Latest / United We Scan / Hot Off the Press

Transcript

Hot Off the Press · United We Scan

0:14
Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
0:18
carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
0:22
podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
0:25
not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
0:28
United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
0:30
Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
0:33
your assigned union representative for guidance in
0:35
your local area. Please like this podcast, share
0:39
with your fellow rural carriers, and subscribe to be notified
0:42
each time a new episode is uploaded.
0:44
Please leave a comment or question for us below.
0:47
Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
0:50
United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
0:56
Episode 124, hot off the press. Now, this is a double entendre
1:04
of a title because not only do we have something literally
1:08
fresh hot off the press as of this past Monday, but it's also
1:14
going to be extremely hot out there.
1:17
We're going to start off with the hot off the press.
1:19
The biggest topic everybody's talking about the biggest
1:24
problem in this draft, which was the passing of this tentative
1:30
agreement. I'm not saying passing the
1:32
tentative agreement was the worst thing that ever happened
1:34
to this craft. There's been worse things that
1:36
have happened, but we're talking about the extreme apathy in the
1:43
number of votes we had. Let's stick over 6000 less votes
1:52
in this tentative agreement elected election than the past
1:56
three tentative agreement elections that we've had.
2:02
Now the biggest thing I want to point out is the very words that
2:09
were said both by our President and our current Acting
2:19
Postmaster General Doug Teleno. The agreement aligns with the
2:26
Postal Service mission to provide reliable value driven
2:30
mail and package delivery service to all Americans in
2:33
fulfillment of the universal service obligation.
2:37
It is fair to our employees and serve the best interest of our
2:41
customers. I don't know about you, but
2:45
hearing matching phrases in just that statement from Acting
2:50
Postmaster General Doug Tulino to what our current President,
2:55
Don Mason has said has left higher underneath me a little
2:58
bit, even more than him Saying that we've had it too good for
3:02
too long or that rural carriers are finally getting paid what
3:07
they deserve for their evaluations.
3:09
When 66% of our fellow brothers and sisters lost money on the
3:14
very first implementation of REC.
3:19
The interesting thing is 66% seems to be President Manson's
3:26
theme. 66% of carriers lost wages of the implementation of
3:31
REC, 66% of carriers who were adjusted underneath the MOU had
3:40
to pay back the Postal Service and 66% of carrier voted yes on
3:48
this tentative agreement. I'm seeing a pattern here.
3:53
How about you guys? We'll start with Josh, what
3:55
else? Do a minute because I know he
3:57
wants to go off. I want to be measured in my
4:03
response. In a yardstick, shut up.
4:12
I'm not angry, I'm disappointed. I am disappointed at the let's
4:21
see, I've got the numbers here. Somebody do the math right quick
4:27
and chat. Take one, take 14,650 away from
4:34
91,369. Somebody throw it up and chat or
4:39
I'll do it right quick until I get that total.
4:47
What the hell, people? Why?
4:52
Now? I understand that some of the
4:53
ballots could not be delivered due to abnormalities or
5:00
irregularities in people's mailing addresses, but why did
5:07
you not vote? Give me a good reason.
5:14
Oh, I'm sorry, am I of you And I want to go on the record to
5:19
saying this. There is no good reason to not
5:23
vote in my book. If you value your working
5:28
conditions. If you want to have your opinion
5:33
heard, you have to vote. And if you didn't vote in my
5:37
book, you have no right to bitch about the terms.
5:43
Oh by the way, I did the math 76,719 people they did not
5:48
receive ballots back from. Now, like I said, I don't know
5:51
how many of those were from people not getting their ballot
5:55
where they were returned due to abnormalities with the return
5:58
address, but I'm mad. How about 16% of the voting
6:09
craft voted? I thought that 25% returns in a
6:17
national election was bad. Folks, we're in deep shit.
6:26
We've got to light a fire. I don't care if you vote for or
6:31
against, just freaking vote. I'll give you another number,
6:38
Josh. In 2022, our last definitive
6:41
agreement vote, we had a return rate of 23.34%.
6:49
OK, why the drop? Apathy.
6:56
Apathy is the cancer of democracy, or in this case, our
7:01
association. And there is but one cure for
7:05
this answer and that is getting people to vote.
7:10
Get people informed that there is a vote coming and have people
7:14
take it upon themselves to be educated so that they can make a
7:19
good decision. I'm surprised at how contained I
7:28
am tonight. Let's not go over well, OK,
7:31
Screw it. My my state of North Carolina
7:34
had less than 10% return margin for our delegate ballots for
7:39
National Convention. That's terrible.
7:52
Why? James?
7:58
Bill, anybody? Bill's turn.
8:02
All right, first you need to correct yourself, James.
8:06
According to the national website, 67% of the people voted
8:11
for the contract, not 66. I don't appreciate you using 6/6
8:17
as a sign of the devil and trying to align it with our
8:20
national officers in any factor. It was 3033.33366.6666.
8:29
It's at 67%. Let's go with Yeah, they rounded
8:32
up. They rounded up black.
8:35
Black and white, just like the contract.
8:36
OK, no interpretation. Here 67% lost on on that on Rex
8:43
and 67% of people got their, they had to pay the Postal
8:48
Service back when their routes were cut were adjusted.
8:52
I, I'm, I, I'm flabbergasted also, but I expected this type
8:58
of return. OK, I can't say that I wasn't
9:02
anticipating it because of the and as we've called it over the
9:06
years, and I mean years, the apathy that has infected this
9:10
craft and it's infected it because the Doctor Who can heal
9:16
the situation, AKA the national board has done nothing.
9:22
Doubt why there is such apathy in the craft.
9:27
Not since Don turned around at SWAC last year and said, oh,
9:31
they're a bunch of freeloaders and scabs.
9:33
Oh, you had it too good for too long.
9:36
You're working under your valuation.
9:38
You know, that's one of the things about rule carriers.
