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Managerial Harassment · United We Scan

• 0:14
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:18
  carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
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  podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
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  Please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:47
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:50
  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
• 0:54
  Episode 75. We're going to cover some
• 0:57
  managerial harassment this evening like we're all in the
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  house tonight. Myself, James, Bill and Toasty
• 1:06
  is back with us. How was your week Toasty?
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  I'm just glad that the election's on Tuesday so I don't
• 1:16
  have to deal with these political ads anymore between
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  these two candidates, which has been killing me on my route.
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  Opened up two more subdivision or two more CDU stops, which of
• 1:29
  course I'm not going to get paid for more E40 AK anyways, but
• 1:31
  those interim route adjustments still aren't in the system.
• 1:35
  Other than that, it's been warming up quite a bit.
• 1:39
  Here in Texas, we actually hit our first 100° day on Saturday
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  and it's only May and not even close to June, July or August,
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  that's usually when we have our hottest days.
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  So I've just been drinking them about a gallon of water a day as
• 1:55
  much as I can and got some Gatorade Zeros that I drink in
• 2:00
  the morning and afternoon just to make sure I stay hydrated.
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  Other than that, same old, same old, not a whole lot to do.
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  How about you, James? How was your week?
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  Oh, it's about heavy box holder week this week.
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  I had four of them this week. Luckily the last one was put on
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  my case on Friday after I had loaded my truck and then just
• 2:27
  finished loading my truck. So it's like well, I ain't
• 2:30
  taking that today. So it went out, yes, yesterday
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  and but kind of warm over the week blew out my AC unit at my
• 2:41
  house. So I had to get that repaired
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  this week. That was a pain in the half.
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  Explain how you blew that out. I was clearing the brush from
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  around it with hedge trimmers and cut a hole in the high
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  pressure line and so I had to get a repair out and recharge
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  the system and it's working just fine again now.
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  So it wasn't too bad but still cost me some money to fix that
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  up but got AC working again. And to preface that also, I
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  bought a little Craftsman 20 Volt battery operated fan and I
• 3:23
  put it on 1/2 tray right in front of the window on the
• 3:26
  passenger side of the LLV to blow air in the truck.
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  And I will tell you that leaving that fan on when you get out of
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  the truck keeps it cooler in there for me, at least in
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  Michigan. Don't know if it'll work for
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  people in Texas, but it works for me.
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  And it's just a little bit of extra air movement when the
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  truck is off and that dash van heater isn't working.
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  But this weekend, pretty much a normal weekend for me, mowed the
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  lawn, did the usual rigmarole of weekend stuff.
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  And tomorrow is Memorial Day, where we remember those who gave
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  their all in the sacrifice of protecting our freedoms.
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  So looking forward to celebrating their sacrifice
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  tomorrow. How about you Bill?
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  How was your week? Oh God, my, my week was easy and
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  an extra week off for my operation because nobody could
• 4:23
  read my charts correctly and have me discontinue my
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  medication for the surgery. So they had to push back 10
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  days. So that was wonderful news.
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  It it was funny though that, you know, I was off because of the
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  fact that I didn't know I was off with all the phone calls I
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  received from carriers all over the area in regards to the
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  missing bar codes on the carrier pickups.
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  What constitutes second trips? You know, PTFS over Rcas for
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  Sundays. I mean, you know, the, the whole
• 4:59
  litany of questions thrown at me this week, I thought I was, you
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  know, on, on the answering question line, question and
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  answer line for the NRLCA because, you know, so many items
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  are coming up for discussion in regards to what management can
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  cannot do. And I spent 4040 minutes with a
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  gentleman and at the end of it he said, you know, I really
• 5:24
  ought to join the union. He says I appreciate you that,
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  you know, father asked me if I was in the union.
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  I says if I help you, I help office.
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  I help everybody in that office. Somebody in there is in the
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  union. So you know, basically it's a
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  trickle down theory to help everybody.
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  And like hell that, you know, somewhere down the line you reap
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  the rewards for that assistance. Like I said, I had one grandson
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  Friday night and you know, we have the other grandson tonight.
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  It's a wonderful weekend and please what what any and anybody
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  does, do not thank service members who are in the store, at
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  the gas station, anything for your service.
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  In regards to Memorial Day, this is the day that we celebrate the
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  sacrifice so many have made for us to have these freedoms.
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  It's not the live military personnel, it's the ones who
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  have given their all. They give any thanks.
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  You give it to the the family members of these fallen soldiers
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  and medical people that have, you know, put their lines and
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  their, you know, written a blank check for you and this country's
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  cashed it in. Make sure that you're aware of
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  that, OK, and and be appropriate in regards to you know, what you
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  say to service members as you run into home this week or
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  tomorrow. But Kristen, how was your week?
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  Oh not too bad. Monday was the day from hell as
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  usual. Tuesday I wrapped up the OJT for
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  the newest RCA and she put her out Friday and Saturday with my
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  sub and do it taking half on her own and flip flop what half she
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  took. So she's still with us so far.
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  And then yeah, I worked my K day yesterday.
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  Obviously if my sub was on the other route.
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  Other than that, pretty straightforward week for the
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  most part. And this coming up this week, I
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  what I work what hell we're going to have on Tuesday and
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  then I am doing OJT for Wednesday, Thursday, Friday on
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  the next new RCA. So and then I'll be off my K day
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  before my bonus son's graduation open house on next Saturday.
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  So really hasn't been all that exciting of a week.
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  It got warm. Had to get the left hand or my
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  LLV replaced because the cord cranks the window up and down
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  snapped and I guess it's easier for VMF just to send a whole
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  another door. We got that fixed.
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  So luckily I can get some cross breeze on the warmer days.
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  That definitely makes a difference.
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  But you know, other than that, and I'm going to take a moment,
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  guys, if you don't mind, before we get fully into this episode,
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  we're going to have a moment in silence to remember those that
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  have paid the ultimate price. Thank you, guys.
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  All right, we're going to get underway.
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  James, you brought up we're doing managerial harassment.
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  I'm going to go ahead and let you lead off with that.
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  All right, so this week quite a few stations have had a stand up
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  talk, some haven't on stationary events.
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  It's a big one that they've been pushing on the City side and now
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  it's starting to flood over to the rural side and any
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  stationary event over, I think my supervisor said 7 minutes
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  they get flagged for, but some say 5, some say 10.
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  So but it's not just in my office.
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  I was talking to Bill the other day and he said it happened in
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  his office as well. So this is this is coming down
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  the pipeline to a lot of people. So I'm going to let Bill start
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  with this one because it also happened in his office.
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  And Bill, what is the procedure when it comes to stationary
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  events from management on scanners?
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  Well first of all that information isn't supposed to be
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  used for disciplinary procedures.
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  Second of all the stationary events my my particular
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  situation was in regards to a a bowel movement and I was
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  questioned about it and not light enough to explain to him
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  that I had to use facilities and they wanted more detail.
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  And by the time I got done giving them the all the detail
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  they turned around and told me they didn't want that much
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  detail. So I know that the future
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  they'll never ask me again. The problem with stationary
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  events, and this is all based on back when we had the scanners
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  that had the function for load and reload, that was a problem
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  because that was a footnote on what you did and how you did it
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  and how long it took you to do it during the course of the data
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  collection programs. I was meticulous in it and
• 11:03
  therefore I never got caught stationary event and suffered
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  this one situation. And when you turn around and you
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  have stationary events, ladies, and you can explain them as
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  reloading, you can explain as a customer, you can explain them
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  as you are rehydrating, you are cooling down, you're underneath
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  the tree and your body. You can give any any number of
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  explanations in regards to stationary events.
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  But the stationary events most do not abuse because of the fact
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  that we want to get done, get out of the heat and get home.
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  When it comes to management resting on the stationary
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  events, you have plenty of tools to fuck upon and the particular
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  one is with the upcoming weather is that you are directed to cool
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  down, get out of the vehicle, get in the shade, rehydrate and
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  use that all you want as often as you want.
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  Because safety is the number one issue that you can win any type
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  of argument on long as you're not abusing it day in and day
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  out. You know, if it's 75° out, you
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  shouldn't be stopping four times for 20 minutes to rehydrate.
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  The other problem with the stationary event, people have
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  cluster boxes and I've seen this in my office where gentleman has
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  six cluster boxes. He's getting tagged for
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  stationary events every day. How stupid can you be not to
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  realize it's going to take a 20 minute service, 616 unit cluster
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  boxes with parcel lockers and units and it just doesn't
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  register with management. They don't care because like our
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  so-called engineers who put Rex together, they're looking at the
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  data. They're not looking at anything
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  else except for the numbers. The numbers.
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  Oh, you were there for 22 minutes.
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  Where was I at? At your CB us, how many CB us
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  were? And you have to pull teeth out
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  of these people, make them realize that it's a valid
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  stationary event. This is what we fight every day.
