Latest / United We Scan / Holidays, Weather, and Ramblings

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Holidays, Weather, and Ramblings · United We Scan

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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
1:02
Episode 52 Holidays Weather. And we may be rambling a lot
1:08
tonight. Bill is a little late to the
1:11
party, as was I tonight, so we're getting started a little
1:14
bit later, but that's all right. You won't notice it if you're
1:16
listening tomorrow. Josh, how was your week?
1:19
It was a week had to finally file on not paying processing
1:25
correctly 8127. So I sent that in found out my
1:31
ADR that they are going to actually cross train all the AD
1:35
Rs to sit on their own step twos.
1:38
Which will be nice because then we won't just get crappy
1:41
language or settlements or two which are worse weaker language
1:47
than the step one that we got originally when it was filed for
1:53
non compliance. So it's a beautiful thing.
1:56
Also was informed that my truck that's been missing since August
2:01
is no longer my truck because somewhere along the line it got
2:05
reassigned to the other office that they sent it back to.
2:08
So that been a fun. It's been a fun week.
2:11
Hopefully the next two weeks won't be as bad.
2:14
How about you James? How was your week?
2:16
Well, I think the next two weeks are going to be just as bad in
2:20
terms of volume levels. Hopefully.
2:23
I'm actually hoping for higher volume levels.
2:26
You know, that OT paycheck is going to be really nice for me.
2:30
You know, being on Table 2 doesn't help things much, but I
2:33
got about five, 5 1/2 hours of OT last week.
2:37
Above and beyond the evaluation that I'm at.
2:40
They had me at my proper evaluation.
2:43
It was only been an hour of OT, but I digress.
2:47
Packages were nice and heavy, so that's going to help my recs
2:51
evaluation next April. I guess it is, and other than
2:57
that I am. You guys are jealous because I
3:00
get my Saturdays off still, but unfortunately that doesn't mean
3:05
I get any OT either. So looking for those nice
3:10
Christmas paychecks but oh so. Yes.
3:16
OT overtime, you know something that Bill won't get because he's
3:20
way too over evaluated. Yeah, but he'll, he still works
3:24
over 48, so he'll get it. Yeah.
3:28
I think the last couple years the most I've gotten was 2 hours
3:35
in one week, and one of those was for going over 12 hours a
3:41
couple days during that week. Last year I didn't get any
3:45
overtime at all last year on this row and this year I was
3:52
impressed to actually be into overtime on the route, so.
3:57
Last year. Go ahead, last year you were in
4:00
RCA, but. I was racking in the I was
4:04
racking in the overtime Last year.
4:06
My week was same old, same old. I was into overtime by the time
4:12
I hit St. Friday.
4:16
I had added up my hours plus I did a little extra OTA couple
4:20
days this week helping out the newbie and you know don't mind
4:25
going helping out the the kid that's actually trying and and
4:29
doing OK because we all know this is the wrong time of year
4:32
to be brand new and but he he's doing all right.
4:37
He's hanging in there. He's not getting frustrated he's
4:41
he's taking it with stride and we know we just we just keep
4:44
reminding him dude you get through Christmas time it'll be
4:47
cakewalk after that. So he's he he's anticipating for
4:53
that and and kind of like gosh can it come quicker but he's
4:57
hanging in there. Unfortunately our other new
5:01
person who has only been doing parcel runs because they just
5:04
finished Academy a couple weeks ago is no longer with us.
5:08
They they did resign prior to actually doing their OJT so
5:15
leaves us two for now. We'll see what happens.
5:18
I am the next to get a sub when and if we get one hired so, but
5:23
other than that my my week wasn't too bad.
5:26
The weather's been decent, so I haven't had to fight the normal
5:30
white crap that we have at this time of year, so I'll take that.
5:34
You bitch. Hey, Bill's with us.
5:37
Hey. My apologies and my apologies,
5:43
it's it's been a weekend from hell, you know.
5:46
I went shopping today. So, you know, it's really fun
5:49
because you don't know what size your daughter wears anymore, so
5:52
she's got to try on everything. So you're buying her Christmas
5:55
presents right in front of her, you know?
5:56
That's how it goes. I have a daughter.
5:59
I have a daughter. Oh, OK.
6:01
I have. I have a daughter.
6:05
I thought, my God, I thought, Chris, I thought Christian was
6:08
your adoptive daughter. That's kind of awkward.
6:13
Right. But they're too funny, Kristen.
6:23
No, we actually, I actually had to get out of the house.
6:26
I had to get the boyfriend out of the house and we forced the
6:31
the daughter to go with us. So we went and did some shopping
6:34
and went to dinner tonight. And so I was running a little
6:37
behind too. But that's OK because we finally
6:40
got away from the house for a change and my one day off.
6:45
But other than that my week's been all right.
6:47
It's it is what it is. How How was your week Bill?
6:52
Oh, it. It was one of them from hell,
6:56
you know, Let's see, we had parcels, more parcels and then
7:00
some more parcels. And then and then.
7:03
Then Spurs. And Spurs.
7:05
And Spurs. And Spurs.
7:06
And Spurs? Oh yes, I can relate on the
7:09
Spurs and Spurs and Spurs and Spurs.
7:12
And then and then on Friday I actually got parcel help.
7:19
My my sub of record took my truck with my parcels and and
7:23
went out and delivered the big ones and left me, you know, all
7:26
the spurs. So on average, you know, Tuesday
7:31
to Saturday, y'all I'll have five, maybe 6 trays of DPS.
7:36
Well, I had so much clerk mail, I didn't notice I was missing
7:41
some pieces. So as I'm going out to the truck
7:44
I found two partial trays on the wrong shelf.
7:47
So I took them to the street and delivered them that.
7:49
That was fun. I always hate that.
7:51
But that was fun. Then I come back and there's
7:53
another partial tray sitting on my case.
7:55
No, no, no, nothing. All right, I'm going home at
7:58
8:00. I read a text from my supervisor
8:00
saying Postmaster expects you to deliver to you.
8:03
I I sent a simple text back. I haven't heard anything since
8:10
then. But they must be out of their
8:12
God damn mind. They really must be.
8:14
I just can't figure out that these people.
8:16
I hear you. I did get parcel help like one
8:19
or two days. It wasn't a lot.
8:20
I did. I say please make sure you get
8:22
me partial help this coming Tuesday for the sheer fact that
8:28
I have to drive 2 hours to my daughter's 7th grade band
8:32
concert Tuesday night. So I said I need to go and
8:36
you've got to have me partial help on Tuesday.
8:38
That's the only day I require it this week and my brother is
8:43
nicely stepping up for me and picking up my son from the
8:46
airport tomorrow night. Yeah, so I don't have to worry
8:51
about trying to get down to Detroit by, you know, 10:30
8:55
tomorrow night and then turn around and come home and go to
9:00
bed and get up and then do another two hour drive.
9:04
So that's actually helpful. So that way my son, when he gets
9:09
home, he can get his car registration switched around
9:14
from California, 'cause they keep insisting he needs emission
9:17
testing so he can get that transferred to Michigan and get
9:20
his car legal, and then he'll have his car to drive while he's
9:23
home for the month. Looking forward to seeing my kid
9:25
next week sometime probably next weekend.
9:27
Yeah, let's let's leave the car issue out of my conversation for
9:30
the the next four months, OK? Oh boy.
9:33
Yeah, don't start. Don't start.
9:36
OK. OK, we won't.
9:39
Look, look, I'm. I'm upset enough reading some of
9:41
the stuff on social media about the dumbasses in management
9:46
coming up with these rules about, oh, you can't have
9:49
delivery on Monday, so or Sunday, so you're gonna have to
9:53
take it out on, you know, Monday.