9:41
We're efficient. We don't sit there and and play
9:45
with ourselves. We get the mail out and get it
9:49
done. If we're paid, evaluated and
9:52
we're efficient, why should we be penalized by you changing the
9:56
standards again and again and again?
10:00
You know, I if the patient is dying, OK, and the craft is
10:07
dying, doesn't somebody have to find out where the infections
10:12
coming from? Where's the sepsis that that is,
10:15
you know, killing the body to turn around?
10:20
And we had our state convention this past week and out of oh,
10:26
possibly, you know, 400 plus delegates, you know, 111 showed
10:32
up 25%. I guess that's pretty good for,
10:38
you know, some states. I don't know.
10:39
But you know, to me it's sad when when we offered to pay your
10:43
hotel bill in full for the rooms and put $200 spending money in
10:49
your pocket, I got 1 taker besides myself.
10:56
And since the gentleman didn't get there on time in regards to
10:59
getting the discounted room rate, it cost us an extra $200.
11:03
As a local, I don't care. This guy came back enthused
11:07
about going to his first state convention in 23 years.
11:15
Now he's excited about participating in the system, and
11:20
he saw all the little innuendo and the politicking and
11:23
everything else. But he's enthused again to go to
11:29
the next state convention. If you don't get involved, you
11:35
really don't have a right to complain.
11:36
Oh, I have a right to complain. I'm right.
11:38
Yeah, You got free speech, but free speech doesn't extend
11:42
towards the union because your voice is mute if you're not in
11:46
the union. I turned the possibility of
11:50
running for president for our state board was asked by
11:53
numerous people, including the state president because I
11:58
thought I had a better chance of helping people and effecting
12:02
change through the podcast due to the fact that people I am me,
12:07
call me and text message me and everything else which as part of
12:11
our state board I would not allow be allowed to do.
12:16
Then people asked me to run for vice president because the two
12:19
candidates they they had running for that office were the lack of
12:24
a better term, less than culpable in regards to
12:29
performing the duties required of the office.
12:32
Again, I turned it down. I, I have a, a larger voice on
12:40
this podcast, which is more important to me than, you know,
12:42
fulfilling a state office position.
12:47
But the fact of the matter is apathy is killing us and nobody
12:53
at the national level is recognizing that the patient is
12:57
dying, especially when you raise your damn dues rates again
13:03
higher than our damn salaries were raised in in percentage
13:07
wise at times. You know, I sit there and shake
13:12
my head, yeah. No wonder people don't want to
13:14
be involved. No wonder people don't want to
13:16
be in the union. Look what?
13:18
Look at the hell what's going on?
13:19
And then to find out, here's A to say Patrick Pitts was our
13:24
national board member that attended only only 18% of our
13:31
offices have a steward for steward coverage that includes
13:37
area and and AD Rs and DRS 18. Percent of our country just
13:43
local. Just local. 18% have a local
13:47
tour. ADRSDRS and area stewards cover
13:52
everything else 100. Percent.
13:56
But you have to think they are literally covering 82% of the
14:02
offices in this country. Exactly.
14:07
And there aren't enough of them. Nope.
14:11
In fact, Michigan here. We just got approved for
14:15
two-part time Edrs and a couple more area stewards, and that's
14:21
still not enough to cover Michigan.
14:24
Yeah, it's ludicrous. This is.
14:29
And James, James, let me stop you there.
14:33
And we have offices like my SD and C, which has an area Stewart
14:37
in there and they're still pounding the living hell out of
14:42
the craft. So we either need to recruit
14:51
better, we need to train better, and we need to enforce the
14:56
contract. And that includes how you treat
14:59
people, because I'm telling you, right?
15:05
Correctly. Well, what?
15:08
Yeah. What is the cost of having a
15:10
dissatisfied employee or having someone like myself said, you
15:14
know, OK, I've had enough. I'm going to either jeopardize
15:17
my retirement or my career if I follow this course of action.
15:22
You know, just up and leave the company.
15:25
Now you got a training news person, you know, now you have
15:28
another empty route We have, we have two routes going up forbid
15:32
on the 28th. That'll leave the office of 18
15:35
year old carriers with two Subs and only one of them qualifies
15:40
to be APTF. And then then you're going to
15:45
create 2 new routes with the cuts on the 8 two section and an
15:49
aux route with the 8 O section. Where are you getting these
15:52
three new imaginary people as well as the vehicles that they
15:55
don't have right now? A report from South Carolina
16:01
where they had 136 charging stations put into their SDNC. 40
16:07
of them were inoperative and another 57 weren't charging
16:11
correctly, which was funny because they only had three new
16:16
vehicles. I don't know, I, you know, maybe
16:25
it's me. I, I just, you know, maybe I'm
16:27
just the old angry white guy. But you know, the, the fact of
16:30
the matter is that management doesn't care.
16:37
The national board apparently doesn't care.
16:41
I mean, I've had ADR hand off, you know, EEO charges against
16:46
the FDC district manager and they've gone nowhere in two
16:51
years. I, I'm just, you know, if, if I
16:59
wasn't so involved, OK, in regards to my, my friends at the
17:05
office, you get the people on this podcast, you know, the, the
17:09
craft itself, I would be disappointed.
17:12
I, I would be disillusioned and that, you know, I, I would be
17:15
swayed to not to participate. Yeah, not to the point where if
17:20
you don't put a return, if you don't put a stamp on the return
17:23
envelope, I'm not sending it. That, that was the most hideous
17:27
suggestion I've heard yet. I and I stole that off of one of
17:32
my Co hosts. So I'm not going to tell Brad
17:34
which one of you all it is, Josh.
17:37
But the fact of the matter is that, you know, can you blame
17:40
people for the attitude they have right now?
