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A little bit of SWAC · United We Scan

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Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
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carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
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podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
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not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody episode
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111 I guess we're just going to do a little free for all.
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James is on the road heading back from SWAC and Bill is still
1:03
celebrating the Eagles win at the Super Bowl.
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Go ahead Bill, start off the evening with the.
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OK, well, first of all, thank you for to the NFL, Rodger
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Goodell, Jeffrey Lurie, Howie Roseman, all of the training
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staff of the Philadelphia Eagles, and particularly to
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Ijean Cooper for making the interception return that broke
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the back on the Kansas City Chiefs.
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And the Eagles have now beaten the GOAT Tom Brady and Bill
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Belichick and the GOAT Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes and
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convincing style. Take that in your panties,
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Taylor Swift. It's a beautiful week, isn't it?
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And over a million and a half people turned out in
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Philadelphia and and less than 40 of them were killed.
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Three of them were Swifty, so they don't count.
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But the fact of the matter is I'm just so happy that it was
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convincing when the defense was awesome.
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It it just made the whole week better.
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And the only thing that gets better than that is getting an
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$800 grievance check in the mail that, you know, it's been, you
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know, basically five months in the making.
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But I love it. I love it.
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And I've got about almost 200 responses on that.
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And Facebook people are just saying, and my best is like
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Chris Sivota. Yeah, yeah, I got my geared up.
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The man made $17,000 in grievance settlements last year.
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Let me tell you folks, if you don't file, you can't collect 17
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grand. Who who couldn't use 17 grand in
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their pocket? Especially table twos.
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And you know, there's grievances out there to be had almost every
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Dang day. And I just you know, I love it.
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I love it, I love it File, file, file and smile.
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You know, people, people responded and said, well, you
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know, your representative did did a good job on it.
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No, I did a great job because I'm the one to put all the
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language in the grievance. All he had to do was present it.
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And you know, they got kicked up the Step 2 and the Step 2 got
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slam dunk and paid. And you like those beans.
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Love it, that man, I'm telling you.
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Yeah, I'm sitting there and I'm looking at it and I'm like, that
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looks like a check. I wonder what it's for.
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And, and mind you, after our Wednesday night local meeting,
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local chapter meeting, the Dr. from New Jersey came to me with
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five more that I have pending. I'm going to be collecting
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grievance checks for the next six months.
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I love this shit. You know, the the title is no
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clue what we're talking about. And for a minute I was confused.
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I thought this was a management channel.
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No, I had no clue. I didn't know what was going on,
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but. But yeah, it's just so
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appropriate because, you know, there there's so many things to
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talk about. And I guess we'll let Kristen go
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next because we wanted James, you know, lead up, you know,
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follow through on his SWEC convention.
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OK, so Kristen, how was your week?
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My week starting Wednesday sucked Wednesday.
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Thursday I, I with the first storm, winter storm we got
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Wednesday I, I had 134 undeliverable addresses, only 7
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no access on packages because, well, we didn't get Amazon on
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Thursday. So I only had 30 total scans to
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begin with. And I actually got back to the
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office at 12:30 and by the time I recased up the rest of my
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mail, it was like 1:00 when I went home.
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So that was, that was Thursday. Friday we had double Amazon.
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I still only had 77 scans just I have one Rd. so far that I have
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not been a deliver on since the first snow storm on Wednesday.
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We got another one on Friday night.
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So me working my K day again yesterday I did not see a single
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Rd. plow out there so it that was a little bit longer of a day
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for me. But it All in all it wasn't too
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bad. But then we got another storm
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that kicked him through Friday night, yesterday and then last
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night today and some more coming in tonight saying thank goodness
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tomorrow's a holiday. So hopefully everybody gets
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their crap cleaned out before Tuesday.
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That was pretty much my week. Not a whole lot.
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James, you are on the road this evening.
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Yes I am. I figured I would take the long
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scenic route back home. So I'm running across Arkansas
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right now going to head into Tennessee first meander my way
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up because I took Tuesday off as well, just to make sure I any
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weather came up, I'd be able to make it in time to work my
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route. And but for the week it was
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pretty good. The office, I mean, we did have
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a little bit of snow here and there, but it really didn't snow
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until I went to go leave for swag and dropped three inches on
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me before I before I left. I had to clear that out.
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Luckily I didn't have to run in four wheel drive to get out of
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Michigan this time, but the trip down was good.
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I made it as far as Mount Vernon, MO on Thursday.
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Spent the night there because I Rd. hypnosis was starting to
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kick in and beat me up so I had to stop somewhere.
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I only had an hour and a half to go and because check in time was
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3:00 PM at the hotel in Springdale, I took the back
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roads. Got to stop at several post
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offices on the way. Even talked with the clerks
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inside about their offices. One of them was a locked pouch
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stop for a rural carrier and another one had two regular
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routes and an aux route in it. And the saddest, the saddest
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part for me is those are the types of offices that the
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Delivering for America plan wants to get rid of because they
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cost the post office money. And those are the biggest things
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that we can give communities, having a post office nearby that
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they can get to with carriers that they know from their
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community running their routes. We are a service and closing out
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a lot of our services is going to hurt a lot of people.
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So I get to the hotel Friday and Friday night.
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We had the two seminars and one of them was the labor seminar
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was Michael Gann Kirby and Nick and John Adams or Nikki and John
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Adams, excuse me? And that was really good to hear
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all their ideas and stuff. Unfortunately, I do not have my
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notes in front of me 'cause it's kind of hard to read notes and
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drive at the same time. But Saturday we got into the
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meat and potatoes of everything and we had 6 postal Empu's and
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district managers on a panel for AQ and A.
