Latest / United We Scan / Response, Answer and of course Passion

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Response, Answer and of course Passion · United We Scan

0:35
Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast
0:38
by rural carriers, for rural carriers. The
0:41
views expressed in this podcast are of the
0:44
presenters and the presenters only, and do not
0:46
represent the views, opinions, or strategies of
0:48
the United States Postal Service or the National
0:50
Rural Letter Carriers Association. We
0:53
ask that you please consult your assigned union
0:54
representative for guidance in your local area. Please
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like this podcast, share with your fellow rural
1:00
carriers, and subscribe to be notified each time a
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new episode is uploaded. Also,
1:06
please leave a comment or question for us below.
1:09
Thank you. Now,
1:11
here are the hosts of the United We Scan Podcast.
1:14
Welcome back everybody, episode 71.
1:18
Bill is not with us this
1:20
evening. I do and don't apologize for
1:23
that. He is on his rescheduled
1:25
vacation from January, so he will be joining us the
1:29
next time around, hopefully. But
1:32
on that note, James, how was your week? Oh,
1:36
it was a normal week at the post office, you know,
1:40
going through the motions and getting information and
1:43
studying things like I normally do. Volumes
1:47
were normal for my route most of the week and did
1:51
have some heavy parts, some light parts, just like
1:53
normal. But then got to the weekend
1:56
and crashed out for Saturday, then woke up and
2:00
started monitoring the storms going through. Right
2:03
now, I want to just take a moment and say our
2:05
thoughts and prayers are with everybody that has
2:07
been affected by the severe weather through this weekend
2:10
and starting this week out because it's going to keep
2:12
going tomorrow too on Monday. So
2:15
hopefully everybody has planned in place in case
2:18
something bad happens there. And
2:20
other than that, and then today I had to go and
2:24
pick up my new suit that I had to buy. Got
2:29
a great suit shop, gives quality suits and for very
2:34
reasonable prices, especially on table to pay. And
2:38
had got that already hand up and I'm ready for mid
2:42
-stasis coming weekend. How about you, Josh? I
2:49
did not buy a new suit this week. I
2:52
do have to have my current suit hem though still. But
2:56
besides that, my week was pretty good with the
3:00
exception of I put in for national. Again,
3:03
now that we have a new person handling the leave
3:08
request for the office as a whole, not just my
3:12
station. And on the third business day,
3:16
I got it denied with I can't even read it. I
3:21
took a picture and sent it to the ADR and said, what
3:24
does this say? And he said, I was about to
3:29
ask you that. So he was trying to reach out
3:32
to the person that handles the leave request to find
3:35
out what it said. So he can let me know.
3:38
Hopefully I'll hear something from
3:39
him tomorrow on that. Kristen?
3:46
Yes. And my week was Monday sucked.
3:52
Monday was like a flashback to
3:54
Christmas in my office. It was horrible. One
3:58
of my RCAs about how to melt down on throughout the
4:00
heat covered Monday. And I just, I had to give him
4:04
quote unquote a mom hug out on the dock and kind
4:08
of bring him back in because I was worried he
4:10
was just going to walk off. And
4:12
we got him back down and deep breath and he
4:16
literally he did as Josh says to, you know, you get
4:19
overwhelmed, take a step back. And
4:23
we got him through the day. I
4:25
did help him to get situated to get out of the
4:28
office. And but yeah, it was Monday
4:32
was a day from, it was a day from hell all around
4:35
Tuesday. Little heavier than what it's
4:40
been. Actually, our whole week has been a
4:42
little, little heavier than what it's been lately, but
4:44
off and on really not all that bad. And
4:49
yeah, other than that, I'm just preparing for a mid
4:53
states coming up here next weekend. Not
4:56
a whole lot else going on really. Coming
5:02
to mid states, you can at least meet several of us
5:04
podcasters there. We'll be around. You'll
5:08
probably see a step on stage to do our speeches
5:11
that we have to do during the candidate announcement
5:14
portion of mid states. But you can catch us at the
5:18
meetings and events and break times. Feel
5:22
free to approach us, talk with us. We
5:24
will be available to answer any questions you have or
5:28
take any comments you have. We
5:30
will have a table. The three of us that will be
5:34
there will be sharing the table. I
5:36
will have some of Bill's Carrier First t -shirts
5:39
available for anybody that wants some of those. And
5:42
we can all think my lovely daughter Ruby will be
5:44
manning that table for us when we're not at it. So
5:47
yeah, we got that all situated out. So
5:52
yeah, looking forward to it. I
5:53
probably won't bring much of anything podcast material
5:56
wise just because, I mean, if you ask, I'll probably
6:00
have some stickers that I printed out in the past
6:03
and a few of the key chains that we had left
6:04
over from National. But you're going to have to
6:06
ask to get those just saying. I'm
6:09
not going to be out on the table. I'm
6:11
bringing the bag with me that you gave me for swag.
6:14
So awesome. Awesome.
6:16
Yeah. And whatever else I'm going to
6:17
print some more stuff up and if we need it. So
6:21
but yeah, that's coming up Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
6:27
I'm looking forward to it. I
6:29
always love a good mid -states conference. Me
6:33
too. I love a good informational
6:35
conference like this, especially for people who
6:38
haven't been to them. I know I'm going to get most
6:40
of the same information I got at SWAC for this one.