17:47
You can and you cannot. Some of us that see the bigger
17:52
picture, I guess I can't. I can't blame people because I'm
17:57
the kind of person that if you tell me, well, if things are
18:02
ever going to change, oh, by God, I'm going to do whatever I
18:05
can to change it. And some people are just like,
18:08
OK, I guess I'll just sit here. They give up.
18:19
The biggest problem in this whole system is the fact that
18:28
every single one of these carriers that did not stand in a
18:34
vote had a reason why. Whether it was they didn't get
18:42
the ballot in time because of places like Palmetto and
18:45
Indianapolis not getting mailed through them easily, or whether
18:49
it was the fact that they had no clue this was going on.
18:53
They didn't get their tentative agreement booklet, nor were they
18:57
aware of the website having the Zoom video not meeting or video
19:03
conference, but just video. And they didn't know about the
19:08
local meetings because they hadn't gotten their national
19:11
magazine telling them that they had the local meeting.
19:15
And they don't have the app on their phone because they're too
19:18
old to have that technology. Or they don't know that the
19:22
NRLCA has an app because they've never met their union steward,
19:26
never had any conversation with those people.
19:31
As someone just said in their chat, 75% of our craft are left
19:34
of their own devices to be informed.
19:37
I've said this before. I talked to a carrier who had 20
19:40
years in at the Postal Service, never even knew who their union
19:45
steward was, who their designated union representative
19:48
was. That is not a failure on the
19:51
carrier. That is a failure on our
19:55
representatives. Our representatives should be
20:01
going to these offices and meeting with these carriers and
20:04
just at least saying, hey, my name's so and so.
20:08
I'm your designated union representative.
20:10
Here's my card. If you need anything, contact
20:13
me. We should have people going to
20:16
these offices and saying hey, I'm here for you.
20:20
I get paid by your dues. I work for you.
20:23
Tell me what I can do to help you.
20:27
The fact that our craft feels ignored by those who are
20:34
supposed to represent them is sickening.
20:42
Our craft should be stronger than it is.
20:48
Our craft should be fighting harder than it is.
20:54
We are smaller than the NALC, but we should be the biggest
20:58
fighter out there. I'm going to take a Michigan
21:02
reference here. Michigan State versus Michigan.
21:07
Michigan State is a smaller school compared to U of M
21:11
according to statistics, the baby brother of Michigan to to
21:15
EU of M fan. But Michigan State has a tough
21:23
basketball team, tough football team, has great scholastic
21:30
because they fight for it. They go for every inch they can
21:34
get and our craft should be the same way.
21:41
But we need to start with the fighters in this craft.
21:45
The people who signed up to fight for our carriers because
21:53
of local stewards sign up to fight for this craft, and I've
21:58
had some local stewards tell me they don't get help from above
22:01
them. The apathy in this craft is
22:13
because of how our union representatives treat them.
22:21
No, I'm not saying all of them. I am not saying specific one.
22:29
But if you feel it applies to you, take a deep dive into what
22:33
you're doing because your first and last thought in that
22:39
position should be what am I doing to better this craft?
22:47
Can I expound upon that, James? In one second.
22:50
OK, if I know your name and I have never met you in person,
22:59
that's a problem. I should not have to know your
23:05
name before I'm even elected into office.
23:09
I should only know you once I'm elected into office or have met
23:12
you in person. But the fact that I know your
23:16
name already speaks volumes of what you're doing or not doing
23:22
for this craft. Now you can expand upon it,
23:27
Josh. If you are a Union Rep, local
23:34
area DRADR, National Board member, you are elected to serve
23:42
in that position. Your thought at the beginning of
23:46
the day, throughout your day and at the end of the day is what
23:50
can I, what am I doing and what have I done to serve this craft?
23:58
Nobody should be in this for themselves.
24:01
This, as I like to borrow from my middle and high school,
24:09
should be something of a servant's heart position.
24:13
Yes, you get paid if you're on the national board.
24:16
Yes, you get your housing paid for if you're on the national
24:18
board. But at the end of the day, you
24:22
are elected to serve the craft. I'm off my soapbox.
24:32
No, you're not. Damn.
24:37
Bill, you want to add to that? Well, let's see, when our
24:41
founding fathers started this country, they were considered
24:46
legislator gentlemen. Most of them were farmers, OK?
24:53
And they didn't perceive politics per say to be a
24:57
lifelong career, which it has turned into.
25:02
We brought this up at the state convention in regards to having
25:06
term limits, the one resolution that was put forth, which was
25:13
shot down automatically because it was poorly worded and didn't
25:18
really give a number four term limits.
25:23
And when I turned around to amend the language in regards to
25:27
a 10 year limit, it won't, you know, it takes that long to work
25:32
their way up the ladder. And I said, you know, we, we
25:34
have a president that who's at the top of the ladder.
25:38
He's worked his way up there since 2008.
25:41
And Ronnie's worked his way up the ladder and Jeanette's worked
25:44
her way up the ladder. And what has that gotten us,
25:47
ladies and gentlemen? It got a substantial wage
25:51
increases, according to Don Matson.
25:54
We we were going to eliminate Table 2.
25:56
According to Don Madsen, neither happened.
26:02
And then you turn around and people say, well, we got two
26:05
weeks off of every step. Wow, you got barely half, a
26:08
little over half a year taken off of 15 steps.
26:12
Meanwhile, the city carriers took three steps right off the
26:15
front end. And those are, they have 40
26:19
weeks steps, if I'm, if I read that correctly.
26:24
So where did you gain? Where, where's, where's all the
26:29
money coming? Right?
26:30
I mean, I mean, I know you're excited about the Diet Colon, I
26:35
know you're excited about getting the extra dollar.
26:39
But where is where's the substantial wage increases that
26:41
Don talked about? And then they come out and issue
26:44
a almost word for word statement that this was fair and equitable
26:50
in the best interest of the post office.
26:53
If you are treating the employees the way they treat us,
26:57
if you are paying us on the scale of working at Walmart
27:02
while maintaining POV's on 100 mile routes.
