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State Conventions, Route Adjustments and More · United We Scan

• 0:35
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:38
  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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  Please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 1:07
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 1:11
  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
• 1:14
  Episode 70. Wow, We're getting up there,
• 1:19
  guys. Tonight we're going to cover
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  some state conventions, possible route cuts and, you know, or as
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  we veer off the tracks and discuss other stuff.
• 1:29
  So how was your week, James? Oh it was good, it was good.
• 1:35
  Normal week at the post office. It looks like they're starting
• 1:39
  to do the benchmarking again through management because my
• 1:43
  postmaster came over and asked me about my unscanable parcels
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  and why I had letter WSS when it was in my DPS.
• 1:52
  And I'm like it says in the manual, if it's not all in the
• 1:56
  DPSI can input it. If I get a little pack of it, I
• 2:00
  can input it. So little bit of a deal there.
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  No issues, no discipline, no PDI, nothing from that.
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  But yeah, it sounds like management's starting to
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  benchmark on that. And of course, listening to my
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  Sunday Amazon delivery carriers complaining about all the
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  problems with the current system that we'll get into later on in
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  this episode. And the usual rigmarole of BSI
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  did file all my I filed 11 points of dispute on my 4241
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  because they were due on the 19th.
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  So I got all of those. And of course, my supervisor was
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  quite unhappy with the amount of paperwork I had to give them to
• 2:45
  do. But that's their job.
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  They have to do it for us. And that's to be forwarded on to
• 2:51
  my district Rep. So she'll probably not be happy
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  with the amount of paperwork either.
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  And of course, we know Michigan District 1, whom is not going to
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  be happy with any paperwork coming back from disputes.
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  Kristen will attest to that one. But then got, I know your, your
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  district manager's better than mine in in resolving disputes.
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  Yeah, 'cause your disputes were done for the first mini mail
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  survey. They are just didn't come back
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  until after the second disputes came back.
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  Then our first disputes came back after that.
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  But yeah, it's, it was an interesting week overall.
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  Heavy mail volume on several days that made me happy.
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  I could say that I now have a spreadsheet to track my radar
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  report information on much more thoroughly.
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  I created one that I can do a rotating calendar on so I can
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  keep track of my volume as a per the radar report.
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  But other than that, got to the weekend and ended up having to
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  do some home improvement shopping Saturday and some home
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  improvement repairs on Sunday. Kind of cold this weekend, but
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  that's OK, it's not doing the white stuff so I'm happy about
• 4:02
  that. Looking forward to another fun
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  week at work. How about you Toasty?
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  How was your week? Started getting back to normal
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  mail volume, but we're also getting the elections coming up
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  because of a runoff. And of course that's always fun
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  when you have two going at it and spending as much money as
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  they can to throw mud at each other.
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  Other than that, packages are staying steady, about 1:20 to
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  1:40 every day. And then DPS is coming in.
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  I'm about to open up two more authorized dismounts.
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  They're getting ready to close on those houses that they just
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  finally built. So again, I won't get paid for
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  that for another 5 1/2 months, but it is what it is until we
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  get another form of a 4003. Same old, same old.
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  Honestly, not too much to to add to this week for me.
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  How about you, Bill? Oh, I had fun causing trouble at
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  the office, as usual. When, when you ask for the radar
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  reports and they tell you, oh, well, your supervisor's only
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  here till 10, and they're not available till after 11.
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  OK, print, print. Today's tomorrow morning when
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  you come in. What's so hard about this,
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  folks? It it's not rocket science.
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  We have a route that is vacant and should be put up.
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  Forbid, but because we are having three of our routes,
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  myself and two others being cut because we're overburdened,
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  they're holding it off so that in case they they want to or
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  have to, they want to be able to build the other route up.
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  And they're all sitting there just shaking our heads going if
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  you knew where this route was, you know, none of us could
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  affect that. So you know, you're wasting your
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  time. And that'll be agreed by the PTF
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  who's next in line. Parcels are nominal, mail is
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  fluctuating, Mondays are always heavy and then Peters out
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  through the end of the week. The biggest problem is that one
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  week they're telling the Subs come in on 10:00 and then three
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  weeks later they turn around and change it back to 830 after such
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  a big stink was raised, especially by the fact that 14
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  city carriers called out last Sunday.
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  So they had a supervisor there till 9:00 last Sunday, I think.
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  I think they caught on to what was going on and changed it
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  back. So didn't take them that long to
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  learn. But it it was a stupid lesson
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  that needn't be taught. But what can I say as a manager
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  other than that we have a new steward elected in our office.
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  He'll be trained on the 29th and 30th I believe, which is a quick
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  turn around. They wanted us to get the
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  election in in the timely fashion so he could get to
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  training quickly. I, I think that, you know, we
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  have an opportunity here, you know, between the ADR, the
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  former ADR and myself to help coach him up on any issues that
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  he has. You know, he, he feels
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  comfortable enough to come to either one of us for information
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  or guidance. And I look forward to helping
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  him. And once I'm uncertified, then I
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  can go back and bump his ass out of there.
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  Undecertified is that, Is that a word?
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  Undecertified. Something.
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  Like that. OK, well.
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  You have have the decertification lifted.
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  OK, I like I like undecertified other than that the weather is
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  getting mild here and it it's nice to see the the flowers and
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  trees are all popping. All the animals are coming out.
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  It's nice to get back into a a nice weather pattern.
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  I don't know about you guys, but you know it.
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  It's been enough rain here that we're done for the year.
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  How about you, Kristen? How was your week?
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  Oh, it wasn't too bad. Monday was a Monday as it
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  normally is lately, and I was off Tuesday for my daughter's OB
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  appointment and then back to work Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
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  and it was fairly average too Exciting going on for me at
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  work, that's for sure. Other than that, yeah, been a
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  fairly decent week so I can't complain too much.
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  Got what, two weeks left before mid states?
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  Well, a week and 1/2 for me. I did take Thursday off, so I
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  think I have to pick somebody up from the airport Thursday
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  afternoon. Thank you.
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  You're welcome. But yeah, no, it hasn't been too
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  bad, I said. It's just uneventful week for
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  me. No, my daughter's been thinking
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  about applying after she turns 18 in October and my postmaster
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  let her come in one day when she came to pick me up and see what
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  the back of the office looks like and they explained the
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  cases to her and all that stuff. And postmaster was like, oh it
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  would be so great to have you, blah blah blah blah blah.
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  You know, they are at my face at the very beginning.
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  She knows better. So yeah, I had my local meeting
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  on Wednesday. I am still the local vice
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  president. I have been selected to chair
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  the 2026 state convention, or at least Co chair depending on who
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  the other county unit that we're Co hosting with puts up on their
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  end as well. So I definitely have my work cut
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  out for me coming up for state convention for 2026.
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  It was just sad though, to see a local annual meeting.
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  I thought I was going to have several people from my office.
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  I only ended up with one person. My my RCA came.
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  It was us. Three board members, one
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  retiree, my RCA, and one person from another neighboring office
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  and my daughter. That was it.
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  You're lucky, you're lucky ours are ours.
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  We actually had a quite a a few people that have never shown up
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  to a meeting before, including one that's a part time 2O4B.
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  Yeah, it was, I mean it, it's sad that we only get 3 attendees
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  outside of board members for our annual local, but yeah, it is
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  what it is. I mean, I tried, I I tried to
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  get some other Co workers to go and they all said they would and
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  then they didn't show up so. Well, it it doesn't help with
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  all the extra work hours that we all have to do and and then
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  travel to a meeting afterwards doesn't help things either, you
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  know, for a lot of people. It doesn't.
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  Yeah. It's just how it goes sometimes.
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  You know you can lead a horse to water, but always make them
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  drink. So people were asking my comment
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  that I made earlier about scanning it.
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  If I get some of it in my Hotmail case, and I'm going by
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  the Q&A from the NRLCA, numbers 120 and numbers 121. 120 is the
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  shortest one. It says what if part of the WSS
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  was run in DPS and there are a couple bundles left to deliver,
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  It would be scanned as WSS. 121 says WSS guidance states to only
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  enter these if the bundle has not been processed on automation
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  equipment. How are carriers to determine
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  which bundles have been through automation equipment and which
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  have not? That simply means the mailing
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  was not processed in your DPS mail.
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  AWSS mailing is 1 presented in bundles or tubs that has not
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  been run with your DPS mail. So that is where I am bringing
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  that up that if it's outside of my DPS I'm going to put it in.
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  And I'm not talking about it being in the NLM mail, I'm
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  talking about it actually being outside of it. 999 and NLM do
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  not count, but if they have it in the raw tray then it's a
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  bundle in the raw tray. Bless you, whoever that was.
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  Told you the trees and flowers are popping, baby.
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  Oh, they offer. Yeah.
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  And Speaking of springtime and things coming up, state
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  conventions. We know some states have already
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  had theirs. We know that the national
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  leadership has put out what national officers are attending
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  which state conventions. I wanted to go about the state
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  conventions a little bit. Tell people about the process of
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  state conventions, if they're going, what to expect when they
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  get there. Who wants to start with that?
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  Toasty you. You've been to 1.
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  No, I have not. But I do want to remind everyone
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  that if you do want to run for national delegate, you have to
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  get in your nomination forms 50 days before your state
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  convention. So those that have already had
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  their state convention, unfortunately you can't turn
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  that in. But for those that do have,
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  let's see what's today. I think it would be like June
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  10th, June 10th or later. You can still turn in your
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  nomination forms for delegate, national delegate.
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  Now a reminder that 50 days is from the day it's in the PO Box.
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  They shut that PO Box down the day after.
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  They do not accept any ballots, nomination ballots after that
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  moment. So it has to be in that box.
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  And we know from experience that our postal system is not doing
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  too well of getting it from the office to the other office.
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  And I'm not faulting the mail handlers, I'm not faulting the
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  clerks, I'm faulting the processes that move it through
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  the system. Make sure if you want to be a
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  delegate, you get it out early. And if you're think it's going
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  to be within a few days of that, send it express.
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  That's the only way you're going to ensure that it could possibly
• 13:57
  get there in time, because apparently priority Mail doesn't
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  work either. No it does not.
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  I went to send in a state delegate nomination form and I
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  knew I was cutting it close. It was due by April.
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  First received by it was the Thursday before.
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  Honestly, I should have threw in a stamp on it.
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  I sent it priority with expected date of Saturday to get there
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  the 30th. It did not arrive until seven
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  days after I sent it in. I'm really thinking I should
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  have just had a clerk hand stamp brown date that envelope and I
• 14:34
  could have drove it to where it needed it to go in two hours.
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  Hell, you could have had a hand stamped held at your house for
• 14:40
  two days and still gotten it there faster.
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  Yes, I, yes, I could have. I really could have.
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  So, so yeah, it's unfortunately that person did not make it in.
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  And I was hoping they would have been at the meeting on Wednesday
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  'cause if they had, we would have, I would have made a motion
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  to pay him to go to state as a non delegate just to kind of
• 15:00
  help him out 'cause I am the only paid delegate for my county
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  for state convention. Unfortunately, he did not show
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  up at the meeting like I thought he was going to.
