:45
  violate the terms of this agreement or otherwise
• 53:47
  inconsistent with its obligations under law.
• 53:51
  So we've been talking a lot about unscanned parcels.
• 53:56
  We've been talking a lot about benchmarking.
• 53:59
  And things like that. These are unilateral decisions
• 54:02
  that management has made. Other things that happen in your
• 54:06
  office that management makes unilateral decisions on that are
• 54:10
  violations of things that are in the national contract or in, as
• 54:14
  I said, MOU, Step fours or even the joint statements are
• 54:19
  unilateral decisions that they've made.
• 54:22
  Bill, you want to get in on this?
• 54:24
  No. Well, you asked me and I said
• 54:31
  no, you know, it it it's very straightforward, it's very
• 54:36
  powerful and it's one of the articles where you know they
• 54:40
  they turned around and you when you file an 8191 AKA grievance
• 54:45
  form, I always put that in there, you know every everything
• 54:49
  they do effects our wages, you know, I mean you know from.
• 54:56
  The stupidity of my supervisor not taking my advice to, you
• 55:00
  know, delaying, you know, delaying parcels because they
• 55:04
  have to get the city carriers out first.
• 55:06
  You know, in our office we are the ugly redheaded stepchild.
• 55:11
  I don't know if that's politically correct anymore, but
• 55:13
  that's how we are because of the fact that we work on an
• 55:16
  evaluated system. They they affect our hours.
• 55:19
  And you know that that's one of the grievances I used to file at
• 55:22
  least three times a month. Is that, you know, we are put on
• 55:28
  the back burner to get the the city carriers out because
• 55:31
  they're paid on an hourly basis and we're paid and evaluated so
• 55:35
  it doesn't bother us. Then they come after you for
• 55:37
  your 2080 or 2240. It's like, well hold on this
• 55:40
  look at my wait time, get DPS, get the parcels.
• 55:46
  Because you know, we have a parcel sorting machine in our
• 55:48
  office now and I've already filed 2 grievances on this.
• 55:52
  Because of the fact that they run the eight OS first which are
• 55:55
  the primarily city routes in our office and then the 8 twos and
• 56:01
  several 8 OS are rule carriers, but mostly 8 twos.
• 56:05
  Again, we have to wait until the 2nd parcel run because machine
• 56:10
  shorts them in that fashion and we don't get them in a timely
• 56:14
  fashion. And then you know, because they
• 56:17
  they did invest in this wonderful machine that can't
• 56:20
  read printed labels. There's a wire cage at the end
• 56:24
  of the machine that catches all the miss sorts that didn't get
• 56:27
  processed, and then we have to wait for the clerks to sort them
• 56:30
  out manually. Oh yeah, like I said, I've
• 56:33
  already filed 2 grievances. We've only had the machine for
• 56:35
  three weeks. I think another one I've seen.
• 56:40
  Go ahead, James, I was. Going to also say that 99% of
• 56:46
  grievances that are going to be filed against management.
• 56:50
  Are going to include Article 5 as part of the the process, as
• 56:54
  part of the listed reasons as to why?
• 56:57
  Because most often the reason you're grieving is management
• 57:00
  made a decision that they didn't consult the union on and your
• 57:04
  local management's not going to consult the union before they
• 57:07
  make a decision. And sometimes not even your
• 57:10
  district manager is going to talk with your district
• 57:14
  representative and get union support behind the decisions
• 57:18
  that they make. And and you know, we we've seen
• 57:21
  this because of the fact that like in our office now, we no
• 57:25
  longer have union representation for some unknown reason,
• 57:30
  decertification, that they turn around and they'll implement
• 57:33
  policies that, you know, you have to sit there and get a hold
• 57:37
  of your area, your ADR or your Dr. to respond to.
• 57:41
  And by that time, you know, ladies and gentlemen, you know
• 57:45
  you could, you could have been out on the road already.
• 57:47
  Yeah. So a lot of people sit there and
• 57:48
  say, well, why should I fight it when it'd be just as easy just
• 57:51
  to follow along with that policy?
• 57:53
  Because that policy is not contractually enforceable.
• 57:57
  These people at district level come up with rules out of their
• 58:02
  asset, frankly. And you know, just because they
• 58:05
  have the authority, they have the power.
• 58:07
  Oh, I'm the district manager. That doesn't make you right.
• 58:11
  The contracts in black and white obey it.
• 58:14
  Hand with yours. All right.
• 58:16
  I was looking. I've seen another thing post.
• 58:18
  You know when it comes to training new RC.
• 58:20
  As you know I as an Oji when I did my Oji training and I was
• 58:26
  looking for my papers so I could read it verbatim.
• 58:28
  But unfortunately I do not have it right here available without
• 58:31
  digging through stuff. According to OJI training it is
• 58:35
  24 to 40 hours for training in RCA.
• 58:40
  They are pushing 24 hours and I still as as a trainer and still
• 58:46
  currently in RCA for a few more weeks.
• 58:50
  I fully believe, especially with the RX scans now do not believe
• 58:57
  that 24 or even 40 hours is sufficient training time for
• 59:03
  RCAS. There is so many working parts
• 59:08
  to being at RCA. That you cannot fit it all in in
• 59:12
  24 to 40 hours. Does anybody disagree with me?
• 59:16
  I. Don't disagree at all.
• 59:18
  And I believe that training of real relief carriers should be
• 59:23
  at the discretion of the OJI to ensure that the carrier
• 59:28
  understands at least the basics of what they're doing.