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  And it these are rooms and district people who are putting
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  pressure on the postmasters who putting pressure on the
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  supervisors who are just following orders, which doesn't
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  make alleviate them of their responsibility of explaining it
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  to their superiors. Just pass it on down on to the
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  carrier and it doesn't matter if you have a valid reason for
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  station a rural reach. OK, you didn't put it in the
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  scanner. You brought the card back.
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  Guess what? If I'm a steward, I can eat you
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  off on that one. And then you can do do turn
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  around, do roll reach, you know, information off the card you
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  brought back. If you're helping a customer,
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  you know, I've done a number of times, I have several elderly
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  women on my route that I've helped pull groceries out of
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  there. But it doesn't take me 20
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  minutes. It takes me 5-6 minutes so I
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  don't get questioned about it. But protect yourself.
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  Don't overuse it. Don't abuse it and be ready to
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  answer it. Be ready to explain your
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  stationary events. Still, they can't use that for
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  disciplinary procedures. You're right, it's the scanner
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  data alone cannot be used for discipline.
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  GPS data alone cannot be used for discipline.
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  There's actually paperwork out there for it that says that
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  scanner data cannot be used for discipline.
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  But management's going to try to because just like the express
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  failures that occur every single day, management doesn't care
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  that the expresses fail. The customer cares, but
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  management doesn't because they're of the thought process
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  that, well, one out of 100,000 customers will go in and
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  actually get their refund for the express mailed failure.
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  So it's worth it for us to fail them so we don't have to pay the
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  carriers extra to deliver them on the off chance that one in
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  100,000 people are actually going to go in and get their
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  refund for their express mail. But I've been questioned on my
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  stationary events and I literally had him on my end to
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  shift duty. I had him sit down and show me
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  exactly where they were. And I'm like, Oh yes, that is my
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  bathroom break stop. That is my reload spot.
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  That is my reload spot. That's the gas station where I
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  fuel up the truck, stuff like that.
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  It's like, do you guys not even think about this or look at
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  what's going on? No, you're looking at a
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  computer. You're getting info from a
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  spreadsheet. And as we know, when you only
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  pay attention to the spreadsheets, you fail at your
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  job miserably because you are not doing your due diligence to
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  figure out why things are happening like that.
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  And that is the biggest caveat to all of this is management did
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  not do their due diligence. They expect you to roll over and
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  give them the answer to discipline you on.
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  They're expecting you to turn around and say, oh, I was taking
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  a smoke break. Oh, I was stretching my legs
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  just because I wanted to walk around for a minute.
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  Oh, I was eating my lunch. Things like that, You know,
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  things that are not considered part of the job.
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  Hydrating is part of the job. That is the hip training that
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  they give us. If you paid attention during the
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  hip training, it says to frequently hydrate.
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  It says cool off in the shade. Our brother city Brother Gates
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  died because he was harassed for stationary events.
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  He was taken back for a pre disciplinary interview and that
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  is how the manager said it. It was a pre disciplinary
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  interview which means they already had discipline planned
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  and in that they state this could lead to discipline up to
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  and including termination. They like to put the fear into
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  you. Don't let them fear make you
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  fear them. You know you were working.
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  You know you were doing your job.
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  You also know if you weren't doing your job, but if you were
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  doing your job, you were doing what you were supposed to be
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  doing. I was working.
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  You were sitting there for 10 minutes.
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  What were you doing? I was working.
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  They continue to question. I'd like my designated union Rep
• 18:12
  please invoke your Weingarten rights.
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  You do not have to answer any questions of management without
• 18:18
  your union Rep present because anything you say will be
• 18:24
  misconstrued, misinterpreted and misapplied when used against you
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  in discipline. Kristen, your thoughts?
• 18:36
  Oh I agree with both of you on that one.
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  Luckily I know in my office stationary events haven't been a
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  big issue as far as I can see. I know our 2O4B who is our city
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  PTF, HE did mention that they did do a stationary event
• 18:52
  training last week as we were out on the smoking bench chit
• 18:56
  chatting and he mentioned that, but it was more geared towards
• 19:01
  city than it was rural anyways. But yeah, that that's my whole
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  thing. If they want to come at me on a
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  stationary event, I'm going to say show me where it was and I
• 19:10
  can tell you exactly what was going on.
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  You know, like Bill, I've got a lot of elderly on my route.
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  In fact, I have one that had open heart surgery a couple
• 19:19
  weeks ago, and I knew she was going to be having open heart
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  surgery. She had told me ahead of time
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  and I told her I'd keep an eye on her mail and if it started
• 19:28
  piling up, I'd bring it to the door for, well, it'd been a few
• 19:31
  days. So I took it to the door and
• 19:34
  checked in on her, make sure she was OK.
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  But she was, and she was very, very grateful for me doing it.
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  And I told her I'd check in again, you know, later this next
• 19:41
  week just to see how she was doing and because her neighbors
• 19:46
  are seasonal, but they're home right now.
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  So she's thankful for that. And so am I.
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  But yeah, you know, you, you never know what that may be.
• 19:54
  I have construction going on on my route right now.
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  I am in a destination tourist area.
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  I my half of my route is on US 23, two lane highway.
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  I'm going to, I'm going to have to sit and watch, wait, wait for
• 20:09
  traffic to clear, to go around a construction sign.
• 20:12
  Or weave in and out of construction barrels if need be.
• 20:15
  So yeah, I am prone to have to sit there longer now so they can
• 20:18
  come at me all they want because then I can turn around and be
• 20:21
  like, well, I was reloaded moving my mail around there,
• 20:25
  doing the same there, checking in on a customer there.
• 20:28
  Another customer stopped me there.
• 20:30
  Oh yeah, that's my fuel loading or gassing up, I should say.
• 20:35
  You know, there, unless you're just dicking around and if
• 20:38
  you're actually taking a lunch break, if you're actually eating
• 20:41
  your lunch, you should be clocked out for a lunch break.
• 20:43
  And I should would see that. But you know, the normal stuff
• 20:48
  that you're going to do on the job, you know, if they want to
• 20:50
  come at you about stationary events, I was working in one
• 20:54
  capacity or another. I was working, plain and simple.
• 20:58
  And again, if they want to get in to be trying to harass you,
• 21:01
  that's where you stop it and invoke your Weingarten rights
• 21:04
  and tell them you want your steward present for anything
• 21:06
  further. You would also probably get them
• 21:11
  for waiting for traffic to clear to get out of your businesses
• 21:15
  and driveways that you have to go into to deliver, right?
• 21:18
  I have a lot of businesses, yes. I I am in and out of a lot of
• 21:24
  driveways and along 23 both the north and in the South end of
• 21:28
  town. So yeah, it you know, plus my
• 21:31
  condos if I'm having to wait for traffic to clear.
• 21:34
  Absolutely. Some days, especially with the
• 21:36
  construction and stuff, you know, traffic slowing down and
• 21:39
  it's heavy. Friday was a was a bear out on
• 21:42
  that route with the traffic. I won't deny that.
• 21:45
  So yeah, you know, that's what happens.
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  You know, it happens. They can't, you know, be like,
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  you saw the traffic outside the window.
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  You tell me you're sitting in your office, You can see the
• 21:58
  traffic outside that window about.
• 22:01
  How about you to the sea? You had any issues with you
• 22:04
  going at all those CB us and on your route with any contact on
• 22:08
  stationary events or anything like that or what are your
• 22:11
  thoughts? We haven't gotten anything.
• 22:15
  I updated y'all, I think 4 weeks ago when they started the, the
• 22:19
  lunch thing. You know, you have to be clocked
• 22:21
  out, you know, anytime you take a break 'cause you know some
• 22:25
  Rcas were sitting in front of Taco Bell without clocking out.
• 22:29
  But at the same time, the supervisors never actually went
• 22:33
  out there to observe what they were doing in front of the Taco
• 22:35
  Bell. They could have been reloading,
• 22:37
  they could have been doing something else.
• 22:39
  But it's one of those things where they have to go out there
• 22:43
  and actually observe you. I'm surprised I'm not on the
• 22:45
  list because I've been setting up these CV US before they get
• 22:48
  the sticker or before they get the keys in.
• 22:50
  I put the sleeves that we usually have our, you know, on
• 22:53
  your DPS trays that have your route and what tray it is.
• 22:57
  AB and CI put those sleeves in and then I stick in the little
• 23:04
  little tags so that way the addresses are nice and neat to
• 23:07
  the left. That way anyone who runs my
• 23:08
  route knows where exactly each address is and it takes me about
• 23:13
  1520 minutes to do all that, especially at A7 unit CDU SO and
• 23:18
  thankfully I haven't gotten anything on that.
• 23:20
  But if it does come down the down the line, be glad to ask
• 23:24
  for an 8191 and smile. Yeah, I can.
• 23:28
  You know, I've been playing Spring cleanup with my mailboxes
• 23:32
  this past week. A lot of them were my CBU and
• 23:37
  yeah, definitely. I mean, if they want to say
• 23:39
  something, well, you know why you're sitting here?
• 23:41
  Well, I had to. That's that point.
• 23:44
  I would just put the tub and a half of mail that I brought back
• 23:47
  from cleaning out my mailboxes and be like, here's your reason
• 23:51
  why. Thank you.