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And unfortunately they didn't know half the questions that
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they were asked and the other half they kind of gave half
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hearted answers to. So unfortunately, even our
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district and Empu's or tombs, whichever way you want to call
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them, don't know their butts from a hole in the ground when
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it comes to wrecks and inputs and scanners and technology and
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what the rural craft really is about.
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Then they went into announcements for candidates and
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of course the entire top of the board, President Don Maston,
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vice president Patrick Pitts, secretary, treasurer Tommy
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Turner, director of Labor relations John Adams, director
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of Stewart operations, Mickey Phillips were announced from the
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national board. Also had myself running for
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President of the national Board and Natasha Patterson stepped up
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from Florida and is running for the four year executive
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committeeman term. So those were the candidates
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that announced at SWAC. SWAC was smaller than SAC in
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terms of number of people in attendance, but they did beat
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SAC in amount of PAC money raised.
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John Mastin was part of the keynote speaker for Sunday and
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in that he talked about almost all the same things that he
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talked about at SAC, including using my tagline 7 times this
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time instead of 11, and he used yours Bill 6 times this time
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talking about getting home to your loved ones.
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Then we went into the Q&A panel with the national Board members
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that were in attendance. A couple keynotes is they didn't
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know you can hit the hamburger to get all the scan entries for
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Rex and they also did not know what a POD is. 2 big keynotes
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there. I did get they did answer every
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single question that was asked and I will get back with people
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who posted questions on my comments as soon as I get a
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chance to settle down and type them back to you.
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But other than that, it was just a good, good, wholesome group
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outing. You could feel actual unity in
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the air. People were not sitting just by
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their states alone. They were actually commingling
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with each other, talking with each other, hanging out with
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each other, which is really nice to see a full unification and
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solidarity and unity for the union.
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The only other side on that is I did attend the Zoom meeting for
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Build a Fighting in ALC and I wanted to put this out there for
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them. They are organizing rallies for
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carriers, postal workers, and of course their contract coming up.
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I have to plug it. It's carafe for Prez PRF, the
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number 4 PREZCAREF, the number 4, PRE z.org.
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They're organizing these rallies across the nation in support of
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protecting letter carriers fighting for their contract and
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unifying the unions together. So I'm putting it out there for
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everybody that listens to this, but, and I left around 3:00 when
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they started doing the business of SWAC, which is something I'm
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not needing to attend for that. Plus it allowed me to get out
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ahead of the weather since Springdale, AR was under a
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winter storm watch. So other than that, driving back
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and enjoying the windy mountain roads here in Arkansas and.
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It's actually, yeah, it's actually pronounced Karif, not
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Karif. Karif apologize for it to him
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but what you guys got now and I can't read questions if people
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are posting them in chat. I don't see any questions posted
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in chat for you. Nothing.
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Yeah. Well, I have a, a new topic
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we're not going to discuss tonight because I still have to
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research it. But it was one that was a good
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one that was brought up and I kind of want people's opinions
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on this. And once I get in and research
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it a little bit more to have the, the, the facts.
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And that is pregnant rural carriers.
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Mm hmm. And rights and treatment and
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that sort of stuff. That one was brought up to me
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yesterday. I was had a phone call with
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another carrier in another state.
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I do know there's the federal protection now, but I don't have
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that available in front of me. So that is definitely a topic
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we're going to bring up in the near future as well, the
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discrimination and the rights and stuff.
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That's a really good topic. Yep, Bill, you got anything fun
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this week? Well, here we go back again with
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the the problems of being short of Subs or RCA.
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However you want to clarify it, you know, let's see Monday
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Westchester was short 3 carriers, Tuesday they were
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short 5, Wednesday were short three, Thursday was 2 and
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Friday, surprisingly, they don't really short 1.
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I don't know about yesterday. The, the problem of it is
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they're in the midst of another supervisor change.
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And, and this is, this is what drives you nuts about these FD
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and C is how they switch people around by the new supervisor.
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And you know, for just being specific, this young lady is a
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black Hispanic Muslim female. And I'm being specific about
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this because of the fact that, you know, she was one of the
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best clerks we ever had working on the floor as a supervisor.
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She's nothing more than the babysitter.
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This is the same woman that heard the popping sound, smelt
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smoke and let Westchester burn to the, you know, go up in
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flames. This is the one who is babysat
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the night position as the, you know, incoming supervisor for
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the carriers coming off the routes.
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She has had no experience whatsoever in real management
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scheduling in regards to our contract.
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Our last supervisor didn't know what our Cam was.
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This one doesn't even know what Rex is.
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And this is the, the management team that is in I'll, I'll
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basically say being ingrained into these SD and CS where the
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district manager is acting as God creator, almighty word and,
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and you know, judge during executioner and intimidates his
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own management staff. And this girl will not, she'll
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fall in right in with the rest of the lemmings.
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She will not challenge him on anything that you know, he
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proclaims because she doesn't know the contract.
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She doesn't know the rules and regulations, and since she was
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never a carrier, she has no idea what she's stepping into.
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If I was there right now, I'd be loving life because I know how
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much I'd be making off of my grievances.
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And it's being imbued upon these people that they're management
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material. And you're not our past
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supervisor, Bonnie. You ought to be a great
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grandmother, you know, sitting at home watching the
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grandchildren or something like that.
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But she she never never had the personality, the backbone or the
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knowledge to be a supervisor. And here we go again.
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We're getting another person unqualified be in a management
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team whatsoever, no skills whatsoever that no, no
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preparation for this, this position whatsoever except for
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being the night time or closing supervisor.