9:54
Well, where's that rule that you can't use your Subs?
9:57
I'm sitting there like, you can't be this stupid.
10:00
Can you? Can you really be that stupid?
10:04
That's a. Rhetorical question, right?
10:06
Yes, it is. It is rhetoric.
10:08
We've decided, We've decided. We've got a couple regulars.
10:12
We've got one in particular who's been going in on Sundays
10:15
to deliver packages. She didn't make the new guy go
10:20
in Sunday. He was actually kind of
10:22
relieved. But I I decided coworker and I
10:27
decided if we go in on any Sunday, it's going to be
10:30
Christmas Eve because we're supposed to be getting a drop
10:32
that day, and that way we can clear the complete office out
10:35
and provide a service to our customers on Christmas Eve.
10:38
That'll be the only Sunday I'm working Sunday on.
10:40
I mean, Can you imagine reading somebody on social media saying
10:44
we're not delivering Sunday and we have 25 Subs?
10:47
What? Yes, what?
10:50
What? Josh is cutting your nose off to
10:52
spite your face. You're going to, you're going to
10:54
end up paying those Subs overtime anyway, and then you
10:58
turn around and instead of paying the Subs overtime at
11:01
their lower rate, you're going to turn around and pay your
11:03
regular carriers overtime instead.
11:06
You know, yeah. You want to pay me 6785 the work
11:10
overtime? Go ahead.
11:13
Oh yeah, I'll. Take you overtime.
11:15
I'll work. I'll work beyond 12 hours as a
11:18
regular carrier on those days. Hell yeah.
11:20
You know, I just. Yeah, that's probably my day
11:23
tomorrow. But you know.
11:24
Yeah, exactly. It's if you're gonna pay me the
11:27
overtime, I'm gonna make sure you're paying me the overtime.
11:30
I you know, I killed myself last year running my aux route on top
11:36
of a full route. Being the only sub in that
11:38
office. I'm still pulling over 60 hours
11:41
a week right now as a regular cuz I don't have a sub.
11:43
Oh yeah, I get it. You know, I am still.
11:46
I'm just like Oh my gosh I I feel more worked now than I did
11:51
last year and I'm just running running 1 route.
11:53
But like I said, I go out and help the newbie when when I can,
11:56
so that's not a problem. And that's what the world craft
11:58
does. We help each other out.
12:00
I'm happy for you 'cause I don't get overtime until I get over 62
12:03
hours. That's my route.
12:04
Valuation. Yeah, yeah, my route evaluation
12:08
is 62.39. That's your standard hours.
12:11
Yeah, Christmas overtime is based on the standard hours of
12:14
your evaluation. Yeah, but to see supervisor
12:18
feels bad for me when I put it that way.
12:24
Played her ass like a deck of cards, baby.
12:27
Oh yeah, get that royal flush. Something better flush.
12:32
Hey, I picked up a bottle of screwball today while we were
12:35
out stopping. Oh, I'll have a shot.
12:38
Yeah, yeah, I got. I just got a little bottle.
12:41
I didn't get a big one. What the hell?
12:43
Talking about such things, Kristen, you were saying.
12:45
Hey, your kids at that age where you have to try everything on?
12:52
Well due to being a single father of four when my wife was
12:59
about your kids age, my father-in-law would give give
13:04
them the credit card and send her and my sister-in-law out
13:09
shopping for their for themselves.
13:11
So they would go together, pick out all their stuff, and my wife
13:17
would take her sister's things and vice versa to wrap them.
13:21
And then they'd pretend to be surprised Christmas morning.
13:24
Yeah, that's pretty much what it is.
13:26
I, at least with my other daughter, be living, you know,
13:29
two hours away. I had to pick up a few things
13:32
for her, so she will be surprised.
13:34
But with the one that's, you know, lives at home and the fact
13:37
that she's lost almost £100 that you know I don't.
13:41
Know what guys to? Get her.
13:42
You know, I don't know what to get right, so we have to try
13:45
stuff on because I. Don't right?
13:48
But yeah, no, it was. We had a nice day out and I got
13:52
back as soon as I could. So, all right, why don't we talk
13:55
about this crazy weather that's been going on, James?
13:59
Yep. So I wanted to put this out
14:02
there. We are praying for all our
14:04
carrier brothers and sisters as well as anybody else affected by
14:08
the Tornadoes that happened at the date time of this recording
14:13
yesterday and today. There has been videos and
14:17
pictures of postal offices that have been hit by tornadoes.
14:23
The worst one I saw was a video of a person on the back dock of
14:29
the post office as the tornado rolled through damaged LL VS,
14:34
damaged PO VS, and damaged postal tractor trailers.
14:39
That was harrowing to watch, let alone know that somebody was
14:43
actually out in a vehicle when that happened in that parking
14:48
lot. Preliminary evaluation so far
14:51
have it at minimum an ES3 tornado that went through
14:55
Tennessee. So I I wanted to talk about this
14:58
because this is something that really gets under my skin when
15:03
it comes to this job and that is the fact of the lack of care for
15:10
postal employees. There were reports from the
15:13
carriers out there in that area that the only alert they got was
15:17
the EAS alert on the scanner and the scanner did not have any
15:22
information about the tornado warning.
15:25
And the other part of it is, is though we do have EAS alerts on
15:28
our cell phones, the weather alerts have to be turned on by
15:33
you. They're defaulted off, so you
15:36
have to turn them on. So I wanted to talk about this a
15:39
little bit because we are out in the weather, We are out in the
15:43
elements. I've been in the LLV during a
15:47
tornado myself on my route. And there are a lot of different
15:53
things that we have to think about as carriers out there.
15:59
And one of them, of course is the weather.
16:03
Now we are in the winter months, although tornado reports don't
16:07
sound like winter time. But in Dixie Alley and places
16:11
like that, it is still possible to have severe weather while the
16:15
Northeast is getting a snowstorm and things like that.
16:19
I wanted to talk about best tips and tricks we have for getting
16:24
information about the weather. Do you guys have any tips that
16:29
you guys do to set yourself up for the weather?
16:32
Well, in my my area, I've got a weather alert advisory from
16:37
three of the new state that pops up anytime you know anything
16:41
severe comes up, whether it's you know, flash flooded, you
16:44
know, warnings, severe wind, any any type of thing.
16:48
Because being out in rural areas, a lot of people don't
16:52
take into consideration tree branches when you're driving
16:56
underneath canopies and next thing you know your windshield's
16:59
gone because you know a four inch limb came down on you.
17:03
So I I have that. I I That's the only thing I use
17:07
and and it's very accurate. How?
17:09
About you, Kristen. I do have the weather alerts
17:12
turned on on my phone. Main reason, you know.
17:16
Well, I want to go back to the tornado that hit Gaylord.
17:19
You know, in Northern Michigan. Most, from my understanding,
17:23
most of the carriers were back to the office when it hit.
17:26
However, I do know of one that was still out and he was in
17:30
toward the area of the path going east of town.
17:33
But he was all right. But, you know, living on a great
17:37
lake, literally, I mean, Lake Huron is four blocks from my
17:41
house. I mean, there's times in the
17:43
winter time you can step outside and you just hear the waves
17:47
crashing and it sounds like you're living next to a freeway,
17:50
but it's it's the lake. And yesterday's wind was pretty,
17:55
pretty interesting along the Lakeshore they're delivering.