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  So it'll be toss up in the air to find out if he's actually
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  going to go to state convention. But yes, otherwise, yeah, I
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  would definitely, if you still have time to get it in,
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  definitely if it's gotten close, earn the money and express it.
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  Because if it doesn't get there when it's supposed to, you can
• 15:29
  always follow the claim and get your money back.
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  What do you expect when you go to state convention, Kristen,
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  what's the first thing that you expect to see at a state
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  convention? First thing I expect to see at a
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  state convention. The bar.
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  Yep. I usually have my own personal
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  one set up in my room. I'm cheap like that.
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  But no, it's, well, obviously I'm looking forward to seeing
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  the rest of my carrier's friends from across the state.
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  But you always have an assigned national board member attending
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  the state convention. Yeah, you tend to.
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  It just depends on the state and how they do.
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  I mean, I know how Michigan does it.
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  You know, we have some vendors we have, you know, all that good
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  stuff. But in my, I think what I look
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  for the most is resolutions. I really look forward to what
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  resolutions have come in from other counties, whether they're
• 16:33
  going to be state related or up for national consideration as
• 16:39
  well. It's just, oh, how do I even
• 16:44
  kind of put it in words, really. Admitted I set the standard in
• 16:48
  2022 for state resolutions with that 3 pager.
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  As a non delegate, yes. As a non delegate, yeah.
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  And that's another thing. And you had people going to bat
• 17:00
  for you at National for it, 'cause I remember that and
• 17:03
  nobody. Wanted to do I believe it was so
• 17:05
  long I believe it was Julia that that went really to bat for me
• 17:09
  on that if I'm not mistaken right yes she did yes she.
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  Did. The only my district Rep.
• 17:14
  She made was that saying that you were an RCA that wrote it?
• 17:17
  But but yeah, no, she did. I remember that one.
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  Yeah, but that's another part of it.
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  You know, if you have your local units that pass up resolutions,
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  but there is also a chance for resolutions to be heard on the
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  floor at state convention. And in my case, in 2022, when I
• 17:45
  put that resolution up as a non delegate, I had to find somebody
• 17:51
  to step up and suspend the rules for a non delegate to present a
• 17:56
  resolution. I luckily found that person in
• 17:59
  our current director of Labor relations, Bridget Boziak.
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  She stepped UPS, asked to suspend the rules, got a vote on
• 18:06
  it, and I was able to present my resolution.
• 18:10
  Now, if you're a delegate, it's a lot easier.
• 18:12
  There are caveats to every part of it, so check with your state
• 18:16
  constitution to make sure you can do that.
• 18:19
  But it's a great place to learn what the state wants as a whole
• 18:26
  with those resolutions. So if you learn a lot about
• 18:29
  what's going on in other parts of your state through that, plus
• 18:34
  there's seminars and trainings and stuff that go on at state
• 18:40
  convention. Information is passed down.
• 18:43
  There's a lot to take in. Do you agree, Bill?
• 18:47
  Well, in Pennsylvania, our state convention doesn't officially
• 18:52
  start until Monday, but often or more not Friday, the preceding
• 18:58
  Friday, Saturday, the board for the the state of Pennsylvania
• 19:03
  will be in there and they'll be doing resolution and work like
• 19:08
  that on top of another committee that'll be going in for the not
• 19:13
  the for tellers, but the mileage per diem and Sundays are days
• 19:18
  for information as well as we got back into the bowling used
• 19:23
  to be every Sunday before the convention, they'd have bowling
• 19:27
  nights for families, which is, you know, great fun.
• 19:30
  Monday would start out and you know, at the typical, you know,
• 19:33
  pomp and circumstance for the first half of the day,
• 19:36
  discharging the juniors to their programs and everything.
• 19:41
  Tuesday is the the brunt of the business aspect of it.
• 19:45
  There are two dinners. There's a kind of meet and greet
• 19:50
  before one of the dinners so that you can get enough alcohol
• 19:53
  in you to tolerate the people you're going to meet.
• 19:57
  And Wednesday is the close of business, finishing off
• 20:01
  resolutions, the general elections for the state, off
• 20:07
  officers, and then, you know, your closing remarks.
• 20:11
  But again, like James said, there are a ton of seminars that
• 20:15
  you need to pay attention to. And some of them start before
• 20:20
  the actual convention business. So if you want to participate in
• 20:24
  them, be advised to make sure you check your itinerary from
• 20:29
  your state out because of the fact that there is a lot of
• 20:32
  stuff going on for the official card of your convention.
• 20:36
  Yep, ours starts Sunday evening. We do auxiliary puts on a
• 20:42
  memorial service for the carriers that we've lost the
• 20:45
  previous year and we also do caucus on Sunday evenings
• 20:51
  following the memorial for those running for state board.
• 20:55
  But yeah, that's all we have prior to official business
• 20:58
  starting on Monday. And yeah, but it usually
• 21:01
  throughout the weekend, the resolutions committee and the
• 21:08
  all the other different committees that we have set up
• 21:11
  to do, you know, the per diem and and all that stuff, they'll
• 21:15
  come in I think usually on Saturday, Friday or Saturday and
• 21:22
  get that stuff taken care of. And don't forget the election
• 21:26
  committee doing the nominate the ballot counting for national
• 21:31
  delegate, making sure that they count on every ballot that's
• 21:35
  come in for for from your state for national delegate.
• 21:40
  And that's that'll be a relief at your state convention.
• 21:43
  Yeah, In Pennsylvania, we do a separate date for that.
• 21:47
  And you're everybody gets a notice of when they're going to
• 21:49
  actually do the separation counting of the ballots for the
• 21:53
  National Convention. And they notify the membership
• 21:56
  that, you know, if you want to be present, it'll be held at
• 21:59
  this time at this place a lot in a lot.
• 22:02
  But it's it's not done at the state convention itself.
• 22:06
  There's too much more going on. Yeah.
• 22:08
  Our, our, our ballot committee will get it taken care of just
• 22:11
  prior to usually I think they do it Sunday during the day and
• 22:16
  then that way we have the list of the delegates by Monday after
• 22:22
  lunch. Again, I could be wrong.
• 22:24
  I haven't personally been on any of the committees to know what
• 22:28
  days that they actually do it for my state.
• 22:30
  So I can't say for sure. I'm just going by what I have
• 22:35
  noticed in the past. I always get plugged on the
• 22:39
  mileage and per diem committee. Will say this.
• 22:42
  If you want to know kind of what national convention's like, go
• 22:47
  to your state convention. It's a baby version of National
• 22:50
  Convention. Definitely a baby version.
• 22:52
  I would say probably like only nationalists.
• 22:55
  I mean, you're going from having like maybe 100 and 5200
• 22:59
  attendees to having 1500 to 2000 attendees at National
• 23:03
  Convention. Yeah, and each.
• 23:05
  State does things a little differently depending on their
• 23:07
  state constitution. As long as their state
• 23:09
  constitution falls in within the guidelines of the national side,
• 23:12
  then they're OK. So yeah, you know, each state
• 23:15
  they. Can have their little.
• 23:17
  Yes, has their own constitutions, bylaws, board
• 23:21
  policies, all that stuff. And that, you know, that bothers
• 23:24
  me a lot because of the fact that the states try the mirror
• 23:28
  the national, you know, convention rules, the the rules
• 23:33
  as far as their constitutions are concerned.
• 23:36
  This is why we have separate state so that no one entity is
• 23:42
  controlling what the other 50 plus the Guam and Puerto Rico
• 23:48
  offer in regards to what they do with their constitution rules
• 23:53
  and amendment. That that's that's why you have
• 23:55
  the 50 plus individual voices, because if you turn around and
• 24:01
  you homogenize everything, then you're drowning out the
• 24:04
  individuals voices in the and and that's, you know, that's,
• 24:08
  that really galls me that everybody just tries to mirror
• 24:11
  the national people. I think it depends on what it
• 24:14
  is. I mean in some circumstances I,
• 24:16
  I, I don't mind how if things get done pretty much the same
• 24:21
  across the board. I mean, when it comes to like
• 24:24
  elections or certain business type aspect, I mean, I don't
• 24:28
  mind it. I kind of like the uniformity a
• 24:31
  little bit with certain things, not everything, but definitely
• 24:34
  with, with, with certain things. I mean, that's, I mean, we've
• 24:37
  got some resolutions coming up for our state that will, you
• 24:40
  know, to potentially change the way that our, our voting power
• 24:45
  is at our state convention right now.
• 24:47
  You know, we vote the, the, our, our county unit strength.
• 24:51
  And if we have 12, you know, can I have 12 delegates to state
• 24:55
  where we only have two? Well, we're splitting those
• 24:59
  votes. We're wanting to try and make it
• 25:01
  a little bit more because now you're looking at people with
• 25:03
  larger counties. You know, you've got one county
• 25:05
  that has 400 people in there as a, as a voting strength, but
• 25:09
  other counties only have, and they only send four or five
• 25:12
  delegates. And you've got other counties
• 25:15
  that may only have, you know, 120 or whatnot, and they may
• 25:19
  only send one or two people. Well, now you were trying to
• 25:22
  even it up, as you know, one delegate, one vote, rather than
• 25:25
  voting your your, your local strength.
• 25:28
  Because you could have one person turning around and voting
• 25:32
  and squashing out three other counties, which at the time they
• 25:37
  were created, this, it was meant to help the smaller counties out
• 25:43
  that had more people that were less willing to travel and go
• 25:47
  places and do things like conventions.
• 25:50
  And so they could not be overrun by bigger counties with larger
• 25:56
  rural carrier population. And now they've turned around
• 26:00
  and merged multiples of these counties.
• 26:03
  The other larger counties are now smaller on rural because of
• 26:07
  how much city's taken over. It's becoming to the point where
• 26:12
  it needs to be one person, one vote, because even the larger
• 26:15
  counties are having less attendees.
• 26:18
  Yeah, I mean. They're talking about merging
• 26:20
  two of our count two of our units together that are already
• 26:24
  merged units and merging them into a larger unit, and that
• 26:28
  larger unit will squash 4 county units by themselves.
• 26:33
  Have you put in a resolution for that?
• 26:35
  It's in several counties have put it forward.
• 26:38
  Yeah, cool. I mean it's like, you know, like
• 26:40
  for instance, we could have 12 delegates from my county.
• 26:43
  We have two, we have two going. That's it.
• 26:45
  I mean my old local, you know, we could have I think 14.
• 26:50
  I think we usually average 6-6 or seven and they still average
• 26:55
  around six going. But they're also another unit
• 26:59
  that might possibly merge with another one if.
• 27:01
  Mine has 24, mine has 24. Could be 5.
• 27:05
  It is five this year. So yeah, it's, it's just, you
• 27:09
  know, I would love to see more people be able and want to take
• 27:13
  the time to get actively involved and.