27:07
And you think that's fair and equitable?
27:09
You think that's, you know, substantial wage increase.
27:14
Ladies and gentlemen, you've got to be full of shit, you know,
27:19
and, and I, I, I just sit there and just go.
27:23
How did we get less than 15,000 votes to return on this contract
27:32
agreement? And the word still that comes up
27:37
is apathy. And you know, and I know
27:41
everybody has an office where people don't get involved.
27:45
They want to do the route and they want to go home.
27:48
They don't care about this. They don't care about that.
27:50
Well, nobody cared about Rex while I was preaching it for two
27:54
years before its initiation. Now the three carriers in my
27:58
office said prop substantially because they didn't care.
28:02
They cared after that, didn't they?
28:06
But even to this day, people are more concerned with their
28:09
individual lives. They don't understand the
28:12
meaning of a union. It's not just standing up for
28:14
yourself, it's standing up for the entire craft.
28:21
What you fight for today may not benefit you yourself directly,
28:25
but down the road it's going to protect somebody in your office.
28:29
And it's some other office out in Kansas or Minnesota or
28:33
Portland OR something that happens there is going to
28:37
directly affect your situation in your office because somebody
28:43
stood up management. And you know, I, I, I hate
28:52
saying this, but it's up to us to look out for each other
28:57
because the national board's not doing it.
29:02
And I don't see that they will in anywhere in the near future.
29:10
Back to you, James. I swear, say listen to this
29:16
podcast because I've heard them use phraseology and ways of
29:21
speaking that we do on this podcast.
29:24
But it's almost as if 3/4 of what we say on here doesn't
29:28
think in and help them realize we're trying to help them too.
29:36
We're trying to open their eyes to what the craft is seeing on
29:41
the ground here on top of educating our fellow brothers
29:45
and sisters. But the fact that they think
29:51
this podcast is a bane of Society, of the craft, because
29:58
our president has said social media is the bane of society,
30:04
but also that they are trying to tempt each and every one of us
30:10
away from this by holding a carrot in front of our face
30:18
tells us that we're doing something right because we're
30:24
making it harder for them to just float through with what
30:29
they're doing. But the numbers, to get back to
30:35
our initial topic, the numbers, the fact that 6, 1000 less
30:40
people voted in the last three tentative agreements per the
30:44
magazine on the website or the news on the website.
30:48
I went through the news and actually checked up our previous
30:51
tentative agreements and they were all right around between 19
30:54
and 21,000 people voting. That fault is 100% square on the
31:06
shoulder of the man at the top. He is one of the few variables
31:16
in this situation that is still there.
31:24
He did not have any influence or control the previous three
31:28
tentative agreement, only this one. 6000 people left voting.
31:38
There's a lot about what's going on.
31:40
There's a lot about how this craft feels.
31:43
There's a lot about where this craft is headed.
31:47
It's time to change that. Point.
31:50
Of time to get always. We have a yellow card in a
31:54
microphone too. Yes, Delegate North Carolina, I
31:58
would like to bring the party's attention to the number of
32:02
voting, number of ballots sent out in 2019, 97 thousand
32:09
7892020290, 2400 and this time 91,369.
32:19
Yep. I yield the balance of my time.
32:25
The numbers are going down a number of craft employee, but
32:29
let me let me pull pull this this up for you because you guys
32:33
know I did recalculate the negative.
32:39
There were 1051 less ballots sent out in the 2025 election
32:45
than the 2022 election. Of that 3586 of those were world
32:57
were relief carriers which includes RCARCRS etcetera,
33:04
excludes PTS and ARC. However every other category had
33:12
more carriers in it. So the big ones which are
33:17
important to Don Manson regular carriers, there were 647 more
33:22
regular carrier ballots sent out and though they pay regular
33:28
carrier dues, but we are guaranteed 2 routes a week, 1559
33:36
PTS and then 329 more arc. And that's because of the
33:45
proliferation more of Amazon around the country.
33:51
That is a big change. But you had 4383 left regular
34:05
carriers voting, 2643 less RCA voting, but you did have 106
34:15
more PTF and one extra ARC vote this year versus 20/25/2022.
34:27
The biggest town. Go ahead, go ahead.
34:31
May delegate Pennsylvania microphone for.
34:34
Go ahead. Recognizes recognizes me.
34:39
Yeah, you all know, I ran run against Don Madsen several times
34:45
and because of the old boy system, you know, and you know,
34:49
people you know, don't like my personality.
34:51
I'm not worried about that. I'd sleep well at night.
34:55
Let me make it the known for the record that personally, you
34:58
know, I do not like Don Matson as a person.
35:03
I know, I know that's a surprise, OK.
35:07
But as the president of our union, I would put that dislike
35:13
aside if he said, Bill, I want you to come and join the
35:18
Commission to find out what's going on with the craft, if he
35:23
actually expressed an interest and why these numbers are
35:28
populating every time we're voting on something.
35:32
If he wanted to know why people are bailing on the union and why
35:38
people are getting treated like shit, I'd work my ass off day
35:42
and night to support the office of the president of the NRLCA.
35:47
Even though I don't like the individual, it would not be in
35:53
my interest not to do that because of the fact that I would
35:58
be serving the office of the President and I would be serving
36:02
the craft and I'd put my whole heart into it.
36:07
But the fact of the matter is, well, I'm, you know what I'm
36:12
saying, that this is, you know, people say they're disconnected.
36:15
They don't know. Well, you know, to know, you
36:19
have to look, you have to ask those questions.
36:22
You can't sit there and go along and talking to everybody who's
36:26
in the NSS or on the, you know, executive committee board or
36:30
your state presidents or anything, or God forbid, the
36:34
people you send, as you know, legislative, you know,
36:36
attendees, you know, because of the fact they're getting the
36:39
free trip and they're not doing their routes either.