17:58
But yeah, I do definitely have the weather alerts turned on on
18:01
my phone. As for office wise, yet nobody
18:06
really pays attention to anything in the office, I'll put
18:08
it that way. But I always, I always check the
18:11
weather forecast every morning too, just so I have an update
18:15
on, you know, am I going to be freezing my toes off or am I
18:18
going to be, you know, have it sweating?
18:22
It just depends. But yeah, I I keep, I keep an
18:24
eye on the forecast every day and do have the weather alerts
18:28
on on my phone. How about you, Josh?
18:30
Well the one app I use for weather has the alerts come
18:33
through that you know through that app which I use weather bug
18:40
because being at the time when I downloaded it standing outside
18:45
with no cover at at a metal CVU, you know during the summer when
18:51
we have them pop up storms where you could go from like 95° then
18:58
the you know you know it's coming because it drops down to
19:01
70° the wind's picking up. It was the most up to date like
19:06
within a minute or two on the radar of saying wait how close
19:11
the weather is and also they have another sub app in there
19:17
which tells you within the last 30 minutes how close the closest
19:21
lightning strike is to your location.
19:23
Yeah, I I have the Weather Bug app and I use it specifically
19:27
for the lightning tracking. I have other apps as well, one
19:32
of the big ones that I've seen around now.
19:35
There used to be other versions of of apps out there for this,
19:39
but the latest one is Radar Omega.
19:43
And and I'll preface this by we are not sponsored by any of
19:46
these products that we're talking about here, but we do
19:50
use them, so we're talking about them.
19:53
Radar Omega does do the alerting, does give Radar and
19:57
things like that, and it also has storm chasers on there that
20:02
you can actually watch their live feeds and stuff too as
20:04
well. But there's also other apps as
20:07
well, like Weather Bug. You know, on Android alone, the
20:11
one I use and the one that actually gets the alerts the
20:14
fastest to me is an app called WX.
20:19
Literally just the letters W&X together.
20:22
And it alerts my phones so much quicker than any other app out
20:26
there. And it comes directly from the
20:29
National Weather Service. And those are the only people
20:31
that can give real alerts. Yeah.
20:35
And but just being able to understand the weather and learn
20:40
the stuff and things like that and even winter time, you know,
20:44
they just came out with snow squaw warnings.
20:48
And here in Michigan, one of the biggest spots for snow squalls
20:51
is I-94. It is a given that if there is a
20:55
snow squaw in Michigan, it is on I-94.
20:58
And usually when it happens, there's a pile up.
21:02
Oh 94 is horrible. Just and I don't even like
21:05
driving 94 if I don't have to. Also what you get I-75 up in
21:10
northern Michigan too? Yup.
21:12
In the UP and the northern lower having lived in Gaylord and
21:16
middle smack middle on the snow belt there.
21:19
Oh yeah, I've. I have definitely delivered some
21:22
mail in Blizzard like conditions.
21:23
Let me tell you that is not fun. Yeah, I I've done it.
21:29
Going along in an LLV and all you do is open the door delivery
21:33
to the box and shut the door because it's snowing so hard.
21:36
You'd be covered with the window, no?
21:38
I was POVI was POV doing that so that was and I had an older car
21:44
so I had the old crank windows. Luckily my like.
21:50
Luckily my office does have the the window covers for our LL VS
21:55
It is nice it does make they're not perfect Don't get me wrong
21:59
you do have that small opening there to you know service the
22:01
boxes but it definitely does help especially along when I get
22:07
the the wind picks up along the lakeside and I'm driving north
22:11
back up US 23 and I've got that wind coming in off Lake Huron.
22:16
It definitely help more than most will realize.
22:21
But yeah, it's I definitely, if you live in an area where it
22:24
gets cold and I definitely reach out to management about getting
22:27
those covers on the for those windows.
22:29
I mean, they're easy to take on and take off, and they
22:33
definitely make a huge difference.
22:36
Once we started using them, I won't go a winter without one
22:39
anymore. I almost took mine off the other
22:41
day for the fact that it was supposed to be in the 50s, but I
22:43
kept it on and just didn't run the heat.
22:46
Jar asked for to explain what a snow squaw is for a Texan.
22:51
So a snow squaw is a band of snow that is so heavy it is to
22:58
cause wipe out conditions to where you can't even see past
23:02
the nose of your own car. It's that far.
23:04
Yes, that far. Usually it's about about the
23:07
distance of your wiper blades off the windshield that you can
23:10
see. Yes.
23:14
And then you've got these vehicles flying down I9475
23:17
eighty 8590 miles an hour into that snow squaw.
23:21
And of course, because it's snowing so hard, it doesn't even
23:25
have time to melt when it hits the pavement, even if the
23:27
pavement is warmer than freezing.
23:29
So yeah, you're sliding into A to a pile up whether you like it
23:33
or not. Yes, you are.
23:35
And you know, I, like I said, I avoid 94 at all costs if I can
23:39
anyways. But if I don't have to drive it,
23:42
you know, I grew up down in that area, so I learned the back
23:45
roads really good. Even in dry weather, 94 is
23:49
dangerous. Because people just don't pay
23:52
attention. But that's the biggest thing
23:56
which we wanted to talk about, because management at those
24:00
offices didn't even bother to send an emergency text message
24:06
to the carriers warning them about it.
24:09
And that's when texting on the scanner is completely
24:13
acceptable. Emergency situations are the
24:17
only reason management should be texting you.
24:21
And safety. Correct.
24:24
And messaging people, telling them that they've got packages
24:29
left at the office, messaging people telling them or you're
24:32
going to pick up overtime when you get back to the office or
24:35
any other reason dilutes the message feature.
24:39
It literally causes you to ignore the sound.
24:44
And when it is a life or death situation, management should be
24:48
on top of that protecting their carriers and caring about their
24:51
carriers. But we all know management
24:53
doesn't. And I know Bill would love to
24:55
get in on this, but I'm. I'm saying it here.
24:59
Management does not give two shits whether you are alive or
25:03
dead on your route. They'll put somebody else in
25:06
your truck the next day without a problem.
25:09
Oh, they'll put somebody in the truck the same day to finish the
25:12
route if they have to, yeah. Oh, are are you talking about
25:17
the escaped Brazilian prisoner from Chester County Prison who
25:22
killed two people and they never sent our carriers alerts?
25:27
That, well, that, well, that. And then we had the, yeah, we
25:32
had the one down here, the one down here that was mental,
25:38
possibly armed, barefoot, running around.
25:41
You know, So, I mean, there's all kinds of different things.
25:45
I know because they they weren't.
25:46
They weren't wearing a pink thong bill.
25:48
Oh, OK. Yeah.
25:53
Oh, we had that one from Florida that was running around in the
25:57
vicinity of of our six that day. I was out there and I saw two
26:01
state troopers parked off one of the side roads and wondered,
26:05
huh, wonder what's going on out here?
26:06
And it was after the fact that I found out about it when they
26:09
took him down in one of the customer's backyards and he was
26:13
wanted out of the state of Florida.
26:16
That that that goes back to my Friday evening when I got back
26:20
and there's a partial tray of DPS there and I get home and I
26:23
read a text on my phone, my private phone, from the
26:26
supervisor saying the PM expects me to deliver that.
26:30
Yeah, like I said. Yep, I'll deliver that Monday.
26:37
Yep, I'll deliver it on Monday. Yeah, my girl took care of it on
26:43
Saturday. Oh, well, even better.
26:46
Yep. You ain't lying.
26:48
So that's why we wanted to talk about this, is because they're
26:53
not going to message you. Your scanner's probably not
26:56
going to alert you in the right way.