• 59:31
  Because there are so many times where carriers don't know what
• 59:35
  they're doing and they get put on these routes and then.
• 59:38
  They completely blow up and quit because they don't have enough
• 59:43
  training and they're messing things up.
• 59:46
  And then management's getting on them to go faster and faster and
• 59:49
  faster, and there's honestly not a lot of recourse.
• 59:54
  Yes, the union can file grievances.
• 59:57
  They can file grievances with the union and just defend the
• 1:00:01
  contract and stuff. But as long as they're within
• 1:00:02
  their 90 working days, they could be fired at will and the
• 1:00:06
  union can't bring them back. So there's the fear of being
• 1:00:10
  fired as retaliation for them filing your grievance for being
• 1:00:14
  abused by management, and it just makes the whole situation
• 1:00:17
  worse. But if you could spend more time
• 1:00:20
  training these people, they would have a better start to
• 1:00:24
  their career. I know when I went and I did my
• 1:00:28
  3 days of training before I was set loose because that's all I
• 1:00:33
  got was three days. I didn't know what I was doing,
• 1:00:36
  I didn't have the slightest clue and just figuring out how I put
• 1:00:40
  everything together. I was working 12 hours a day on
• 1:00:44
  an 8.6 hour route because I didn't know what I was doing and
• 1:00:49
  it took me 6 months by myself to figure it out.
• 1:00:55
  I have management harping on carriers in 30 days, 60 days and
• 1:00:59
  things like that and it's just not right.
• 1:01:02
  I agree. And every route is different.
• 1:01:04
  You know, we all know as a seasoned RCA who's worked in
• 1:01:09
  several different offices and ran many different routes,
• 1:01:12
  POVLLV routes that we considered actual rural routes and routes
• 1:01:18
  that would be considered closer to butting up with city like by
• 1:01:22
  route I'll be taking over. You know, there is so many
• 1:01:25
  different working parts when it comes to this and I definitely
• 1:01:28
  agree 24 to 40 hours is not enough training time.
• 1:01:31
  And each route and it being its own individual route and having
• 1:01:35
  its own things, yeah, you could modify that.
• 1:01:38
  And yes, you and everybody's different.
• 1:01:40
  You know, there are people out there that pick up on it right
• 1:01:43
  away and they kind of get a handle on it and they get the
• 1:01:46
  basics down quickly that that the and those people we love.
• 1:01:50
  And then there's others that that that don't learn as quickly
• 1:01:55
  and need the extra, extra mentorship.
• 1:01:59
  I'm going to say that they they need that extra, that extra time
• 1:02:03
  that extra, you know, helping hand before it finally clicks
• 1:02:07
  with them and then you have some that just never get it anyways.
• 1:02:11
  But I've worked with everybody and let me tell you now I think
• 1:02:16
  training. I don't.
• 1:02:17
  I I honestly think a training period for an RCA.
• 1:02:21
  Yes, it it helped with the addition in the current contract
• 1:02:25
  of being on their home route. Assigned primary route for two
• 1:02:30
  full pay periods before forcing them to go anywhere else and
• 1:02:34
  hence forcing I I think the training period itself to to
• 1:02:42
  efficiently cover everything. Should be two full weeks, should
• 1:02:46
  be a full pay period or training efficiently and then let them on
• 1:02:53
  their own on their primary or two full pay periods.
• 1:02:58
  You know, not necessarily with a trainer every day for those two
• 1:03:01
  full weeks that be the training time.
• 1:03:04
  That way they can come in and not just split the route with
• 1:03:08
  the regular two or three days however they want to split it
• 1:03:11
  up. Some offices are only still
• 1:03:13
  doing half one day, half the next and then others are doing
• 1:03:16
  it in thirds or and then taking it fully on their own.
• 1:03:20
  I I really think that you need more time.
• 1:03:25
  And that's not necessary getting the route line of travel down in
• 1:03:29
  months of training or how to deliver mail.
• 1:03:31
  I mean that comes with the extras, that comes in with your
• 1:03:34
  rec scans, that comes in with with your end of shift duties,
• 1:03:38
  especially how to handle your certifieds and expresses and
• 1:03:44
  things that they may not see in those 24 hours of training you
• 1:03:48
  may not have. Certified in those 24 hours.
• 1:03:52
  So when they pull one out of their DPS, what the hell do I do
• 1:03:54
  with this? You know, or have an express
• 1:03:58
  come in or God forbid Advos or box holders, you know stuff like
• 1:04:05
  that. That doesn't happen on a daily
• 1:04:08
  basis. You have a better chance of it
• 1:04:11
  occurring over the 24 hour period or the OR the excuse me.
• 1:04:16
  That I'm thinking faster than I can or talking faster.
• 1:04:19
  I can think a two week period is going to have a little bit more
• 1:04:23
  of a broad spectrum and then that's at the time time is
• 1:04:27
  you're taking that pressure off of that RCA on the hurry up and
• 1:04:31
  get done and figure this out. You know, then they're coming in
• 1:04:35
  and you know, well, you were trained.
• 1:04:38
  You were oh, you worked with a trainer for three days who rode
• 1:04:41
  in the back of an LLV if you're an LLV route.
• 1:04:46
  How they're going to do training with these mattresses, I don't
• 1:04:50
  know. We don't have any in our office,
• 1:04:51
  but I've heard some put jump seats in them.
• 1:04:54
  I don't know. I again, that's out of my
• 1:04:58
  spectrum of knowledge is the Metris.