6:43
But that's okay. You
6:44
can also use that to verify they're saying the
6:46
same thing that all these conferences too. Make
6:49
sure that things aren't changing too much and
6:51
things like that. So speaking of things changing,
7:00
our wonderful leadership put out another YouTube video
7:05
update of things that they're doing. If
7:09
you guys haven't seen it yet, it is actually
7:11
available through their social media channel,
7:13
whether you're dues paying or non dues paying. You
7:16
can actually see it on their Facebook page.
7:21
Unfortunately, you can't comment on their
7:23
Facebook page, which really lowers their reach with the
7:27
posts that they do. But I'm sure they don't want
7:29
to hear from us all the comments that are going on.
7:31
But I really wanted to talk
7:34
with you guys about a breakdown of what was
7:37
actually said by President Don Mastin in that video.
7:42
So the very first thing that
7:44
I caught in that video of what he was saying was,
7:48
Hello my fellow sister and brother rural letter
7:52
carriers. Sister and brother fellow rural
7:57
carriers. Shouldn't sisters and brothers been
8:01
plural? If you said sister and brother
8:09
in, I could allow it. I think that was a last
8:17
minute addition in my opinion and why it wasn't
8:22
grammatically correct in the statement. He
8:24
needed to add the S on the ends to both of those.
8:27
But we talk about how everybody
8:29
here on the podcast and everybody listening is our
8:32
fellow brothers and sisters of the craft. So
8:36
I just thought that that's the first thing that
8:38
propped into my mind when I heard that was. So
8:41
you're trying to now bring everybody together after
8:45
telling everybody you've had it too good for too long.
8:50
Then he goes on to say, Since
8:53
becoming president, one of my goals has been to
8:56
address the severe hardships of thousands of rural
8:59
letter carriers with overburdened routes. This
9:05
was caused in part due to no mail counts for an
9:07
extended period. Yeah, don't say you're in office.
9:14
You're leading this craft. You're
9:18
working at the time before Rex actually was implemented
9:21
with at the time President Ronnie Stutz to help the
9:27
craft supposedly. You let all these routes carry
9:32
Amazon for years and years with no evaluation. Oh,
9:36
it'll get done in Rex. It'll
9:37
get done in Rex as we kick the can down the
9:39
road. What do you think, Kristen? Um,
9:51
I literally just watched it and I'm still trying to
9:57
absorb it. But I honestly, it was
10:03
basically telling us, yep, adjustments are coming and
10:06
that's vomit. I didn't really pull into
10:14
watching body language or words. It
10:17
was just a very unheartfelt message of, Hey, some of
10:22
you guys may see some relief, but there's really
10:26
no way into seeing it. I mean, if they could
10:30
pinpoint these routes that are truly overburdened,
10:35
you're 60 plus hours a week routes and help them
10:40
first, but there really is no rhyme or reason. I
10:44
mean, I personally have a friend that recently went
10:46
to an S and D C four hours was added off the
10:50
off the bat to their route due to the move and having
10:56
those deadhead miles back and forth to the route.
10:59
Well, in this last many mail
11:01
survey that bumped them up to a 48. Now,
11:05
if you were to deduct those four hours a week in
11:07
deadheads, that's only a 44. This
11:11
route is technically not overburdened. This
11:14
carrier is done on an average by 230 every day.
11:20
That one should not be on one
11:22
of the first lists yet it is. Yep.
11:25
That's my whole issue with the system right now is
11:28
they're not targeting the routes that actually need
11:32
the relief in the first phase of cuts. Yeah.
11:36
And then he goes on to say there's also due to
11:39
the employer not having a plan in place to adjust
11:41
routes once Rex was in place. So
11:44
you knew the system wasn't there. You
11:47
knew Rex wasn't ready. You knew the route cut system
11:50
wasn't ready, but you couldn't help the craft at
11:55
all through this whole period. What
11:58
were you working on that was so more important than
12:01
helping this craft with the issues of undervalued or
12:05
overburdened routes. He says your leadership
12:10
understands that many of you have been carrying
12:12
overburdened routes for many months and in some cases
12:15
for years. Again, stating the obvious. Thank
12:19
you, Captain Obvious. Then he goes and says we have
12:26
long pushed the Postal Service to have a plan to
12:28
adjust routes in place as it implemented Rex, but
12:32
Postal Management was unable to do so. So
12:35
then why did you push for Rex to be implemented
12:36
before everything was ready? Logic.
12:42
Now, and then he goes on to talk about the
12:49
leadership, did or do diligence. We
12:52
negotiated improvements to the adjustment system. And
12:56
now after a concerted effort on behalf of your
12:59
NRLCA board, route adjustments are becoming a
13:02
reality once again. Route adjustments should have been
13:06
a reality when Rex was implemented. Routes
13:09
should have been evaluated before Rex was implemented.
13:12
But as you said before, rural
13:15
carriers have had it too good for too long. So
13:17
now we're feeling that punishment of you thinking
13:20
that we've had it too good for too long. Well,
13:23
the talking with a friend of mine who's on the dark
13:30
side. He said he strongly felt that
13:36
they should have done one last count with the old
13:40
standards to get a baseline before they implemented Rex.