26:58
So you need to have a way to get those alerts, whether it be on
27:03
your phone or even if you go out and buy a handheld weather
27:07
radio, because those weather radios will give you those
27:10
alerts plus other EAS alerts if needed.
27:14
That's what they're designed to do.
27:16
And you can set them for wherever you are for your
27:18
county. Or you can just have the general
27:20
weather radio scanning on the feature.
27:23
But have a way to get those alerts because I don't want to
27:27
see any carrier. I don't care if you're city
27:31
rural. I don't care if you're a clerk.
27:33
I don't care if you're a janitor, any of that.
27:35
I don't want to see anybody that works for the Postal Service get
27:38
killed because they were not alerted by the weather.
27:43
You guys are too important to us to have something as minor as a
27:51
weather alert not given to you. All right, enough about that sad
27:54
topic. Let's talk about driving in that
27:57
bad weather. Oops.
28:02
Let me tell you. After 25 years, I will give you
28:06
scientific proof that LL VS and FF VS in snow are magnetically
28:13
attracted to mailboxes as you pull.
28:15
Away Yeah, yeah. No matter which way the road
28:21
built, your rear end's always going to go for that mailbox.
28:25
Coming up to it, your nose is going to pull to the right too.
28:28
Oh. Your nose will go after that as
28:30
you're stopping. Yeah, I just, I just drive right
28:33
up on the lawn then, you know, keep it going, don't lose
28:38
traction. You know, if you feel like
28:40
you're if you feel like you're going to lose it and hit the
28:42
mailbox or do something else, skip the mailbox.
28:45
Yep. It's not worth it to sit there
28:48
and wait two hours for them to bring a hook to get you off the
28:50
mailbox, which I've done, or like I did a couple weeks ago.
28:55
I ended up actually stuck right next to the mailbox.
28:59
I didn't touch the mailbox, but I was right next to it, and when
29:02
I tried to rock it back, it slid closer to the mailbox.
29:05
I'm like, Nope, I'll just take a hook.
29:08
And the hook got me out, got me on the crown of the road.
29:10
I took off and kept delivering. But your safety is your
29:17
responsibility. You are the captain of that
29:19
ship. You're in charge of that truck
29:22
or car or whatever you use to deliver the mail, and if you
29:26
feel it is unsafe, what do we do, Bill?
29:31
File A 1767 and then file file file.
29:37
If they argue with you. Hey, you know, look, the one
29:42
nice thing about the 1767 you're the only one who's there that
29:48
can make the determination of safety or not.
29:50
They can't. They they cannot give you any
29:54
idea what you're driving into, what the road conditions are.
29:57
The road bed is that you know the around the mailbox.
30:02
You have to make that determination and your safety is
30:05
more important than any damn package.
30:07
Your vehicle. You're not getting trash, you
30:09
know, trying to deliver something because it's coming
30:12
out of your pocket, not theirs. Yeah.
30:14
And on top of that, you know you are, you are the judge of your
30:18
own skill at driving. I don't expect anybody from
30:23
Texas, Florida, Louisiana, any of those states to be able to
30:28
come up here and drive in the conditions that I drive in or
30:33
that bill drives in or that Kristen drives in.
30:36
Just the same. I would expect that the Texas,
30:39
Louisiana, and Florida people would not expect me to be able
30:44
to handle the heat as well as they do because I'm from a
30:47
colder climate state. Your driving is based on your
30:50
skill in your area and you're the best judge of your own
30:56
driving ability. Although most people
30:58
overestimate their driving ability, including myself.
31:01
Well, just remember it's. The same thing that you know,
31:06
like you can be in a snow state. You don't have to get a lot of
31:09
snow, but if the one side of the road there's an embankment and
31:13
snow's getting piled up and drifting there, you know, that's
31:16
a lot different than you know, you own into town and there's,
31:19
there's two inches of snow. Well, it's not drifting there,
31:23
OK? You go out through New Mexico.
31:26
How many times have you, you know, come across a scorpion in
31:29
the mailbox or or anything else in Armadillo and Texas, you
31:34
know? Different.
31:35
Parts of the country have different precautions that you
31:38
have to exercise because of you know where you're at and and
31:42
it's up to you to make that sound judgement, not management.
31:45
Well I remember years two years back I was covered you know when
31:49
I was still an RCA covering a route that we had gotten snow
31:54
like 4 days or so before that. But on this one Rd. had a lot of
32:00
trees canopy so it was constantly shady.
32:04
So it you come around a bend on a downhill and because of all
32:12
the shade it didn't melt the ice yet on that you know on that
32:15
bend, which is a downhill slope and I lost traction in the road.
32:22
I was able to stop the truck with the mailbox post dead
32:27
center of the bumper and I was about two or three inches from
32:32
hitting the box. I just put it in park, hit the E
32:37
brake, cut the engine, called back and said this is where I'm
32:42
at. I am not move trying to move
32:45
this truck. You can, you can come out and
32:47
the station manager came out with the maintenance guy to move
32:51
the truck, you know, to move the truck and get it back on the
32:54
road because I wasn't going to have that accident on my on my
32:57
record. And of course the manager didn't
33:00
tell the maintenance guy to bring rock salt to melt the 2
33:07
inch of ice that was under the truck.
33:09
So they're just sitting there beating it with his wrench to
33:13
try and chip it away. Well, I said by my Subs, I
33:16
taught all of them, you know, in the because I have an FFV, you
33:21
know, you have snowy conditions. And with these vehicles, even
33:24
with chains on the rear wheels, you you put it in second gear,
33:27
you take the OverDrive off and you drive slow as you know, slow
33:32
as possible that that you need to to approach the mailbox
33:35
correctly. But just like teaching my boys
33:38
how to drive, But if you have one inkling of doubt of what
33:42
you're doing, that that's the time when you break away and say
33:47
no more. Because as soon as you start to
33:50
doubt yourself, you're going to press.
33:51
And that's when you're going to have an accident, whether it's
33:54
hitting the mailbox or a parked car or anything else.
33:58
So you know, once you lose that confidence driving in bad
34:01
weather, then you're at risk. Right.
34:03
And bet you know, I'm fine with bad, you know, bad weather.
34:06
I grew up in Philly. So you, you, you know, I know
34:09
what the weather conditions are. It's just like I said on a on a
34:14
bend downhill on a downward slope, thick patch of ice that
34:18
hadn't melted everything else. And the whole area, you know,
34:21
and the whole area is, is gone. I'm like, I am not trying to
34:26
move this vehicle because if I do, I know it's going to slide
34:30
into and actually tap that box. If I'm lucky.
34:34
It's only tapping it. You know what I mean?
34:36
You know, right now management's pushing everybody.
34:39
You get everything out every day and do second trips and all
34:43
that, folks. When enough is enough, your
34:46
body's going to tell you. Your mind's going to tell you.
34:50
Your your instincts are are going to be on alert.
34:54
And that's when you sit there and say, OK, I'm done for the
34:57
day. I mean Monday.
34:59
Last Monday I I did 13 1/2 hours.
35:03
I came home, ate my dinner and fell asleep sitting there eating
35:07
my dinner. I mean, normally a 13 hour day
35:10
isn't nothing, but I mean, you know, you're in and out, you're
35:13
moving packages around, you're trying to find them, you know
35:15
everything else. Even though I have a good
35:17
system, guess what? You know it wears you out.
35:21
And when when you're dismounting 100 the 120 times a day for
35:25
these packages it wears on you, it really does.