36:42
But the fact of the matter is that all of that is mute if
36:47
you're if the craft is dying and this craft is dying and we're
36:53
not let it go down without a fight.
36:59
I hope they listen to that on the podcast.
37:04
And I've been looking, I've been looking over all these numbers
37:09
for the past week. And the biggest thing that I can
37:16
talk about here for 2025 are the lack of support in many areas,
37:29
including the US Virgin Islands, where we have 3 carriers who
37:35
have not voted in any of these past ratification.
37:45
Puerto Rico only had seven people out of 69 vote.
37:51
That's not a lot, but that's still low numbers.
37:56
Any of these states that had less than 20% participation, we
38:02
need to get boots on the ground talking to these carriers
38:08
because these carriers either aren't aware of all these pieces
38:14
they have to do or like some don't actually care.
38:21
But if they don't care, that's OK that's on them.
38:26
But we have to find out why our craft who are putting money into
38:32
this union are not participating.
38:38
And I talked about at my date convention, putting in a half
38:44
page questionnaire once a year for people to talk about why
38:52
they are participating. Basically, what can we do to get
38:55
you to participate? And it would just be a two week,
39:02
three-week, four week, whatever time frame they want to put on
39:04
it for them to mail it back or fill it out online, Save, save
39:08
postage, fill it out online. And we can find out at least
39:16
2025% of the people could respond to that and tell us what
39:19
why they are participating. We can expand on that, but we
39:26
have to do something because a lack of participation tells
39:33
union. That's why we have locals
39:36
merging together. That's why we have state
39:39
associations struggling to have a quorum.
39:46
Something has to change or we're going to lose everything we have
39:49
if. We don't stand for something.
39:54
Eventually, there will be nothing left to stand for.
40:07
You know, it, it, it comes to a point where, you know, James
40:11
said where a guy has been 20 plus years and didn't know who
40:14
the his local representative was the guy in Phoenixville and RSD
40:20
and C30 years in and didn't realize that, you know, they
40:24
hadn't measured The Walking distances inside an SD and C and
40:29
out to the parking lot for the three years they've been there.
40:33
You know, it's, it's that kind of, you know, abject resolve
40:39
that nothing's going to get better and nothing's going to
40:42
change. Well, you know, as somebody
40:45
said, you know, boots on the ground, if you can't put a face,
40:50
you know, with the voice, if you, if you can't put a, a
40:55
character, a person in front of you for, for the situations that
41:00
are going on in their offices all across the country and get
41:04
your vehicle fixed like they're in Michigan, that somebody said
41:08
it on free show. If you don't have somebody, you
41:12
know, that actually is in front of you and connecting with you,
41:17
there is no connection there. And that's where the apathy
41:21
comes in. Somebody that pulls over the
41:23
side of the road to assist you because you got a flat tire.
41:26
You don't know them from Jack, but they went out of their way
41:29
to assist you. Whether you, you know, needed
41:31
help changing the tire, you position your vehicle to protect
41:34
them from getting hit, give you water or whatever.
41:38
It doesn't matter if you put a face in front of people.
41:42
There's that connection that people care, that people are
41:49
concerned about your welfare and they don't they, they don't
41:54
care. Don is going to run for
41:56
president for one more year, OK. And if he beats James out, it'll
42:02
be his last year. And then John Adams will step up
42:05
and run for president next year because he'll have two years
42:10
under his belt as the director of Labor relations.
42:13
And he and he's a worthy candidate.
42:16
But we're still going up the ladder, even though John Adams
42:20
himself hasn't been on that ladder as long as the rest of
42:24
them have. They've already made a career
42:27
out of it. They spent 20 years on that
42:31
ladder and will probably more years than that, you know, going
42:35
through their state association. But the fact of the matter is
42:40
until you get somebody like the director of Stewart Operations
42:44
going into a plant and raising cane or you have ADR filing EE
42:53
OS against district managers and booms for their failed policies
42:57
and constant and continual violation of the contract.
43:04
Where you turn around and you have offices that are now
43:07
looking at starting at 9:30 in the morning because their Amazon
43:11
trucks aren't getting there on time in the middle of this heat,
43:16
which is the second part of our topics tonight.
43:18
A perfect. Second, there's something.
43:21
Yeah, there's something wrong. We have a.
43:30
Situation. But we have a situation in my
43:34
SDC and yes, it's mine. Even though I'm retired, it's
43:37
still mine. That a highway contractor is
43:42
going to be losing one of their three routes.
43:46
The argument is that they're going to give it to the city
43:49
barriers. Now mind you, the highway
43:52
contractors have always been in the rule craft area.
43:58
Mind you that the rule of craft delivers their parcels every
44:02
Sunday for the past eight years. But now you're going to turn
44:07
around and hand this route off to the city route.
44:12
Now, total explanation, they have to do a cost optimization
44:17
program. The research in regards to
44:21
what's more efficient. If they do that then it'll most
44:24
likely go to the rule of craft. Now here's where I will say I
44:30
don't want that route and people go why not?
44:34
It'll it'll help the cruel crap. You understand these highway
44:38
contractors are hired at the lowest bid so there's not a lot
44:43
of money even though they do operate on a semi evaluated
44:46
system like we do. This particular route has
44:52
apartment buildings with outside stairwells and you know where
44:57
your credit stops as far as your distance on apartment buildings,
45:00
whether 1-2 or three floors. I don't know who wants to do
45:05
that in this heat and I don't know anybody wants to do it in
45:07
the in the winter weather either me it it's one of those lose,
45:13
lose situations because of the fact that somebody might lose
45:17
their life or they might lose the carrier saying F this, I'm
45:20
not doing this anymore. But the fact of the matter is
45:27
that, you know, we need Dr. in on that one.
45:30
The area. Stewart is hapless in regards to
45:33
the handling the situation. And don't even get me started on
45:38
the DRS and the ADRS because, boy, at our convention, there
45:41
was enough shit going on that I just I I walked to the bar.