• 23:51
  Bye. And as a footnote to this whole
• 23:57
  conversation about the stops, you know, when I was questioned
• 24:01
  about my bathroom stop, they actually looked at me and said,
• 24:04
  well, you need to put that down as a break.
• 24:06
  And I, I told him, I said, no, I said that ain't happening.
• 24:11
  And they said why? And I says, read the contract
• 24:15
  and then get back to me. And I just walked away from him
• 24:17
  that point. But like James was saying that,
• 24:20
  you know, it's mismanagement and that that just solidifies what
• 24:24
  I'm saying. They pass it down from district,
• 24:27
  the PUM, the PM to the supervisor and the supervisor's
• 24:31
  just, you know, a lemming. And, and they're, they're
• 24:35
  repeating the same thing the people above them are saying
• 24:37
  without looking into the, you know, situation is regarded as,
• 24:41
  you know, are you, you stationary at ACPU or are you
• 24:45
  doing what, whatever you're doing?
• 24:48
  They don't even do it. They, they just question it
• 24:50
  because they don't have the management skills their own to
• 24:55
  bother knowing where your, your stops are, where your traffic,
• 25:00
  where your construction, where your school zones, where
• 25:02
  anything is. You know the question.
• 25:05
  You know where the comment was about, you know, making sure you
• 25:07
  have your dismounts in. How many times have people gone
• 25:10
  in and done their DPM and, and found dismounts missing, you
• 25:15
  know, footage missing. This whole system is corrupt and
• 25:21
  you just, you know, I'm standing at the front door and and it's
• 25:25
  telling me I'm 387 feet away from the house for a certified
• 25:29
  what the hell? I mean, I haven't seen that for
• 25:32
  almost two years now. You got 1-2 weeks ago like that.
• 25:35
  I was like, you know, hold on. I said this is a blast from the
• 25:40
  past or what? But management, again, like
• 25:43
  James says they don't do their jobs.
• 25:46
  So it's a lot easier just to accuse you than to look into the
• 25:50
  situation and vindicate you, because that's not their, that's
• 25:55
  not their intentions. They don't have any intention of
• 25:58
  vindicating you. They're just going to follow the
• 26:00
  other word from the people above and then proceed from there.
• 26:05
  And if it goes disciplinary, then it goes disciplinary, which
• 26:07
  gets blown out of the water. You know, it kind of reminds me
• 26:12
  of that old game we played in elementary school.
• 26:15
  You know the telephone game where you start with the teacher
• 26:18
  tells one kid and they whisper it all around the circle and it
• 26:21
  comes back and it's completely different?
• 26:23
  How much of that, when there's a directive handed down from way
• 26:26
  up above as it goes through the chain, that each one of the
• 26:30
  management's not putting their own twist on it before it
• 26:32
  finally gets to the office? I would I would call that
• 26:35
  managerial discretion. Well, what, what Bill was
• 26:41
  saying, it's, it's also, there's also another aspect to this as
• 26:45
  well. Why would you want to go out and
• 26:47
  do all that work of actually trying to figure out what was
• 26:50
  going on or trying to look up on Google Maps where they were at
• 26:54
  or things like that? When you can just go harass the
• 26:57
  employee and get them to admit that they did something wrong,
• 27:02
  then you've got them admitting to it, they're guilty of it.
• 27:04
  You don't even have to do too much paperwork on that and you
• 27:08
  can discipline them on it. And that's the biggest, biggest
• 27:13
  issue of all is they're trying to find ways to discipline
• 27:17
  people. They're trying to find ways to
• 27:19
  make paperwork on people. I don't know if maybe this is
• 27:22
  some kind of performance evaluation of how many employees
• 27:28
  you can discipline, how many employees you can get paperwork
• 27:31
  in their file on, stuff like that.
• 27:33
  But it's happening all over this country, and it's not just
• 27:37
  stationary events. I was just talking with a
• 27:40
  carrier today on this, and I asked specifically for
• 27:45
  permission to talk about this on the podcast.
• 27:48
  And I was given it. And they said this is all about
• 27:53
  Sunday work, that I wasn't notified or on the schedule for
• 27:57
  Sunday. But they texted me not called
• 28:00
  late Saturday that I'm working Sunday.
• 28:04
  But I got a late urgent phone call that a family member was in
• 28:07
  the hospital. So I called off but they want
• 28:10
  documentation. So I asked what documentation
• 28:13
  are they looking for and they wouldn't tell them.
• 28:16
  I he said I have proof but I don't have any documents.
• 28:23
  I don't know what documents he wants and he won't tell me.
• 28:26
  So he tried to write me up for a wall, but I said I'm not signing
• 28:31
  that, but I don't think that's the right document.
• 28:33
  And it turned out the document was the 3971 leave slip, which
• 28:38
  would mean that he knew he was scheduled that day, but he got
• 28:42
  it in a text message. I talked with him.
• 28:44
  He clarified that he did not reply to the text message, but
• 28:48
  he did call on Sunday and say he was not coming in.
• 28:54
  But this is one of the things that they'll do.
• 28:57
  They'll not have you scheduled, they'll text you or try to call
• 29:02
  you in, and if you can't come in, then they'll discipline you
• 29:05
  for saying you were scheduled but you didn't show up.
• 29:08
  It's another type of managerial harassment we have out there.
• 29:11
  Bill, what's your take? Well, I'm always confused about,
• 29:17
  especially when it comes to the parcel deliveries on Sundays and
• 29:20
  holidays. And they text you, which, you
• 29:23
  know, you don't have to respond to because it's still not an
• 29:26
  accepted form of communication. But if they do call you, OK, and
• 29:32
  you don't answer the phone, Yeah, You have a million ways to
• 29:36
  get out of that. I mean, first thing you say is,
• 29:37
  well, you know, my battery died and I never recharged until, you
• 29:41
  know, 10:30 Sunday morning. But if you don't have nobody's
• 29:46
  on call for Sundays and holidays for Parkville, it's, you know,
• 29:51
  it's not the carrier's fault that you didn't schedule
• 29:54
  correctly, that, you know, somebody habitually called out
• 29:58
  on a Sunday, especially with the an attached Monday holiday.
• 30:03
  You know, historically they, you know, they, we've had people
• 30:06
  like that in our office And I, I'm a little confused about
• 30:11
  you're not covering a route. You're covering, you know,
• 30:13
  you're delivering parcels. And I still I'm baffled because
• 30:20
  of the fact that we're fulfilling our primary
• 30:23
  assignment six days a week of delivering the mail.
• 30:26
  It didn't know that there was any language saying that we are
• 30:31
  required to deliver parcels on Sunday, which is kind of forced
• 30:36
  on us. And correct me if I'm wrong, I I
• 30:39
  don't see any language in there mandating us to deliver parcels
• 30:44
  on Sunday. There is language for Sunday and
• 30:49
  holiday delivery. Well, there is, yeah, there is.
• 30:52
  But I'm saying in regards to the, the procedures of calling
• 30:56
  people in, you know, you're, you're assuming that, you know,
• 31:00
  it's the same as you know, from Monday to Saturday, but Monday
• 31:04
  to Saturday you're also delivering a route.
• 31:08
  I'm a little conflicted on that bullshit.
• 31:13
  OK, I, I don't, and trust me, I we've had, we've had Subs,
• 31:18
  knowledgeable Subs sit there and, and tell supervisor the day
• 31:22
  before a, a Sunday and say we need an extra carrier in here
• 31:27
  because we're going to be short. And the supervisor just doesn't
• 31:31
  catch on. And then the, you know,
• 31:34
  perpetuator of Sunday call outs, calls out on Sunday and they're
• 31:38
  short of sub. And next, you know, they're out
• 31:40
  till 6:00 PM on a Sunday delivering parcels.
• 31:44
  I mean, you know, you're, I don't know about your office.
• 31:47
  Our office. Everybody knows who's going to
• 31:50
  do what when, OK? It's not, you know, a secret.
• 31:55
  We're all aware of these people. If somebody tells you you're
• 32:00
  going to need an extra sub, know what?
• 32:03
  It would be easier to get the extra sub in there beforehand.
• 32:07
  Everybody home earlier, keep their hours down.
• 32:10
  If you want to maintain under 40 hours for a week, which most
• 32:13
  offices can anyway, but you can reduce the amount of overtime
• 32:17
  everybody's getting if you are properly trained as a
• 32:23
  supervisor, if you're aware of your office limitations,
• 32:28
  personnel that are under you, the amount of parcels that are
• 32:31
  coming in. We used to get projected parcels
• 32:35
  in for Amazon Sundays on Friday afternoons.
• 32:39
  That way they can schedule the appropriate amount of people.
• 32:42
  We don't get them anymore. It's just, you know, hit or
• 32:44
  miss, whatever shows up, it's got to be delivered to me.
• 32:50
  It it's unmitigated bullshit that you know you're going to
• 32:54
  call somebody in late to cover a Sunday.
• 32:58
  No. You know, if you don't have at
• 33:00
  least 24 hours notice, you're not getting a response.