13:47
And then take that data. And
13:50
I think at that point, they should have done any
13:53
cuts that needed to be done. I
13:56
think they should have taken the last two mini
14:00
mail surveys and done a standard count alongside
14:04
those mini mail surveys. And
14:06
whichever one was higher was what the route got
14:09
evaluated at. That is my personal opinion. But
14:13
I'm on the side of the carrier here, not on the
14:16
side of management. The total phase one adjustment
14:19
list identifies over 5600 overburdened routes with
14:24
nearly 4 ,900 of those evaluated at K48. So
14:29
that's 5 % of routes approximately. And
14:38
somebody could check my math on that. But
14:40
we have a little over 100 ,000 rural carriers. So
14:44
I'm just doing the math here on that. Somebody
14:48
else can correct me if I'm incorrect. That's
14:52
okay. What was the number? 5600
14:55
routes. And 4 ,900 of those are K48.
15:00
So I'm guessing that the other
15:03
700 routes are K47. And then he turns around and
15:08
says, we have hundreds of routes evaluated over 60,
15:11
70 and 80 standard hours with many even higher.
15:16
Yeah. Because we had route counts
15:20
prior to RECs. We had Amazon added in prior
15:26
to RECs right after the last mini mail or the last
15:29
mail count that we ever had. So
15:31
yeah, there's going to be routes that are almost
15:33
double routes out there. Well,
15:36
and then there's in the case of like in my office,
15:39
the one route was already an overburdened route. And
15:45
there was a brand new subdivision. They
15:48
had to put it somewhere. So
15:50
they put it on that route, like I said, which was
15:52
already way overburdened. Yep.
15:57
So now that carrier is getting double triple
16:02
growth. Yep. And he says, please rest
16:06
assured that we are pushing for this process to move
16:09
as comprehensively as quickly and as accurately
16:13
as possible. So I'm guessing as quickly and
16:16
comprehensively as possible, they mean like the
16:19
implementation of RECs. You got to remember the old
16:22
adage. You can have things done
16:24
quickly, but it won't be neat and clean. You
16:30
can have things done comprehensively, but it
16:33
won't be quick. You can have things accurate,
16:36
but it won't be quick. Or you can be comprehensively
16:39
accurate, and it'll take forever. But
16:43
you can't be comprehensive, accurate, and quick. Because
16:48
that just invites errors. And
16:53
then he throws out also well aware of the impact
16:56
the decline of mail volume has had on many routes.
17:00
The impact of decline of mail
17:03
volume should have been offset with adding Amazon
17:07
and all this stuff. The fact that routes are going
17:10
down instead of staying the same as package volumes
17:13
increase and mail volume decreases tells me that
17:16
there's a problem in the math that you're doing to
17:18
protect real carrier salaries. He
17:24
says, I, along with your national officers, realize
17:27
it took way too long for the postal service to
17:29
establish a new route adjustment process. And
17:32
we recognize the toll is taken on both regular
17:36
carriers and leave replacements as well. Again,
17:41
captain obvious. You've been hearing that for years
17:46
from carriers. You've been hearing it since after
17:49
the last mail account when Amazon was added. You've
17:52
been hearing the toll has been taken on RCAs working
17:55
seven days a week carrying Amazon. But
17:59
we're not talking about that here. He
18:05
says, there is no doubt that the postal service's
18:07
inability to address these issues is part of the
18:10
reason we are seeing historic turnover in our
18:13
craft. I'll say that's about five
18:17
percent of the reason we're having turnover in this
18:19
craft. Would you guys agree? Yeah,
18:25
I agree. I think most of it has to
18:27
do with the working conditions and the fact
18:29
that management wants to treat everybody like crap.
18:33
Work conditions, benefits, and
18:36
wages. Those are the three things that
18:39
affect carrier morale. The three things that are most
18:44
important to people are the wages they make, the
18:49
working conditions they have to deal with, and the
18:52
benefits the employer gives them and lets them use.
18:57
It's kind of hard to use a
18:58
benefit when they're constantly denying you
19:00
annual leave, especially for union events. Here
19:08
goes on. We are confident that our due
19:10
diligence has resulted with a tool that when used
19:13
accurately and fairly, let me rephrase, I said that
19:19
wrong, we are confident that our due diligence has
19:22
resulted with a tool that when used properly will
19:26
accurately and fairly adjust routes. I
19:29
don't want to be blamed at misquoting what he said on
19:33
the video, so I wanted to rephrase that in the video.
19:45
When have you ever known
19:46
management to use tools properly? They
19:50
don't even use the rural craft properly in many
19:54
offices, so how are they going to use this tool
19:56
properly? Now, he goes on. We
20:03
are also committed to addressing the massive
20:05
turnover issues through contract negotiations. Your
20:09
bargaining team is making contract proposals to
20:12
address chronic turnover and understaffing issues that
20:15
have negatively impacted carriers who are being over
20:17
scheduled, forced to work beyond a lot of hours, a
20:21
lot of hours, and denied requested time off,
20:25
something I just said earlier. One
20:28
of the things that he did say, if he's pushing for
20:31
more formula offices, more PTFs, and yes, PTF is a
20:37
benefit to relief carriers, but formula offices aren't.