• 1:05:02
  But you know, there, there. Is I I.
• 1:05:05
  Would like to see, I mean yes you have Academy but there needs
• 1:05:09
  to be more time to where that you know that RCA takes that
• 1:05:13
  part of a route. They come back and then they
• 1:05:16
  meet with the trainer and you go over the day, you know what they
• 1:05:19
  ran into. You can go over the pinpoints of
• 1:05:22
  what you have to do and yes we do.
• 1:05:24
  I definitely agree that there needs to be a complete overhaul
• 1:05:27
  of our training program period. Not just Academy, not just, but
• 1:05:31
  the whole training period for new RC as in general needs a
• 1:05:35
  complete overhaul yet again. I'm not disagreeing with you on
• 1:05:39
  how long they should be getting to train.
• 1:05:44
  I do believe they should get more than 24 to 40 hours, but I
• 1:05:48
  know now with the being such a crunch and such a shortage,
• 1:05:52
  they're throwing them anywhere and everywhere that they can get
• 1:05:56
  away with. But in the past I've had an RCA
• 1:06:01
  come in at 8:00 when my start time is and work with me in the
• 1:06:06
  case, and at 10:30 when I'm pulling down I have them go
• 1:06:10
  home. It saves the training hours.
• 1:06:13
  Now they've only worked two of those 24 hours.
• 1:06:18
  I've had them come in at 11:00 just to hit, you know, so it's
• 1:06:23
  all ready to go for them just to hit the street.
• 1:06:27
  So they, you know, so all they're doing is working
• 1:06:30
  whatever section they're taking that day again, just so they
• 1:06:35
  can, you know, so we're keeping the training hours down and it.
• 1:06:38
  You know, and I kind of had and I'm going to, you know, when I
• 1:06:41
  started. Almost nine years ago, you know,
• 1:06:44
  I was in a position I, my postmaster at the time I started
• 1:06:47
  under was awesome. My supervisor was awesome.
• 1:06:51
  Yes, they were considered unicorns.
• 1:06:52
  Nowadays he is now retired and she's a postmaster of her own
• 1:06:56
  smaller office POV, and I had issues with getting my POV
• 1:07:02
  breaks and whatnot. Needed to get it on the road
• 1:07:05
  safely. And so yeah, I did get that
• 1:07:07
  extra time to where I could come in and learn the case in case
• 1:07:11
  mail. I did get a couple extra days to
• 1:07:14
  ride along with the regular and it's at that time we didn't have
• 1:07:18
  OJ is in the office. And I still believe sometimes
• 1:07:22
  the best way to learn a particular route is with the
• 1:07:25
  regular because they know the route.
• 1:07:27
  I did get a couple extra times where I got to ride around with
• 1:07:29
  the regular on the route and so I got to learn those little
• 1:07:33
  extra things. It's unfortunate that now and I
• 1:07:37
  and I get it, you know, with having such a shortage of leave
• 1:07:41
  replacements in the majority of the offices, yes, there are some
• 1:07:45
  of those Unicorn offices out there that are fully staffed and
• 1:07:48
  have awesome management. I wish it was everywhere.
• 1:07:52
  Unfortunately, that's a small percentage of our offices
• 1:07:55
  anymore that would, you know, allow that extra time for an RCA
• 1:08:01
  to learn. I mean this you know as we all
• 1:08:03
  know this job is not for everybody.
• 1:08:05
  You know when the potential of having three newer Rcas coming
• 1:08:08
  into the office here soon as an OGI who's currently in RCA
• 1:08:13
  holding down a route until it gets awarded.
• 1:08:16
  I, you know, with no other coverage because there is no
• 1:08:19
  other Rcas in the office because our one and only last RCA
• 1:08:24
  suffered, you know, he quit Labor Day that evening.
• 1:08:28
  So you know, and then you got regulars that don't want to
• 1:08:31
  train and it's kind of disheartening at times.
• 1:08:34
  I think you know it's because you know you want that time off,
• 1:08:37
  but you don't, you don't want to train your sub to run your route
• 1:08:40
  properly. I mean, I think it has to be a
• 1:08:42
  joint thing between a trainer and the office and the regular
• 1:08:47
  on that route because trainers may not know all the routes #1
• 1:08:52
  they've been regular for so long they don't know the routes
• 1:08:55
  anymore if they ran them if as as Rcas.
• 1:08:59
  It could be a newer route that was put together after they went
• 1:09:01
  regular and they never saw it. You know, it is difficult out
• 1:09:05
  there if you don't know a route to try and train an RCA because
• 1:09:08
  now you're trying to figure out the line of travel with that
• 1:09:10
  brand new RCA who may not even know the area because they're
• 1:09:13
  new to the area. And whereas in my instance right
• 1:09:17
  now, being the RCA that knows every office in my every route
• 1:09:20
  in my office, I can at least have that heads up on how you
• 1:09:24
  know the line of travel for the routes.
• 1:09:26
  Yes, we're not technically training them.
• 1:09:28
  They're the line of travel. We're supposed to be training on
• 1:09:30
  how to deliver the mail. But again, there is so many
• 1:09:33
  other working parts to it well. If I can offer my two cents, go
• 1:09:38
  right. Ahead I, I.