• 33:03
  Are you saying miracle? I don't have Sunday delivery in
• 33:14
  my office, but I don't see why they should have been listed a
• 33:18
  while #1 I remember doing Sunday delivery in my old office.
• 33:24
  There was a couple instances that I did call in for Sunday
• 33:28
  and nothing came about it towards me.
• 33:32
  But, you know, again, this was no seven years ago.
• 33:37
  So, yeah, it's hard to say. I, you know, I don't agree with
• 33:44
  it. But as you know, and texting
• 33:46
  still is not an approved form. There is language out there.
• 33:50
  You know, USPS does not supply us our phones.
• 33:54
  Therefore, no, they're not supposed to communicate with us
• 33:58
  via text, as much as you want to pound that in.
• 34:01
  And I do have that language posted on our rural billeting
• 34:03
  board in our office. It still doesn't stop them.
• 34:06
  We at least stopped them from messaging us on our scanners.
• 34:10
  But if they text message us out on the route, you know, I'll get
• 34:14
  the text on my phone and I glance at it or on my watch and
• 34:17
  I'll glance at it and be like, yeah, whatever.
• 34:20
  And, you know, I'll talk to them when I get back to the office.
• 34:22
  And then I get back. Well, did you get my text?
• 34:25
  What text? I don't know what to talk about.
• 34:28
  And and yet, Josh, there is an order of consideration for
• 34:32
  Sunday delivery that has nothing to do with being notified on a
• 34:36
  Saturday that you're going to be working on a a Sunday without 24
• 34:40
  hours notice and without proper communication.
• 34:44
  Again, the text is not an acceptable form of
• 34:46
  communication. Anybody that knows Bill may
• 34:51
  don't text me if you want to get a hold of me.
• 34:53
  If you want to get a hold of me, you better call me because I
• 34:55
  check check my text probably twice a day at around lunchtime
• 35:00
  and before I go to bed. Otherwise it's not important.
• 35:07
  I, I know this for truth because I have texted him and it was
• 35:10
  like the next day when he got back to me.
• 35:12
  I, I can't tell you this is the truth.
• 35:15
  Bill does not check his text. OK, unless it was unless about
• 35:22
  the only time he actually did was with, you know, he tried
• 35:25
  calling me. I missed the call.
• 35:26
  I tried calling him back and he was either on another call or
• 35:30
  busy. And then, so I texted him and
• 35:32
  then he got back to me, right? That 'cause it was a, you know,
• 35:35
  we're playing tag on phone calls there.
• 35:38
  But yes, I I can attest you call Bill, don't text him.
• 35:44
  It takes him a while to dial your number on the Rotary phone.
• 35:51
  Hey, I used to I. Got to crank it.
• 35:53
  I got to crank the the wall phone up and say, hey Gracie,
• 35:56
  can you get a hold of Kristen for me?
• 35:59
  I can't attest. I was.
• 36:01
  I was a whiz at those Rotary phones, man, at the times I won
• 36:04
  radio station contests when I was young, Well, on the Rotary
• 36:07
  phones, having to dial in to be a certain caller, I could do
• 36:10
  that stuff. But.
• 36:15
  Yeah. What are your thoughts, Toasty?
• 36:21
  Like on the texting, you know, Oh, well, for sure on this case,
• 36:24
  it's, you know, not texting isn't not a form of
• 36:28
  communication. You know, if you want to do it
• 36:32
  just cause like glance at it, like, hey, there's a package at,
• 36:35
  you know, such and such. If you want to check it out.
• 36:38
  If I'm already passed it, I'm already passed it.
• 36:39
  I'm not going to go back, you know, mess up my line of travel
• 36:43
  to go check on a package that's in a parcel locker that won't
• 36:45
  open. And also the less than 24 hours
• 36:49
  notice. I know for me, I got called in
• 36:51
  one Sunday because they're like, Hey, you're supposed to be here
• 36:53
  on Sunday for Amazon. So I showed up and sure enough,
• 36:58
  my supervisor got in trouble on the Tuesday because in our
• 37:01
  district, we're not, we're not allowed to work more than seven
• 37:04
  days or six days in a row. So the 7th day you're supposed
• 37:07
  to have off. And because he called me in on
• 37:09
  Sunday when I wasn't scheduled and he read it wrong.
• 37:13
  Sorry. He actually, you know, got, you
• 37:17
  know, talked to by his, by the poom saying, Hey, why is he
• 37:20
  working seven days straight? This and that.
• 37:22
  And this is back when I was on hold down South.
• 37:25
  Sometimes they mess up on the schedule.
• 37:28
  It's not your fault. They can't really discipline you
• 37:30
  for what's their fault. They'll try to, which is why
• 37:34
  they do the PD is which is why they try to, you know, get you
• 37:36
  to slip up just a little bit so that way they can use it against
• 37:39
  you. But that's basically you know,
• 37:43
  y'all went over everything already so.
• 37:48
  Yeah, it's. It's crazy to think that
• 37:51
  somebody could turn around and just tell somebody they're going
• 37:57
  to get disciplined for not showing up on a Sunday because
• 38:02
  they were supposedly scheduled through a text message that they
• 38:06
  just never got or saw in the morning and called and said,
• 38:09
  hey, I'm not going to make it because I've got this other
• 38:12
  thing that I'm doing. You know, I'm out of town
• 38:14
  already. I was out of town since
• 38:16
  yesterday because I wasn't on the schedule.
• 38:18
  Something as simple as that. You know you can't prove you
• 38:22
  were out of town per Southeast, if you were visiting family or
• 38:26
  something like that, you're not going to have a hotel receipt or
• 38:29
  anything like that. How can you prove you were out
• 38:31
  of town, visiting family, things like that.
• 38:34
  This is straight up managerial micromanaging and harassment.
• 38:40
  There's more to this story with this carrier.
• 38:44
  They are constantly scheduled Sunday.
• 38:48
  Amazon no rotation whatsoever. They rotate the other Subs, just
• 38:53
  not this one sub and other aspects to it as well.
• 38:58
  But continuing on, there is a carrier out there who has been
• 39:04
  removed from the post office for emailing management with issues
• 39:13
  including managerial harassment and safety issues in their
• 39:18
  office. To the point, I have to call
• 39:22
  this out because this manager carried in a bow from a bow and
• 39:32
  arrow into the office and set it in front of the scanner rack
• 39:37
  where this carrier's scanner is. So I'm calling it out here on
• 39:43
  this podcast because this is not right.
• 39:49
  This carrier was letting management know what was going
• 39:53
  on, a hostile work environment that started with sexual
• 40:00
  harassment, and this management turned around and wrote this
• 40:08
  carrier up for emailing concerns to management.
• 40:17
  Now I don't know about you, but. This has total vibes of the
• 40:22
  Memphis series that Corey put out on from aid arbitration.
• 40:27
  Somebody was screaming from the rafters telling management of
• 40:31
  issues going on in their office and management turned a blind
• 40:36
  eye. And from my understanding, the
• 40:40
  union didn't do much about this manager either.
• 40:44
  No, no, Bill, you want to start off on this one without going
• 40:50
  too dive deep down the rabbit hole.
• 40:54
  First, first of all, I'd be a little concerned that, you know,
• 40:57
  somebody would bring a weapon into the post office without
• 41:01
  being fired, arrested, prosecuted.
• 41:07
  A bow. Just because they didn't have
• 41:09
  the arrow in their hand does not mean that's not a weapon.
• 41:15
  I mean, folks, it, it, it's just, I know a little more about
• 41:20
  this story in regards to what we're talking about.
• 41:24
  And, and this is where we have to stand together as an office,
• 41:30
  protect each other because it's what they've done to this
• 41:33
  carrier. They'll they'll turn around if
• 41:37
  they get away with this free and clear, they'll turn around and
• 41:39
  do it to everybody else in that office, whether it's sexual
• 41:43
  harassment or just regular harassment, intimidation, They
• 41:47
  will, they will pursue this line, this course of action
• 41:50
  because of the fact that they've gotten away with it.
• 41:54
  Why the postal inspectors weren't called, why the local
• 41:56
  police weren't called. You know, and let me tell you,
• 42:01
  you know, there's a policy. You're not supposed to take
• 42:02
  pictures inside the post office. Everybody in the office taking
• 42:06
  pictures of that damn thing. It's proof positive you're
• 42:10
  you're not going to fire the entire craft if they all have
• 42:13
  pictures of a bow sitting up at the scanner locations.
• 42:18
  You know, and if. Management.
• 42:20
  It's zero. It's 0 tolerance for all types
• 42:24
  of harassment and intimidation. And it was obvious harassment
• 42:29
  because you know anybody, if you're going to have, you know,
• 42:32
  if you're a avid hunter or even if you're just a hobbyist with,
• 42:37
  with bows and whatnot. And I can understand, OK, you
• 42:42
  didn't have a secure location in your vehicle.
• 42:44
  Maybe you got one of those funky vehicles.
• 42:46
  You didn't have room for your trunk.