35:29
That because there's so many of them, at least 6-7 times you
35:33
have to go back there and rearrange them just to get them
35:35
back into some semblance order for the at least the next couple
35:38
streets. That's I had one customer, I
35:41
came to the back of the truck to get this package and he looks at
35:46
it, looks at the back of my truck and I have that bungee
35:49
truck cord in the back holding the the back end of my delivery
35:52
up to the ceiling, right. And he goes, what's that?
35:56
And I says that's the back half of my route.
35:58
And he says, oh, you're fucked. I said thanks a lot, you know.
36:05
He says you want to come in and get a drink now.
36:08
But hey, you know, that's the kind of customers I have.
36:11
They they speak the truth just like I do.
36:14
You might not like it, but it's, you know, it's the truth.
36:18
Yep, we feel honest. Yeah, you may not like me, but
36:23
that's OK. I'm an honest person.
36:25
We talked about the weather now we're going to talk about this
36:29
next two weeks, what we're going to be dealing with, how we're
36:33
going to deal with it and what's going on.
36:35
Only two more Mondays to go woo Hoo.
36:42
I don't know what it's like to have two days off.
36:45
Well, unless I go in on Christmas Eve.
36:48
So yeah, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Christmas Day.
36:52
Wow, what's 2 days off in a row like?
36:55
Yeah. Oh, I I did go and message
36:58
Corey. He said that he was fine in his
37:00
area. It went, it passed right by
37:02
them. Awesome.
37:03
Well, that's a plus. Yeah, two more weeks of
37:06
Christmas overtime, guys. Let's see how these pan out for
37:10
us. Well, I'm inspired after seeing
37:12
the president's video. No.
37:18
I don't think they just wanted to hit that rabbit hole.
37:22
Oh God. I am sorry, but when the curtain
37:29
behind him had more emotion and movement than the person
37:37
speaking. It was obviously reading off of
37:42
a teleprompter or something. Was reading something or?
37:47
I don't know. It almost looked like a
37:48
ventriloquist dummy talking, but.
37:50
Oh, you didn't see Jeff Dunham there?
37:52
I was gonna say was what was it? Was was his eyes taped up or was
37:56
it the Botox injections? I don't know what was going on,
38:00
but to me the conversation did not flow smoothly.
38:05
It did not feel genuine. It felt like it almost felt like
38:10
our response to fan mail. Yeah, it really did.
38:15
Fully read? No.
38:16
No emotion. No.
38:19
There was, it felt ingenuine would be the way I would put it.
38:23
No real heartfelt concern for the carriers that have their
38:27
feet on the ground. No.
38:29
And there, if if you're going to give out a holiday message,
38:32
especially talking to a craft that needs motivation and needs
38:39
support and needs somebody to give them a little bit of boost
38:43
of energy on what they're doing, that was not how you do it.
38:48
He had, he had more emotion at National Convention than that.
38:53
Yeah. I definitely, yeah, go ahead.
38:57
I'm, I'm, I'm gonna leave that one alone.
39:00
I definitely did not take, I did not take the time to count how
39:03
many times he licked his lips this time, but when you are
39:07
trying to, especially when you're doing your first message.
39:11
When you're doing your first message to the to the craft on
39:15
video, granted he's put 2 messages out or two.
39:20
Well, let me rephrase that. He's put half a message out to
39:24
people in 2-2 editions of the magazine because the first one
39:28
was 100% only about the decertification, the second one
39:32
was half of a conversation, and then more about the
39:35
decertification. I'm waiting for the next one to
39:38
see how much of this one he talks about the decertification.
39:41
So we'll see. But when you're giving out your
39:44
first message, do it with passion.
39:46
Show us that you have fight in you.
39:49
Show us that you care. Show us that you're earning your
39:53
almost $200,000 a year paycheck instead of sitting there and
39:57
droning on with no real inflection, no real emotion, and
40:03
no real motion either. Well, I I know everybody else
40:08
was looking for some inspirational guidance, maybe
40:12
maybe a little hope that, you know, we're going to turn the
40:15
corner on management and then you'll make them accountable.
40:18
But when I got done that, I woke up and my battery wore down that
40:23
that was just short of torture. I mean, when I did my breakdown
40:26
of it, I watched the video first, all the way through,
40:30
straight through, listen to every single word he said how he
40:34
said it and thought about why he said it.
40:37
Because whoever wrote this was trying to convey a message
40:42
without the words, and I don't think that it was conveyed
40:46
properly when it was spoken to the public.
40:48
I'd be happy to sit down and have a conversation with them
40:51
about what they're actually trying to achieve off the
40:53
record. Of course I would.
40:54
I don't want it on record, on recording or any of that stuff.
40:57
They can have a conversation off the record with me about what
41:00
they were trying to achieve there, but I really didn't see
41:04
any achievable goals and what they said.
41:07
Well, I was waiting for him to tell us how, how the test trials
41:10
were going in regards to being able to cut routes because from
41:16
what I've heard, they've all failed.
41:18
Yep. That's what I've heard too.
41:21
You know. Well, from what I've heard is
41:25
they were on paper, they were fine, but however they keep
41:30
picking offices to test that for one reason or another they can't
41:34
do them well. The reason why they can't do
41:38
them, the reason why they can't do them, is before you only had
41:42
30 points to figure out how to cut a route to 43 K from a 48 or
41:47
higher. Now you have 120 points to
41:50
figure out, and you have to figure out the mail volume for
41:53
each and every single mailbox that you remove from that route.
41:57
Because if you don't, then you're going to either cut them
42:00
too far or you're not going to cut them back enough and I can.
42:04
Tell you, I can tell you. From my office.
42:07
From my office, a route got castrated just before the 1st
42:12
count, castrated by an idiotic PM who was acting as the rural
42:19
person to do the The editing for the route.
42:23
Absolutely gutted and I am actually surprised that at the
42:27
second mini mail survey his route didn't go down to an
42:30
office route. That's how much he got gutted by
42:33
this idiotic PM. This new system has to account
42:37
for your volume factor, your package volume for each address,
42:45
everything involved with that, because now it is such a risk to
42:49
do that. And then on top of that, after
42:52
they cut your route, your evaluation still has a year
42:55
before it's going to go back down because even when they cut
42:59
it, it's still showing all those past parcels and mail volume
43:04
that you had on your route. So it's still going to take two
43:07
or or three evaluations before it goes back to its regular
43:10
amount unless they come up with some new system to actually
43:14
translate that volume over to the other route.
43:17
I just don't see it actually working right, even if they try
43:20
to get it to work by this next mini mail survey in April
43:23
because there are too many factors that they haven't
43:26
accounted for. Well, I was just going to say
43:27
that to you. They won't know what the you
43:30
know. They can basically guesstimate
43:33
what needs to come off or get put on to get you to get to
43:38
whatever that ideal number is that they're looking for.
43:41
But it'll take 52 weeks of data to find out where they're
43:45
actually at, where the route actually landed.
43:49
Yeah. And I mean you're you're looking
43:51
at factors that they need to have set in stone for these
43:56
cuts. And the problem is as you've
43:59
seen in every time we've had management talk about things in
44:02
front of us, they don't bring up rural numbers, they bring up
44:05
city carrier numbers because they don't have that
44:07
information. They don't have that data.
44:10
So how the hell is management going to be able to do these Rex
44:14
cuts when they don't even have the information available in a
44:18
spreadsheet that supposedly is going into these evaluations?
44:23
Right now it's a limited team that has access to do them.
44:27
Limited team has in one one person that doesn't know their
44:31
butt from a hole in the ground. No, it's actually it's AI.
44:36
Think it's 8 or 12 people in the department.
44:41
For the entire country, though. For the entire country.
44:45
Yeah, that might as well be one. Person that, Yeah, that's it.