• 1:09:39
  I I joined the post office when when you got three days training
• 1:09:44
  and that was it. You know, Josh's explanation of
• 1:09:48
  cutting their training short. You know when when you go to the
• 1:09:52
  route and sending them home so that they can turn around and
• 1:09:55
  come back and learn the case. If you're training somebody and
• 1:09:58
  and I'm not familiar with your trainer situation, we train
• 1:10:02
  people on our routes, OK, we don't have a trainer so
• 1:10:05
  everybody has different techniques.
• 1:10:07
  You know, whether they you know just case they're wrong working
• 1:10:10
  in the DPS, do the up down, do the Taco meth and whatever.
• 1:10:14
  When I get a a a RCA coming in the office, first thing I do.
• 1:10:20
  You you clock in on the scanner, sign the 4240, you get your
• 1:10:24
  keys, you go out and do your PTR on on your government vehicle.
• 1:10:28
  You you come back in. You you on your way back in.
• 1:10:31
  I I, you know, run over to the flats area, you know, do my
• 1:10:34
  withdrawal, bring it over to the case.
• 1:10:36
  There's usually some stuff there at the case that we can start
• 1:10:39
  working on. Now.
• 1:10:40
  I'm a I'm a very meticulous asshole, so my my case is set
• 1:10:45
  up. To train people for eye hand
• 1:10:48
  coordination of you know where the different streets are, where
• 1:10:51
  the turnarounds are, everything is labeled.
• 1:10:54
  I have each wing has a streets on it on a little tag on the end
• 1:10:58
  so that they can see what streets are on that specific
• 1:11:02
  shelf. And then there's A tag for each
• 1:11:04
  specific piece of equipment. So I have 3 full pieces plus 1/2
• 1:11:11
  wing. So every piece of equipment has.
• 1:11:15
  An address card that tells you what numbers of what street are
• 1:11:18
  on there. And then there's a line
• 1:11:20
  underneath this, the streets that end on that shelf so that
• 1:11:24
  you don't look up and down the other five rows looking for that
• 1:11:27
  street. If it's there, it's got a line.
• 1:11:30
  You never have to look again. Yeah.
• 1:11:31
  And like I said, I'm very meticulous.
• 1:11:33
  The thing of it is that you can take the carrier, you know, Subs
• 1:11:36
  out on the route. Learning that case is the most
• 1:11:41
  specific item you can teach a carrier as an RCA.
• 1:11:45
  Because until they learn how to throw the mail where it goes,
• 1:11:48
  they're not going to be efficient.
• 1:11:50
  You know, I I have trained maybe 2526, you know RC as in the
• 1:11:57
  course of my career out of those thirteen of them in the first
• 1:12:01
  day, I already said they'll they won't make it.
• 1:12:03
  And it's not that I don't give them the full effort said they
• 1:12:07
  don't have the intensity. They don't have the interest,
• 1:12:10
  they don't have the IN coordination.
• 1:12:13
  Whatever, You know, you you pick it out.
• 1:12:15
  You know, there's other ones like a carrier in my office that
• 1:12:19
  you know, he was a little bit slow, but he had, he had the
• 1:12:23
  potential. He is now a regular, OK, but one
• 1:12:27
  of the most critical things that I helped him with was when we
• 1:12:30
  were delivering in an FFV and I'm in a jump seat.
• 1:12:33
  I was watching how he was putting mail into the mailbox
• 1:12:36
  and he would reach out, open the mailbox.
• 1:12:39
  Turn back, reach in, grab the mail, put the mail in the
• 1:12:42
  mailbox. Put the lid up.
• 1:12:43
  Stop that. Right off the bat.
• 1:12:45
  Mail's in your hand, lid comes down, mail gets slapped in.
• 1:12:48
  Slap the lid up, go to the next box.
• 1:12:50
  You know just the little nuances that we know are very imperative
• 1:12:56
  for them to be attuned to. You have to teach them the
• 1:13:00
  tricks of the trade. Depending on how you case, how
• 1:13:03
  your case is set up the volume of mail that you have, you know.
• 1:13:08
  All all the little idiosyncrasies that you know,
• 1:13:11
  you take for granted, they need to know and you have to teach
• 1:13:15
  them those. And I mean this gentleman that
• 1:13:18
  is now a a, a regular still comes over and says, is this the
• 1:13:22
  first class piece of mail? No, it's not.
• 1:13:25
  You know, does this get forwarded?
• 1:13:28
  It's because it's not ingrained in them and he's been in that
• 1:13:32
  office for four years. You know our.
• 1:13:34
  Our running joke for the longest time in my office with with my
• 1:13:39
  my work husband has been, you know the one thing we all took
• 1:13:43
  away from Academy was is we know what UBBM is.
• 1:13:48
  That's about the only thing that you fully take away from Academy
• 1:13:51
  is what UBM is, and then you. Go to the office and you see a
• 1:13:54
  tub there saying Nov and you say what's NOVUBBM?
• 1:13:59
  My office had OBBM and UBBM. My my first office OBBM was our
• 1:14:05
  current resident. It goes.
• 1:14:07
  In a yellow tub, yeah. It it just gets to us.
• 1:14:12
  Hey, mine are blue. My.
• 1:14:14
  Mine are just normal postal The white tubs I go through at least
• 1:14:19
  one to one a week. I have a lot of junk on my
• 1:14:21
  route. But yeah, we could talk hours
• 1:14:24
  about training. Oh, we could.
• 1:14:25
  We could talk hours about training for a week.
• 1:14:29
  And I'm going to say as an RCA still.
• 1:14:33
  And so now who's getting ready to take.