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And you know, more times than not she was on her phone.
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She was on her phone than the night Westchester caught fire.
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So, you know, it's idiots leading idiots and you know,
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they're all, and they're all being masterminded and handled
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by this BM and God, I'm so glad I'm out of there.
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But you know, we, we, there was a, you know, free, you know,
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podcast comment about going postal being taken the wrong
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way. And this is the type of stuff
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that makes people make comments like that because, you know,
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they're frustrated seeing that you're you're putting people who
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are not qualified into positions of authority.
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And all this does is make people, you know, more
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aggravated, irritated. Yeah.
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You're not running the parcel till 8:30 a 10:15.
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You're finally done the parcel. Then you have to go through, you
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know, get your parcels, segregate them.
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Oh, by the way, don't forget to hand off the mistros.
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Don't forget to check the mistro hamper.
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This is the stuff that's driving people nuts.
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And, you know, throughout the week, you know, people have not
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gotten DPS. I've gotten double DPS.
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I haven't gotten Amazon at double Amazon.
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You like, you know, you did, Kristen, but it wasn't a big
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deal for you because there wasn't much period.
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You know, guy, guy turns around and said, Oh my God, I had 170
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parcels the other day. It's like, you know, to me, that
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was a light day. It's, it's incumbent upon us,
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each other, you know, across the country, help each other that,
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that speak out for each other, stand up for each other and not
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to let management get away with this shit.
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You know, just because you put somebody in there and this girl
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will fall in line with the district manager if he says
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this, she'll turn around and try to enforce it.
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Like I said, I wish I was still there just just as a steward,
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just so, just so I could turn around and, and you know, throw
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1415 grievances at him every week.
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And you know, you, you respect this business, this service to
18:44
thrive in this type of atmosphere with these type of
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this type of leadership. It won't do, folks.
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And the SD and CS are the biggest joke.
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It's, it's ridiculous. The fact of the matter that
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you're considering sending 18 rural routes back to the old
19:00
building and keeping 68 city routes up in the SD and C that
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that's just harebrained. Where in God's sake can you tell
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me that that is actually economically feasible in in a
19:14
cost saving world? It's not.
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How do you take 3 three offices and put them into the former
19:20
office of Westchester and now you got three different offices
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are traveling extraneous miles because of the fact that you
19:27
creating a mini SDNC. You're saving money.
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How we already own most of these buildings that we're in, you
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know, we've been in there for, you know, years and years.
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So what, where's your cost savings other than the trucks
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delivering to those offices? Oh, by the way, all three of
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those offices have PO Boxes. They still have to get delivery,
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don't they? So not.
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Taking a lock to carriers. Well, they're, they're too big
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as far as being a lock pouch. You know, when you've got a, a
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post office that's got over 300 PO boxes?
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I don't think so because that and the parcels alone and then
20:09
add that onto a full route and you've seen, you've seen the
20:12
chaos that the Loch pouch offices have created in regards
20:16
to getting proper credit. But you know, don't let me tell
20:20
you anything about finances. I mean our our locals only got
20:23
$22,000 in in our coffers. And most of that is because of
20:28
the convention we put on 2018 and we and then I thrown into
20:32
ACD for the past four years. We're fiscally responsible in
20:37
regards to our meetings and everything.
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And yet we provide food and everything else.
20:42
The fact of the matter is that, you know, if you don't look at
20:46
the numbers, you'll never find out how bad the post office is
20:50
run. And you know, I, I believe I saw
20:52
Elon Musk stated that the postal workers are the only people that
20:57
earn their paychecks. I thought that was nice of him
20:59
to say that. I can't say it's directly
21:02
attributed to him saying that, but that was nice.
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Well, it's it's technically not completely accurate since none
21:08
of us are actually paid properly or of proper value for the work
21:12
that we provide. He didn't say you were paid
21:14
properly. He said you're the only ones
21:16
that are actually earning it. You know that you're valued
21:21
employees. Oh, not by the post office, but
21:23
by him. The post office.
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We're just. Meet We're just numbers to the
21:27
post office numbers on a spreadsheet.
21:33
And then and you, you can't run a business office spreadsheet,
21:38
whatever, you know, if you don't have hands on, if you don't have
21:41
to put your feet on the ground and see how operations are going
21:45
to see where the cogs are. Can you imagine getting paid
21:48
$1.5 million to observe a clerk's work at one office?
21:54
And I didn't give you a time span on it, but you know, they
21:56
probably did it for about 3 months and said, yeah, they're
21:59
efficient. Oh hell, you know, be efficient
22:03
for three months and then soon as you left I'd go back to what
22:06
I was doing. Same can be said for a union.
22:08
You can't just run it off of spreadsheets.
22:12
Don't worry about the all the ones that quit the union, James.
22:15
We made-up more with the new hires who paid less in dues.
22:21
Yeah, yeah, the the RCA, it's well, PTSPTS pay full dues of a
22:27
regular carrier. Yeah, that, that makes a lot of
22:29
sense too, especially when the RCAS can actually make more than
22:33
the PTFS in a weekly manner. Every week, ETF's only
22:37
guaranteed 2 minimum and five maximum.
22:40
Hey Kristen, when? Kristen, when's the date for for
22:43
the start of the mini mail survey processing?
22:46
22nd When's that funny this Saturday?
22:50
This Saturday, yes. This coming up Saturday.
22:53
Yes. Yeah.
22:55
Isn't that the same day? That we should go over over the
23:00
the data that they need. We did that last.
23:02
Week for the account for counting the mail.
23:05
We went over that. Already OK, making sure
23:08
everybody knows to go to last week's episode.