• 42:48
  If that's something as a managerial and you feel the
• 42:50
  need, you need to bring it in the office.
• 42:52
  You would be putting it, locking it up in your management office,
• 42:55
  not leaving it where everybody can see it.
• 42:59
  To me, yes, that was that. To me is threat.
• 43:03
  Mm hmm. And and where it like like you
• 43:05
  said, where's the union on this? Mm hmm.
• 43:10
  Exactly, Yeah. Why haven't we started an MOU 25
• 43:14
  on this manager? Hello.
• 43:19
  Why haven't we used Publication 552 against this manager?
• 43:25
  And if you want to know about Publication 552 From Aid
• 43:29
  Arbitration does have an episode on Publication 552 and it
• 43:32
  applies to everyone. 552 is the management, there is also the
• 43:40
  553 which is the employees, yes. So I have the 553 printed out
• 43:46
  actually, but yes. And it applies to all
• 43:51
  management. All of them.
• 43:53
  From your lowly 2O4B all the way up to the Postmaster General.
• 43:59
  It actually applies to him as well.
• 44:04
  And this is something that's. Not craft specific.
• 44:08
  It is across the board for postal employees.
• 44:13
  Is just as applicable as the joint statements on violence in
• 44:17
  the workplace and harassment, so see your thoughts.
• 44:25
  Frequency put up there that the bow's not considered a weapon is
• 44:28
  codified in U.S. law. Let me show you how I can use a
• 44:31
  bow without an arrow as a weapon.
• 44:34
  Exactly. That string can do some damage.
• 44:39
  And if, if that if, if that thing was in my office, I'd have
• 44:42
  picked it up by the bow strings, I'd have put it in my car and
• 44:46
  I'd have taken it to the police station to have fingerprints on
• 44:49
  that damn thing run and then had that son of a bitch arrested.
• 44:57
  Yeah, you know, and yeah, and you can use pretty much anything
• 45:03
  for a weapon. I mean, we've all watched the
• 45:06
  John Wick franchise. It killed a man with a pencil,
• 45:16
  Jason Bourne, MacGyver, you know, stuff like that.
• 45:22
  But toasty, what are your thoughts on on this situation?
• 45:26
  You know, it just, it sounds God awful, plain and simple.
• 45:32
  Just you're trying to do the right thing.
• 45:34
  You're trying to report, you're trying to create that paper
• 45:38
  trail with the emails and then have someone turn around and,
• 45:44
  you know, basically harass you or try to intimidate you.
• 45:49
  You know, it can, even if it started with sexual harassment,
• 45:51
  surprise it in, you know, oh, let me find their Facebook
• 45:54
  profile, print out a a skimpy picture and post that up
• 45:58
  everywhere to embarrass you. You know, it, it's, it's
• 46:01
  ridiculous that people do this in my in my mind, you know, I
• 46:08
  just want to go to work. I just want to do my job and I
• 46:11
  want to go home to my family. I don't want to have to deal
• 46:14
  with like somebody coming up to me, you know, starting rumors,
• 46:20
  you know, yes, we converse in the corner because, you know,
• 46:23
  we'll call ourselves the corner crew.
• 46:25
  We're in the back corner of the office on a few of us on the
• 46:29
  routes and you know, we joke around and stuff like that.
• 46:32
  But for the most part, as soon as I get all my mail cased up
• 46:35
  and the packages are ready to go, I'm out the door like y'all
• 46:39
  have a good day. I'm not standing in the heat
• 46:41
  that long later. So this, the harassment needs to
• 46:46
  stop it it needs to go away. Let us come in, let us do our
• 46:49
  jobs. If we can improve on our jobs,
• 46:51
  say, hey, just so you know, you know, this area, you know is
• 46:55
  complaining about, you know how you're, you know, leaving the
• 46:58
  packages on the steps instead of on the front porch, OK, you
• 47:01
  know, go a little bit further, you know, 5 feet, put it on the
• 47:04
  porch and whatnot. But to harass somebody in
• 47:09
  retaliation is absolutely absurd, 100%.
• 47:18
  Yeah, any, any time stuff like this is happening in your office
• 47:22
  to any carrier, you need to have their back.
• 47:26
  You need to have your brothers and sisters back.
• 47:29
  Because right now at this day and age, management is getting
• 47:34
  away with almost murder in these offices.
• 47:40
  And they're getting on Rcas, they're getting on PTS, they're
• 47:46
  getting on regulars. You know, it's almost a free for
• 47:51
  all with management and sometimes you just have to stand
• 47:57
  up for yourself and other carriers because at this point
• 48:04
  it feels almost like we're on our own.
• 48:07
  There are a lot of good designated union reps out there,
• 48:12
  but it's time to put our foot down.
• 48:17
  It's time to stop the harassment.
• 48:21
  It's time to be a union together as a craft.
• 48:28
  Now I have another one for you guys.
• 48:31
  Let me. Put a caveat in there, James.
• 48:35
  Back in the day, police officers had a quota for traffic tickets,
• 48:41
  parking tickets and stuff like that until it came to light.
• 48:45
  And then, you know, the courts overruled on there saying you
• 48:47
  can't do this anymore. It's almost like the United
• 48:51
  States Postal Service has come up with their own quota system
• 48:54
  in regards to issuing PD is, you know, ionize or whatever you
• 48:59
  want to call them. And the disciplinary procedures
• 49:03
  that they want to inflict upon the crafts, that in all crafts,
• 49:07
  not just our craft, but on the crafts themselves, just the
• 49:12
  cracking down all the time. And this, this has fostered this
• 49:15
  atmosphere where they need to perform by finding fault with
• 49:20
  what we do. How do I had a cooperative work
• 49:24
  atmosphere? How is that fostering any type
• 49:29
  of, you know, you know, community within the post office
• 49:35
  in regards to getting the job done jobs that we were hired to,
• 49:39
  that we're committed to. And and yet these, these offices
• 49:44
  that I know of, and you know, my office used to be like that
• 49:48
  years ago, just basically harassed you to the point of
• 49:53
  having you admit something. Like James said earlier, they
• 49:56
  talk to you, you know, indefinitely.
• 49:58
  And the next thing you know, whatever you said is used in the
• 50:01
  PDI up to you and says something about a missing parcel.
• 50:08
  You better keep your mouth shut until you know you get you and
• 50:10
  your representation there, because they'll use that
• 50:13
  information against you. Unless you're savvy enough to
• 50:18
  answer the question, don't answer the question.
• 50:23
  Go ahead, James. You're completely right.
• 50:26
  Yeah. I was just talking with that
• 50:29
  carrier that's going in for that discipline for that.
• 50:32
  And I told them unless you know word for word the question
• 50:37
  they're asking you when they ask it to you, I can't answer that
• 50:43
  without further clarification. You know, you don't want to go
• 50:47
  in there and admit that you know what 55514.2 of the Elm is.
• 50:57
  You don't want to admit that you've read the entire Elm if
• 51:02
  you haven't. And that's a big document.
• 51:06
  But the biggest things of all is when you're in those pre
• 51:12
  disciplinary interviews, which if they call it a pre
• 51:15
  disciplinary interview, it means they already decided to
• 51:18
  discipline you. They're just quote UN quote,
• 51:20
  giving you day, your day in court so they can issue the
• 51:24
  discipline. I don't like that it's an
• 51:28
  investigative interview where they find out your side of the
• 51:33
  story. There's a lot of caveats to
• 51:37
  doing investigative interviews to issue discipline, and if
• 51:41
  management doesn't follow them, you bet your backside there's a
• 51:45
  union representative out there that can use that against
• 51:49
  management to win the grievance. And if a union representative is
• 51:53
  worth their weight in gold, they will get that discipline
• 51:57
  removed. They will find that little
• 52:00
  caveat that management made a mistake on to get that
• 52:06
  discipline removed. And then you have the fact that
• 52:09
  after you get the discipline removed, management retaliates
• 52:12
  against you. Management retaliates against
• 52:15
  you for grieving things. That's grievable as well.
• 52:19
  I know it sounds like you're caught between a rock and a hard
• 52:23
  place. Management disciplines you.
• 52:24
  If you grieve it, they retaliate against you.
• 52:27
  But if you stay on it and you do what Bill says?
• 52:34
  I'll file, file and smile. Then you'll end up turning
• 52:39
  around and eventually getting management to finally realize
• 52:45
  that all the paperwork they have to do on you isn't worth it.
• 52:50
  Like we said at the beginning of this episode, management will do
• 52:54
  everything they can to not do any work to find out why stuff
• 52:59
  is happening, why your stationary events are happening.
• 53:01
  It's the same with the grievance procedure.
• 53:05
  Once you get too much paperwork in front of them, they start
• 53:09
  going this, this is too much of A hassle for me.
• 53:11
  I'm going to move on to somebody who's easier to pick on.
• 53:15
  And that's where having an office that is understanding of
• 53:20
  the proper procedures, proper rules, the contract and things
• 53:24
  like that will get a manager to finally settle down and back off
• 53:30
  the carriers. Would you agree Toasty?