• 1:14:35
  Yeah, for now, only a few more weeks.
• 1:14:39
  That'll be a celebration episode.
• 1:14:42
  We will, I I will say out there and I get the ones that have
• 1:14:46
  been around a while and you've been on your route forever and
• 1:14:50
  you know your case, but at least try and update your case labels.
• 1:14:57
  Once or twice a year minimum as an RCA who wants to come in and
• 1:15:02
  run a route they've never seen before and the case is so out of
• 1:15:06
  date and things are handwritten in.
• 1:15:09
  Or if you are irregular and you update your case and you don't
• 1:15:14
  know how to do your edit book correctly to do half inch
• 1:15:18
  separations because you don't have enough room to do full one
• 1:15:23
  inch per address and you have to do half inch.
• 1:15:27
  Do learn how to ask somebody in the office how to do an edit
• 1:15:30
  book correctly. Because when you're cutting and
• 1:15:33
  pasting labels and an RCA walks in there to case up your mail
• 1:15:37
  and they look at it and they go, what the fuck.
• 1:15:41
  Luckily I knew the route so I knew where stuff went, but if
• 1:15:44
  anybody's to walk in that case, it didn't know what they're
• 1:15:46
  doing, they're going to go what I I am confused.
• 1:15:50
  Rattlesnake knows which one I'm talking about.
• 1:15:56
  But no, I case maintenance and like I said, Bill's very, very
• 1:16:00
  particular. I am in the process of trying to
• 1:16:02
  update this case because the one thing that irks me is somebody
• 1:16:06
  as an RCA currently. I'm still saying that now, if
• 1:16:09
  you have addresses on your case that don't have a mailbox, and
• 1:16:14
  there's not even a post out there for a mailbox and it is
• 1:16:17
  not active in your edit book, why is that address on the case?
• 1:16:22
  Because now I'm casing stuff out and then I get out there and I'm
• 1:16:25
  like, what the hell, There's no box.
• 1:16:26
  I don't even know where this house is because there's a line
• 1:16:29
  of trees and three driveways next to each other.
• 1:16:32
  OK, you know, why have take that extra out there when I could
• 1:16:38
  have had that taken care of in the office?
• 1:16:40
  I'm very one of those that likes to.
• 1:16:42
  I take a little extra time in the office so I can be quicker
• 1:16:45
  out on the street. And no, I do not case my deep
• 1:16:48
  like I. Know on my one St.
• 1:16:51
  They deemed it a flood zone and the city wanted to buy out like
• 1:16:54
  30 or 40 houses. And the ones that did sell,
• 1:16:58
  they've demolished the houses completely so the only remnants
• 1:17:02
  is on the curb in orange. They sprayed the house number,
• 1:17:09
  but there's no post, no driveway.
• 1:17:11
  They completely got rid of everything and seated it.
• 1:17:13
  So I eliminated those completely from.
• 1:17:18
  Buy labels, cuz like you said, there's no point in having them
• 1:17:21
  if there's no not gonna be mail. Yeah, I.
• 1:17:25
  I mean there's one and I get some of my like like front
• 1:17:29
  properties, you know, maybe they'd had in a mailbox in the
• 1:17:32
  past, maybe it's a newer build, but they, you know, they're
• 1:17:34
  seasonal, they it's their weekend home, it's their, I
• 1:17:38
  don't know the uppities that have way too much money and need
• 1:17:42
  a place to go on the Great Lakes.
• 1:17:46
  But when you have a house that burns down years and years and
• 1:17:49
  years ago, yes, the mailbox is still sitting out across the
• 1:17:53
  street, but that lot is now grass covered and has been for
• 1:17:57
  years. Why is that never still on the
• 1:17:59
  label, You know it's that type of stuff that hurts me it it's,
• 1:18:05
  you know, I well. I I can see it for the reason
• 1:18:10
  the per the carrier that was on that route at that route for.
• 1:18:15
  Years and years and years and years and years.
• 1:18:18
  And not knowing how long ago that was, you eliminate that
• 1:18:23
  number. You eliminate that number from
• 1:18:26
  the label. When you replace your labels now
• 1:18:29
  everything from that point to the end ships.
• 1:18:33
  Yes, it will shift and it will shift.
• 1:18:35
  Which even though. Even though it's only one slot,
• 1:18:39
  Bill will tell you that'll throw you off.
• 1:18:41
  I. Know and I'm I'm looking forward
• 1:18:43
  I and and The thing is is this is going to be a work in
• 1:18:45
  progress for a while because I'm finding stuff every day.
• 1:18:48
  So I have that case down almost in my sleep anymore.
• 1:18:53
  But I know when I update those labels, for all the changes I've
• 1:18:57
  done in that edit book, it's going to shift, and I'm hoping I
• 1:19:00
  can get that shift done before I have an RCA in there I have to
• 1:19:04
  train. Right, well.
• 1:19:05
  I would recommend to every regular to buy a label printer
• 1:19:09
  so that you can put printed names on there when they change
• 1:19:13
  and not handwrite it so that somebody has to try to read your
• 1:19:16
  scribble. On my case I use the labels.
• 1:19:19
  I use a a razor trimmer from Staples to cut the labels out,
• 1:19:25
  you know and and slide them into the plastic protectors.
• 1:19:28
  That way they don't get dirty, don't get messed up or anything.
• 1:19:31
  And I I put a printed label. A girl on Rd. 16 comes over and
• 1:19:36
  tells me one of her residents is moving to my address.