23:11
Yeah, I'll bring one up for you since we had our local meeting
23:14
this week. We had two women from the same
23:17
office and we had a the state president, you know, Joe Nort
23:24
there and we had Bill Collins representing the national
23:27
steward system. And of course I fell off the
23:30
chair because he asked this one lady and and they're they're
23:34
sitting together. Did the when was the last time
23:37
you got your mapping done? What was the answer, James?
23:40
What? What was the answer?
23:42
When? When was the last time these
23:43
women had their mapping done? I've had some that never had it
23:48
done and some that said August was the last time they had it
23:51
done. You were right the first time.
23:53
Yeah. Never, I mean had it done.
23:56
As I didn't say they were doing it with carriers, management
24:02
done it every month without it. Yeah, they, they, they haven't
24:06
done it ever. And after I got up off the
24:09
floor, Bill was explaining, Bill Collins was explaining to him
24:12
how important mapping is in regards to it represents about
24:18
94%. And, and you know, I'm sitting
24:22
there going, OK, you're using 6% with a mini meal survey, but
24:25
it's not truly 94% because there's a lot of scans and
24:29
everything in there to be taken into account that are done on
24:32
the street. But you know, the, the point is
24:35
that if your mapping is off, it dramatically affects your pay.
24:42
And he, he gave her, you know, for example, you know of you
24:47
know, where, where your mapping is done in regards to your
24:50
delivery points, you know, the distances for dismounts and all
24:55
that. He says, if I can add one hour
24:57
to your to your route, would it be worth it?
24:59
Yeah. Well, he goes, that's proper
25:02
mapping. He says, what if you don't have
25:03
the traffic control points in there?
25:05
And she goes, well, I don't know, he goes, that could be
25:07
another hour depending on where you live and where they live is,
25:11
you know, sort of a suburban rural area, OK, so that there's
25:16
a mixed density there, so it could add some time on there.
25:21
He says, well, how far are you, you know, where, how far are you
25:23
from your next evaluation? She goes 8 minutes, He goes, you
25:28
don't think mapping is important to see if you can make up those
25:31
8 minutes? Well, yeah, The manager,
25:33
supervisor, the postmaster, that gives excuse.
25:36
They don't have to just they don't have time to do this.
25:38
He says, and you file a grievance, you know?
25:42
Well, yeah, we don't have anybody that doesn't.
25:44
He says, then you go to the person above that.
25:46
And then you keep pushing and pushing, pushing and and I just
25:50
sat there and I just, I just shook my head.
25:52
I just oops. You saw what I posted online.
25:56
OK, $800 settlement or agreements I filed and I did the
26:02
legwork for it too. OK, who here is going to throw
26:06
away $800? Nobody.
26:08
Nobody at all. The fact of the matter is if you
26:12
don't file, you can't get paid. Plain and simple.
26:15
I mean it, it's just how hard is it for you to sit there and or
26:19
stand up and say I want what I'm do.
26:22
I want to pay, be paid for what I do.
26:25
I want to get paid every time you violate the contract and it
26:28
affects me. The problem is you don't believe
26:33
in the union. Well, you are the union.
26:35
So you know, you don't believe in yourself.
26:37
You don't know what to do. You are welcome to call or text
26:41
or I am me, Kristen, James, anybody and and ask for help.
26:47
We're always available where James lives on his damn phone
26:50
and laptop and iPad and toilet and everything else and is
26:55
willing to answer all your questions.
26:56
OK, in the candidate for president of the NRLCA, he is on
27:01
the toilet and he knows his shit.
27:03
But the fact of the matter is that if you don't stand up for
27:06
yourself, nobody's going to. So you know, really stand up,
27:12
speak up and and shout from the mountains and saying I want my
27:17
share, I want my fair pay, I want what is due to me.
27:22
It's just amazing that people sit back there and take this
27:25
stuff and complain about it. I had a carrier for years
27:29
complained about harassing attitude of a supervisor towards
27:36
it for years. I said file a grievance, file
27:39
EEO with the National Labor. Oh, I don't want them coming
27:43
back at me. You know, if you don't put a
27:46
stop to it, it's just going to keep going and it's going to go
27:49
to the point where we will see people, AKA going postal because
27:54
you're getting on their last nerves because you don't know
27:58
your job and you're trying to tell us how to do ours.
28:01
That actually reminded me of something.
28:05
It reminded me of something that they said at SWAC in the labor
28:09
seminar, and it actually comes straight out of our contract.
28:14
And the biggest thing is, is that making carriers whole
28:19
should be the priority. So there was a part in our
28:22
contract where the wording is specific on getting carriers
28:27
made whole beyond that of just paying them the lost wages.
28:35
And they're going to be pushing that from national now, where
28:39
they're going to also go for things like late fees and stuff
28:43
like that for bills that you've had.
28:46
Because making a carrier whole means returning them to the
28:49
status that they were before this issue came about.
28:54
So that's another thing that they're working on it.
28:56
And stewards listen to this as well as carriers should be
29:01
looking for from their stewards is they not only get made whole
29:06
by the wages that were lost, but they get made whole for
29:11
financial issues that came from these incidents, like when these
29:15
carriers were not, those 12,000 carriers were not paid properly.
29:19
They didn't get a check and they got late fees.
29:22
They had notices to quit from their apartments and things like
29:26
that. Those fees that they accumulated
29:29
because they didn't have a paycheck should be part of that
29:32
grievance payout procedure in that situation.
29:35
This is something they actually talked about.
29:37
And you know it. And it's just not that one
29:40
isolated incident too. I mean, there's carriers every
29:43
pay week that have a zero and you know, for one reason or
29:48
another because usually it's management's fault at that
29:51
point. Yeah, and that's an, that's an
29:54
overlooked argument, James, about being made whole.