20:42
Formula offices are not a benefit
20:45
to regular carriers. Now, some can say, oh yeah, you
20:49
get a weekday off, blah, blah, blah, but having
20:53
those two days off in a row, especially in a job
20:56
as stressful as this one is for a lot of carriers,
21:00
especially with hostile management, is a benefit to
21:05
a lot of regular carriers. It's
21:10
amazing to me to think that you can't institute
21:16
PTFs on a Saturday, Monday rotation for regular
21:20
carriers and then have them cover during the week when
21:24
people are off. Wouldn't be that hard to implement
21:27
that, would it? Especially if you're hiring into
21:30
career positions, the PTF or the Royal Craft, with a
21:33
Saturday and Monday workdays part -time? I
21:39
don't know about you, but I would take that as a
21:42
relief carrier, guaranteed Saturdays and Mondays
21:45
working, the rest of the week maybe work. I
21:49
take it. He says, please look for
21:53
additional contract administration and contract
21:55
bargaining updates on NRLCAs media platforms. Well,
22:01
we would if you guys actually allowed commenting
22:04
more than just reactions because then it would
22:07
spread it to a lot more rural carriers, a lot more
22:09
people would see it, a lot more people would view it,
22:13
and a lot more people would be educated in the
22:15
craft. What do you guys think of that,
22:19
the breakdown and the video itself? Again,
22:25
it was a video that yes, there was vague information.
22:30
I mean, it was something, but
22:32
it didn't really give us a whole lot of, hey guys,
22:36
we're working our tails off. This
22:38
is what's coming. There was really no harder
22:41
passion behind it. That's just my take. I
22:46
keep telling you, I try not to think it's painful.
22:50
Sometimes it is, I agree. Yeah.
22:54
When you do videos, especially those kinds, you
22:58
want to instill a passion into the craft as a
23:01
leader. You want to get people
23:03
motivated and standing up for themselves and wanting
23:07
to fight for this craft and fight for the people.
23:10
You can't sit there and be
23:12
humdrum. Oh, we got this going on and
23:16
we got this going on and we're going to not just
23:19
drone on and on about it and not really feel
23:23
passionate about it. So, where's the passion? We'll
23:31
give you the passion, the strength to fight for it.
23:35
Even without Bill here, there is
23:37
still enough more passion in this room than you'll
23:41
ever see from your leadership, unfortunately.
23:49
Yeah, I have to agree. It's
23:52
a... It is. I
23:58
really can't speak much of the fact that there's just
24:04
really no passion. It's really just kind of takes
24:12
people away from actually wanting to listen and see
24:14
if there was actually anything of importance being
24:17
said. Exactly. Speaking... I
24:26
was just going to say, yeah, it detracts from the
24:30
message because it's hard to follow the message. Yes.
24:40
Well, Bueller in our comments there. Bueller,
24:47
Bueller, Bueller. But no, it's hard also for
24:55
them. I will give them a little
24:57
bit of benefit of the doubt here if they're
25:00
actually working their tails off for the craft to then
25:04
turn around and make a video like that that
25:06
probably took six or seven takes to get it right
25:10
because I'm sure he misread things. I'm
25:13
sure he said the wrong words or he got flustered
25:17
over it and swore so they had to start all over
25:19
because I've done that myself and just recording
25:22
the intro for this podcast. But
25:28
there's still, even with all of that, I come on
25:32
here, whether I have a busy day or a slow day, I
25:36
come on here and have the same passion for this craft
25:39
no matter what because I know how much the
25:43
connection to my brothers and sisters of the craft
25:46
means. Exactly. No matter what we have
25:51
going on in our personal lives, or how bad our work
25:55
day was, even when we do our midweeks, you know,
25:58
Grant, you're not, it's usually a Tuesday or
26:00
Wednesday, which are typically lighter, but
26:02
that's not always the case for everybody. We
26:06
still make the time, we still put in the effort,
26:09
we still have that passion come across to be able to
26:15
connect to everybody in the craft, or at least
26:19
everybody that listens to us anyways. But
26:22
yeah, that's in trying to reach out to the entire
26:25
craft. I mean, that's what, you
26:27
know, we do, that's always been our main focus and
26:32
even before we were on here. I
26:34
know for me, you know, I always was trying to help
26:39
or mentor people in my office or neighboring
26:43
offices or, you know, friends from other offices
26:46
when I did connect with them at conferences and
26:50
conventions. You know, we are always putting
26:53
our passion and our heart on, you know, wear our
26:56
heart on those sleeves when it comes to the craft.
26:58
Always. And I was talking to a
27:05
carrier this week, and I feel so bad for them. They
27:10
have so many issues in their office when it comes
27:15
to wrecks and the stuff that needs to be corrected
27:19
and their ADR, who is the steward for their office,
27:25
is not responding to them or is brushing it off and
27:30
listening to management over the carrier. Even
27:34
though the carrier has the documentation that it hasn't
27:37
happened, has the paperwork to prove that it hasn't
27:40
happened, it pisses me off. I
27:46
am so frustrated that this ADR would choose management
27:50
over the craft and listens to management when the
27:57
carrier has a problem and then tells management who
28:00
the carrier is, so management turns around and
28:02
retaliates against the carrier. That
28:06
is not right. If you are an ADR, a DR, an
28:12
area steward, a local steward, if you're the
28:14
regional rep in the national steward systems, if
28:17
you're the NRO, if you're the director of steward
28:19
operations, director of labor relations, the
28:21
president, I don't care. Your
28:24
focus should be on the craft and taking care of
28:28
your carriers. It doesn't matter if it's a
28:30
grievance or a gripe. You help them solve their
28:33
problem because they are the ones paying dues. They
28:38
are the ones who are paying your paycheck except
28:40
local stewards. So take care of the people
28:44
who pay your paycheck. Take care of the craft. The
28:49
craft is the only thing that should matter to you.