• 27:15
  I think would love to see more carriers working their their
• 27:19
  routes and not being so overburdened that they're too
• 27:23
  tired to be able to participate in this or get out so late they
• 27:26
  can't make the drive to it to attend these meetings.
• 27:30
  You know, I don't really have that issue in my office per SE.
• 27:34
  Again, you know, every office is different, every routes
• 27:36
  different, but it, it, you know, in general, I, I, I would like
• 27:39
  to see more people get, get active, be active.
• 27:43
  Now It's and, and, and I'm going to say this and James can
• 27:46
  probably relate in the meetings that he's gone to in the last
• 27:49
  couple years. It's the same people at all the
• 27:52
  boosters and state conventions and it's the same people that
• 27:55
  are the delegates to National. I think we had seven new people
• 28:00
  at Spring Booster this year. If I'm not.
• 28:03
  Mistaken. Yeah, you do get a few new
• 28:05
  faces, you know each. Time around, but what I really
• 28:08
  would like to see is them recognize the second time
• 28:11
  attendees, the people that have come once and came back a second
• 28:15
  time because that's a more telling number.
• 28:18
  Yeah, I agree. I wouldn't mind seeing that just
• 28:20
  to see that they, yes, they are being actively involved and they
• 28:23
  are coming back again. That would be nice.
• 28:26
  Or to see the first timers that make it to boosters be able to
• 28:29
  make state conventions or area conferences as well.
• 28:33
  And I know I haven't attended as many area conferences as I have
• 28:37
  state but conventions, but I have been regularly going to mid
• 28:43
  states since Cleveland. And I've been involved with them
• 28:48
  ever since I learned about them because I didn't actually have
• 28:51
  much union participation for a while until I started looking
• 28:54
  for information myself. Which is a sad fact in in this
• 28:57
  day and age of technology and and ability that many people
• 29:02
  don't have access to that information right off the bat
• 29:05
  straight out of the Academy or even when they're on the
• 29:08
  workroom floor. It's sad it, you know, it's
• 29:12
  reflected in the same way that people vote for the new
• 29:15
  contract. You're, you're averaging less
• 29:17
  than 26% of the ballots are returned. 1/4 of of the the
• 29:23
  Craft are dictating what the other 75% are getting for their
• 29:28
  raising. Order of the voting craft
• 29:31
  quarter of the union members, not even the non union members.
• 29:35
  I actually, I actually read a study on that.
• 29:38
  There was a study that was published and there was a
• 29:40
  sociology study. It was called the Werewolf and
• 29:43
  Villagers game. And in the game, two people
• 29:47
  would be a werewolf. The rest of the people would be
• 29:49
  villagers. They each got a card and the two
• 29:52
  people that got a werewolf card when it came to night had to
• 29:55
  select a single villager per werewolf that was alive to kill
• 30:00
  that night. And then the next morning the
• 30:03
  villagers had to figure out who was the werewolf.
• 30:07
  Well, mind you, in the daytime the werewolves are a villager.
• 30:11
  And the game ends when either both werewolves or all the
• 30:15
  villagers are dead. And they found out in all the
• 30:19
  tests they did with that they never could kill both
• 30:22
  werewolves. And the point behind that is an
• 30:25
  informed minority can control the uninformed majority.
• 30:32
  Absolutely do that all the time. Turn the news on.
• 30:35
  And that's that's why we tell everybody, get informed, get
• 30:40
  educated, learn your stuff, get involved, be part of this craft,
• 30:45
  be part of this union vote, use your voice, file grievances.
• 30:51
  What do we say, Bill? File, file, file and smile.
• 30:56
  Exactly. Yeah, I kind of have to agree.
• 30:58
  I mean, on the retiree thing at National, don't get me wrong,
• 31:02
  there are some awesome retirees fighting for the craft to this
• 31:06
  day and fighting for the good stuff for the craft for this
• 31:09
  day. I'm not excluding those, but
• 31:12
  there are some that just need to hang the hat up.
• 31:15
  And you know, and I do know of some that are, you know, I, you
• 31:19
  know, that have I'm retired, I'm done.
• 31:22
  I'm stepping down and you know, and of those carriers that I've
• 31:25
  gotten to know over the years, I look at them and say, I thank
• 31:28
  you, I will miss you, but thank you.
• 31:30
  You know, I'm going to step down and let the next person be able
• 31:33
  to have that opportunity. And I I have full respect for
• 31:36
  them 100%. Well, how about my case where I
• 31:40
  have a retired state pastor who was retired from the Craft for
• 31:46
  15 years and now he's retired, retired and still goes to this
• 31:52
  national conventions with his wife who was never a correct
• 31:55
  employee. Yeah, you know, it's, it's a
• 32:00
  touchy subject with the retirees.
• 32:02
  I do have to agree. I mean, I think it just kind of
• 32:05
  was a little unnerving for one National Convention when they're
• 32:10
  recognizing the leave replacements and they're
• 32:13
  recognizing these people and these people, and when they ask
• 32:15
  all the retirees to stand up and 2/3 of the pension floor stood
• 32:19
  up, that to me can be a little disheartening at times.
• 32:22
  But it goes back to my point that a lot of people don't have
• 32:26
  the time, the money, or the conviction to attend these
• 32:32
  things. They haven't gotten so angry at
• 32:35
  the system that they want to help make a difference.
• 32:38
  They haven't gotten so passionate about their craft to
• 32:42
  want to make a difference. And that's what we're trying to
• 32:45
  instill in everybody that listens to this is we want that
• 32:48
  passion, we want that conviction, We want that desire
• 32:52
  to make this craft better. And it starts with and ends with
• 32:59
  every single rural letter carrier out there.
• 33:02
  I don't care if you're an ARC, an RCA regular carrier, or
• 33:07
  retired, or even a PTFI. Missed you guys in the middle
• 33:11
  there, but I'll put you at the end.
• 33:12
  You guys are the reason to make a difference in this craft.
• 33:19
  You are the reason we're here on this podcast.
• 33:21
  You're the reason we're running for national office, because we
• 33:25
  want to make a difference for the better of the craft, and you
• 33:30
  guys can make a difference too. If you're a retiree, your job as
• 33:36
  a retiree at these conventions is to make the job better for
• 33:42
  the current employees there so they can become retired rural
• 33:48
  letter carriers. If you're a regular carrier,
• 33:51
  your job. Mentor and a support system for
• 33:55
  those that are the up and comings.
• 33:57
  Yes, and the regular carriers are there to show an RCA or APTF
• 34:03
  how to be a regular rural carrier.
• 34:06
  ARCS. I'm sorry there's no career path
• 34:09
  in arcs, but your job is to be there and support the ARC
• 34:14
  system. And Rcas and regulars need
• 34:17
  support the ARC system because they take a load off of us.
• 34:21
  They take a load off of us by taking parcels for us, so we
• 34:25
  have to support them too. Every member of this craft is
• 34:29
  important. It doesn't matter where you land
• 34:32
  in the craft, you are important and making this better for
• 34:36
  everybody is what we need to do. And to go back into the local
• 34:41
  meetings, like what Chris was saying that the, the poor
• 34:44
  attendance factor, this, this is what leads to the local chapters
• 34:49
  having to combine with each other, get enough people to go
• 34:52
  to the means just to fill out a quorum to make the meeting
• 34:57
  legitimate. And that therefore, if you're
• 35:00
  combining with another district, an adjoining district, now
• 35:04
  you're going to have to travel further to go to the local
• 35:06
  meeting. Unless they put it somewhere,
• 35:09
  you know, dead center of every, then everybody's got to travel
• 35:12
  to that meeting, making it more inconvenient to attend the
• 35:15
  meeting. And I don't want to hear about
• 35:17
  inconvenience. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a
• 35:19
  lady in our office who for years didn't want to, wanted to
• 35:23
  attend, but couldn't attend because she had kids that she
• 35:26
  had to get home and feed and all that.
• 35:28
  Well, you know what? Bring your kids there.
• 35:31
  We'll feed them. They can sit in the back, draw a
• 35:33
  collar while you attend the meeting.
• 35:35
  And she showed up for six years until she transferred out.
• 35:39
  You make it possible. You make it work for the craft.
• 35:42
  We didn't do anything extraordinary for it, but we did
• 35:46
  make allowances. And if that's what was needed to
• 35:49
  get her to attend and participate in in her future,
• 35:53
  her paycheck, God damn it, we're doing it.
• 35:56
  Hey, Ruby went with me to my local this time around, you
• 35:59
  know, she went with me to the spring booster.
• 36:01
  You know, she kind of hung out in the room because she wasn't
• 36:04
  feeling all that good, but she came down for banquet and
• 36:07
  whatnot. And she will be joining us at
• 36:09
  mid states. So, you know, it's I kind of I
• 36:13
  kind of enjoy it because she really is thinking about
• 36:15
  applying when she turns 18 in October.
• 36:18
  And, you know, she'll be two months past having a kid and so
• 36:22
  be right about time to, you know, get back into the
• 36:24
  workforce. And she will pretty much have
• 36:27
  everything union under her belt but National Convention only
• 36:31
  because her due date's the day before it starts.
• 36:34
  And she will definitely have a seeing on, you know, she's
• 36:36
  already seeing on how the union side of things work.
• 36:39
  So she's, you know, already kind of preparing herself.
• 36:43
  You know, she's like, well, I want to go to National
• 36:45
  Convention next year with you. I'm like, well, if you're hired
• 36:48
  in, you can go with us. Definitely, for sure, you know,
• 36:51
  maybe even get you on the delegate ballot, which, you
• 36:53
  know, if she decides that she does want the job and she gets
• 36:56
  in as an RCA, then I will definitely nominate her for a
• 37:00
  National Convention. But you know, it's, you know, I,
• 37:02
  I want to try, I trying to get the new ones, the young ones up
• 37:07
  and coming. I mean, I was honored that my
• 37:09
  RCA did come to the local meeting and he wants to do more
• 37:13
  after just attending it and seeing, you know, I did put two
• 37:17
  resolutions through. I we were talking about, you
• 37:20
  know, the chairs position for 2026 state convention that my
• 37:23
  local's Co hosting and we did our, you know, our annual
• 37:27
  elections for our board members. You know, he saw me in action on
• 37:32
  that side of stuff and it really kind of piqued his interest.
• 37:35
  So, you know, it maybe come down to maybe he'll end up going to
• 37:39
  state convention with me instead of the other RCA.
• 37:41
  We'll see what happens. You know, I don't know yet, but
• 37:44
  I, I really need, I really think the new ones should really start
• 37:48
  getting involved with the changes that are happening.
• 37:51
  And as you know, anybody though, get involved.
• 37:53
  I got involved from the very beginning because I had a
• 37:56
  regular took me under her wing and took me to everything.
• 37:58
  And I got elected to local board four months after I started as
• 38:02
  an RCA and served that position for four years.
• 38:05
  And she then, you know, had all right, I'll go ahead and work
• 38:09
  this weekend a fall booster so you can go with another carrier.
• 38:13
  We eventually had it worked out to where, you know, she was
• 38:15
  taking me to state convention because we had somebody else
• 38:18
  that could cover the route while we were both gone.