29:57
It extends past the monetary value of the incident.
30:02
It it means that you know, you are made whole, that you know
30:06
this won't happen again. And and, and if it does, there's
30:09
a financial penalty to that on top of the fees that, you know,
30:13
you're going to get stuck with. You know, it's the fact that you
30:16
don't have to worry about having an income you can depend on
30:20
because of the fact that, oh, the clerk said they put the
30:23
payroll in. The manager didn't sign off on
30:26
at this. I don't want to hear that.
30:28
I want to be able to believe that I will be paid an honest
30:33
day's wages for the work that I put in.
30:36
And that means I don't have to sit there and fret and worry
30:39
about whether my paycheck actually gets processed, period.
30:43
And is it, you know, let me tell you something.
30:46
If you get a postal money word, if you get 65% of your gross
30:50
value of your payroll for the week, not including overtime
30:54
because they don't do that. The problem of it is, is that
30:58
most banks take two to three days before clearing postal
31:02
money orders because of the fact that postal money orders are so
31:06
highly counterfeited. So add, add that those extra two
31:11
to three days on there to your fees.
31:13
And, and you know, you imagine being asked, you know, I got, I
31:17
got to move because I couldn't pay my rent.
31:19
And some of the people, they only allow you three to five
31:21
days to be late before they start the eviction notices.
31:24
It's a shame that any of our carriers have to live in those
31:28
circumstances that they have to, you know, relegate themselves
31:31
and their family to apartments there or renter renters that,
31:36
you know, would a victim on a moment's notice.
31:39
From carriers, that's all they can afford is a place like that.
31:43
Especially Table 2 and, and, and even worse, James, is that, you
31:48
know, at this day and age, if you're an RCA, you're probably
31:53
making more than somebody who's a career carrier on table two in
31:57
the first, you know, 2-3, maybe even 4 steps.
32:02
Oh, definitely, I can say yes, definitely.
32:08
I, I, I'm new enough into, you know, not even barely a year and
32:11
a half into being a regular carrier.
32:14
I can definitely tell you there are days and months that I
32:18
missed some of those RCA paychecks.
32:22
I I saw where somebody had posted their their paycheck and
32:25
they ended up after 2 weeks with the health insurance short term
32:30
disability, TSP, this that and the other thing at $850.
32:36
Yeah. For two weeks.
32:38
For two weeks now. Now you better have somebody
32:43
else working in that household because you can't afford rent, a
32:47
car payment, car insurance, and feed your kids on $850 every two
32:53
weeks. No, there's no way in God's
32:56
green creation. I can barely do it on $1200
33:00
every I. I just God bless you all, you
33:03
know. Yeah, I hate to say it did that,
33:06
you know, y'all got screwed over with this table too, but you
33:09
did. And it ain't going to nowhere.
33:12
It'll still be in this contract. And I think that that's maybe
33:16
one of the things that Don is, you know, banking on James that
33:20
if he doesn't get a contract done by August, then we'll go
33:24
for another year with on the basis of what we have to keep
33:27
the people in place and have this contract going and 800 and.
33:32
Something that's actually they talked about that they actually
33:35
want to get it done before anything comes down from the
33:40
administration that's running the country right now.
33:44
Because if they can at least get it signed and put in, it's
33:47
harder for them to remove the contract.
33:51
The fact that we currently are not operating under a contract,
33:55
so to speak, because our contract has expired makes it
33:59
easier for them to just say, oh, well, you're not going to be
34:01
contracted. We're not going to have a
34:03
contract with them anymore. So we got to be careful with
34:07
that as well. Now there's a lot more to it
34:10
than them just saying you're not going to have a contract.
34:13
Yes, yes, there's a lot of lot of pieces at play here.
34:17
There's, it's a lot bigger than any of us combined.
34:21
I mean, it will take if, if anything happens through this,
34:24
it would take the collective effort of every rural carrier in
34:30
America to change it. You're right, Mr. Johnson, the
34:34
the money in in between table one and Table 2 is astronomical.
34:39
It, it is just unbelievable. And yes, we have worked.
34:45
Like I said, you know, my last six years I worked an overburden
34:49
route. I, I, I left in September and my
34:52
route was evaluated 67 hours. You know how much money I got
34:55
paid for all those years of overburdened route?
34:58
Nothing. Nada, nada.
35:01
Thank you for your service, Bill.
35:08
I I had. Free labor bill.
35:11
Yeah, I, I just. You just got paid for it and
35:15
your grievance settlements. I, I, I had a gentleman, they
35:19
came to our union meeting and he and he gave me a, a rap package
35:24
and I'm a carrier in his office. He goes, he, he want to give
35:29
here it is a, a carrier, you know, between, you know, my
35:32
local and the state stuff and, and the podcast.
35:35
So he gave me a bottle of Crown Royal.
35:41
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I just, you know, he included a
35:45
poem in there a, a story about the, the postal worker retiring,
35:50
which I can't repeat in mixed company.
35:52
But anyway, it was really cute. And, you know, it, it ended with
35:57
him putting the dollar in there because after all the years of
36:02
working a man, his wife discussed what to give him.
36:05
And the man said screw him, give him a dollar.
36:09
And that's what she did and and then turn around and made him a
36:12
breakfast and said the breakfast was my idea.
36:15
It's a grievance, go to a dispute.
36:17
I've never heard of that happening.