44:49
And when they go into an office to do them, they have two weeks,
44:53
one pay period to get it complete.
44:55
To get everything, to look at all the everything for all the
44:59
routes and get it, you know to complete it.
45:03
And the line of travel has to be rewritten.
45:07
Line. Every single line, line by line.
45:10
It's not like the old where they can go into the 433 and just
45:15
delete these four lines, add two more lines, jump down further to
45:20
leap seven more lines, add 2 lines.
45:23
They have to rewrite it from scratch.
45:25
Well, I'm not. I'm not going to buy into this
45:27
horseshit until they get it straightened out because Rex is
45:31
a fraud. Just just on one aspect your
45:34
your average speed, OK? How do you dictate average speed
45:39
when a third of the country is out?
45:41
In rural routes where you have unpaved Rd. you know you you
45:46
have graded roads. You're not traveling graded
45:48
roads at 35 miles an hour, you know.
45:51
Or no? No, I some.
45:54
Of those, you feel like you're speeding and going too fast at
45:56
2025. Yeah, I've driven those roads.
45:59
I know. You know, you can take that
46:02
speed matrix and just blow it out your ass.
46:05
But you know, in the same way, you know, with the letters, I
46:07
mean, you know, what's 86th? A minute And and somebody had
46:10
said last week that, you know, the machine's only doing 70
46:13
minutes. Well, how can we do them faster
46:15
than the machine? Exactly.
46:19
Apparently real carriers, real carriers, are better than
46:22
machines. Apparently you know I'm not, but
46:26
you know some are. Well, good at, good on us for
46:29
being that efficient and fast. Now if we could just get
46:32
management to be that efficient 0.
46:35
Well, well, Jar. He has a question about less
46:38
than half a second for stop sign.
46:40
It was allegedly put in there at that because most rule carriers
46:44
don't come to a full stop. But the Post Office put in that
46:48
time factor for stop signs just to show that they don't condone
46:52
our rolling stop sign. Actually, it's been recalculated
46:55
as three seconds per stop sign. Again, I didn't even see that
46:59
one. You got to remember they just
47:01
updated it. Meanwhile, meanwhile, I have
47:05
private drives that don't, private roads that don't have
47:08
stop signs at the end of them, but they come out to US 23 and
47:14
there's times where I'm sitting there for a good 30 seconds to
47:16
two minutes waiting for traffic to clear so I can pull out.
47:20
Yeah. And and then you also have to
47:22
think about what is the state law for?
47:26
That state law says that when you are leaving a private drive
47:30
or a parking lot that you have to come to a complete stop
47:34
before you pull out onto a main road.
47:37
But yet there's no stop sign. Because guess what?
47:39
It's law that you have to stop, but management won't allow you
47:44
to put a stop sign there if there's no stop sign actually in
47:46
the ground. Yep, I know cuz I had to go back
47:50
through and fix mine. And then I like the part.
47:54
Like I said, I'm on US 23 and I I I love where I get to.
48:00
All right, go to this box and retrace.
48:03
No, there's no retracing. That's five lanes.
48:05
That's two lanes going both North and South and a turn lane.
48:09
I literally have the other road to have to make a wide turn and
48:13
back into it. So I can wait and see if traffic
48:15
is clear in order to make that left hand turn so I can retrace.
48:20
You know, I there's no way. I mean it's and then I have at
48:25
the South end part. I literally have to wait till
48:28
traffic clears so I can pull out into the lane and then pray to
48:32
God somebody pays attention to me as I'm waiting for traffic
48:35
north and northbound traffic to clear so I can make that left
48:38
hand turn onto that road so I can then turn so I can retrace.
48:44
Yeah, it's it's ridiculous. Yeah, or if somebody stole it.
48:50
I have one on my route that luckily there's two stop signs
48:53
there, but one of the stop signs is gone.
48:55
If it was the only stop sign there, guess what?
48:58
Management would make me remove the stop on my mapping because
49:00
the stop sign is gone even though the Pole's still there.
49:04
And I have you know, and I have like I said, I have a lot of
49:07
city crap on my route to where I have to pull into the parking
49:11
lot to get to their mailbox and then pull back out to get to the
49:14
main road. And like again, I am sitting
49:18
there many times for upwards to a minute or two or longer
49:23
waiting on traffic to clear before I can continue on.
49:27
And how does that affect my drive matrix, you know?
49:31
Or you can have a townhouse development like I do where
49:34
there is actually two stop signs for 9 different intersections,
49:40
so I don't even get a traffic control point for where I have
49:43
to pull up and stop to look both ways to get back out onto the
49:47
main drag going through the townhouses.
49:50
Yeah, I mean there is so many. You know, each individual route
49:56
has its own individual nuances to where you can't have the
50:02
drive matrix to say, well, this is your average speed.
50:06
No, that's not going to be my that may be my average speed on
50:09
a Saturday morning when traffic's not heavy, but that's
50:14
not going to be my my, my average speed on a Friday.
50:18
Why? I'm waiting for traffic to
50:20
clear, especially in the summertime when you got
50:23
everybody coming up north on Friday, You know, it's it It,
50:27
yeah, it's ridiculous. Oh, that'll just teach you to
50:31
drive during rush hour. Well, sometimes you can't help
50:33
that, you know. Sometimes.
50:35
Rush hours all day long in my town.
50:38
Oh yeah. Or those rural routes where you
50:40
get stuck behind farm equipment. It, you know, I've, I've had
50:45
that where I had to, yeah. Get stuck behind the combine
50:48
going down the road because they take up the whole little narrow
50:53
road and you're stuck behind them because there's no place
50:55
for them to pull off and there's no way for you to go around them
50:59
that doesn't, you know. Or the County Road grader making
51:03
the road smoother for you. Yeah, that too.
51:06
Or the plow trucks. I I I remember up in Gaylord,
51:10
you know the plow trucks when when they were scraping the side
51:13
and they come up behind me and I used to have fun because then I
51:16
would purposely go a little bit slower just to piss them off
51:18
until I got point where I was pulling off.
51:20
They could go around me, but Oh yeah, that was or the garbage
51:24
trucks. I leave frog garbage trucks
51:27
three times a week. Our garbage, our garbage men are
51:31
so mean they they will take garbage cans and literally put
51:35
them in front of the mailbox, even of customers that put them
51:38
on the other side of the driveway.
51:39
Yeah, or or they stick them way out to where you literally got
51:42
to wait for traffic to clear to go around the garbage can or
51:47
construction zones. Oh, don't get me started on
51:50
that. They're going to be doing the
51:51
bike path this next spring, summer that going on 23.
51:55
That's going to be not fun. Well, half a mile from
51:58
Westchester Post office is a reservoir and anywhere from late
52:03
October to maybe the middle of December we have goose crossings
52:09
and there's nothing like sitting there trying to explain the
52:11
stationary event for a goose crossing.
52:14
Or, yeah. Or waiting for the turkeys to
52:16
clear out, like of that picture I posted, you know, a couple
52:19
weeks ago. And we got the snow and I had,
52:22
you know, a flock of 50 turkeys out, you know, in the middle of
52:24
the road. And I'm like, OK guys, oh.
52:26
Come on, make you. I'm going to make you fly.
52:32
I made them fly, that's for sure.
52:34
I I I do remember that one Turkey on the Facebook where it
52:37
attacked the mail carrier. Oh, yeah.
52:40
Well, I we had that happen in my old office too.
52:43
Turkey went after a carrier. Oh yeah, it happens.
52:47
They are administering a video two years back of the Turkey
52:51
chasing the carrier around the truck.