45:45
I had to I couldn't take their talk anymore sober.
45:50
It was that bad. And I want to cast aspersions
45:56
and I'm not going to name names, but I'll tell you what we need
46:00
to give the national sewer system back to the States.
46:02
And with that segue, let's talk about the rest of the other
46:07
heat, James. Yes, it's already gotten really
46:12
hot on this episode as it is, but we've got a major heat wave
46:17
coming across the nation already and I just wanted to really talk
46:22
about heat related illness. I understand management is
46:26
supposed to give us hip training.
46:28
Management gotten rid of doing the online portion with carrier,
46:32
gotten rid of the video that we have to watch, gone to just
46:35
here's a paper to stand up talk on it.
46:38
That's not adequate. My office is having trouble
46:42
getting water shipped into it. And I've told the Bells master,
46:46
sounds like you're making a trip to Costco.
46:49
And we've got to have water available for carriers.
46:54
We've got to have cooling stops. We've got to have things with us
47:00
to hydrate us. And hydration starts before you
47:04
start working. It starts the night before.
47:09
And I understand some people are like, I'm on my route and I
47:12
don't have a place to go to the bathroom in this heat.
47:15
You're not going to need the bathroom.
47:16
You're going to be sweating it out no matter what kind of
47:20
vehicle you're in, even your POV routes.
47:23
It's going to be come to a point where the AC of your vehicle is
47:27
not going to be strong enough to counteract the heat outside,
47:32
especially with your window down.
47:36
You need to find ways to take care of yourself out there
47:39
because we've had carriers who have died, Mr. Eugene Gates on
47:44
the City side. We've had a supervisor who died
47:47
doing a ride along in the jump seat of a truck and on top of
47:53
that we had a carrier. We had a medical emergency
47:56
called and I will told their supervisor through R.E.M.'s
47:59
messaging that they were sick and ended up calling an
48:04
ambulance, going to the hospital.
48:08
After getting out of the hospital, went back to the
48:10
office and the supervisor didn't even know they were gone.
48:15
But then that carrier got placed on emergency placement
48:18
management. Some management.
48:22
I'm going to rephrase because there are good managers out
48:26
there, few and far between, but they were out there will not
48:31
care whether you are living or or died.
48:37
They won't care if you're passed out in a customer's yard.
48:40
They won't care if you needed an ambulance to take you to the
48:43
hospital because you had a medical emergency.
48:46
All they care about is whether their boss above them is pleased
48:50
or not. You need to take care of
48:55
yourself out there. Take care of your fellow
48:57
brothers and sisters. Make sure your carrier have
49:03
water ice ways to keep themselves cool.
49:09
My area specifically, I am under an excessive heat warning for
49:14
heat indices of 105°. Now, for somebody in Texas,
49:20
they're like, oh, that's just a Saturday, but in Michigan,
49:26
that's extreme for us. I'm expecting power outages.
49:32
I'm expecting people to be ending up in the hospital.
49:35
I'm expecting our emergency services to be overloaded with
49:38
that. You guys have to take care of
49:42
yourself too. And look out for your steady
49:45
brothers and sisters as well, because they're in this with
49:50
just with us and management cares less about them than they
49:53
do us, which says a lot, your guys.
49:58
I, I always enjoyed coming back to the office in the summer
50:02
months and, and I, I packed very small snacks, but put 8 bottles
50:08
of frozen water in my my you know, lunch bag.
50:12
And I always enjoyed on my way back, coming down Price St. in
50:16
Westchester and running into a city carrier and they're just
50:19
drenched in and I say, brother, you, you, you, you need a bottle
50:23
of water only if it's cold. And I'll tell you what, you all
50:25
see their face light up when you hand them an ice cold bottle of
50:29
water. I mean, they're out there dying
50:32
too, doing those parking loops. And you know, like I said,
50:35
James, I mean, you know, down in Texas 105 Oh, that that's a, you
50:39
know, a nice morning. But, you know, in the same
50:42
respect, you know, they also don't have to put up with 30
50:44
below up in Michigan either. So, you know, different end of
50:48
the spectrum. But the same situation is it's
50:51
amazing what you get used to. But for for the most part, even
50:57
people in Texas are used to it. You have to prepare.
51:01
And you have to prepare the night before.
51:04
Yeah, you got to get that fluid into your system and to protect
51:07
yourself. And you know, not long big gulps
51:11
of water and everything Sips just take make sure you do sips
51:16
and keep keep doing sips all damn day long.
51:20
And not ice cold water, you don't want it freezing.
51:24
That can put you in put your system.
51:26
It's a shock, too. And also make sure you are
51:30
getting your electrolytes, AKA Liquid IV, the little tear open
51:36
packets that you put in your bottle of water.
51:39
Make sure you're getting those because when you sweat, you're
51:41
not only losing water, you're losing electrolytes and you need
51:44
to replenish them. Hold on, my supervisor told me
51:49
if I need electrolytes I'd just lick the battery in the truck.
51:55
Delegates still reserves opinion for later time.
52:03
Yeah, just put your tongue on both them terminals.
52:05
You'll be fine. Yeah.
52:08
And remember, if you start feeling dizzy, you start feeling
52:13
nauseous, you start feeling like you're going to vomit or you're
52:18
going to pass out, that's a medical emergency.
52:22
It's 9. One, one that is 911, send a
52:27
R.E.M.'s message.
52:28
I know we say don't text your boss, but send them a text
52:31
message from your phone. I'm going to the hospital.
52:33
The truck's going to be here. Ambulance is here, but call 911
52:39
first. You can pass out while talking
52:41
to the supervisor. You can't pass out.
52:43
We'll call in 911. They'll find doing that.
52:48
They'll find you, but it'll take them longer.