• 1:19:40
  And you know, I'd already seen the mail coming through and she
• 1:19:43
  goes, you need to put their name up there.
• 1:19:45
  And she looked down and she goes, oh, you already have it?
• 1:19:47
  Yes. As soon as I know, notice that
• 1:19:50
  it gets changed in the red book. The label goes up on the damn
• 1:19:53
  case and the and the sub, you know, can't say, oh, I didn't
• 1:19:57
  know they live there now or I didn't know the other person
• 1:19:59
  moved. There's a yellow sticker.
• 1:20:00
  There's, you know, indicating the forward name.
• 1:20:03
  And there's a regular label on there indicating the the current
• 1:20:06
  resident. So do yourself and do your sub a
• 1:20:09
  favor change. Get a label printer and and put
• 1:20:12
  the printed label in there for people so they don't have to
• 1:20:15
  read your chicken scratch and. Yes, doing labels on your case
• 1:20:19
  is under return to DU time, yes. Is under your to DDU time
• 1:20:25
  including your edit book labels cleaning your case if you don't
• 1:20:30
  have janitors that clean your cases?
• 1:20:34
  Or janitors that are too lazy to clean your case.
• 1:20:37
  In my office, we they like us to go through our hold mail and
• 1:20:43
  rubber band it together on a, you know, by Wednesday of every
• 1:20:47
  week. That's an end to shift duty.
• 1:20:48
  That's cleaning up my holds that I have that's that way.
• 1:20:52
  If it's a pickup and the clerks come, it's all right there.
• 1:20:56
  It's that type of stuff. All those into shift duties
• 1:21:00
  that's straight time adding on to your evaluation.
• 1:21:03
  I really hate doing dropping goes when I gotta be somewhere.
• 1:21:07
  That really just it irks me because I would rather take that
• 1:21:11
  time to have that case, that mail I brought back.
• 1:21:15
  My parcel markers return to where they go, all that stuff.
• 1:21:19
  I'd rather have that done that way when I walk in that next
• 1:21:21
  morning. It's a clean slate to start
• 1:21:23
  with, but there are those instances where I'm pressed for
• 1:21:27
  time and I gotta be somewhere that I do have to drop and go.
• 1:21:31
  And unfortunate, I don't like doing that.
• 1:21:34
  And let me reiterate on the case issue.
• 1:21:36
  You know, with the labels and everything ladies and gentlemen,
• 1:21:39
  the easier you make it on your your sub, the better the sub
• 1:21:43
  will do. I don't leave mail for my sub.
• 1:21:45
  I tell my Subs you don't leave mail for me.
• 1:21:48
  I keep my case clean. I keep my truck clean.
• 1:21:50
  I clean my truck on my end of shift duties.
• 1:21:53
  I make sure to inside windows are clean.
• 1:21:55
  I make sure it's swept out. I have a little dustpan with the
• 1:21:57
  brush in there and all. I treat my truck, my case, just
• 1:22:01
  like I would I anything at home and I treat my Subs and anybody
• 1:22:05
  I'm training the same way I would treat a family member.
• 1:22:08
  Well, except for one family member.
• 1:22:10
  But the thing of it is, if I can make you successful, the better
• 1:22:15
  for me. So what you put into your
• 1:22:17
  training for that RCA you'll get back?
• 1:22:20
  Exactly. And it's really hard as I know
• 1:22:25
  Ji, you really get in depth with them sometimes with the way
• 1:22:29
  management wants to push stuff out the door.
• 1:22:32
  You almost have to, you know there there have been Rcas that,
• 1:22:35
  yeah, I had that extra time where we could go sit in the
• 1:22:38
  break room after we got back from running part of the route
• 1:22:41
  and kind of go over the checklist and see where we're at
• 1:22:45
  and what we've covered and what the, you know, what what they're
• 1:22:48
  comfortable with. And I think that's more of the
• 1:22:50
  more additional time, even even if you're a regular training
• 1:22:54
  your own own. RCA, because your office doesn't
• 1:22:58
  have an Oji is, you know, taking that time to see what they
• 1:23:01
  understand and don't understand. But yeah, I mean, we could go on
• 1:23:04
  training, we could have a month's worth of episodes on
• 1:23:07
  training for sure. That's always been a big one.
• 1:23:12
  I think lately, especially with as much turnover as we've had
• 1:23:16
  with RC, as I know in my office, don't get me started on how many
• 1:23:20
  that's been lately. We we really training is
• 1:23:24
  definite. And case, case maintenance, yes,
• 1:23:28
  all that is end of shift duties, you know, cleaning up, you know
• 1:23:32
  that put my holds up for the next day.
• 1:23:35
  A lot of times when if I get powers labels in that day, I'll
• 1:23:38
  look at them, I'll look at them in the morning, you'll see if
• 1:23:42
  it's something that affects me that day and I'll put them to
• 1:23:47
  the side and I will then do my powers labels when I get back
• 1:23:50
  after the route under the end of shift duties.
• 1:23:53
  And I'll mark it on the case, I'll put them on the pink cards.
• 1:23:56
  I have a lot of seasonal residences on this route that
• 1:24:01
  are starting to leave. I, you know, I actually have
• 1:24:04
  separate pink cards just for my temporary forwards that way if
• 1:24:10
  they're not getting mixed in with the regular forward with
• 1:24:13
  the permanent forwards. So all that stuff is end of
• 1:24:16
  shift duties that I do to make sure everything is.