52:54
I was. I had to stop for chickens the
52:56
other day because they were, I know what house they belonged
52:59
to, but they were in the yard of the house across the street, and
53:02
then they decided they wanted to cross the road in front of me.
53:04
So I'm like, all right, come on, let's go guys.
53:07
Well, I stopped for. Chicken.
53:08
Didn't they cross the road? I I stopped for chicken once,
53:12
but it was at Chick-fil-A. Get it?
53:14
Get it? Uh huh.
53:15
Uh. Huh.
53:16
Cackle. Cackle cackle.
53:18
Yeah, I had. I had a house that had Peacocks
53:21
on my old on the ox route and that was always fun.
53:24
In the summertime when they were running around, they'd be up by
53:27
the mailbox. I'm like, all right guys, move
53:29
please. I think they made more noise
53:31
than the dogs did when I'd pull up.
53:33
Oh, yeah, they're they're they're great guard animals.
53:36
Oh yeah. And they are not quiet.
53:38
No, they are not. Last time we were last time we
53:42
were home and went to the zoo because the Philadelphia Zoo has
53:45
the Peacocks running, roaming free.
53:48
They had something there, and there was a mirror, and the one
53:52
was fighting the other Peacock in the mirror, and he was not
53:58
quiet. Well, since we're on holidays,
54:00
weather and ramblings, I got a rambling.
54:02
How about that? Bill Forrest, that's fine.
54:05
Ladies and gentlemen, we we talked about you know, getting
54:09
the the right delegates that goes to the National Convention
54:11
and and elect a new national board the board that cares, that
54:16
understand and then has experienced our woes every day.
54:20
Just bear with it, please. It it's a drawn out process to
54:24
get rid of these folks. But you know, we have to work
54:28
within the confines of the system that we're we're involved
54:31
in. Don't give up.
54:34
I I know especially this time of year there there are so many
54:38
people just, you know, shaking their heads.
54:41
Some people are walking off the jobs.
54:44
Some people are are just retiring and you know it it
54:47
breaks my heart that the post office can break us.
54:51
Now I I don't understand everybody's individual
54:53
situations and I empathize with you.
54:57
But as a craft we have to stay strong.
55:00
We have to file. We we have to grieve.
55:03
We have to fight for ourselves for others and and and we have
55:08
to make management toe the line as much as they demand us to toe
55:13
the line. Get educated read the contract
55:18
the M38 the on PO6O3. Learn your right and fight
55:25
because it just breaks my heart it does you you see some of this
55:30
stuff on oh God at least 20 different social media platforms
55:35
where where people are just downtrodden.
55:39
I mean, you know they're beaten and and they're at the point of,
55:42
you know, giving up. Don't.
55:44
We're here. You can, you can message us.
55:48
Anybody wants to reach out, do so because we need you.
55:53
The only way we're going to change this union back to
55:56
representing the craft is if you stay involved, be active and get
56:02
your ass to the National Convention so we can change the
56:05
national board back to representing the craft.
56:10
Amen. I completely 100% agree.
56:13
I agree with that too, because the worst is here.
56:17
What we're dealing with right now is the worst that we deal
56:21
with hostile management creating a hostile work environment for
56:29
carriers left and right. Carriers only get 5 mistakes, 5
56:35
mistakes at most. Let's just put it that way.
56:38
At most, before they're terminated, management can get
56:44
35, 85150 mistakes, and even the worst ones can have the most
56:53
awful of mistakes. And maybe they'll get a 14 day
57:00
in office suspension. Maybe.
57:04
Or they'll just get moved. Or they'll get moved, but
57:07
they'll still be doing the same things over and over and over.
57:12
And upper management doesn't realize this.
57:16
And our union, our union is supposed to be there to put
57:21
their foot down. And the only way we can get
57:24
people in there to put their foot down is to get delegates at
57:30
these conventions, state and national, Because your state is
57:35
just as important as your national, your locals, just as
57:38
important as your national. You need to be involved.
57:41
If you can, do it. If you can't be a delegate,
57:46
vote. If you're not a member, if
57:52
you're not a dues payer, become one and vote.
57:57
Your voice is the most important thing of this union.
58:03
The leadership should be listening to your voices.
58:08
They should be listening to your concerns.
58:10
They shouldn't say we've had it too good for too long that
58:14
carriers have been getting paid 4546 K when they've been getting
58:18
off at noon, things like that. The craft needs to be taken care
58:23
of by the leadership and the leadership needs to listen to
58:27
the craft, because without the craft there is no leadership.
58:32
You and I. Sorry, I didn't mean to
58:36
interject, James. Go ahead.
58:37
But you know, listening to our friends and the other podcast
58:44
Fed up, you know he makes a good point.
58:47
You know there is no union without you.
58:51
You is the 1st letter of union and you are the union, not the
58:55
national board. They are supposed to represent
58:59
you, the union. Not the National board, not the
59:02
executive committee people. Not the National Steward system.
59:06
They are not. The state boards, you know, Not
59:09
the state boards either. They're supposed to be there for
59:13
you. Yeah, we still have some state
59:15
presidents who still deliver mail.
59:18
Yes. So.
59:20
There there are part time state presidents out there that are
59:22
still working their routes. Yep.
59:25
You're still dealing with the same things you and I are
59:28
dealing with, but there are some that have chosen different paths
59:32
in the Union that taken them off their routes too.
59:35
There are some people that went straight from RCA into full time
59:39
Union duties. There are some people that chose
59:44
to get off their routes after they left a leadership role and
59:49
couldn't hack it, and so they went back into a full time union
59:53
role before being elected to a position again.
59:56
Do I have permission from our board here to mention the NSS
1:00:01
going on? Go for it.
1:00:03
Go right ahead. Everybody deserves to know.
1:00:07
Sure. For all the listeners involved,
1:00:10
the National Steward System has removed the Dr. from my district
1:00:15
and they have renamed a. They have named it a new Dr.
1:00:20
from another district. The problem with the whole
1:00:24
situation is that in the course of six months they've lost 2AD
1:00:30
Rs. Myself as a local steward, and
1:00:33
now the Dr., and they're replacing it with somebody who
1:00:37
aligns with their mindset. This is a career individual who
1:00:44
almost every year is on a national committee at the
1:00:48
National Convention. So they're they're fortifying
1:00:52
themselves, basically. They're they're they're circling
1:00:55
the wagon. And it's because of our podcast
1:00:58
and other podcasts, The decertify unit.
1:01:01
They are scared and if we want change now's the time because we
1:01:07
have them rattled. When your president comes out
1:01:11
and points the finger at the carriers for not learning the
1:01:15
rec system, For blaming the carriers who have not taken
1:01:20
advantage but utilize their skills under the evaluated
1:01:25
system to work under the evaluation where they blame us
1:01:31
for not having the wherewithal form the duties and keep our
1:01:36
routes at at the levels that they were.
1:01:40
This is, this is telling you something, folks.
1:01:42
They're worried and trust me, I'm in, I'm putting in a couple
1:01:46
resolutions. That's going to piss a lot of
1:01:49
people off because I don't think the National Board should be
1:01:53
earning, on average, three times what our carriers are making.
1:01:58
Four times and five times if you're a table too.
1:02:02
Plus having housing provided for them.