28:54
Any public comes to be, you
28:56
know, if it's just a gripe, I have fielded
29:00
several phone calls with carriers that I consider
29:04
friends or, you know, maybe somebody I don't talk to
29:07
but just says, hey, can you call me or can I call
29:10
you? And, you know, they're not
29:12
necessarily looking at what can I do, what do I have
29:15
to do. They're literally just want somebody
29:18
to vent to, somebody that understands what they're
29:22
dealing with on a daily basis, somebody that they
29:25
are comfortable talking to and can just vent and have
29:30
somebody to let it out, you know, even if they are
29:33
fighting that good fight, even if they're a local
29:35
steward in their office and they're having issues with
29:38
their own ADRs or DRs or, you know, plus, you know,
29:41
other craft members within their office and they just
29:44
need somebody to listen to them. And,
29:48
you know, I have done that many, many times to just
29:52
be that person to listen, to know that at least
29:56
somebody was listening to them, that they were heard
30:00
in some capacity, whether, you know, it doesn't matter
30:04
if it's going to fix their situation, it's least a
30:07
medium for them to get it off their shoulders and be
30:12
able to breathe again because they were able to
30:14
get it out to somebody who who may actually understand
30:17
what they're dealing with or can relate to what
30:21
they're dealing with. You didn't have to call me out
30:24
and throw me under the bus like that, Kristen. She'll
30:31
tell you, there's been many times on my way home from
30:33
work, I'm like, let me tell you about this one.
30:37
You're not the only one, Josh,
30:39
you're not the only one. I know. I
30:41
know. You are not, I mean, Bill
30:44
calls me too. And, you know, and I have other
30:50
carriers from other parts of the country that, you
30:52
know, I've spent hours on the phone with just
30:55
listening to them. And sometimes that's really what
30:59
the craft members want is to know that they're being
31:03
heard, to know that somebody is listening. And
31:09
we are, we are listening. Just
31:11
that, wow, how, how quick they, that's all they
31:16
really need is that I can't even imagine how they
31:21
can do that. Just someone else to say it.
31:26
Yeah, so, oh my gosh, you've got
31:28
to be kidding me. Are you serious? This
31:31
is a load of horse manure, you know, just to agree
31:35
with them that, okay, I'm not as crazy as I thought
31:38
I was because this person's, because, you know,
31:41
I, they're not feeling as crazy as I thought they
31:43
were because we have to agree with them. It's
31:45
a load of horse manure, you know, it's, yes, to
31:49
know that people are being heard. And
31:51
I think that's what the craft needs is to know
31:54
that people are listening to them, even if it's just
31:59
a gripe or a vent and know that they are being
32:02
heard by somebody. I can tell you that for me,
32:09
anybody in the craft can reach out to me. I've
32:14
had not only local people, regular carriers, relief
32:18
carriers, I've had an ADR reach out to me and just
32:22
ask a question. I'm not going to name who it
32:25
was or anything like that to protect them from any
32:28
malicious intent from others. I've
32:31
talked to DRs. I've, I'll talk to, I'll talk to
32:35
national people if they need somebody to talk to.
32:38
You are a member of this
32:40
craft. You are a brother or sister to
32:43
me. You may not like me, I may
32:46
not like you, but when you need help, I will be there
32:50
for you. It doesn't matter. And
32:54
I've had, I actually had a city carrier steward reach
32:59
out to me to ask how they can help their rural
33:03
brother and sisters in their, in their office,
33:07
because they were having issues and they wanted to
33:11
know on the rural side what the rural carriers
33:14
could do to protect themselves because they
33:17
didn't have representation in their office. I
33:20
spent an hour and a half talking to that city litter
33:23
carrier that's a steward just to help them out. And
33:27
that's what it's about. And like we talked about on
33:30
the bonus episode, us city carriers and rural carriers
33:34
need to work together because our common issue is
33:38
management. I won't call them a total
33:42
enemy, like some people will, but our issues are
33:47
with management. If management followed the
33:49
contract, followed the postal manuals and did
33:51
everything as close to the letter as possible, this
33:56
craft wouldn't have as many issues as it did. You'd
34:01
still have somebody unhappy people out there just
34:03
because they got somebody that follows the book. But
34:06
you know what, at times there's nothing wrong with
34:08
following the book. You know, if, and that's the
34:12
importance of educating yourself as a carrier, I
34:16
know, I know it's got to be done on your own time.
34:19
And I get that. But
34:20
if we do that all the time, you know, and I've
34:24
like said it before, you know, I don't post as much
34:26
on social media as I used to in a lot of the
34:29
groups. I really don't. And
34:31
a lot of times I'll just scroll through and I'll
34:33
read somebody's problem and be like, ah, never come
34:36
across it. And I'll just go look it up
34:37
for my own benefit. And be like, ah, okay. But
34:42
you know, it's, I'm always educating myself in one way
34:46
or another. I'm always researching something.