• 1:24:21
  And I'm not quite as OCD as Bill is, but yeah, I am fairly
• 1:24:25
  particular on how I keep up my case and whatnot, you know?
• 1:24:28
  We do have Episode 6 training a new RC as on there as well in
• 1:24:32
  our podcast list. Yes, we do.
• 1:24:34
  And I'm sure we've touched on it a few other times too, but oh.
• 1:24:38
  Yeah, yeah this this is back the basics though, yes?
• 1:24:43
  Yes. And it's important for us to
• 1:24:46
  make sure that you understand the one thing that we care about
• 1:24:50
  is everybody having as much information as possible.
• 1:24:54
  That is the basic premise of this podcast, supposedly.
• 1:25:00
  Well, that's not true because Kristen just said OCD.
• 1:25:04
  Because you know what? I can't spell.
• 1:25:07
  What? Wait, we're going to Old Country
• 1:25:09
  Buffet? What?
• 1:25:10
  Yes. Are they?
• 1:25:12
  Is there even some of those still around anymore?
• 1:25:14
  Are you I? Don't know.
• 1:25:16
  No, there's not. But I figured I would throw that
• 1:25:18
  out there just to kind of age myself.
• 1:25:22
  I age myself with that too. And I'm older than you, but no.
• 1:25:28
  But I do have a Golden Corral. Yeah, I.
• 1:25:30
  Don't know if I've ever been to one of those.
• 1:25:32
  They have the best chicken livers in the world.
• 1:25:35
  There's. Actually a place in Michigan if
• 1:25:37
  you ever get back to Michigan, Bill down just north of.
• 1:25:40
  Lansing in the little town of Powderville.
• 1:25:43
  For those of you there in Michigan, if you like chicken
• 1:25:45
  gizzard, livers and gizzards, it's called Gizzard City.
• 1:25:50
  It was actually on diners, drive ins and dives at one time and
• 1:25:54
  they have a whole Gizzard festival.
• 1:25:56
  I've never been a huge gizzard and liver person, but man, I
• 1:26:00
  will eat a basket of those at Gizzard City.
• 1:26:02
  Awesome. I hope it's still around.
• 1:26:04
  I'd have to look it up, but you can have.
• 1:26:06
  My share. Yeah.
• 1:26:07
  They're just South of Lansing, just north of Charlotte, called
• 1:26:10
  Gizzard City, little town of Powderville, Michigan.
• 1:26:13
  If that's your thing and you ever get into that neck of the
• 1:26:16
  woods, I highly suggest you go there.
• 1:26:18
  It is a dive. It is a dive place, but it is it
• 1:26:22
  it's awesome. It it it really is.
• 1:26:24
  And they're open. 10:00 PM every night. 10:00 PM every night.
• 1:26:29
  I I think we're going to wind it down for this evening.
• 1:26:32
  It's going on 9:15. My daughter's supposed to be
• 1:26:35
  getting out of work here shortly, so because.
• 1:26:37
  Of that, I'm going to actually give our listeners an assignment
• 1:26:41
  tonight, our very first ever assignment, because we want you
• 1:26:48
  guys educated and the biggest education tool you can have is
• 1:26:52
  reading our contract. But the biggest one I'm going to
• 1:26:55
  give you is. Our specific grievance
• 1:27:01
  procedure, which is Article 15. There's a lot of information in
• 1:27:05
  there, but the biggest thing you want to take away is the step
• 1:27:10
  one section. The step one section is where
• 1:27:13
  you initiate the grievance process.
• 1:27:16
  So go through your contract. You can look it up on the union
• 1:27:20
  website. It's Article 15 grievance and
• 1:27:23
  arbitration procedure. You can read the whole thing but
• 1:27:26
  the main one. Is in Section 3 procedure.
• 1:27:29
  Step one, because that's where every rural carrier start is.
• 1:27:33
  At step one. You can find it D on your
• 1:27:35
  website. ruralinfra.net also has it on there.
• 1:27:39
  Or you can search the EL9O2 which is our contract with the
• 1:27:47
  Postal Service. It is a public document, so it
• 1:27:50
  has to be available to the public to read.
• 1:27:53
  Because it's a government agency, it has to be FOIA
• 1:27:55
  requestable. And I do believe if you are a
• 1:27:59
  non dues paying craft member you can still get a copy of it on
• 1:28:06
  the website without being able to log in.
• 1:28:08
  Yes you can, because that. If not, rural info has it.
• 1:28:12
  If rural info has it if you. Keep your magazines, they sent
• 1:28:16
  out. It was the all blue cover copy
• 1:28:21
  of the magazine. What was that in 20?
• 1:28:24
  Sometime in 22. I think, yeah, I I remember that
• 1:28:27
  color, yes. It was blue.
• 1:28:31
  I actually still have it somewhere here in my magazine
• 1:28:33
  stack. I've got two bound I I've got
• 1:28:36
  two bound copies right in front of me.
• 1:28:38
  I actually have a Co worker who asked for a copy of it 'cause he
• 1:28:43
  did not keep his one, that was mailed out to him and I told him
• 1:28:47
  I did have an extra bound copy that I would be happy to bring
• 1:28:51
  in to him. I was told it's also on light
• 1:28:54
  blue. You know guys, when I when I
• 1:29:00
  moved in June, man, and I cleaned out my office from the
• 1:29:03
  old house, my wife sat there and goes, why do you have these
• 1:29:06
  magazines from 15 years ago also?