• 38:21
  National Convention, You know, we worked our ways up to it to
• 38:24
  where I just go and do all that stuff on my own now.
• 38:27
  And I'm hoping to bring people along with me and guide them
• 38:31
  through it like I was because it really is an important part of
• 38:35
  of our careers and definitely is somebody who is a new regular
• 38:39
  who still has 20 years to go. You know, I want to make sure
• 38:43
  there's a positive future for the craft.
• 38:45
  And nobody realizes how important mentoring is in
• 38:50
  following up with the people that you train the, you know,
• 38:53
  getting involved in the local meetings, you know, just talking
• 38:56
  to them off the clock. I, I mean that, that that is so
• 39:00
  important that they get that positive reinforcement that
• 39:05
  they, they push through the next day and the next day and the
• 39:08
  next day, because it, this is not a job for the stemming.
• 39:12
  And if you're thin skinned, please don't apply because
• 39:17
  they'll eat you up. And it's a shame that you
• 39:20
  shouldn't have to be that way, but that's the way the job is
• 39:23
  right now. And until we get a new national
• 39:26
  board in there and we get the post office, get in line with
• 39:30
  the contract, get in line with treating people respectfully,
• 39:35
  it's going to continue. You know, treating respectfully.
• 39:39
  Speaking of treating respectfully, we've had
• 39:43
  management talking about route cut and they recently put out a
• 39:48
  spreadsheet showing a lot of the routes that are going to be cut
• 39:53
  and it is not a complete list. It will never be a complete list
• 39:58
  because it comes from national office and district will turn
• 40:01
  around and add or remove or do whatever they want with that
• 40:05
  list. To adjust it to fit their needs
• 40:08
  and wants. There are people out there who
• 40:10
  are not on that list who are said that their routes are in
• 40:13
  line to be cut by their management.
• 40:15
  Here's the caveat to that. The route cuts under the system
• 40:20
  have to be done inside one pay period.
• 40:24
  They cannot make any changes after one pay period.
• 40:28
  It all has to be done in two weeks total time.
• 40:31
  So they have to plan everything. They have to figure out where is
• 40:35
  this going to go? Where is that going to go?
• 40:36
  How's it going to merge together?
• 40:38
  And this is not going to be, oh, just this 48 gets cut and put
• 40:43
  over here. They can turn around and adjust
• 40:48
  every single route in that office, but they cannot put your
• 40:55
  route lower or high, lower than your current evaluation.
• 40:59
  That is the rules on it. The ones that are getting cut,
• 41:02
  your overburdened routes, they can cut you back, but if your
• 41:07
  route is a 40414243 K, they cannot put you below that
• 41:14
  number. There is no rhyme or reason to
• 41:18
  how they're doing this or whose office is doing what, how
• 41:22
  they're going to put it together.
• 41:24
  They could turn around and leave you with absolutely none of the
• 41:29
  customers that you had. That is one risk in this system
• 41:33
  that they're going to do. They could turn around and for
• 41:37
  instance, I'll just take a couple numbers off the top of my
• 41:40
  head. They could take Route 29 as an
• 41:43
  overburdened route with A48K. They could cut that back to a 43
• 41:49
  and put part of it on route one, part of it on Route 3, part of
• 41:55
  it on the aux route, and then turn around and take part of
• 41:57
  route one, put it on Route 4, part of route 2, put it on route
• 42:01
  6 as they're doing these adjustments around the office.
• 42:04
  But they cannot take an under burdened route, a route that is
• 42:10
  under 47 K and make it less than its current evaluation according
• 42:15
  to this system. Now it doesn't mean that your
• 42:18
  routes going to be under evaluated after your next mail
• 42:22
  count, but it's just that the current mail count system will
• 42:26
  say that you are that specific size route.
• 42:29
  What have you guys heard? One thing I've heard is if you
• 42:34
  were overburdened for the past three surveys, then they're
• 42:38
  going to go ahead and cut you. But if you haven't been, then
• 42:42
  you're not on the list currently.
• 42:44
  So and so far we've, what we've been told in my office, me and
• 42:48
  the route next to me are both 40 eights.
• 42:52
  We've been told that we're not on the list to get cut yet.
• 42:54
  So I don't know how true it is, but that's just what I've heard.
• 42:58
  Well, I've been overburdened since 2018, so I guess that's
• 43:02
  why I'm on the list with two other routes in my office.
• 43:06
  And again, we're getting the word that they're going to
• 43:09
  square off the routes. And I just laughed at the
• 43:12
  postmaster. She goes, what's so funny?
• 43:14
  I said, you have no idea what you're doing, do you?
• 43:18
  And she goes, well, they have people coming in to train us.
• 43:21
  I said good luck with that because they still didn't train
• 43:24
  you for wrecks. And I walk back to my case.
• 43:27
  Of course, everybody. Hey, you know, what can I tell
• 43:32
  you? You can't fix stupid.
• 43:35
  You really can't. And these people, they don't
• 43:39
  know the contract. They don't know Rex, They don't
• 43:41
  know the adjustments. Nobody has gotten any
• 43:44
  information on the algorithm they're using to make the cuts.
• 43:47
  Everybody's going, well, how many boxes is that?
• 43:49
  Well, it's not boxes. It's volume, you know, factor.
• 43:52
  It's your coverage factor. It's your, your, your drive
• 43:55
  speed matrix it, it's ACBU, Is it free standing?
• 43:59
  Is it a dismount? All these things are coming into
• 44:01
  play here, folks. So it's just not box.
• 44:04
  Don't don't think they're just going to cut a couple boxes and
• 44:06
  just throw it over. There's a lot more into this,
• 44:09
  but again, like Rex, there's no transparency in regards to what
• 44:14
  elements are being factored into these adjustments.
• 44:18
  And then another factor of it is, and I saw this in my office
• 44:22
  when we had a 48K prior to the mail count that we cut just
• 44:28
  before the mail count. And he was still up there in
• 44:32
  the, I think he was a 45K after the first evaluation after the
• 44:37
  cut, even though he's pretty much down to almost an aux route
• 44:41
  in size on his route. He's finally getting down there
• 44:45
  to that point. But it's taken these mini mail
• 44:48
  surveys to get there. And it's actually quite sad to
• 44:53
  watch. And I think that's what's going
• 44:54
  to happen with these is that it's going to take the previous
• 44:57
  months prior that you had it over 48 K and put it on the new
• 45:02
  evaluation the next next go around.
• 45:06
  And it's not going to be a full adjustment until you get that
• 45:09
  full 12 weeks of mail delivery at the new routing that they've
• 45:14
  done or routing or however you want to pronounce it.
• 45:18
  I know we have some people who like to correct us on
• 45:20
  pronunciation. You know, it's Nevada.
• 45:23
  Get it right, Sir? Notice how you never said Nevada
• 45:31
  again is the entire thing. We have customers.
• 45:40
  But that, that's, that's the thing, it is the system is not
• 45:44
  perfect. It's not going to be perfect.
• 45:46
  It's built by humans. No human is perfect, will never
• 45:50
  be perfect. And if you think you are, you're
• 45:52
  sadly mistaken. But.
• 45:55
  Or you're dead. That too, but the system is
• 45:59
  going to probably take those routes and raise them right back
• 46:03
  up almost to overburden, if not above overburdened status on
• 46:07
  their next evaluation. Now if management was smart
• 46:12
  notice I said if they would recognize that and wait for the
• 46:16
  second mini mail survey after that to do another cut.
• 46:19
  But judging by the way management is, they'll probably
• 46:22
  try to do another cut after that and then you'll end up as an as
• 46:25
  an H route. And and let's not forget kind of
• 46:28
  talking like last week when we had the listener question about,
• 46:32
  you know, the management saying for the past five years that
• 46:35
  they were going to cut from 1 route and add it to the aux
• 46:38
  route. They don't have to do that.
• 46:40
  They could actually dissolve the aux route to build up other
• 46:42
  routes in the office if they were hit to substandard levels.
• 46:45
  And when they do these these route with these route
• 46:48
  remeasurements and stuff and, and the route cuts, they could
• 46:52
  turn around and actually put the aux routes on the other routes
• 46:56
  in the office and dissolve the aux route completely.
• 47:00
  Even though they're only cutting over burden routes because they
• 47:04
  could turn around and put that aux route on an H, JS and so on
• 47:09
  and bring them up into case status.
• 47:12
  Because another part of this is called squaring up the routes,
• 47:15
  and squaring up sometimes brings routes up to the same amount of
• 47:20
  value. And scare, you know, and also
• 47:22
  with squaring up, they tried to keep from territory overlapping
• 47:26
  too much as well. And there's no way that with my
• 47:30
  46 K, I mean, if I was to go into overburden status, I, I
• 47:35
  would say, you know, cut off the North End of my route
• 47:38
  altogether. But to square up there's,
• 47:42
  there's no way that they would be able to take from me and give
• 47:45
  me something else from another route just because the way my
• 47:49
  route is laid out so. Now, now since people are
• 47:52
  throwing that term around square up, I want you to realize when
• 47:56
  management's talking about squaring up, they're talking
• 48:00
  about grouping the routes closer together in regards to their
• 48:05
  line of travel, not so much as their evaluation.
• 48:08
  But the problem of it is that they think they're squaring it
• 48:12
  up to the evaluation, which is a misconception on their part.
• 48:17
  They're trying to get rid of routes that overlap each other.
• 48:21
  And that's a problem because a lot of routes have to drive past
• 48:25
  four or five routes just to get to their start.
• 48:28
  So how you going to square that up, folks?
• 48:30
  When you have Pickles in the drum?
• 48:32
  Which one's smarter? This came across our our live
• 48:36
  stage chat, and if you want to join us on our live stage, get
• 48:40
  the Discord link off of our Facebook group, our Facebook
• 48:43
  page, and you can actually join us live when we're recording
• 48:47
  right now. And if you're on an iPhone, it
• 48:49
  won't work. Something's wrong with iPhones
• 48:52
  getting on Discord right now. But that's another way you can
• 48:55
  actually join in on the conversation #shameless plug, it
• 48:59
  says. Another scenario from our
• 49:01
  office. We have a zip that has 248 KS
• 49:04
  and one J supervisor says she wants to cut the 248 KS to 43
• 49:09
  KS, but she wants to take the cut parts and make an aux.
• 49:13
  Does she have any obligation to add any of those cut sections to
• 49:17
  the J route first before creating the aux?
• 49:20
  Nope. If they were smart, yes.
• 49:24
  But when have we ever known management to be smart about
• 49:27
  things, especially this stuff, Especially stuff that deals with
• 49:32
  our paychecks? And, and here's the irony of
• 49:35
  that. OK, you create an aux route.
• 49:38
  If it's a government vehicle office, do you have an extra
• 49:40
  vehicle laying around for that aux route?
• 49:43
  Do you have enough Subs that can service that aux route?
• 49:46
  If not, what's the point? Why create another vacancy?