1:02:05
Yeah, like, like our our constitution says we have to
1:02:08
furnish. We have to furnish housing for
1:02:10
the national officers. It says nothing whatsoever about
1:02:15
providing furnished housing for the national officers, including
1:02:21
their $3100 colonial desk or 65 inch TV's or their $6000
1:02:26
mattresses. No folks, everything else is
1:02:30
paid for. You don't need to be making
1:02:32
almost $200,000 a year to represent us in the fashion that
1:02:37
you are. Especially if you haven't
1:02:41
carried mail in decades, If you haven't had your feet in an
1:02:46
office running a route dealing with these atrocious scanners,
1:02:53
Amazon Hostile Management, you haven't dealt with these
1:02:59
directly. Boots on the ground in decades.
1:03:05
How can you represent us properly?
1:03:08
Speaking of listening to Fed up he and although it was a city
1:03:14
carrier he was he went his last episode.
1:03:17
He went into another office to do an investigation for the
1:03:21
union about hostile management and the guy got the cops called
1:03:27
on him multiple times for going into that office to investigate.
1:03:31
Why isn't our our leadership going into offices like that,
1:03:37
sending people in to investigate these things, sending people in
1:03:40
to find out why these officers are having such a bad time.
1:03:44
There is a there is a reason we have a joint statement for Dash
1:03:50
40 and it's very close to me. Royal Oak, MI is not that far
1:03:55
away from me. And if you want to know why
1:03:59
Joint Statement 4-40 exists, look up Royal Oak Post Office
1:04:06
and the situation that happened just before that statement was
1:04:09
issued. Management going down this line
1:04:13
is going to create another Royal Oak incident and our union is
1:04:19
letting it fall on deaf ears. Our leadership is letting it
1:04:22
fall on deaf ears. How many times, Bill, have we
1:04:26
seen carriers go to the microphone at National
1:04:29
Convention and plead for help in tears because of the way that
1:04:35
they have been treated in their offices?
1:04:38
Well, remember that Lady two years ago that got up there and
1:04:41
oh, we're we're investigating. I I bet you she's probably quit
1:04:45
already. I mean, you just wanted to go to
1:04:48
her office and smack the PM around.
1:04:50
You really did. I mean that that that was that
1:04:53
was short of traumatizing. But nobody should be treated
1:04:56
like that, especially grown ass adult.
1:04:59
Carriers should not have to be on a convention floor in tears,
1:05:04
pleading for help, pleading in tears for help because of
1:05:10
hostile management. I have seen it in person, first
1:05:15
hand. So is Bill numerous times.
1:05:19
And I'm putting me and Bill out there because we, I mean, Bill's
1:05:22
been to more conventions than I have, but we have been to
1:05:25
several national conventions, whereas James and Josh have each
1:05:28
only been to 1. But when you see it every year
1:05:31
from not just one but multiple carriers pleading for help.
1:05:36
I've seen a man, a postmaster that is that exact type too.
1:05:41
Mm hmm. Personally, I've personally met
1:05:45
one and I guarantee you that those types of managers are the
1:05:50
ones that create incidents like Royal Oak.
1:05:54
And Royal Oak was because of somebody who got so harassed by
1:06:03
management, by their supervisors and the postmaster that that's
1:06:08
what they did. I'm not condoning that activity,
1:06:13
just putting it out there that that's why it happened.
1:06:15
Well, yeah, I mean, I've I've had a postmaster in my office
1:06:19
screaming at a carrier up to the point where I walked over and
1:06:23
gave gave the carrier a grievance form And he turned
1:06:26
around and screamed at me and I says, do you really want to do
1:06:29
this on the floor? And he goes, what?
1:06:32
And I says, you know, have this temper, tantrum, hostile work
1:06:35
environment, threatening attitudes.
1:06:37
I says because, you know, I've got plenty of grievance forms
1:06:40
down here. And I said, you know, I don't
1:06:42
mind filing EE OSI says but if you want to take this
1:06:46
conversation in the office, you're welcome to.
1:06:48
I said, but you're not going to do this on my floor.
1:06:50
This is my office. I said this is my floor, and he
1:06:55
walked away. He was pissed of shit, 'cause he
1:06:57
knew as I was right. And you know what?
1:07:01
We still filed the EEO. You know, I have seen a carrier
1:07:05
go to go to ask a postmaster a question about something just
1:07:10
something to do with that day. And the postmaster Lily put
1:07:14
their hand up in their face and for the whole talk to the hand
1:07:18
type motion, I looked at him. I said that's hostile.
1:07:22
I mean you're you're, you're going to management, you're
1:07:24
going to go ask a question and they put their hand up in your
1:07:27
face. Come on now, When?
1:07:29
You tell them, they'll pull back a bloody stub.
1:07:34
We don't can't on that. Or, or you step back and you
1:07:38
say, are you threatening me loud enough for everybody to hear?
1:07:43
Yeah, I'll get everybody's attention on the floor.
1:07:45
So now everybody's a witness. All right, guys, we want to wrap
1:07:49
this up for tonight. Yeah, I think that's enough
1:07:51
passion for the night. I'd like to talk about more that
1:07:54
I can't talk about, but OK. After show after show.
1:08:00
This is why. This is why it pays our audience
1:08:03
to come and listen to us live recording, because there's
1:08:05
always an after show. And a pre show, but yeah, we'll
1:08:13
go ahead and wrap it up. And Josh, your final comments
1:08:17
for tonight. Like we said earlier, only two
1:08:20
more weeks. Stay safe.
1:08:23
Take your time. Do it right.
1:08:25
Don't get yourself overwhelmed. If you do, step back, take a
1:08:30
deep breath and step back in. Try and have a good week.
1:08:33
We'll see you next time. James.
1:08:35
We get very passionate when we talk about what our leadership
1:08:39
is doing, and some people get upset at us for that.
1:08:45
But the reason why is because when you don't question what's
1:08:51
going on, you become complacent. Until we have full transparency
1:08:56
to the membership, there's going to be questions, there's going
1:09:00
to be issues. Being open and honest and
1:09:04
disgusting things is the only way to prevent disparaging
1:09:09
issues with carriers. But the first step in any of
1:09:14
that, taking care of the carriers 1st and carriers, the
1:09:19
first thing you need to do is take care of yourself.
1:09:23
Don't let management push you around.
1:09:27
Don't let management treat you terribly and harass you.
1:09:31
And if you need somebody to talk to, contact us, contact EAP.
1:09:38
There are plenty of resources out there that can help you.
1:09:42
We will always be here to help people, so until then, just
1:09:46
remember we're all in this together.
1:09:49
Very well stated, James Bill. Well, contrary to what Josh
1:09:54
says, we don't have two more weeks.
1:09:55
There's going to be overflow. The the way this is running
1:10:00
right now, if you look the supply chains, there's all kinds
1:10:03
of stuff sitting on the other side of Panama Canal that's not
1:10:05
getting to the East Coast. So, you know, just do the best
1:10:09
job you can. Take your time.
1:10:11
Be safe. You know, Watch out for the
1:10:14
pitfalls of delivering in the dark.
1:10:17
You know if you have any moment of hesitation that you're not
1:10:20
safe, you're not safe. Cease and desist.
1:10:23
Go back. File 1767.
1:10:26
Don't be out there just because they tell you to.
1:10:29
You're the judge of your own safety, OK?
1:10:32
And like I say, you're the most important delivery of the day.
1:10:35
Get your ass home to your loved ones, because that package will
1:10:39
wait till tomorrow. Thank you guys.
1:10:41
Yes we all are are very passionate.
1:10:44
We we you know we we we we want to see better for the future of
1:10:48
the craft. I know myself, especially as a
1:10:50
new regular, I I want to see better over the course of my
1:10:54
career and I know everyone a single one of you do too.
1:11:00
And on that note, we're going to close for tonight and we will be
1:11:05
back next week. As her as her parole officer, I
1:11:21
wouldn't clarify it that way.