• 1:29:10
  Guys, if you have a hard time finding it online, reach out to
• 1:29:13
  one of us and we'll be more than happy to get you a online copy
• 1:29:17
  sent over to your PDF. Yes, and that's it, Johnny.
• 1:29:23
  All right. Josh, any last comments for
• 1:29:25
  tonight? Other than enjoy your your
• 1:29:28
  reading assignment, be safe out there.
• 1:29:31
  Don't get overwhelmed. If you do, take a step back,
• 1:29:35
  take a deep breath, step back in.
• 1:29:37
  We're getting to that time of year where it's going to start
• 1:29:39
  getting darker earlier. Well, it it already has and the
• 1:29:44
  volume of parcels is going to pick up, which means your days
• 1:29:48
  are going to start getting a little bit longer.
• 1:29:50
  Have a good week. I'll see you next time.
• 1:29:53
  James the. Biggest take away any carrier
• 1:29:56
  can have is knowledge. Knowledge is power.
• 1:30:00
  The more knowledge you have, the more you are a bane on
• 1:30:04
  management's existence. So with that, just remember
• 1:30:08
  we're all real carriers here. We're all the same craft.
• 1:30:11
  We're brothers and sisters fighting the same fight against
• 1:30:14
  management. We're all in this together.
• 1:30:18
  Bill, your last commentary for this evening, you know it it, it
• 1:30:24
  makes me sad that James has to say that about management.
• 1:30:29
  It wouldn't it be wonderful if management actually worked with
• 1:30:32
  us to resolve the issues instead of having to fight them tooth
• 1:30:36
  and nail every day. You know what what what what
• 1:30:39
  type of retention we have for RC as if we had better management
• 1:30:44
  what what type of work situation we have as far as you know
• 1:30:48
  having our drop days off or getting leave if management
• 1:30:52
  cooperated with the union And and that was always my goal as a
• 1:30:56
  a steward was to get management to cooperate without getting to
• 1:31:00
  the grievance process. Sometimes it worked, not not
• 1:31:05
  very often, but sometimes it did work And that's that's the
• 1:31:10
  reason for the grievance process folks.
• 1:31:12
  When management fails to follow the rules, regulation, the
• 1:31:16
  contract the, the basic decency that we are afforded as human
• 1:31:21
  beings, that's when we have problems.
• 1:31:25
  And it it's sad to say that you know, under the current
• 1:31:29
  management in my office, it will not improve anytime in the near
• 1:31:33
  future. And and probably it read 90% of
• 1:31:37
  the office across the country, but for you that have the
• 1:31:41
  wonderful supervisors, the the hard working postmasters who
• 1:31:45
  pitch in and help get routes delivered on, I'm envious of
• 1:31:49
  you. I I really am.
• 1:31:50
  I've never seen that happen in my office in over 25 years.
• 1:31:55
  So enjoy what you have in the meantime.
• 1:31:59
  Go out and do the job the best you can, train your Rcas to the
• 1:32:03
  best of your ability. Treat them all like they're your
• 1:32:06
  children, you know, educate them and be safe.
• 1:32:11
  Like I said, it's going to be getting darker.
• 1:32:13
  You know, you're going to be getting a lot more parcels.
• 1:32:15
  Just, you know, be safe out there, especially if you're
• 1:32:18
  doing parcel runs. You know, as a second run and
• 1:32:21
  it's dark out there. You don't know where the dogs
• 1:32:23
  are coming from. You don't know where you're
• 1:32:24
  stepping. Just be careful out there, OK?
• 1:32:27
  Ladies and gentlemen, you're the most important deal every day.
• 1:32:29
  I don't give a rat's ass about the mail of the parcels.
• 1:32:32
  Get home to your loved ones. Absolutely.
• 1:32:35
  And I you know, yes, it is getting darker out there and how
• 1:32:39
  dare I say this, but. Amazon does have these great
• 1:32:42
  little finger gloves that have lights on the tips of them I
• 1:32:46
  have a pair that are rechargeable.
• 1:32:48
  I have to dig them out as it is coming to be getting darker.
• 1:32:51
  I'm on a nine hour route that sometimes does take me 9 plus
• 1:32:54
  hours to do. That to me, they're a great
• 1:32:58
  investment and I this will be my third winner with them and like
• 1:33:03
  I said I got to dig them out. So that's just a heads up.
• 1:33:05
  They they are out there. I've seen some pictures of
• 1:33:07
  people posting and the social webs about getting them and
• 1:33:10
  stuff. They they help out tremendously.
• 1:33:12
  They cut the glare from having a headlamp, you can see the
• 1:33:16
  mailbox, you can get through your mail without having to turn
• 1:33:19
  an overhead light on. They're awesome.
• 1:33:22
  So. Definitely, if it's something
• 1:33:24
  that you need to check into, if you are in the areas to where
• 1:33:28
  it's getting darker earlier and you're still out on the street
• 1:33:32
  as this time of year is coming up.
• 1:33:35
  On that note, guys, have a good week, stay positive.
• 1:33:38
  Any questions you know, always feel free to reach out to us.
• 1:33:41
  I know many of you do. If we don't get back to you
• 1:33:44
  right away, please just patience.
• 1:33:46
  I know with the emails I try to. Send them off to everybody and
• 1:33:50
  say hey, what's your biggest take away Bill, you're one
• 1:33:52
  response to that one e-mail, she said.
• 1:33:54
  Big thank you from from the sender of that one and we will
• 1:33:59
  be back next week.