36:18
No, no, that's that's backwards go from the dispute to be in the
36:22
grievance. But once it's a grievance, it's
36:24
a grievance. You can't turn around and make
36:27
agreements a dispute, but you can turn around and make a
36:29
dispute a grievance. A grievance, Yeah.
36:33
Basically it probably they withdrew it at Step 4.
36:37
That's that's what it sounds like.
36:38
Yeah. Well, that's an interesting
36:41
situation. Yeah, this is not anything I've
36:45
heard of, OK? You know, there's a lot of
36:47
things out there that change or things have get done that I
36:53
don't hear about. Now, Kristen, you can't make
36:55
some of this shit up either. That is true.
36:58
That is very, very, very true. Oh my God.
37:04
Come on, Mr. Johnson, you want to get your disputes from the
37:07
last mini mail survey back? Give me a break.
37:10
Jesus, they're in the mail, OK. There is an office in my local
37:16
who hasn't gotten their disputes back from last spring's mini
37:20
mail survey. They all got routed through
37:22
Palmetto. Yeah, the girl in my office is
37:27
still waiting for the package from before Christmas.
37:29
That's still in Palmetto. And then who was it there?
37:33
Somebody put it on Facebook where they had a thing going
37:35
from Indianapolis to Illinois to Illinois to Indianapolis and
37:38
back. I'm like, are you kidding me?
37:40
Yeah. That's pretty crazy.
37:44
Yeah, it's crazy to think that we have this whole system
37:48
running and nobody can get it to work right.
37:52
Like it was working just fine before you started passing
37:54
something. Yeah, it was.
37:57
Everything was moving just fine through the system.
37:59
Yes, you had hiccups in certain places, but the stuff was still
38:02
getting through. Then you come in and turn around
38:05
and create all this headache and mess with all these different
38:08
changes to things without taking the time to study the current
38:13
system enough to figure it out. You just thought you had a
38:17
better idea to run it and now you screwed it all up.
38:21
And the people that are affected the most by it are the very
38:24
people that keep your place, the customers.
38:28
No, definitely they are. I mean, if it wasn't for my
38:32
customers and checking in with, you know, one of my hardships
38:36
the other day and I ended up leaving.
38:38
I mean, she's had my phone number for a while, but she made
38:41
sure I had hers too. That way, you know, I could call
38:45
her before I had to do a well check or something like that.
38:49
That way I had a way to get a hold of her otherwise.
38:53
And my other hardship who just lost.
38:55
Yeah, the one I brought my Thanksgiving piece to.
38:57
And then, you know, my other one who just recently lost her
39:01
husband, You know, I check in with her every day that she
39:03
comes to the door and ask how she's doing and let her know if
39:06
she needs anything to, you know, let me know, leave a note,
39:09
something. And, you know, she's, she's
39:11
doing really good. So.
39:13
And I try to check in with everybody as much as possible
39:17
and not just my hardships. Yeah, and that's, that's what
39:20
makes this job the best is the customers you deal with on a
39:24
daily basis, you know, daily, weekly.
39:27
However, too many times you interact with them, they're the
39:30
ones who make this job the best job we can ever do.
39:34
And it makes it a career that we can enjoy.
39:38
We're not here for, we're not here for management, although we
39:42
are here for a paycheck. I could tell you there are a lot
39:45
of people who wouldn't do this job if it wasn't for the
39:48
customers that they deal with on a daily basis.
39:51
Yeah, my my customers are probably the main reason why I
39:56
don't want to switch routes when another one would come up to bid
39:59
in my office. You know, I yeah, I ended up
40:01
getting the least desirable route in the office.
40:04
But you know what? I have come to really love my
40:08
route. It can be a pain in the butt at
40:10
times, but you know, it's rewarding.
40:13
Otherwise, you know, you get those light days and you get
40:16
done. And even though it's a 46 Ki.
40:20
I have days where I can be done by 132 o'clock and normally I
40:23
average between 2:30 and 3:30, but there are those days where
40:27
I'm out till 637 o'clock. It happens.
40:31
But you know you take the good with the bad and you know you
40:35
you you create bonds with your customers.
40:38
Right, Bill he. Said he was going to be right
40:39
back. Oh, OK.
40:41
I had to step outside. Yeah.
40:43
Oh, so did I. But that's all I have for the
40:52
night in my head. Yeah, I didn't really have any
40:54
too much else prepared for tonight.
40:57
Like I said, I've got a between the edit book one I'm trying
41:01
still working on and putting the presentation together for and
41:05
then pulling up all the information on pregnancy in the
41:09
workplace for carriers. It'll be my two big projects
41:13
I'll be working on for the near future.
41:15
That that bring brings up an idea there I I I saw or somebody
41:20
posted in APTF duty edit book. They should be trained how to do
41:26
it, so they should be able to do it.
41:27
It's part of the end of shift duties and if if everybody does
41:31
the edit book in a uniform standard, it wouldn't matter if
41:34
it was APTF, an RCA, or even an ARC running mail on Saturday.
41:39
Everybody shouldn't want to do the edit book.
41:41
I'm just if they have, if they're they're Academy trained,
41:45
they can actually run mail on Saturday for our contract.
41:49
So if they're trained in it and everybody does the same, it
41:53
makes it uniform and easy. I mean the the directions for
41:56
doing the edits in the in the red book edit book are in the
42:01
back of the book. So everything should be uniform.
42:04
So everybody should be qualified to be able to make edits.
42:08
And I'm, I'm just going to put it out there.
42:10
I don't have an issue with leave replacements doing the edit
42:14
books, especially if you have, you know, in the instance of a
42:17
designated 74, obviously that's going to be their
42:20
responsibility. 70 nines on an aux route, it's going to be
42:24
their responsibility for that route.