• 49:51
  I have to agree. I mean, I mean, that's, I mean,
• 49:54
  we have one row in my office that could possibly, potentially
• 49:59
  be cut. It just went back up to a 47.
• 50:02
  However, it is a completely different zip code and therefore
• 50:05
  it would have to be an aux route.
• 50:06
  But who's going to run it? You know, I mean, that's what
• 50:11
  we're looking at right now. Who's going to run it?
• 50:14
  And technically you could take our other, our, our one aux
• 50:17
  route and roll it back in because that's one of the,
• 50:20
  because we have 3 zip codes in my office.
• 50:23
  We have the 1 route that's the 47.
• 50:25
  And then we have the other route that is now a 42 and the Ox
• 50:30
  route that are in the other zip code.
• 50:32
  Potentially you could roll that ox route back into the 42 K
• 50:36
  quite easily. Used to be 1 route to begin
• 50:38
  with, but you know, he's been fighting for that for a while
• 50:41
  and they won't do it. So, and they wouldn't do it
• 50:44
  before and I'm pretty sure they wouldn't do it now.
• 50:46
  But yeah, they don't have to add it to another route.
• 50:50
  They can create an aux route. It would make sense to build up
• 50:52
  that J route, but at the same time doesn't mean it's going to
• 50:56
  happen. And just remember, an aux route
• 50:58
  has to have a minimum of 12 standard hours to be an aux
• 51:05
  route. They have to have a minimum of
• 51:07
  two hours per day for the aux route because they don't want to
• 51:10
  pay free time to the RCA that's running it because RCA is
• 51:15
  guaranteed 2 hours minimum when scheduled.
• 51:19
  So all right, Speaking of management, I actually have a
• 51:24
  post from one of our groups on Facebook from a manager talking
• 51:31
  about Rex. I don't know if you guys have
• 51:34
  seen this one or not, but it's a really lengthy post, but this is
• 51:41
  I would say somewhat of a good manager here, a good postmaster.
• 51:46
  So it it reads hold. On Let me sit down after you
• 51:49
  said that, OK? Yeah, sit down, Bill.
• 51:52
  It's another one of those unicorns.
• 51:54
  It says. Hello everyone.
• 51:56
  I'm a postmaster that has just joined this group in order to
• 51:59
  get more info for my carriers so that I pay them properly.
• 52:03
  All right, Bill's already passed out from that one.
• 52:05
  After reading several posts, I am absolutely saddened by the
• 52:09
  amount of bad information that is being given out by managers.
• 52:12
  I know that management is responsible for training the
• 52:15
  carriers on Rex, but based on the things I'm reading, if I
• 52:19
  were a rural carrier I would do my own research.
• 52:22
  NRLCA has a comprehensive guide that is very long but goes over
• 52:26
  exactly how your evaluation is computed.
• 52:29
  The most recent is from 2024. There is also AQ and a that is
• 52:34
  helpful for common issues. Amazing that a postmaster has
• 52:37
  access to this stuff. Unless.
• 52:39
  A carrier. I am, yeah.
• 52:42
  I am not an expert but I know enough that every route in my
• 52:45
  office has gained between 1:00 to 3:00 hours.
• 52:49
  My J route was converted to AK and my Aux route was converted
• 52:52
  to an H Yay. For the record, although Rex is
• 52:56
  complex and is continually being updated, if you learn and do
• 53:01
  what you're supposed to, your route evaluation will be more
• 53:04
  accurate than it was under the old system.
• 53:07
  Sometimes this means more money, sometimes this means less, but
• 53:10
  more accurate nonetheless. Having said that, there are
• 53:14
  obviously still problems, especially for anomalies.
• 53:18
  I am not a massive fan of the wrecks because of this, but I'm
• 53:22
  learning how to work it for the good.
• 53:24
  Ethically, of course, although management involvement is
• 53:28
  important for a number of reasons, the majority of your
• 53:31
  evaluation is based upon what you do or don't do every day.
• 53:35
  Here are my tips for what you can do as a real carrier to
• 53:38
  control your evaluation. We've gone over these tips and
• 53:42
  and multiple sessions of these recordings.
• 53:46
  Make sure your route is mapped properly.
• 53:48
  I cannot tell you how many errors that my carriers and I
• 53:51
  have found from the original mapping process.
• 53:55
  I have too. My recommendation to you is to
• 53:58
  request your NDI percentage from the prior delivery day every day
• 54:02
  from your manager until it's all fixed.
• 54:06
  What NDI does is track the percentage of deliveries where
• 54:09
  you have physically gone into the geofence.
• 54:12
  If your percentage is not at least 80, something is wrong.
• 54:16
  Without going into too much detail because this post is
• 54:19
  already long, a low percentage can come from either mapping
• 54:22
  errors, or you simply not going to the address, or not having
• 54:26
  GPS signal not having cell coverage.
• 54:29
  There's all kinds of errors that can happen.
• 54:32
  The NDI program will flag any delivery address for which you
• 54:35
  did not go into the geofence. Add it for clarification.
• 54:39
  NDI is not connected to Rex, but it can be an indicator of where
• 54:43
  your GPS bread crumbs for mapping are faulty.
• 54:46
  Every delivery point is mapped for the mailbox, the mail stop,
• 54:49
  the front door, and where you park when you get out for
• 54:51
  delivery. If any of these were originally
• 54:54
  mapped wrong, it can impact your evaluation.
• 54:58
  We found one mailbox that was supposed to be mapped in the
• 55:01
  parking lot of a church that for some reason was mapped onto the
• 55:05
  railroad tracks that run beside the church.
• 55:07
  Don't ask me how this happened because I don't know, but we
• 55:10
  fixed it. That's a big issue.
• 55:12
  I've found a lot of GPS points have been moved in the mapping
• 55:17
  for unknown reasons. This is why the union has been
• 55:22
  pushing for everybody to do their mapping monthly and go
• 55:26
  through all your spots. Number 2GO past every box every
• 55:31
  day because it impacts your mileage.
• 55:34
  I had one carrier that decided he wasn't going to go down a
• 55:36
  road to a business because it never had any mail and after a
• 55:40
  period of time with him not going down that road he lost
• 55:43
  that mileage. Added for clarification, I am
• 55:46
  only talking about mileage. Your route mileage is a 15 day
• 55:49
  average of what you are actually driving supposedly #3 adding per
• 55:56
  direct message questions. Your box coverage percentage is
• 55:59
  an average, so don't stress if you don't stop at every box
• 56:02
  every day. You just need to stop more than
• 56:05
  half the week. I recommend taking your DPS to
• 56:08
  the street if it is safe to do so, as sorting out undeliverable
• 56:11
  bail at the box increases your likelihood of being there for
• 56:14
  three seconds so that your GPS breadcrumb for that stop gets
• 56:18
  recorded. Currently your box coverage is
• 56:21
  made-up from these bread crumbs and informed delivery, but there
• 56:24
  are issues with this of course that I sincerely hope that they
• 56:29
  get worked out because it's hurting my CBU routes that only
• 56:32
  get one stop for multiple deliveries.
• 56:34
  Good news is that anytime you enter box holders or WSS, you
• 56:38
  automatically get 100% coverage for that day.
• 56:40
  So that's helpful. Again, we went over this that
• 56:44
  the bread crumbs don't actually add up, but if this person is
• 56:48
  saying what's is saying what's accurate, then that mapping is
• 56:52
  probably the major deficit on those people who are stopping at
• 56:56
  all their boxes for three to five seconds every day #4 Update
• 57:00
  your edit book every single month at a minimum.
• 57:02
  Pay special attention to that delivery, the delivery mode, and
• 57:05
  whether the delivery is active or inactive #5 Be involved in
• 57:10
  the line of travel review that management is required to do
• 57:13
  every time an edit book is submitted and the changes are
• 57:15
  uploaded. If your manager is doing this
• 57:18
  without you, address it. If they don't comply, grieve it.
• 57:21
  Wow, manager telling us to grieve something.
• 57:24
  Kristen's probably passed out at that one.
• 57:27
  The the review goes over both your line of travel and all of
• 57:31
  your traffic control points, IE stop sign, stoplights,
• 57:34
  railcross, etcetera which factor into your evaluation.
• 57:38
  We found a few TCPS that were excluded from the original
• 57:41
  mapping or put at the wrong place after the first time.
• 57:45
  You do this thoroughly and fix it.
• 57:47
  Unless you have a high delivery growth route, it should take 10
• 57:50
  minutes or less to do the reviews going forward.
• 57:53
  Regulars get paid 8127 time for this review and RCA is holding
• 57:58
  down a route. Get paid on a green card or
• 58:01
  you're supposed to do it on your end of shift duties.
• 58:04
  Put it into your route evaluation edit and here it is
• 58:09
  Edit. It should be done between return
• 58:11
  to to unit and clock out so that it's built into your route.
• 58:14
  However, if for some reason it. Yeah, exactly what I just said.
• 58:19
  Number six, put in every single activity scan.
• 58:23
  Don't be lazy in this, it's highly important.
• 58:26
  There is still an ongoing debate on what counts as an unscanned
• 58:29
  parcel and how you put it in, so I can only tell you how it's
• 58:32
  calculated. There was an instruction put out
• 58:35
  a while back for carriers to enter these under door
• 58:37
  miscellaneous, but I tell my folks to put it in under
• 58:41
  unscanned parcel. Door miscellaneous is for male
• 58:44
  and anomaly is where you have to go to the door.
• 58:46
  Example too much to fit in the mailbox like Reason Hold Mail or
• 58:49
  Sally Jane got 25 magazines with a small size mailbox.
• 58:53
  It only pays you for the trip to and from the door.
• 58:56
  When you scan a parcel you get credit for handing handling it
• 58:59
  in addition to the trip to and from the door.
• 59:02
  Why should my carriers lose their handling time just because
• 59:05
  it doesn't have a barcode? Damn, can I have this postmaster
• 59:12
  final or final comment? Her final comment?
• 59:15
  I'm sorry that this is so long, but I hope that at least some of
• 59:19
  you benefit from it. And the very first comment
• 59:22
  underneath this is a GIF of somebody standing up and
• 59:26
  applauding. And I I do the same thing to
• 59:28
  that post. This postmaster for Postmaster
• 59:31
  General please. Yeah.
• 59:33
  Can we just? Can we just clone this
• 59:36
  postmaster for the entire country?
• 59:43
  I'm sorry I got. Back from the bathroom and and
• 59:46
  I'm on the wrong Facebook page or something here.
• 59:49
  That was all fiction. But but, but there's a point
• 59:54
  guys, especially when it brings up, you know, driving your
• 59:58
  entire route and this comes down to RC as especially 'cause this
• 1:00:03
  is the biggest thing that I hear is.
• 1:00:06
  When RC as are covering the routes and well, this road only
• 1:00:10
  has one or two boxes, they don't have mail today, so I'm not
• 1:00:13
  going down it. You drive the entire route every
• 1:00:18
  single day. What if those two boxes had
• 1:00:21
  outgoing mail? You know, I, I have lots of
• 1:00:24
  opportunities where I could cut corners on my route because they
• 1:00:28
  hardly ever get mail, but I don't.