• 53:35
  Absolutely. Like every time that I that they
• 53:38
  try to bring something down like that lunch thing, the when mini
• 53:43
  mills, we started RRACS, one of the other things was authorized
• 53:47
  dismounts and they were saying, Oh no, we already multiplied by
• 53:51
  three. You know this and that it's
• 53:53
  already included. You only use authorized dismount
• 53:56
  at, you know, schools and businesses because that's what
• 54:00
  the paperwork said, even though it said schools, businesses,
• 54:03
  etcetera. So when I asked them for
• 54:07
  documentation, can I please get that in writing, they kept going
• 54:10
  around running in circles, doing anything they could not to put
• 54:13
  it in writing. So of course, we simply all
• 54:16
  wrote statements, gave it up to our ADR, who then gave it to the
• 54:20
  Dr. who chewed out the, the person who came down with that
• 54:25
  and it eventually went away. And they're realizing, oh, I
• 54:29
  didn't since they weren't trained on it.
• 54:31
  Of course, you know, we weren't either really, but it was one of
• 54:35
  those things just when you start to file and you start to get the
• 54:39
  statements and you start to put the work in, they start to
• 54:41
  realize, you know, OK, maybe I should back off on this.
• 54:45
  OK, maybe I can't really put this in writing because I'm not
• 54:48
  going to put my name to it because they'll throw me under
• 54:50
  the bus, which is what happened to my supervisor.
• 54:55
  They do him under the bus for giving out the authorized
• 54:58
  dismount speech, even though it came down from up top.
• 55:02
  So that they'll they'll eventually turn on each other.
• 55:07
  It happens all the time because they're all looking for their
• 55:09
  own promotion of being yes man instead of actually putting in
• 55:13
  the good work and actually helping customers and carriers.
• 55:20
  Yeah. Kristen, you want to follow up
• 55:23
  on that? Well I mean in my office you
• 55:28
  just threaten a grievance and management will tend to back
• 55:31
  down. For some reason my postmaster is
• 55:34
  scared to death of grievances as my new local steward is finding
• 55:39
  out. It's rather entertaining when he
• 55:43
  and I are talking about that. But yeah it you know it.
• 55:49
  It's a matter of if you have management that doesn't care
• 55:52
  then bury them in paperwork. Don't be afraid to stand up for
• 55:56
  yourself regardless and file if if that you have a grievance,
• 56:02
  file it. They want to retaliate.
• 56:05
  Well, file on the retaliation. You know, I couldn't have told
• 56:10
  my Co workers that enough, but they still would never file.
• 56:15
  And you know, it's unfortunate that they won't stand up for
• 56:20
  themselves. But yeah, it's, it comes down
• 56:25
  to, you know, area, my paperwork and the need be.
• 56:29
  That's the only way that we have to fight them is through the
• 56:32
  grievance procedure. And I know some people have
• 56:39
  tried the grievance procedure, and that's failed them
• 56:42
  miserably. Yeah, I've heard many.
• 56:45
  Many, many horror stories of that happening, unfortunately.
• 56:50
  I've heard of it in way too many places that it shouldn't be
• 56:53
  happening at, carriers giving me the information, giving me
• 56:57
  actually their grievance paperwork that they had.
• 57:00
  And I'm looking at it going, why did the steward do that?
• 57:06
  Why did the steward settle for that?
• 57:08
  Why did the steward throw it out for that?
• 57:12
  Little things and grievances that could have easily been won
• 57:18
  had the steward just taken the time to actually fight the
• 57:22
  grievance. Investigator.
• 57:24
  Little, yeah, little little things.
• 57:27
  And how many times do we have to say fight for the craft every
• 57:36
  day as if it was your own? I was told in my steward
• 57:42
  training, when I took the steward training to become the
• 57:46
  elected local steward before I was decertified, I was told
• 57:50
  specifically by my district representative that when you get
• 57:54
  a grievance from a carrier that is now your grievance, it is
• 58:00
  your responsibility to settle it in the best way you think
• 58:03
  possible. Get the best for the carrier
• 58:08
  that you can on that grievance. Because the next time it
• 58:14
  happens, you're going to beat that.
• 58:16
  You're going to make it even better the next time because not
• 58:21
  only do you have precedent with the first grievance you have
• 58:25
  standing with what the resolution was the first time so
• 58:29
  you can ask for more as as an incentive for them to stop
• 58:33
  violating it. OK, Bill, you there's.
• 58:41
  A little irony in this whole there's, there's a whole bit of
• 58:45
  irony in this, this discussion because of the fact that if
• 58:49
  you're active on social media, most of us are not that I'm very
• 58:54
  good at it, but you know, I, I try to scroll through.
• 58:59
  Isn't it amazing that you will find more complaints than
• 59:03
  compliments for management and you will find more complaints
• 59:06
  than compliments for stewards? Is it the lack of steward
• 59:10
  training? Is it the failure to, you know,
• 59:13
  properly educate them follow up or is it a matter of, you know,
• 59:18
  settled grievance for the least amount of, you know, discipline?
• 59:22
  Just get it resolved. The situation we had in our
• 59:27
  office when when I was decertified was you know like I
• 59:31
  had to give all my paperwork to my Dr., which I did and then at
• 59:34
  Dr. subsequently retired from the National Steward System and
• 59:38
  a new Dr. was assigned and came in and was settling grievances
• 59:43
  that I had from 2 years prior. Now ADR had these in in their
• 59:49
  hands for over 2 years and didn't bother to to settle them.
• 59:55
  I mean all the paperwork was there.
• 59:57
  All you had to do was go in there and say you got no case,
• 1:00:00
  sign this pay to pay the carrier be done with it.
• 1:00:03
  And fortunately, this new Dr. has stepped in and done that.
• 1:00:08
  On a number of grievances that were years old, unfortunately,
• 1:00:12
  they, they could have lost or had the grievance thrown out
• 1:00:15
  because of untimeliness, but they made a settlement and
• 1:00:20
  settled the grievance and got something for the carriers.
• 1:00:23
  Whereas the previous Dr. with 20 plus years experience was
• 1:00:27
  sitting on them. And I, I just, I'm amazed that
• 1:00:31
  we have more horror stories than we have complimentary stories
• 1:00:36
  about our steward system and about our management.
• 1:00:39
  Some of these carriers say, oh, I got great supervisors, I got a
• 1:00:42
  great postmaster. I would love to find those
• 1:00:46
  offices because I haven't had that in over 20 years.
• 1:00:51
  We had a horrible postmaster who was horrible to everybody, but
• 1:00:56
  we got our mail in a timely fashion.
• 1:01:00
  We were given specific directions to your face, you
• 1:01:03
  know there. There was no subsequent handing
• 1:01:06
  it down to the supervisor who could turn around and word his
• 1:01:09
  phrases into something else. He told you what to do.
• 1:01:14
  He walked the floor every day watching the clerks, watching
• 1:01:18
  the city carriers, watching the rule carriers, watching the
• 1:01:20
  truck drivers. And even though we didn't like
• 1:01:25
  him personally, we appreciated his professionalism because he
• 1:01:29
  was an asshole to everybody. But he was doing his job of
• 1:01:33
  making sure we did our job. And I miss that.
• 1:01:38
  I miss that structure because what we have now, a bunch of
• 1:01:42
  people are plugged in to management with no experience,
• 1:01:46
  no education and no gall to stand up to the people above
• 1:01:51
  them in regards to violating the contract on a daily basis.
• 1:02:00
  Yeah, I agree. I know we've got you know, my
• 1:02:07
  manager won't go around and watch.
• 1:02:09
  She'll just stand or sit perched up by the supervisors office
• 1:02:13
  desk and with her arms crossed with a look of disgust and just
• 1:02:16
  stare at everybody like really? OK, I'm going to get out of
• 1:02:22
  here. Bye.
• 1:02:25
  It's like we had a service talk. We had to have a stand up talk
• 1:02:27
  for a change in procedure because they were not doing the
• 1:02:32
  correct postal procedure and my steward brought it to their
• 1:02:38
  attention. And of course it took them two
• 1:02:42
  weeks to finally do the stand up talk about the change of office
• 1:02:46
  procedure because they were then informed that they were not
• 1:02:50
  following postal procedure for this.
• 1:02:53
  So they had to embellish to say now this is going to create more
• 1:02:57
  work for everybody and it really isn't.
• 1:03:00
  But anyways, I kind of spearheaded that myself after I
• 1:03:06
  got a little love note at my desk saying I was scanning
• 1:03:10
  customer holds and properly by scanning them the 25, the
• 1:03:13
  customer hold and how they're supposed to be delivered to
• 1:03:17
  agent. Well, no, that's not the proper
• 1:03:20
  way. I found the proper procedural in
• 1:03:23
  writing that came from management themselves saying
• 1:03:27
  this is how it's supposed to be done, directing management.
• 1:03:31
  And after I got that little love note and my steward took care of
• 1:03:35
  it and he settled it prior to the grievance procedure and they
• 1:03:40
  were forced and he told them if you do not do the stand up by
• 1:03:43
  Friday. This was two weeks after he
• 1:03:47
  clarified with them how it was supposed to be and had them sign
• 1:03:50
  an agreement and he told him you don't do it.