52:50
But calling 911 first, get the help on the way to you before
52:54
you call your supervisor is the best thing you can do for
52:57
yourself. Take breaks, take them in the
53:03
shade, take them in air conditioning as often as we
53:09
supposed to use only. Approved rest breaks.
53:13
We're not city carriers. Yes, we're not city carriers.
53:17
Figured I'd throw. That on top of that, on top of
53:20
that above 80° per hip training is a heat day for the Postal
53:27
Service. So that means that extra breath
53:32
breaks are authorized above 80°F per their own training that they
53:40
give us. And I'm going to tell you at
53:44
105°, I'm going to be taking myself a few heat breaks.
53:49
Yes. You know, so I'm going to
53:54
probably. Get don't be shy, James.
53:57
You know people listening if if you're feeling like that, don't
54:01
be shy about asking the customer if you can come inside for a
54:04
couple minutes. And if you've got that kind of
54:05
relationship, get your body core temperature down.
54:09
If you are very close with your customers and you trust them,
54:13
yeah. Well, and also, if you have a
54:17
route that's like mine, I know where my rest brakes are.
54:23
I know where I can pull over and it's always shady and I can cool
54:27
off. Guys, take the time to be
54:30
observant on your route. I mean, it may be the
54:33
colloquialism of the big oak tree in the church parking lot.
54:37
If it's got shade, that's your rest spot.
54:40
Find yourself a place to rest. And get out of the truck because
54:45
that damn truck is like a mini baked oven.
54:49
Jesus, you you, you just step out of your truck into a 9798
54:54
day, you know, degree day and it's still 15 to 20° better
54:59
outside than in your truck. I know every place on my route
55:06
where I can park the truck out of the way to do a reload as
55:11
needed in the shade. Amen, brother.
55:16
And in these temperatures, I set my truck up to reload out.
55:21
The back door gets me out of the truck, gets me to open up all
55:26
the doors on the truck to get some of that excess heat out of
55:30
the truck while I'm reloading my mail into the into onto the tray
55:35
on the side that I drive an LLV and I do the same thing.
55:40
Exactly. Finding a way to get yourself
55:42
out of that truck even for 5-10 minutes while you're taking your
55:47
time reloading because you don't want to overexert yourself is
55:54
how you do it. But you are working or taking a
55:59
heat related break which is not one that should be a lunch break
56:08
Heat related breaks because we have scanner messages that take
56:14
breaks as needed in the heat. That is an instruction to take
56:19
breaks that are not lunch break. They're as needed.
56:25
They are not lunches. You're not taking the time to
56:28
have a lunch. You're taking the time to keep
56:30
yourself from dying. That's what that's what I have
56:39
guys for today. What do you guys got?
56:46
I mean, I, I go ahead, Bill. I, I think we've covered it, you
56:51
know, succinctly. The, the fact of it is one of
56:56
the things that most people ignore with the heat is when you
57:00
start having confused thoughts, Am I sweating?
57:04
Am I not sweating? That is a very strong indication
57:07
that you need to call 11. If you become disoriented in any
57:12
sense in the heat, that's the time to stop, get out of the
57:16
truck and call 911. I've had a couple carriers do
57:20
that. One carrier turned around just,
57:23
you know, drove off the road just, you know, felt like he was
57:25
getting dizzy but felt he was OK to finish the route.
57:28
The next, you know, he was off the road in the ditch.
57:32
Yo, this orientation is one of those symptoms that you cannot
57:36
ignore. You know, like I say, you know,
57:40
make sure you're, you know, you make the most important delivery
57:42
of the day. Get home to your loved ones.
57:45
There you go. If you don't take care of
57:48
yourself out on the route, nobody will.
57:52
And I don't want to hear, you know about one more carrier
57:55
depth rule or City side. No.
58:06
And anything else, John? Echoing what Bill said, it's
58:11
hot. Make sure you're acclimating to
58:14
the heat. If you're not used to this kind
58:17
of weather, make sure you're taking your breaks, make sure
58:22
that you're advising other people to take their breaks and
58:26
as we all say, you are the most important delivery of the day.
58:31
Get get to work, do your job and come home the same way you left.
58:37
Although you may have lost a couple of pounds of water
58:39
weight, but that notwithstanding.
58:43
And, and one more thing, gentlemen, where the appropriate
58:47
attire, wear, wear loose, light clothing.
58:58
They'll be putting, you know, 80 lbs of stuff in your cargo
59:01
pants. You know, if you're allowed to
59:03
wear sleeveless T-shirts as I have for the last 20 some years,
59:08
do so. If the women can get away with
59:10
the spaghetti straps, which is a matter of contention based on
59:13
local offices parameters of appropriate wear, do so.
59:18
Reduce the amount of clothing you have on and make sure
59:22
they're appropriate for summer heat.
59:32
I agree with everything you guys have said and and also make sure
59:37
that the clothing you're wearing is appropriate in nature to
59:44
symbolize your pride as being a rural carrier professional.
59:52
I'm just going to say that we do not have a specific dress code
59:57
other than local management may decide what can and cannot be
1:00:01
appropriate, but there's also grievable remedies in in some of
1:00:04
those instances as well. But as they say, in the winter
1:00:12
time you could put on as many layers as needed, but in the
1:00:15
summer you can only take off so many before it becomes illegal.
1:00:21
I would like to add one thing. If I may go ahead, give us your
1:00:25
final thoughts then. For those that are driving
1:00:28
POV's, if you haven't already, make sure that that vehicle is
1:00:36
properly maintained. Make sure that you have the
1:00:39
right the right level of antifreeze.
1:00:42
Make sure you're keeping up on the maintenance because it's hot
1:00:46
and you're not moving that fast in some cases, and that vehicle
1:00:50
is going to heat up really quick.
1:00:52
And if there's a weak water pump or if there's old coolant that's
1:00:56
not as effective, you're going to learn about it pretty quick
1:01:05
and talk about a way to ruin your day.