34:49
I'm always, you know, or
34:51
reaching out to another carrier or any one of
34:55
these guys or, you know, and brainstorming and
34:58
throwing stuff at each other. And
35:00
what ifs, what if, what if we did this, what if we
35:03
could attain this or how should we approach this,
35:06
this idea that we have or what would have, how would,
35:09
how would we, what would be the best way to
35:12
convince them to pass this type of resolution? Or,
35:16
you know, something like that. I
35:17
mean, we are always pinging stuff off to try and move
35:21
this craft forward and be progressive and to bring
35:26
this craft forward into the future. Because
35:28
right now, we don't know what the future holds. And
35:31
it's scary. But, you know, we need people
35:34
who are working now, the day ends and day outs and
35:38
experiencing what we experience on a daily basis
35:41
to be those ones that are active to move this craft
35:44
forward into the future. And,
35:51
you know, like you said, bouncing the ideas back and
35:53
forth off each other. And it's not necessarily
35:56
sometimes the ideas or like you said with, you know,
35:58
ideas for resolutions. It's what wording is going to
36:04
be the best wording. And two, three, four, five
36:09
heads are going to, you know, we come together and
36:14
we figure out what the best way to word it is to
36:20
get the delegates to want to vote for it. I
36:29
think you just said it, but during sports season
36:32
growing up, honorable opposition, even if they're
36:36
not, we must be. Absolutely.
36:39
And I put it, I put this to my postmaster when I
36:44
was the local steward in the office before being
36:46
dissertified. I said, I'm your underling
36:53
until you make me put the union hat on. When
36:56
I put the union hat on, we're adversaries. And
37:00
I'm going to bring everything to the table I
37:01
can. And to this day, we've agreed
37:07
on almost everything I've brought to the table, even
37:10
after I've been decertified. She
37:11
still looks to me for answers on union questions
37:15
instead of contacting our ADR or our DR. She
37:18
asked me first. And that's the biggest thing
37:23
is, is if you have your opponent who respects you
37:30
and respects what you know, they'll turn around and
37:34
agree with you when you put the facts right in
37:39
front of them. When an opponent does not
37:42
respect you, they won't listen to that word you
37:45
say. And they'll sit there and
37:48
they'll tell you, we've already made our decision
37:50
and that's what we're sticking with, even if you
37:52
put facts right in front of them. This
37:55
craft as a whole is on a precipice. This
37:59
next contract that they negotiate is going to be
38:04
the maker break of the rural craft. Now,
38:09
you know, I don't know big words. You
38:15
want me to pull the definition of precipice up
38:18
for you, Josh? Definitions of precipice. A
38:26
very steep cliff type of cliff drop drop off a
38:30
steep high face of rock or the brink of a dangerous
38:34
or potentially disastrous situation. I
38:38
think we are of the latter of those two. The
38:41
brink of a dangerous or potentially disastrous
38:43
situation. And it's been heading that way
38:46
for quite a while. Yes, it has. It's
38:51
been heading that way since we had the two table pay
38:55
system come in. And even if we were to remove
38:59
the two table system, the biggest issues that we have
39:04
facing us right now is the consolidation of routes into
39:08
a centralized location. We have pay that is not
39:12
composite to the rest of the labor markets that we
39:18
compare our pay scales to, which is a violation of
39:21
federal law. And we also have the issue of
39:25
the benefits afforded to the rural craft that are
39:29
underutilized, underperforming, and not
39:34
comparative to the rest of society. Yes,
39:39
we get 11 days paid days off as regular carriers
39:42
with the holidays. But there's more to that than
39:45
that. We have families. We
39:48
have lives. We aren't treated as human
39:50
beings in these offices. And
39:54
unless we can address the systemic and prolific
40:00
hostile work environments in these offices on top of
40:06
the lack of hiring ability of the postal service, plus
40:11
the pay scale systems, there's a lot of things in
40:16
that contract that our current leadership is
40:19
actually looking to remove for the benefit of the
40:24
postal service. And those protections are very
40:31
important to keeping us the rural craft. They
40:38
remove those, we become city carriers. And
40:43
I'm not saying that we'll have to get uniforms yet
40:46
or anything like that. But this MOU, they've been
40:51
pushing to cover routes. And
40:55
I could understand it during COVID when you had
40:58
offices that over half the carriers were out sick with
41:01
COVID on. But now you've gotten to the
41:05
point where you've given management and out to
41:08
hiring. Not only do you have the out
41:11
of hiring with the MOU, you also have it with the
41:16
PTS. So you're limiting the amount
41:21
of dues paying members the craft could bring in at
41:28
one third of the dues paying rate to bring in
41:36
PTFs who pay the same dues as regular carriers and
41:43
forcing regular carriers to take non -Saturday relief
41:47
days. From what I've heard in some
41:50
offices, they don't even allow them to have Mondays,
41:53
which they should be grieving in the first
41:55
place. But you're also cutting your
42:01
nose off to spite your face. Now,
42:05
I want to, I want to do want to add, now, if that
42:08
MOU that has been renewed and reintroduced and renewed
42:11
and renewed and reintroduced and blah, blah, blah. Now,
42:15
if, from my understanding, it would still be left
42:18
voluntary if it does make it into contract language.