• 1:03:55
  By Friday, I'm filing the grievance.
• 1:03:57
  I was not the only one that got the little love note, by the
• 1:03:59
  way, and I was the only one that acted on it.
• 1:04:03
  And, uh, we finally got it and they wanted to turn it around
• 1:04:07
  and make it like it was our fault.
• 1:04:09
  No, not happening, honey. This is what you're supposed to
• 1:04:12
  do prior because the old, the former postmaster found a way to
• 1:04:16
  circumvent the system. Think it No, not happening.
• 1:04:21
  We're doing it the way that Subs are trained in an Academy.
• 1:04:24
  We're doing it the correct way. That's how it's going to be.
• 1:04:27
  And I don't care how upset you are because now you might have
• 1:04:31
  to run a report to see your carriers are going to have to
• 1:04:35
  pay attention to see if by chance that you know, customer
• 1:04:40
  hold is going to possibly go over the 30 days and have to
• 1:04:43
  rescan that package. That was the whole thing it was
• 1:04:45
  about was if a hold went over 30 days, whether you know, a lot of
• 1:04:51
  it doesn't happen a lot, once in a while it'll happen with some
• 1:04:55
  customers that are coming back from their seasonals or
• 1:04:57
  something may happen where they're gone and they may have
• 1:05:00
  to extend it a little bit. You know what, if you're paying,
• 1:05:03
  if you're a good carrier and you're paying attention, you're
• 1:05:05
  going to know, Oh yeah, they're a little bit, let me go rescan
• 1:05:09
  that package customer holds so it doesn't fall off and hit the
• 1:05:12
  reports. It was all about being on a list
• 1:05:15
  and being on a report. And as much as we tried to tell
• 1:05:19
  them before delivered tender to agent does not stop the clock on
• 1:05:23
  the shipper's side. It makes it show to the shipper
• 1:05:27
  that, oh, they handed it off to somebody else to deliver it.
• 1:05:30
  They never understood that. Even though we tried to explain
• 1:05:34
  that to them, they didn't get it.
• 1:05:35
  So then they wanted to come after a handful of us that were
• 1:05:38
  scanning it as customer hold and not delivered to agent.
• 1:05:42
  Well, honey, that just backfired on you because now you got to
• 1:05:44
  take it back to the correct way. Yeah.
• 1:05:52
  It's no, we, we have, we have a saying of you can't make this
• 1:05:55
  shit up. And I, I go in and I explained
• 1:06:01
  to everybody at go walking into the post office in the morning.
• 1:06:06
  It's like walking into a, a comedy club that has free
• 1:06:09
  parking, no cover charge, no drink minimum.
• 1:06:13
  They pay you to be there, and if you talk to anybody in
• 1:06:16
  management, your IQ jumps 40 points and they sit there and
• 1:06:20
  they laugh about that. I said no, really.
• 1:06:23
  I said, you know, if you got a supervisor in my office to run
• 1:06:26
  an outhouse, it would fail miserably even if you spotted
• 1:06:29
  them. A turd and a pint of pee start
• 1:06:31
  the day. And this is because of the fact
• 1:06:35
  that these people in my office, but specifically all came from
• 1:06:40
  the clerk craft. Yeah, we have comments that, you
• 1:06:44
  know, my postmaster helps deliver parcels.
• 1:06:47
  My postmaster won't get out of her designer outfits or get rid
• 1:06:51
  of her 5 foot long dread extensions because that would
• 1:06:54
  probably be a safety hazard for her getting in and out of the
• 1:06:57
  truck. But the but the four, four to
• 1:07:00
  five other supervisors have never been qualified to deliver
• 1:07:04
  in any postal vehicle. So they can't.
• 1:07:06
  And two of them are physically incapable of delivering in
• 1:07:10
  postal vehicles. So, you know, I'm stuck between
• 1:07:15
  a rock and a hard place for having anybody in management
• 1:07:17
  team helping us. Because they don't, they don't
• 1:07:20
  see it as being their job. I guess they haven't read their
• 1:07:23
  handbooks either. And as I'm pulling back into the
• 1:07:27
  to the office on Thursday afternoon, my postmaster was
• 1:07:31
  taking off in an LLV to go help a sub out on the biggest route
• 1:07:37
  in the office because she didn't want to have to sit there and
• 1:07:39
  wait around for him. So she took it upon herself to
• 1:07:43
  jump in to go give him help. And I just had to laugh at that
• 1:07:46
  one. But she didn't want to sit
• 1:07:49
  around and wait. Around.
• 1:07:50
  But it backfired on her because she didn't get back till 7:00
• 1:07:53
  and it was quarter and it was 3:45 when she was taken off.
• 1:07:58
  And that's the funny part. They're making a decision that's
• 1:08:01
  self-serving, OK, And it still backfires on them.
• 1:08:05
  Yes, yes. You got to love it.
• 1:08:08
  Oh, I got to love it. I, I, I do I, I really enjoy
• 1:08:11
  that immensely. All right, the last topic I have
• 1:08:20
  is another reach out that I had this week.
• 1:08:25
  A carrier on OWCP or should be on OWCP, didn't know they had to
• 1:08:31
  be on OWCP. It's getting harassed by
• 1:08:35
  management for an on the job injury with a 10 LB restriction
• 1:08:42
  and management asking them, well how can they do their job with a
• 1:08:45
  10 LB restriction and I'm going limited duty.
• 1:08:51
  You have limited duty. We do not have light duty, but
• 1:08:54
  we have limited duty and management will harass people
• 1:09:00
  who get hurt on the job the most.
• 1:09:04
  And we saw the news article not too long ago that management is
• 1:09:09
  firing relief carriers in their 90 days for getting injured on
• 1:09:14
  the job because they probably were not properly trained to do
• 1:09:20
  the job. What's your take on this toasty?
• 1:09:26
  Well, we have one carrier right now.
• 1:09:28
  It's been out than more than two years on OWCP, you know, so that
• 1:09:32
  we're trying to fight to get the phantom route, which they
• 1:09:35
  finally created even though they originally said they couldn't
• 1:09:38
  because of RRECS, and then now they can't even assign them to
• 1:09:42
  the phantom route for some unknown reason.
• 1:09:45
  I know my supervisor's just frustrated with this 'cause he
• 1:09:50
  doesn't want to keep posting all these other routes and not
• 1:09:54
  posting that one. But it's just one of those
• 1:09:58
  things where management doesn't, they just send you to the, you
• 1:10:02
  know, few days of training and they mainly go over things about
• 1:10:07
  the job. They don't go over like, OK, if
• 1:10:09
  you get injured, this is what you do, you know, oh, here's the
• 1:10:11
  accident forms. They're self-explanatory and
• 1:10:14
  then move on from the training on that.
• 1:10:16
  They never go into depth, which they need to do.
• 1:10:20
  They also need to train you on. Even though as a rule carriers
• 1:10:23
  we don't have a uniform policy, it is still a very very good
• 1:10:27
  idea to follow that shoe policy. At least non slip shoes, which
• 1:10:34
  Skechers has a very good shoe if you want to go there.
• 1:10:37
  Not sponsored and doesn't have the green tag but they're still
• 1:10:41
  non slip. I I just laugh about this
• 1:10:43
  because we have a particular carrier who gets away with it
• 1:10:47
  because they may or may not be the office Princess who wears
• 1:10:51
  her hey dudes every day. My goodness, yeah, I wouldn't do
• 1:10:56
  that. I like the non slip because I do
• 1:10:58
  have a few customers that have tile on their front porch, which
• 1:11:02
  if it's any type, any type of moisture, any little bit of
• 1:11:05
  rain, those are slipping slides. So for the most part, everyone
• 1:11:09
  else has concrete, but you know, just a few have tile.
• 1:11:12
  So that's to protect me. We've also had freezes here.
• 1:11:17
  Again, protect myself, not get injured because I do love the
• 1:11:21
  job. I do love my customers.
• 1:11:22
  I don't want to be out for that long on an injury that was
• 1:11:26
  somewhat preventable. But management needs to, if they
• 1:11:32
  are going to put you in this L WAP status because you didn't
• 1:11:37
  file the correct paperwork or the paperwork got rejected.
• 1:11:40
  So you have to back date it again and go back to another
• 1:11:44
  hospital visitor and doctor visit or get a second opinion.
• 1:11:48
  You know, management needs to be a little, not necessarily
• 1:11:50
  lenient, but understandable or understanding that this process
• 1:11:56
  takes time. It's not instant, you know?
• 1:11:59
  OK, OK. I got doctor's note.
• 1:12:00
  Boom. I'm on OWCP.
• 1:12:03
  It takes filing. It takes filling out the
• 1:12:05
  paperwork. Oh, you didn't dot your I here.
• 1:12:07
  You didn't cross the T here. We need you to refill it out.
• 1:12:11
  We need to stop the harassment. Be human beings.