• 1:00:30
  I drive the entire route every single day.
• 1:00:35
  It's like during the winter time.
• 1:00:36
  My first Rd. that I deliver on literally has nobody's there.
• 1:00:41
  In the winter time, two boxes might get mail once a month
• 1:00:46
  maybe. Even though they're not there,
• 1:00:48
  they don't forward out. Everybody else forwards out for
• 1:00:50
  the winter. I still drive down that road
• 1:00:53
  every single day. You drive your entire route
• 1:00:57
  every single day. That's what we're paid to do.
• 1:01:01
  That's your mileage especially if you're at APOV route and that
• 1:01:05
  EMAI mean that can affect your mileage.
• 1:01:08
  And don't forget, too, that you are to follow the line of
• 1:01:12
  travel. We have several Subs that
• 1:01:16
  rearrange their delivery line of travel to suit their needs.
• 1:01:21
  Folks, if if you get involved in an accident after you've
• 1:01:25
  deviated from the line of travel, that's on you.
• 1:01:28
  That's a hard one for the union to fight.
• 1:01:31
  So follow the line of travel. That's what you're paid to do.
• 1:01:35
  There's a couple of people in the in the comments section
• 1:01:37
  here. I want to say that when you're
• 1:01:40
  doing the mapping, if there's like new builds because trust
• 1:01:44
  me, I have about four subdivisions that are still new
• 1:01:46
  builds. 1 does not show up at all.
• 1:01:50
  If you click on the gear icon for settings, you can actually
• 1:01:54
  change the overhead look, the bird's eye view from the like
• 1:01:59
  Google Street View or the Google view that you would see pulling
• 1:02:02
  up Google Maps. There's actually other maps that
• 1:02:05
  are on there that are loaded that are satellite images.
• 1:02:09
  So sometimes you will get the clouds in the way.
• 1:02:11
  But you can pull up those other maps to go ahead and try to map
• 1:02:16
  the new stuff because a lot of my new stuff is on there or at
• 1:02:19
  least the foundations are on there even though they're fully
• 1:02:21
  built now. But some of them are updated
• 1:02:24
  more constantly than the the base one that the program uses.
• 1:02:28
  And make sure. Each month when you're going in
• 1:02:31
  to do your mapping and updating that you're downloading.
• 1:02:35
  When you go in to do your DPM, you're going to download it each
• 1:02:39
  month. That way, if there are any
• 1:02:41
  changes in your edit book, those are going to come up out there.
• 1:02:45
  Yep I meow actually posted this in our our live chat but I also
• 1:02:50
  do it too. You can always also pull up
• 1:02:52
  Google Maps on your phone. That's going to be probably the
• 1:02:55
  most updated satellite imagery at all times.
• 1:02:59
  Is the one on your phone because Google tries to update it as
• 1:03:03
  much as possible to keep it as accurate as possible because
• 1:03:07
  they want to stay ahead of everybody else in that terms.
• 1:03:11
  So sometimes when I was mapping, like I had new builds that I had
• 1:03:16
  to map in some of the other routes when I was the mapping
• 1:03:18
  facilitator that didn't have houses on any of the maps the
• 1:03:22
  Postal Service provided. So I used Google Maps on my
• 1:03:25
  phone with it next to the computer so I could use that as
• 1:03:30
  a visual cue of where I should put the mailboxes and so on and
• 1:03:35
  so forth with the carrier. Got to find the way to solve the
• 1:03:39
  issue somehow, some way, so that way you can map it as accurately
• 1:03:43
  as possible. And there is, I know some issues
• 1:03:47
  with the turn by turn that gets printed out with the LTM at the
• 1:03:51
  end. Doesn't always.
• 1:03:53
  You can edit those directions. I know I had to because like I
• 1:03:57
  said, my very first Rd. it would tell me to turn left.
• 1:04:00
  There's no place to turn left when you go to turn right down.
• 1:04:03
  My first Rd. I probably spent close to an
• 1:04:06
  hour updating my line of travel. Now you can't update it all at
• 1:04:10
  once and then save it. You have to do a few lines at a
• 1:04:13
  time, then click save, then go back in.
• 1:04:16
  It's the first time I tried to do it.
• 1:04:19
  When I tried to edit it, I did it all at once and then it
• 1:04:22
  wouldn't save. So I learned the next time when
• 1:04:25
  I actually sat down and updated it that I had to.
• 1:04:28
  I did 345 lines Max and then I hit save and then I had to go
• 1:04:34
  back in and click the edit thing again on it right above it and
• 1:04:38
  go down and and then do the next set of lines.
• 1:04:41
  I finally got that taken care of last month.
• 1:04:44
  Fingers crossed when I go do my mapping this week that it'll
• 1:04:47
  still be there properly like it's supposed to be.
• 1:04:51
  But yeah, it's, I mean, there are ways of fixing that line of
• 1:04:55
  travel print out. Yeah, I did that to mine too.
• 1:04:57
  I had a lot of left turns where I was supposed to go right, and
• 1:05:00
  a lot of right where I was supposed to go left.
• 1:05:02
  I had translations that really didn't make sense that I had to
• 1:05:08
  fix 'cause I have one area where I make like several loops
• 1:05:11
  through the neighborhood and it's the only way to service all
• 1:05:14
  the mailboxes. There's no way to actually
• 1:05:16
  straighten it out and make it less of a distance to travel.
• 1:05:19
  So I give the LTM props if it can find a way to do it.
• 1:05:23
  It was trying to say you turn right, then turn left, turn
• 1:05:26
  right, then turn left when you literally you only had to go
• 1:05:29
  straight, stuff like that. But I did the edits and the
• 1:05:33
  month later they were still in there.
• 1:05:35
  So I think it was only the initial system when you first
• 1:05:39
  did the mapping that a lot of errors popped up and after that
• 1:05:42
  after you fixed them they worked fine.
• 1:05:44
  So hopefully now modern updates will not be so screwed up.
• 1:05:50
  Yeah, I have to go in and I have a mailbox that got moved to the
• 1:05:55
  business box. It used to be right next to the
• 1:05:57
  box for the next door business and the next door business
• 1:06:01
  parking lot and they wanted it in their own parking lot.
• 1:06:03
  So they finally moved that a few weeks ago.
• 1:06:06
  And I even, I left a note for my RCA to say, even if they don't
• 1:06:10
  have mail, please pull into their box.
• 1:06:13
  So it's picking up the breadcrumb change, you know, and
• 1:06:17
  even to the, you know, I still, I'm still pulling in regardless,
• 1:06:21
  because again, you're going to drive your full route every day
• 1:06:25
  regardless. I mean, I look at it, even if
• 1:06:28
  it's a business or a resident that hardly gets any mail, at
• 1:06:32
  least that's letting me see if anything's changed.
• 1:06:35
  Did they sell the house? Did they take a mailbox down?
• 1:06:39
  Did they? I mean, it also allows you to
• 1:06:41
  keep up your route maintenance. If you're riding, you're driving
• 1:06:44
  the full route every day, any changes or whatnot.
• 1:06:48
  And even as an when I was an RCA and you know, the regular would
• 1:06:51
  be off for whatever reason, out of town for a week, two weeks or
• 1:06:55
  longer at a time, depending on what they, what was going on.
• 1:06:59
  You know, I would always leave little notes for them to saying,
• 1:07:02
  all right, new mailbox at this place because you drive the
• 1:07:06
  route every day. All right, there was one comment
• 1:07:09
  that was made earlier about a previous topic that we talked
• 1:07:12
  about and I just want to make sure we we put it in here.
• 1:07:17
  The route adjustments Tuesday through Thursday, route
• 1:07:22
  adjustments for people who are in formula offices that have a
• 1:07:27
  non regular, non Saturday relief day, the Tuesday through
• 1:07:31
  Thursday time frame. You want to touch on that,
• 1:07:33
  Kristen? If you have a relief, if you're
• 1:07:37
  on a route that's a 47 or 48 slated to be adjusted and you
• 1:07:42
  have a relief day that is a Tuesday through Thursday, they
• 1:07:46
  can cut you down not necessarily to the 43 K, but to 53 standard
• 1:07:51
  hours, which is a 44 Ki know. In the past we've said 45 K
• 1:07:56
  'cause that has always been said, but when you look actually
• 1:07:59
  look at the contractual language, it is 53 standard
• 1:08:03
  hours, which is a 44K. And this provision only applies
• 1:08:11
  to people who volunteered for Tuesday through Thursday.
• 1:08:17
  So when your office did a formula recalculation and they
• 1:08:21
  asked does anybody want to volunteer for Tuesday, Wednesday
• 1:08:26
  or Thursday and you go I want Wednesday.
• 1:08:31
  Those are the only people that can that are protected under
• 1:08:35
  that. If you were forced to take
• 1:08:38
  Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, or you've been on a route that
• 1:08:42
  had a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday, whether that carrier
• 1:08:46
  volunteered or not, it doesn't matter.
• 1:08:48
  You will be cut back as low as a 43.
• 1:08:52
  It's only for volunteers of Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
• 1:08:56
  You can read it in the contract. And and Fender, Fender, Fender
• 1:09:01
  puts in there about the 45K being the original carrier.
• 1:09:05
  When the an office becomes formula carrier discretion, it
• 1:09:09
  can be manipulated as management is prone not to know the
• 1:09:15
  contract. So carrier discretion, if you
• 1:09:20
  inform them that you want to be closer to 55 hours, you can kind
• 1:09:24
  of nudge them in that direction. I'm going to go back to driving
• 1:09:27
  the whole route all the time every day.
• 1:09:30
  What about dismount? Closed on Saturday in a business
• 1:09:33
  area, hit both CB us. Should I drive to the closed
• 1:09:36
  business? I have the whole industrial park
• 1:09:39
  that's closed on Saturdays for mine.
• 1:09:41
  I still drive down there and come back up because you just
• 1:09:43
  never know if somebody put a flag up Friday night on their
• 1:09:47
  way out the door to mail off something to get into the mail
• 1:09:50
  stream Saturday morning. Yeah.
• 1:09:52
  Even if you have CB US that are business closed that is a locked
• 1:09:56
  mailbox, you can still deliver mail to it on Saturdays.
• 1:10:00
  Yeah, I have one. Well, no, you wouldn't have.
• 1:10:03
  I would just drive up to where the business is.
• 1:10:05
  But you don't have to dismount to go inside.
• 1:10:07
  Obviously if it's an authorized dismount, you can't dismount to
• 1:10:10
  go inside when it's closed, correct.
• 1:10:12
  But but following you know the line of travel if you, you know
• 1:10:16
  if that's where, if you turn around there or something,
• 1:10:18
  definitely keep the same thing. Like I said, my whole industrial
• 1:10:21
  park really, it's 1/2 three roads, It's a straight line.
• 1:10:26
  It's only 123456 boxes. You know, it's just a quick
• 1:10:31
  two-minute drive down there and back up when they're closed.