42:21
But as we all know, management
42:24
will see it as, well, it's in your new contract. So
42:28
now we went from volunteer to violent hold. And
42:35
then they'll just turn around and say, well, I'm
42:36
telling you to do it as a direct order. If
42:38
you don't, that'll be failure to follow a direct
42:40
order. And then you can grieve it
42:43
afterwards. And as we've seen current with
42:45
the current grievance policy, after step one,
42:49
which in that instance management would choose not
42:53
to agree to anything at step one to send it to
42:55
step two, it could take up to a year for it to be
42:59
resolved at step two in some instances. I've
43:03
got a grievance that's been sitting at step two for
43:05
over a year that I still haven't heard a response
43:07
on. And then if it fails at step
43:11
two after that year, it could take up to two years
43:13
at step three, and up to what are we at six years
43:18
on one of those stuff for? Maybe
43:19
seven now? I just, the whole, my issue
43:27
is if it's a direct order that blatantly disregards
43:30
the contract, goes against the contract, breaks the
43:33
contract, however you want to word it, I just, I'm
43:40
not for the whole follow the direct order then
43:44
grief, because then what is your remedy? How
43:47
are you made whole? Now that you were told direct
43:52
order to do something that is against the contract,
43:55
you've already done it, now how are they going to make
43:58
you whole for doing it? For
44:03
management's blatant disregard. And
44:10
then there was the case, for example, not this go
44:16
around with the MOU, but the last one. Supervisor
44:20
came up and asked if I could help because they had
44:22
so many routes on the other zone. I'm
44:25
like, I can't just put you're on the overtime
44:27
list. I'm like, no, I'm on the
44:29
relief day work list. And she like kind of huffed
44:34
and walked off. So I could see where carriers
44:40
could kind of get bullied that way. Well,
44:42
you're on the list. You need to help. And
44:48
speaking of relief day work list, that was supposed to
44:51
have come down this past Friday. And
44:54
we'll go into effect. Is it the next pay period? I
45:00
believe so. Which would be May 4th. Yes.
45:07
May the 4th be with you. Exactly.
45:11
I personally did not sign the relief day work list.
45:15
I then got a text message
45:16
from my supervisor yesterday asking me about a couple
45:19
of Saturdays in the future. If
45:20
I'd be willing to work, they did not interfere with
45:24
anything else I had going on. So
45:26
yes, because I can then use those X days at a
45:28
different time. Because I'm all about doing that
45:32
because if I know it was a particular carrier looking
45:34
for the weekends off. But yes, I did have this
45:41
message that just came through to me. And
45:43
I want to touch on this real quick way, why it's
45:46
still fresh before we wrap things up for tonight. This
45:50
one came to me seven minutes ago. It
45:53
was told on Saturday that after end of shift duties,
45:55
I should switch over to PM casing and read Hasmat
45:59
booklet and a few other service talks. Why
46:02
are these not considered end of shift duties? Those
46:07
should be end of shift duties. Yes.
46:09
Yes. If management is making you
46:11
work and studying manuals is work, you are to be on
46:16
the clock. And end of shift duties is on
46:21
the clock. PM casing is technically on
46:25
the clock because it does go against your 2080 and
46:28
2240 hours. But it is not credited to your
46:33
route. So the only other two ways
46:38
that you can be paid for that is if they record it
46:41
as stand up time where you are sitting with management
46:45
and they're going over it with you, or they pay you
46:48
81 27 time as regular or green card time as a
46:52
relief carrier. Yes. And then I can totally see
46:56
if you were not present the day that they gave
46:59
those service talks that yes, and they said here,
47:02
you know, here's the service talks you missed.
47:04
If you could just read them
47:05
over rather than I can understand that to a point.
47:10
However, you should be compensated
47:12
towards your route one way or another or paid the 81
47:16
27 time as a regular carrier green card time as
47:19
an RCA for doing it, not just to flip over to PM
47:22
casing and not being compensated towards your
47:24
route for it at all. Exactly.
47:27
No. We don't work off the clock.
47:31
Well, plain and simple. I
47:33
would say I could see and let me finish before you
47:38
you rebut I could see them saying go to PM casing
47:43
read these let me know how long it is and then put
47:46
that in as service talk done. But
47:51
the caveat to that is the understanding I have is
47:53
when they go into RMSS to put in service talk time,
47:57
it's across they put them one time one place and it
48:00
credits everybody. Now I could be wrong with
48:04
that. I haven't actually seen how
48:06
it gets entered, but I think it's just one spot
48:08
for the day and all routes get credited that. Yeah,
48:13
but doing it under PM casing should be a no no
48:16
if they're requiring you to do it then definitely after
48:19
you come back from your route it should be end of
48:20
shift duties, plain and simple. Definitely
48:24
reach out to your your assigned route for guidance
48:28
on that issue. And we always want you to
48:32
reach out to your designated union
48:34
representative. And it doesn't matter if you're
48:37
dues paying or non dues paying, you can still find
48:40
out who your designated union representative is on
48:43
the NRLC website. It is required by law to be
48:47
open to find out who your union rep is on the union
48:51
website. And that's under departments,
48:54
steward operations, find your representative. And
48:58
I would enter all the zip codes in your office to
49:01
see if you have a local representative because
49:04
sometimes they only put them in under one zip code
49:06
in the office. And if they have multiple zip
49:09
codes that steward does cover all the zip codes in
49:12
that office, even though they don't put it on the
49:15
on the website. So check them all before you
49:18
contact the person listed just in case you have a
49:22
local that you didn't even know about. All
49:29
right guys anything else we want to touch on or we
49:32
can go ahead and wind this down and make it a quick
49:34