42:26
But any other time, like I said, I had, you know, I was shown by
42:30
my first regular how to do an edit book because they were
42:32
going to be out on detail back when the test offices before Rex
42:37
were doing their initial mapping, she was one of the
42:39
original facilitators that traveled around the state to map
42:42
these other test offices. And so she had shown me briefly
42:47
and but at the same time if they are going to do it and there is
42:52
an understanding with the regular carrier, the regular
42:55
carrier is currently running their route that they least
42:58
communicate because you don't need somebody accidentally
43:04
vacating a box or activating a box or in something in that
43:08
manner that doesn't need to be there.
43:12
I agree with that. And I've, I've told my Subs, you
43:14
know, the big thing that I want them to do is learn the edit
43:18
book. But the biggest thing I want is
43:20
if a name change happens, you know, somebody moves into a
43:24
house or something on on a Saturday and you see that they
43:27
have a new name there, put it in the edit book.
43:30
Because then I don't have to worry about putting the name in
43:32
the edit book after seeing the letter start coming for this
43:35
name because they've gotten the information already with that
43:40
card that they get in the mail saying this is your new address.
43:45
Yeah, my last sub, Stacy, she was real good about, you know,
43:49
people changed because she she knew I would put up, you know,
43:52
the, the vacants and everything all.
43:54
And she would let me know when she ran into somebody who came
43:59
out and said, oh, I'm the new person living there.
44:01
And she'd spell out the name and put the address and everything
44:04
on there. But she wouldn't do the actual
44:06
edit book because she knew how meticulous I was.
44:09
And, you know, she left it to me and I'd, I'd take care of it.
44:12
I'll tape it shut. OK, that's a good one.
44:16
I actually have some boxes on my routes that are zip tied shut
44:19
and they've been zip tied shut for years.
44:22
That tells you how vacant they are.
44:25
When he when he says duct tape, I actually had a guy with a duct
44:30
tape box, but it was holding the box onto the arm and he and he
44:35
didn't want it to make it look like it was just holding it on.
44:38
So he duct taped the entire mailbox so it looked like it was
44:41
the same color. Yeah, Speaking of duct tape, I
44:45
have one box that has been knocked down twice in the last
44:48
week and 1/2 with the plows. And I obviously put them on hold
44:52
much earlier this week because they had put it up, then it went
44:56
down again and then it didn't. So as I started holding their
45:00
packages, I go through yesterday and their boxes back up and it's
45:05
one of those green plastic ones that the top part, when it's not
45:08
locked in, slides off and whatnot.
45:11
And they had it kind of finagled on there from where the plow had
45:15
ripped it off and then black duct tape wrapped all around it
45:19
trying to hold it down there. I'm like, yeah, I'll just drop
45:22
what mail I have in my DPS for them today, but I don't expect
45:27
that to still be standing come Tuesday.
45:35
That reminds me of the lady on Schoneltown I called up,
45:37
complained she wasn't getting mail a couple years ago and the
45:41
supervisor says to me, he says why not?
45:43
And I said because the mailbox is 35 feet into the yard from
45:47
where the snow pal blew it up, you know, and it was 2 foot of
45:51
snow piled up there. Nah, they ain't getting delivery
45:55
and the supervisor didn't believe me so I had to take a
45:57
picture of it. When I went out that day.
46:00
I said now do you want me to make delivery or you know you
46:02
going to believe the customer again?
46:04
Yeah, I have about that's. Doesn't that bother you when the
46:07
supervisor doesn't take your word for it?
46:09
Just automatically thinks we're at wrong.
46:12
Yeah, I have like six holes right now for snow or the boxes
46:16
got knocked down. And I can imagine on Tuesday
46:19
that 6 is going to double, if not triple, because like I said,
46:23
I still have some that I haven't been able to deliver since
46:26
Wednesday that I've been taken out because it hasn't been a lot
46:29
of mail. But yeah, Yeah.
46:34
And then the first time I ever actually used my rubber mallet
46:37
to close a box was yesterday the the snow plows.
46:46
I don't know what's going on with this household.
46:48
I know that the resident that receives the mail that has lived
46:53
there for several, many years has is in a facility now, I'll
46:59
put it that way. And there was somebody else
47:03
staying there, but I don't know what happened to them.
47:06
The mail hasn't been checked in. It's probably going on a couple
47:10
weeks now. No, it's been since the last
47:12
time my sub ran the route before that because he had pushed the
47:15
mail. It's one of those big farm boxes
47:18
and he had pushed the mail to the back and so the box is about
47:23
half full with mail as it is. You're not.
47:25
This is one of those big farm boxes.
47:27
And then of course, snow has filled up the other half because
47:30
with its plows going by, kept knocking the box open.
47:33
So I got to it yesterday and I just kept trying to cut shut it
47:39
and shut it tight. And the one little tab that
47:41
locks it in was bent and I didn't have anything to bend it
47:45
down. So I just grabbed the rubber,
47:46
mail it and pounded it shut. And I'm like, hopefully that
47:49
holds, but yeah, no, it's yeah, it's winter time and it's
47:56
definitely been interesting this past week, especially in my
47:59
area. But all right guys, if you guys
48:02
are ready to wind it down, we'll get let James get back on the
48:06
road without any other. Distractions.
48:10
Yes, thank you. That's the word I was looking
48:11
for. I.
48:13
Just watched. I just watched the train go by
48:15
while you were talking, so I'm good.
48:22
Oh, James, your final thoughts for tonight?