• 1:10:34
  The same with my Township hall and Chamber of Commerce.
• 1:10:38
  I have to turn down that road anyways to service another box.
• 1:10:41
  I'm going to whip through the parking lot, drive past the
• 1:10:43
  boxes because I don't, you know, somebody, like I said, somebody
• 1:10:46
  could have put some outgoing mail in there on on Friday when,
• 1:10:49
  when they closed on their way out the door for the weekend.
• 1:10:52
  And I've seen it. I've had it happen.
• 1:10:54
  And also, if you have businesses closed, make sure you put the
• 1:11:00
  day they're closed in your edit book, especially for your
• 1:11:04
  authorized dismounts #1 that's going to, it's going to affect
• 1:11:08
  your evaluation negatively. But you're supposed to do that
• 1:11:13
  per the PO6O3 supposed to mark. Yeah, because the mines are
• 1:11:17
  listed as a delivery Monday through Friday or my industrial
• 1:11:21
  park and my Township offices. And like we say, just be
• 1:11:25
  accurate and honest with what you do.
• 1:11:27
  It doesn't matter how dishonest management is always CYA because
• 1:11:35
  cover your assets, protect your paycheck.
• 1:11:39
  You be honest 24/7, 365 with this job, 365 and a quarter
• 1:11:45
  because you got to include the leap year.
• 1:11:47
  But be honest with your evaluation.
• 1:11:50
  Be honest with what you do on the job.
• 1:11:52
  Be honest with what you have on your route.
• 1:11:56
  Let management be the one that makes mistakes, be the one that
• 1:12:00
  makes errors, be the one that violates things.
• 1:12:03
  And if management is not doing the excuse me, if management is
• 1:12:07
  not allowing you to do your mapping every month like they're
• 1:12:12
  supposed to, you need to contact your Dr. Plain and simple.
• 1:12:17
  I've still hear of offices that haven't done anything with
• 1:12:21
  mapping since the first time they mapped.
• 1:12:23
  That's ridiculous. It's supposed to be done every
• 1:12:27
  month. And you know for a fact
• 1:12:29
  management is going in there and doing the mapping without the
• 1:12:33
  carrier to get off of the list from district that it has to be
• 1:12:37
  done. They get a list from district to
• 1:12:40
  do the mapping. District knows when they haven't
• 1:12:43
  done the mapping, so if if you're not doing the mapping
• 1:12:46
  every month, your manager's doing it without you.
• 1:12:50
  And if you do get a chance to sit down and you haven't done it
• 1:12:53
  in a while, you it's been a few months since you've mapped,
• 1:12:56
  there's a place on there that when, when you pull it up, it'll
• 1:13:00
  tell you when the last time it was certified and done.
• 1:13:03
  So if it has a date from the previous month, that means
• 1:13:06
  somebody went and did it without you.
• 1:13:08
  And at that time, I would be definitely contacting your Dr.
• 1:13:11
  I'd go straight to the Dr. on that.
• 1:13:13
  It's your Indo shift time to do the mapping.
• 1:13:17
  It's your money. If you're not doing your
• 1:13:19
  mapping, you're not fighting for doing your mapping.
• 1:13:22
  You're leaving money on on the table for the post office to
• 1:13:26
  take back. And anytime that there's
• 1:13:28
  something not a mapping facilitator available at the end
• 1:13:30
  of the day, contact your Dr., your ADR file every single time,
• 1:13:35
  every single day that they don't have someone there.
• 1:13:38
  So that way they can start pushing to have someone there in
• 1:13:41
  the afternoon for endorship duties to do your mapping.
• 1:13:44
  Get it printed out too. Yep.
• 1:13:47
  Yes, make sure you have your your LTM especially because
• 1:13:50
  it'll print out how many boxes you have regular, how many
• 1:13:53
  central and CBU boxes you have, how many stop signs, all your
• 1:13:56
  traffic control points. So that way whenever it comes to
• 1:13:59
  your evaluation, when the mini mail surveys come through, you
• 1:14:03
  can always go back and say, look, you know, January, in
• 1:14:06
  February, I had this number. But why does my evaluation now
• 1:14:09
  say I only have 20 stops when every single time I've done
• 1:14:13
  mapping, it's been 25 stop signs?
• 1:14:16
  That's that's the way you document your disputes on the
• 1:14:20
  mini mail survey. And when I was.
• 1:14:23
  Facilitating my entire office which since I went regular I
• 1:14:27
  have not been able to I I always printed 3 copies.
• 1:14:32
  One went in in the management file, one went to the carrier,
• 1:14:36
  and as a facilitator I kept a file folder with everybody's.
• 1:14:39
  That way if there was any question, I had something to
• 1:14:42
  cover my butt as a facilitator as well.
• 1:14:44
  When when assisting these carriers, they had their copy of
• 1:14:47
  the case, management had a copy and then I had a copy for them.
• 1:14:50
  Yeah, I want you to, I want you to think about this from a
• 1:14:54
  manager's perspective here. Managers that listen to their
• 1:14:58
  poom are only concerned with making the amount of money spent
• 1:15:04
  out of the office the lowest possible.
• 1:15:07
  They want your route evaluations tiny.
• 1:15:10
  They want fewer clerks. They want less hours on the
• 1:15:14
  payroll. If they're listening to their
• 1:15:16
  poom, if they're doing it for themselves, they want your
• 1:15:22
  routes as big as possible because the larger your routes
• 1:15:27
  are, the larger the office is, the more money the post office
• 1:15:32
  makes that specific post office makes in revenue, etcetera.
• 1:15:37
  And that can actually increase the paycheck of the postmaster.
• 1:15:43
  It's in a postmaster's best interest to help you maximize
• 1:15:48
  your route. It's in districts the best
• 1:15:52
  interest to minimize your routes.
• 1:15:55
  So any postmaster that's out there helping carriers is also
• 1:15:59
  helping themselves. And to go back to your point
• 1:16:02
  about traffic control points, printing out my LTM has helped
• 1:16:06
  me out on my disputes because somehow apparently on my route
• 1:16:12
  my LTM says I have 43 stop signs, but my 4241 M says I have
• 1:16:19
  41.87 stop signs. I don't know where point 1/3 of
• 1:16:24
  a stop sign went on top of the extra 1, but that's one of my
• 1:16:29
  disputes I actually had to put in.
• 1:16:30
  It was bent. Well, I had asked you about that
• 1:16:36
  and I never saw an answer. Did Do you have a business
• 1:16:39
  closed on Saturdays? None of my none of my businesses
• 1:16:46
  don't get delivery on Saturday. They all have mailboxes that I
• 1:16:50
  delivered to. OK, 'cause that's the only thing
• 1:16:52
  I could possibly think of is 'cause I think you had
• 1:16:55
  originally said .17 off, which would be 5-6 or one six
• 1:17:01
  something around. But none of my businesses are
• 1:17:05
  closed. Well, they're closed on
• 1:17:07
  Saturdays, but the two, two of them have locking mailboxes.
• 1:17:14
  And if everyone has a standard mailbox and they don't care to
• 1:17:17
  have the mail in there all weekend, they'll leave Friday's
• 1:17:19
  mail in there over the weekend. So and then the last business is
• 1:17:25
  open on Saturdays. So and all my other deliveries
• 1:17:29
  get their mail all every day of the week.
• 1:17:31
  I don't know how I had just a partial of a of a mail of a stop
• 1:17:35
  sign on there, but I'm, I definitely am disputing that to
• 1:17:38
  get that bumped up. Plus I was missing a 10th of a
• 1:17:41
  mile compared from my LTM to my 4241 A&M.
• 1:17:47
  There's a lot, there's a lot of things that you can find in
• 1:17:50
  there that are different. Your speed, your route drive
• 1:17:53
  speed should always be the same. Your time that they give you for
• 1:17:58
  that should be always be the same because your route doesn't
• 1:18:02
  change shape if you don't add anything to it.
• 1:18:07
  So all those numbers across the last three evaluations should
• 1:18:10
  have been the same, so. Unless you, unless you close
• 1:18:14
  boxes, because whenever I do my mapping, if you close boxes like
• 1:18:19
  they move or whatever and they become vacant, then the DSM will
• 1:18:24
  change because you're not going to that box anymore, you're
• 1:18:27
  skipping it. So it's going to change that
• 1:18:28
  value. And also, of course, if you add
• 1:18:32
  boxes for me, I've been adding like crazy, 'cause we're
• 1:18:34
  building like crazy. So I had two more authorized
• 1:18:38
  dismounts. So my DSM has changed every
• 1:18:40
  single count. Yeah, mine, mine, mine hasn't
• 1:18:44
  changed in the last three counts.
• 1:18:46
  My active boxes have stayed the same.
• 1:18:48
  My vacant boxes have pretty much stayed the same, in fact I added
• 1:18:53
  a couple just prior to this evaluation, but it would have
• 1:18:57
  actually lowered my speed value, not increase it.
• 1:19:01
  I went up one mile per hour on my evaluation and my time
• 1:19:05
  actually went down on my route so it should have gone the other
• 1:19:08
  way, not the way it went. Don't understand it, but it's in
• 1:19:11
  the dispute process, so we'll see how they how they figure
• 1:19:14
  that one out and probably come back with no action needed.
• 1:19:17
  All right, guys, we're ready to start wrapping things up for
• 1:19:19
  this evening, unless anybody else has anything else to add.
• 1:19:23
  I have one more. I got, let me, let me point out
• 1:19:26
  the smart ass who put up there that there was a rolling stop
• 1:19:30
  sign. All stop signs are rolling stop
• 1:19:33
  signs for rural craft. I actually have, I actually have
• 1:19:40
  a private road that only has four mailboxes on it that comes
• 1:19:45
  back out to US 23, which as we all know, it's a two lane
• 1:19:50
  Federal Highway in my neck of the woods and there is actually
• 1:19:53
  no stop sign at the end of that road.
• 1:19:56
  I would make my own and put it in.
• 1:19:59
  There is actually, I I do stop. Don't get me wrong, I do stop
• 1:20:03
  because I'm coming out on US 23. But yeah, there is actually no
• 1:20:07
  stop sign at the end of that road.
• 1:20:09
  My last thing on this, we want to do another candidate Q&A for
• 1:20:14
  all the candidates that are running for national office.
• 1:20:17
  And we'll even invite the current national board to come
• 1:20:20
  on and answer questions if they'd like to that are running
• 1:20:23
  for positions. But we have a Google form for.
• 1:20:29
  I'm going to update that form this evening while I'm editing.
• 1:20:32
  I am going to include Toasty on it as he has announced his
• 1:20:35
  candidacy for national Board. That way anybody that has any
• 1:20:39
  questions for him as well, we'll get him on board with that.
• 1:20:42
  So I will be updating that forum and posting the new links night
• 1:20:46
  tomorrow. Now, before you go putting
• 1:20:49
  questions on there, please go back and review the two previous
• 1:20:53
  candidate Q&A episodes to make sure your question has not
• 1:20:56
  already been answered. Trial by fire, it was the.