episode tonight. Let's make it a quick episode
49:37
tonight. I know we have a short one
49:40
in a while. Yeah, we have to get ready this
49:43
week anyways for mid -state so. Yes,
49:46
yes we do. My red hair is back everybody
49:49
so if you haven't seen me in a while, I got red on
49:52
the gray. I had to get red on the
49:54
gray. It was just couldn't do it
49:56
anymore. And yeah, so I know James,
50:03
myself, Toasty, I'm picking him up from the airport
50:06
Thursday afternoon will be at mid -state. Bill
50:10
unfortunately will not be joining us since he is
50:14
Yes, he definitely will. I will have Bill's t -shirts
50:20
available at the table. So if anybody wants to grab
50:24
one of those why they can before National Convention
50:27
we will have those. And yeah, just I'm just gonna
50:32
put it you know the podcast stickers and the
50:35
few key change I have left over from National will be
50:37
on the down low. Like I said just ask my
50:41
daughter is well aware of that. I've
50:42
already told her she'll have a stock a little box
50:45
of or whatever pouch or something for those. So
50:49
if we're not at the table and you want one of the
50:53
stickers that I printed out or one of the key change
50:55
that a friend of mine had made us at National just
50:59
ask her and she'll be more than happy to get that out
51:02
for us. And don't forget the shameless
51:05
plug we do have our merch store available where you
51:08
can actually get shirts for the candidates as well as
51:12
well as other podcast memorabilia. So
51:15
make sure you check out head on over there it's
51:18
linked on the Facebook pages as well as in our
51:21
discord under the merchandise tab. So
51:24
if you guys want to help with that and wear those
51:27
to National it's also linked in the show
51:31
description for across all the listening platforms as
51:35
well. For you coffee drinkers I heard
51:38
there's a nice tumbler up there too. Yes
51:40
and somebody else just ordered one too by the way
51:43
Josh. We. So all right let's wind it
51:53
down. All right I'm going to say
51:56
Josh your final comments for tonight. It's
51:59
been a week this week coming up it shouldn't be
52:04
too bad hopefully the storms will settle down
52:07
some again prayers to anyone that's affected out
52:13
in the Midwest. If you get overwhelmed take a
52:18
step back take a deep breath and step back in
52:23
have a good week. James. You know one of our
52:32
listeners posted this in the live stage so you guys
52:37
want to see what's said in the live stage join our
52:40
discord we do the live recordings of these episodes
52:43
but they said I hate the quote management has the
52:46
right to manage and mismanage. I
52:49
always say management has the right to manage and
52:51
mismanage at the carrier expense because no matter
52:55
what the carrier is the one suffering time and
52:58
money and there is no truer statement than that
53:01
and we're going to have management that mismanages
53:05
management that doesn't know the contract management that
53:08
doesn't understand the rules and things like that but
53:11
as carriers and as passionate members of this
53:14
craft we need to fight that we need to get this
53:17
management fixed and working in a positive way for the
53:22
post office because they're costing the post office
53:25
money and I understand the post office sets aside a
53:28
certain budget for how much they're going to pay out
53:31
in grievances it's a given that they're going to get
53:35
grievances they know they're going to get grievances but
53:38
they continue to perpetrate the violations of the
53:41
contract so stand up for your craft and as bill
53:46
says get home to your loved ones because you're
53:49
the most important delivery of the day you are our
53:53
brothers and sisters of the craft and you matter to
53:59
each and every one of us because at the end of the
54:02
day we're all in this together Kristen your final
54:06
thoughts thank you gentlemen thank you Josh for coming
54:10
back on with us this evening and the lieu of
54:12
Bill's absence I do appreciate it you know guys
54:20
you know we're trying we want we want to see things
54:24
better and that's why several of us have decided
54:26
to step up and run again and in some instances run
54:30
for the first time and you know if we do we listen
54:35
to you we hear you I mean there's really not much we
54:38
can do in our positions currently but we are we
54:41
are hearing you and we are here for you like I said
54:45
even if it's that shoulder to vent on or that ear to
54:48
listen to you know we're here for you and we'll
54:52
always be here for you no matter what the outcome
54:54
comes at national we'll always be here for you you
54:58
know that's just how we are I had somebody ask me
55:01
the other day what would happen if maybe if only
55:03
one of us in the option you know if only one of
55:07
us got elected to national board and I said you know
55:11
what I said that would be fine I said because we'd
55:14
still be there to support that person no matter what
55:16
no matter which one it was we'd also we'd be
55:19
supporting them and if none of us get voted in it's
55:23
okay you know we're not gonna give up we're still
55:26
gonna try you know we're still gonna put forth our
55:29
resolutions we're still gonna be a voice for
55:32
everybody we're still gonna be an ear and a shoulder
55:35
for everybody it's you know I know change can take
55:40
time and I know I won't ever give up at this point
55:45
I'm not ready to give up I still have a very long
55:48
career ahead of me as as you know James as well you
55:53
know we're not we're not gonna give up on anybody
55:54
or the craft ever at this point it's you know we're
55:59
here for the long haul whether it just end up
56:02
being this platform or just an ear to listen to you
56:06
know we're we're gonna do what we can for you in
56:09
whatever position that we're in so guys just take care
56:14
have a safe week our thoughts and prayers who
56:16
are with everybody that we're in that devastating
56:18
weather this weekend and any you know it's that
56:22
time of year where you just never know what's
56:25
gonna happen stay safe everybody and we will be
56:29
back next week they didn't have a
56:55
shameless plug of our pre show that happened I think
57:01
those plug goes in can go on either end. And
57:07
now, what you and I are doing is on you.