48:25
You know, these regional conferences, I can't speak on
48:28
them enough. And I understand a lot of people
48:31
have apprehensions of dealing with our union national board
48:36
and stuff like that. But the biggest key is, is they
48:39
are paid by us to help us, but we can't help our, they can't
48:46
help us if we don't help ourselves.
48:50
And the big thing that I can give from these conventions is
48:54
grievances are our way of finding out if management is
49:00
wrong and we are right. Filing that grievance on
49:04
something you know is wrong is the only way to get a situation
49:08
actually fixed after you have a discussion with management and
49:14
if your stewards are not responding to you, every single
49:19
NRO that I've talked to at the regional conferences has said
49:23
pass it up the chain. I passed information up the
49:27
chain for people who reach out to me so that they can get
49:30
assistance from the union. You can do that yourself as
49:33
well. Follow your chain of command
49:36
through the union process from your local area Stewart to your
49:40
ADR, your Dr., your NRO. And if you have to go up to the
49:44
director of Stewart Operations, then the director of Labor
49:47
relations, excuse me, but we, they can't help you if you can't
49:53
help yourself. So take care of yourself first
49:57
because in order for them to be working for you and show you
50:02
biggest part of all of this, we have to all start working
50:06
together as one cohesive union. And until we do, management will
50:12
still run over us. It's time for us to stand up and
50:16
show management. We're all in this together,
50:19
Bill. Well, James, safe travels you
50:23
and let me expound a little bit on what you've said.
50:27
He's right that we have to stand up, but here to me is the most
50:31
critical aspect of it. If you don't stand up for
50:34
yourself in in any and every situation that affects the
50:39
craft, there is no record of it ever happening.
50:42
It's as if you know you're invisible, invisible victim in
50:47
the situation. If you stand up now and and you
50:51
you push the paperwork, whether it be a grievance, whether it be
50:55
EEO, whether it be with National Labor Relations Board, it
50:59
doesn't matter. There's a paper trail this show
51:02
that there is a consistent, persistent and dedicated
51:08
activity among management to persist along the lines
51:13
violating our contract, violating us as human beings and
51:17
valued employees. By standing up for yourself you
51:22
have created a trail that not only can an EEO or an NRLB, but
51:27
also the union itself can keep track of in regards to how
51:32
disputes and grievances are handled.
51:35
By creating that paper trail, you have now entered into
51:39
evidence the fact that this is the matter.
51:42
The Post Office is treating us this.
51:45
This is how they relegate the carriers, the most important
51:50
people in the service, to substandard levels because they
51:54
feel they can walk all over you. And if you don't stand up
51:57
yourself, they will persist in this attitude.
52:01
But without you standing up for yourself, for others, nobody
52:06
above your office level will ever find out what's going on.
52:09
And nobody such as a ADRADR or anybody in the national board
52:15
will be able to do anything for you either because of the fact
52:18
that it's not a matter of record.
52:21
And I don't care how disgruntled you are.
52:25
Dissatisfied with our national leadership where the National
52:29
Steward system don't quit. Twitters never win.
52:34
If you don't make the effort, you never have a chance to
52:37
succeed. So put yourself out there, stand
52:40
up, take a stand and let your voice be heard.
52:44
We've got some more inclement weather coming in.
52:46
Thankfully tomorrow you're off except for your Amazon delivery
52:50
people. God bless you everybody be safe.
52:53
It's been a gnarly type winner off and on and God bless you
52:59
all. I mean, you're out there doing a
53:01
job. You're going to get smacked in
53:03
the face on Tuesday with double of everything.
53:06
Be safe, be professional, be efficient.
53:10
Make sure you deliver yourself home to your loved ones because
53:13
you are the most important delivery of the day.
53:15
Kristen. Thank you guys.
53:18
Yeah, sorry, I was fighting back a sneeze there real quick.
53:20
So yeah, definitely you guys, you know, standing up for
53:25
yourself is the biggest thing. Standing up for your coworkers
53:28
if you can, you know, encouraging your coworkers to
53:30
stand up for themselves, letting them know that you have their
53:33
back of the if need be, you know, following that chain of
53:36
command. I can't recommend enough.
53:39
You know, I, I've had other, you know, people reach out saying I,
53:44
you know, I've reached out to my Adrs, my DRS.
53:47
I've still getting the runaround on this that another.
53:50
And you know, hey, then you need to continue going up contact
53:54
your NRO, you know, and if they don't know who that is, I'm
53:58
happy to look it up, say here, here's your NRO and here's your
54:01
the contact information. So, you know, no problems with
54:04
helping you with, you know, finding who to contact and
54:08
making sure that your issues can hopefully get handled properly.
54:13
So yes, thank goodness we are off tomorrow.
54:17
Thank you to all the leave replacements that will be out
54:20
delivering the Amazon or casing flats up.
54:23
I know in my office we're not delivering.
54:26
They're just casing the flats up for us that come in.
54:30
But other than that, guys, stay safe out there.
54:32
Take precautions. This weather's been crazy.
54:36
I don't even want to know what Tuesday's going to look like,
54:40
even weather wise for me at this point.
54:42
It's been an interesting week. But as you know, as a reminder,
54:45
guys, you stay safe out there. Stay hydrated.
54:48
Even though it's winter, hydration is definitely key and
54:52
stay vigilant, especially with this weird, crazy weather going
54:54
on. And on that note, guys, we'll be
54:57
back next week. I'm sure James will then have
54:59
his notes to talk a little bit more about SWAC.
55:02
And yeah, and I'll still try and finish up my two big projects
55:08
I'm working on for future episodes.
55:10
So hang tight guys, and we'll be back next week.
55:25
I'm still trying to figure out what a pink bong has to do with
55:27
her fingerprints.