• 1:21:01
  First one, so make make sure that if you check those both
• 1:21:05
  out, I know it's shameless plug to listen to those episodes, but
• 1:21:08
  we'd like some fresh, brand new questions.
• 1:21:11
  That way we can answer new questions for everybody out
• 1:21:14
  there. We're OK with getting some old
• 1:21:15
  ones too, but we would prefer to have new episodes instead of
• 1:21:20
  regurgitating the same things over and over.
• 1:21:23
  Just wanted to put that out there that we want to do one or
• 1:21:26
  two more of those episodes before we get to National
• 1:21:28
  Convention. That way you guys can more fully
• 1:21:31
  understand what kind of candidates are running for
• 1:21:34
  office. And if the national board
• 1:21:36
  candidates don't wish to step onto the podcast to talk about
• 1:21:40
  it, then you'll just have the candidates that are running
• 1:21:42
  against them. So just wanted to put that out
• 1:21:45
  there. I know, another shameless plug.
• 1:21:48
  And we know you're listening. I was we know you guys are
• 1:21:51
  listening. I was just gonna say that we
• 1:21:53
  know they're listening so but no, yeah, I'll get that updated
• 1:21:57
  with put Ed Toasty on there as well for questions.
• 1:22:03
  Thank you. Michael.
• 1:22:05
  And yes, Jerriff, our state convention is June 10th through
• 1:22:07
  the 12th for Texas in SAN. And ours.
• 1:22:10
  And ours is win, Kristen. Ours is June, I just had that
• 1:22:15
  up. Let me look at my calendar to
• 1:22:17
  get the exact date. Sorry, had some things going at
• 1:22:20
  once here. Do do do do do do.
• 1:22:25
  Ours is June 9th through the 11th.
• 1:22:30
  The 9th is a Sunday. That is, the memorial and caucus
• 1:22:34
  and business sessions is Monday and Tuesday.
• 1:22:37
  And when are yours, Bill? Ours is the 16th to the 19th of
• 1:22:41
  June, Pennsylvania. And if anybody else is wondering
• 1:22:46
  when their state convention convention is, it is in the
• 1:22:49
  national magazine as well as listed on the national website,
• 1:22:53
  in the magazine, on the national website.
• 1:22:55
  You can actually pull it up there.
• 1:22:57
  Yes, it is. And that's all I have.
• 1:23:01
  Oh, and there there is a correction that they did put on
• 1:23:05
  the NRLC website about the state conventions and Indiana's state
• 1:23:12
  convention. The correction, it will be held
• 1:23:15
  June 21st to the 23rd at the Brown County Inn in Nashville,
• 1:23:21
  IN. That is a correction to what
• 1:23:24
  came out in the magazine, National Magazine.
• 1:23:28
  Just putting that out there. All right, guys, So we got to
• 1:23:31
  wrap it up now. Yep, Yep.
• 1:23:33
  All right, I'm going to we're, we're going to have Toasty.
• 1:23:36
  Leave this off for his final commentary of the evening.
• 1:23:39
  All right, we have the results in a mini mail survey.
• 1:23:43
  You know, we're all where we're at.
• 1:23:45
  Hopefully you got your sputes in and turned in with all your
• 1:23:49
  paperwork that you need to do. Let the process handle itself.
• 1:23:53
  Hopefully you have good D Rs AD Rs people fighting in your
• 1:23:56
  corner. Just let the process play out.
• 1:23:59
  We are in April. April showers bringing May
• 1:24:02
  flowers. Remember to turn around.
• 1:24:05
  Don't drown. Don't risk it for the male.
• 1:24:08
  Don't let this job kill Hugh. Stay safe out there and have a
• 1:24:12
  good week, James. Based on what toast he just said
• 1:24:17
  April showers bring May flowers. Your car is not the Mayflower
• 1:24:20
  but it will float away. Be safe.
• 1:24:25
  Definitely. We talk about a lot of different
• 1:24:27
  things on this podcast to try and help every craft member in
• 1:24:32
  the rural family here. Everybody here is a brother and
• 1:24:35
  sister to everybody on this podcast.
• 1:24:38
  We care about all of you and that's why we do this.
• 1:24:43
  It's important to get involved, see what's going on, get
• 1:24:47
  answers, get solutions to your problems.
• 1:24:52
  And I understand a lot of times it's very hard to find your
• 1:24:56
  solutions out there through the normal union chain of command.
• 1:25:02
  And that's why we're here to help you learn where to get the
• 1:25:07
  information, what you need to know, where to find it.
• 1:25:11
  Because I found so many people have not been able to find this
• 1:25:16
  information. And it saddens me to know that
• 1:25:21
  it's so hard to get this information, but maybe soon we
• 1:25:25
  can change that process together because at the end of the day,
• 1:25:30
  we're all in this together, Bill.
• 1:25:32
  I'm at the point of my life that people consider me to be an
• 1:25:37
  angry man. Not anger, it's passion because
• 1:25:42
  I see how Manage Postal Management treats people.
• 1:25:48
  I've always had the tenacity to stand up for others who don't
• 1:25:52
  feel comfortable to stand up for themselves.
• 1:25:55
  And that that's what we're all doing here on this podcast.
• 1:25:59
  We're standing up for our craft, brothers and sisters, and we're
• 1:26:04
  sincere about it, not for our own benefit, not, you know,
• 1:26:08
  because of the fact that I don't believe any of the positions of
• 1:26:11
  the national board are going to be easy.
• 1:26:13
  They're going to be long, tedious hours.
• 1:26:16
  But we feel sincerely that you're worth it, that the future
• 1:26:21
  of the rule craft worth it. I can't tell you how much it
• 1:26:24
  saddens me not to see people get involved in the craft in the
• 1:26:30
  union to protect their jobs, their paychecks, and their
• 1:26:33
  futures. And why are you working?
• 1:26:37
  Pay your bills, provide for your family, go on vacations, and
• 1:26:41
  then try to enjoy life a little bit.
• 1:26:44
  And we want to make sure that when you go to work, you have a
• 1:26:48
  hospitable environment where you can enjoy going to work.
• 1:26:53
  Like I remember 20 plus years ago, I used to love going to
• 1:26:57
  work. Now I love going to work just so
• 1:26:59
  I can piss them off more than they can piss me off.
• 1:27:03
  Like I always say, don't get stressed 'cause it.
• 1:27:06
  But we're here for you. That's the only reason we give
• 1:27:09
  up our Sundays, sometimes Tuesdays, Mondays, middays.
• 1:27:14
  And James, I mean, he spent so many hours on the damn computer
• 1:27:18
  researching stuff, I'm surprised his brain isn't fried yet.
• 1:27:22
  But we're here for you and to do the job properly.
• 1:27:25
  If elected, when elected, we're going to need you to help us get
• 1:27:30
  the job done. This is not a nine person board
• 1:27:34
  that's going to be up there representing 130,000 people
• 1:27:38
  without your input because it starts on the ground and your
• 1:27:43
  boots on the ground every day. And we'll need your insight,
• 1:27:46
  your guidance, your questions. And you're going to, you're
• 1:27:49
  going to need to challenge us too.
• 1:27:51
  This is not nine people dictating future for 130,000.
• 1:27:57
  This is 130,000 dictating where their future is going.
• 1:28:02
  So please get involved, vote for delegates that represent you,
• 1:28:05
  become a delegate yourself. Go to your local meetings, go to
• 1:28:08
  your state convention, go to your boosters, get involved,
• 1:28:12
  protect your future. And with that, everybody, have a
• 1:28:16
  good week, be safe, do your job professionally, efficiently and
• 1:28:21
  make sure you make the most important delivery of the day.
• 1:28:24
  And that's you getting home to your loved one.
• 1:28:27
  Thank you guys. Wow, Bill, wow that that's you
• 1:28:35
  summed it right up there, guys. You know, none of us take any of
• 1:28:38
  these positions that we're running for lightly.
• 1:28:41
  We know it's going to be day in, day out, tedious time, you know,
• 1:28:47
  to to pave the way for a future within the craft.
• 1:28:53
  I mean, that's all that any of us have our sights on is wanting
• 1:28:57
  to have a future for the craft, number one, and a positive
• 1:29:01
  future for the craft. I mean, like I said, you know,
• 1:29:04
  as a newer regular with 20 years to go, I mean, I want to retire
• 1:29:08
  from my route, but I want to know I'm going to have something
• 1:29:10
  to retire from. I want to know that I'm going to
• 1:29:13
  have a retirement, that I'm going to be able to afford to
• 1:29:17
  have a life up until I retire. And, and not only just myself,
• 1:29:22
  but every single one of you out there.
• 1:29:25
  You know, I want these newer Rcas or people still waiting to
• 1:29:29
  go regularly to know that when they go regular, they have a
• 1:29:32
  future. They have a career in a positive
• 1:29:34
  light. As we know, not a lot of things
• 1:29:38
  are positive right now with the craft.
• 1:29:40
  We, we, we all see it every, every day, you know, as like
• 1:29:44
  James, I research daily too. I mean, I'll see stuff.
• 1:29:48
  I don't reply a lot on social media anymore.
• 1:29:51
  I used to, I used to dive right in and just bam, bam, bam, bam,
• 1:29:54
  bam. And I don't, I see a lot of
• 1:29:56
  stuff that I just kind of raise my eyebrow at and keep going or
• 1:29:59
  shake my head. But there are times when people
• 1:30:01
  bring up really good questions and I may not respond to it, but
• 1:30:06
  I'll at least go look the information up just for, for my
• 1:30:09
  own sake. Like, you know, I haven't seen
• 1:30:11
  it. I, you know, let me go look that
• 1:30:13
  up because that's quite interesting.
• 1:30:15
  I want to know if there's language on that or if there
• 1:30:17
  isn't. Or, you know, is this something
• 1:30:19
  that we can try and fight for in the future that, you know, we
• 1:30:22
  all care, we all have a passion and we, we definitely are here
• 1:30:28
  for every single one of you. And I do know there's been some
• 1:30:31
  accidents and unfortunately we've lost carriers in the last
• 1:30:36
  couple weeks. And I definitely all of our,
• 1:30:39
  our, our thoughts and prayers go out to those offices and
• 1:30:41
  families of those carriers that have been injured and have lost
• 1:30:44
  their lives. It definitely weighs on all of
• 1:30:46
  us when we see that because it's just, we, we don't want to see
• 1:30:50
  that. It's it, it, it's sad and, and
• 1:30:53
  it's scary at the same time, because, you know, you know, my,
• 1:30:56
  anything could happen to any one of us on a route at the time.
• 1:30:59
  And it, it is, it's scary. Make sure you tell your loved
• 1:31:02
  ones every day that you love them and as Bill always says,
• 1:31:05
  you are the most important delivery of the day to get home
• 1:31:08
  to those loved ones safely. And on that note guys, we are
• 1:31:11
  going to end this evening. We'll be back next week.
• 1:31:14
  Everybody take care, have a good week, stay vigilant and till
• 1:31:19
  next time.