1:01:13
Fail Your final thoughts? I'll continue along those lines
1:01:17
of POV's when when I had a POV route, I always had my car is
1:01:24
fitted with extra transmission and radiator coolers just for
1:01:28
certain situations. You know, transmission per SE,
1:01:33
mostly for the winter time, but the extra radiator cooler made a
1:01:37
big difference in not blowing my system during the hot days.
1:01:42
So that's a good point that to bring up.
1:01:45
Final thoughts is folks, we, we've got to do something to get
1:01:51
people involved. We, we have to do something make
1:01:54
the national board more accountable in regards to seeing
1:01:58
our plight. It's, it's amazing.
1:02:02
Oh, you know, 6/6 of our resolutions were presented for
1:02:06
consideration and natural in the natural contract, 6 out of over
1:02:11
200. Well, what happens to those 200?
1:02:14
Well, those 200 get piled on to the next year's resolutions and
1:02:18
the years after resolutions. Now you're going to have 600
1:02:21
resolutions for consideration for the next contract.
1:02:26
You know, if the states, if the individual puts the effort into
1:02:29
making the resolution, if resolutions committee make the
1:02:33
effort into recommending resolutions and the states pass
1:02:36
them and submit them to the National board, there should be
1:02:40
more consideration than six out of over 200.
1:02:48
And again, that's just the 200 presented.
1:02:51
If what the line of reasoning is that the previous year's
1:02:54
resolutions that didn't get presented are compiled on, there
1:02:57
could have been 400 resolutions that they could have considered,
1:03:00
but we only chose six. That speaks volumes in regards
1:03:07
to what the National Board considers important for the
1:03:11
craft. Not that the craft put the
1:03:14
effort and put these resolutions forward.
1:03:16
Having the language amended the, the, the fit, the programs and
1:03:19
everything else. Having them pay, pay off by the
1:03:22
states, have them submitted to the National Board, having them
1:03:26
approved at the National board for consideration to do all that
1:03:33
work and they take 6 to the table.
1:03:36
I don't I I, I, I don't think that truly represents fair
1:03:42
representation of our craft fire national board.
1:03:46
What do you think I mean is is that even, you know, something
1:03:50
to be considered that they have our best interests at art.
1:03:55
I don't believe so, ladies and gentlemen, I I'm retired, but
1:04:00
I'm still involved and I've got things to do in regards to
1:04:04
getting our local up on Zoom meetings because we have another
1:04:08
local who'll be joining us. Again, locals are combining
1:04:11
because they can't get enough participation and we're going to
1:04:15
do Zoom meetings to get people involved from their homes so
1:04:18
they don't have to travel to a meeting, sit through it for two,
1:04:21
2 1/2 hours and travel back home at the end of their work days.
1:04:28
I will not give up on this craft.
1:04:31
I didn't when I was there. I won't now.
1:04:35
They turned down the opportunities to be on the state
1:04:37
board because I believe I have a larger voice here.
1:04:42
I want to believe that we can turn this around, but we all
1:04:48
have to make a greater effort to do so.
1:04:52
I mean, if the national board won't listen to us, then we have
1:04:54
to listen to each other and we have to find ways to bring
1:04:59
everybody back into the flock. I'm not sure on how all all the
1:05:04
ways that people would consider. People try gift cards to go to
1:05:08
local meetings. We provide meals and still
1:05:11
people don't participate. So hopefully with the Zoom
1:05:13
meetings that we'll be able to do, we'll get some more
1:05:16
interaction from our our craft employees and our local.
1:05:20
I don't know, but I'm grasping at straws.
1:05:24
But as long as I have breath and strength in me, I will grasp at
1:05:27
those straws because we can do better.
1:05:31
We have to do better. Like I said, I do not like Don
1:05:36
Madison as an individual, but if appointed, I would serve the
1:05:41
office of the President to make this craft have an actual voice
1:05:48
at the national level because you're worth it to me.
1:05:54
You got to realize I've been in this craft for over 26 years, so
1:06:00
you guys are like family to me. I've got a customer to go see on
1:06:05
Wednesday just because I keep in touch with some of my customers.
1:06:09
I got to bring my grandson over because she just loves seeing
1:06:11
the little guy. I'm totally invested.
1:06:17
I'll be down in Orlando because I'm invested.
1:06:24
You need to be just as invested. You need to help get other
1:06:28
people invested. Start, look, start small at the
1:06:32
local level, work their way up. A guy to went to the first state
1:06:36
convention. Now he's invested.
1:06:39
He was thrilled by seeing the interactions and he watched the
1:06:43
politicking and everything else, but he thought that was
1:06:46
enlightening to see the due process of a state convention.
1:06:53
So if you have any ideas, you send them to me, send them to
1:06:57
people in your offices, in your state, wherever, whatever, But
1:07:03
keep fighting the fight because we have to save this craft in
1:07:08
spite of the circumstances that we find ourselves in.
1:07:14
God bless you all coming this week with the heat and
1:07:17
everything. Be safe.
1:07:20
When in doubt, check out, call 911.
1:07:24
Don't put yourself at risk, you are the most important delivery
1:07:29
of the day and I want you all to get home to your families every
1:07:35
day. They love you, they need you.
1:07:39
Post office good and give a rat's ass.
1:07:43
God bless you all, James. Thank you guys.
1:07:49
Yes, it is important that we take care of our fellow
1:07:53
brothers. It's important that we take care
1:07:56
of our city brothers and sisters.
1:07:58
We need to look out for our elderly customers during these
1:08:02
hot times too. They're just as important as
1:08:06
well. But as Bill says, you are the
1:08:11
most important delivery of the day.
1:08:14
We care about you here on this podcast.
1:08:18
We will always care about you here on this podcast because as
1:08:24
I say, we're all in this together.
1:08:28
Everybody have a good night, have a good week, and we'll see
1:08:31
you next time. And as I say, good night and
1:08:36
good luck.