• 1:12:15
  Don't be managers. Be leaders.
• 1:12:21
  Kristen, your thoughts? I think you guys covered that,
• 1:12:25
  but as as OWCP has changed, it's not filing the paperwork now
• 1:12:30
  it's all done on ECOMP. You can go in on ECOMP yourself
• 1:12:34
  and you can file that CA-1. You can't, you know, yes, they
• 1:12:39
  have to, you know, give the paperwork for the payment for
• 1:12:43
  the hospital bill to bill properly.
• 1:12:47
  But it is, you know, E comp, you know, management puts it off
• 1:12:54
  filing it. You can go into E comp and file
• 1:12:57
  it yourself as well and get it started.
• 1:13:01
  In fact, it's recommended that you file it yourself on E comp
• 1:13:05
  to start because management, most management as we've known,
• 1:13:11
  is not trained on anything. They aren't trained on Rex, they
• 1:13:15
  aren't trained to manage, they aren't trained to the contract,
• 1:13:19
  and they aren't trained on OWCP. So you would be better off doing
• 1:13:26
  it yourself on E Comp than at waiting on management to figure
• 1:13:31
  out how to do the OWCP. And just a little teaser here.
• 1:13:37
  We're going to have an episode with Ron Speakman from Fed Up
• 1:13:41
  talking about OWCP in a future episode.
• 1:13:46
  So we'll actually get into the details of how to file AWCP and
• 1:13:52
  what you need to do as a rural carrier for OWCP, and Bill will
• 1:13:58
  finish up with your thoughts. Oh God, I I have a great example
• 1:14:04
  of OWCP mishandling. We have a, a gentleman who's had
• 1:14:10
  numerous leg operations and he has limited duty, particularly
• 1:14:16
  in, in weighted parcels. And right before I went out, he
• 1:14:21
  called into the office asking why, you know, these parcels
• 1:14:25
  weren't being delivered. He delivers the mail, he sorts
• 1:14:28
  everything out and a sub takes the parcels out for him.
• 1:14:32
  And this particular the previous day they didn't have a sub
• 1:14:37
  available. So he he left the parcels there
• 1:14:40
  as per his agreement with the post office under doctor's
• 1:14:44
  orders and they brought him in for an eye and eye.
• 1:14:48
  And the newly minted steward, what went in there with him and
• 1:14:55
  came out laughing. The steward came out laughing
• 1:14:59
  and the carrier's walking by. He goes.
• 1:15:01
  All these people are just fucking stupid.
• 1:15:04
  Now mind you, this is a 2 month exercise that this guy's on
• 1:15:09
  limited duty and they decided the day that they didn't have a
• 1:15:14
  sub, that they failed to schedule a sub to take the
• 1:15:16
  parcels out for him, that they were going to perform an INIPDI
• 1:15:20
  whatever in regards to the failure to deliver the parcels.
• 1:15:24
  And he has all this paperwork with him.
• 1:15:26
  As he goes into the meeting, postmaster comes out and goes
• 1:15:32
  over on the City side, which is on the backside of my case, and,
• 1:15:36
  and she's talking to another city carrier supervisor over
• 1:15:39
  there. Meanwhile, my supervisor comes
• 1:15:42
  out on our side and goes to her desk and all I can hear and, and
• 1:15:46
  this is where, you know, you're right, James.
• 1:15:48
  They're out there to protect themselves.
• 1:15:50
  OK, Postmaster is standing there cussing my supervisor out for
• 1:15:56
  failure to schedule an RCA to help on the route.
• 1:16:02
  And then why are you having a fit about this guy abiding by
• 1:16:06
  his doctor's orders? Why is this the third time that
• 1:16:09
  this situation has come up since he's been back for the last two
• 1:16:13
  months? Don't you people pay attention
• 1:16:17
  to the details? Details will kill you.
• 1:16:22
  Details will get you fired. You're so right.
• 1:16:27
  They're not trained in in the Elm, PO6O3, the contract, just
• 1:16:33
  basic human rights. They aren't trained, they're
• 1:16:37
  just pushing reports and I can't explain and and emphasize this
• 1:16:43
  more than enough. Whenever you feel threatened,
• 1:16:49
  whatever you feel that there is a situation that may cause
• 1:16:52
  discipline down there, shut your mouth.
• 1:16:55
  Ask for your, you know, union representative, a request that
• 1:16:59
  once brought into your office if you don't have a local in your
• 1:17:02
  office and just shut your mouth because these people have no
• 1:17:08
  clue how to proceed in anything from OWCP to just general
• 1:17:14
  disciplinary procedures and you should be able .9% of the time
• 1:17:23
  because they don't know their jobs.
• 1:17:31
  When I was a truck driver before I worked at the post office, my
• 1:17:35
  very first truck driving trainer told me you better know every
• 1:17:42
  single law in the on the books when it comes to commercial
• 1:17:45
  vehicles. Because there's going to be that
• 1:17:48
  one day you're driving down the road and this one, Barney Fife
• 1:17:53
  County Mountie is going to turn around and have this really,
• 1:17:57
  really obscure commercial vehicle law that he's looking
• 1:18:01
  for on that particular day. They're looking for specific
• 1:18:06
  things on specific days to meet their performance evaluations.
• 1:18:11
  They don't have quote UN quote, quotas.
• 1:18:13
  They have performance evaluation, which is a quota.
• 1:18:17
  But if you don't know that obscure commercial motor vehicle
• 1:18:22
  law, they're going to hang you by it.
• 1:18:26
  And it's the same here with management.
• 1:18:30
  They're told to look for a specific thing, and that's what
• 1:18:34
  they're looking for to get their performance evaluation with
• 1:18:37
  their supervisor. But you better know every single
• 1:18:41
  one to protect yourself. And it's not about inundating
• 1:18:47
  yourself with too much information.
• 1:18:49
  It's not about knowing every itty bitty little thing.
• 1:18:54
  It's knowing enough to be dangerous to management's
• 1:19:00
  shenanigans. When you can stand up for
• 1:19:04
  yourself and you do it enough, management will realize it is
• 1:19:09
  too difficult to deal with that in that situation.
• 1:19:14
  Not that you're doing anything wrong, but that management's
• 1:19:17
  doing things wrong so they'll go after the easiest target they
• 1:19:21
  can find. So protect yourself at all
• 1:19:28
  costs. We had a situation we let me let
• 1:19:35
  me bring this one up, Kristen. We had a situation in our office
• 1:19:38
  where this one carrier was on AI guess a particular hit list for
• 1:19:43
  the postmaster. And one day the postmaster came
• 1:19:47
  over and started berating him on the floor.
• 1:19:50
  And at the time I was the current current local steward.
• 1:19:54
  I went over to kind of, you know, eavesdrop and he kept
• 1:19:58
  going in and I said, excuse me, Ron.
• 1:20:00
  I said, do you mind taking this off the floor and, and into the
• 1:20:03
  office? I says, you know, it's very
• 1:20:06
  unprofessional. He says I can do what I want,
• 1:20:09
  where I want, whenever I want. I said OK, So I handed the
• 1:20:13
  carrier grievance form. I says this is for a hostile
• 1:20:16
  working environment. And his postmaster turned around
• 1:20:21
  and says you're you're not allowed to be over here.
• 1:20:24
  I says, you know, OK. I went back to my case.
• 1:20:27
  He continued on and I went back and gave him another grievance.
• 1:20:32
  I said, this is for threatening you.
• 1:20:36
  What I tell you. I said I, I asked you to take in
• 1:20:38
  the office. I said you wouldn't.
• 1:20:40
  I said you're being an unprofessional.
• 1:20:42
  I said you know, I'll just keep handing him forms until I either
• 1:20:45
  run out or you stop. After the third grievance form
• 1:20:49
  where I turned around and said you know that he was, you know,
• 1:20:52
  disturbing, you know, delaying the mail because of his
• 1:20:55
  performance was affecting the other carriers in the immediate
• 1:20:58
  area. I said you know, you can keep
• 1:21:00
  going on. I said but I have over 100 forms
• 1:21:03
  sitting at my case. He said fuck you.
• 1:21:06
  He says I'm tired of this shit and he walked away.
• 1:21:10
  Well, he thought that was the end of it.
• 1:21:13
  Oh, I had that carrier fill out those 3 grievances.
• 1:21:17
  Boy, you want to talk about having a fit?
• 1:21:21
  And we had a screaming match in his office and I told him and he
• 1:21:25
  would never treat another carrier on the floor like that.
• 1:21:28
  I says, because we'll both lose our jobs that day.
• 1:21:32
  What do you mean? I says, just understand we'll
• 1:21:34
  both lose our jobs that day, but you're not going to treat
• 1:21:38
  anybody on the floor like that in front of me again.
• 1:21:41
  I said you want to be treated with respect because you're the
• 1:21:44
  postmaster. I said all that is a fucking
• 1:21:47
  title. I said, you have a greater
• 1:21:50
  responsibility to us than you have authority over us.
• 1:21:55
  Remember that we can work without you.
• 1:21:58
  You can't work without us. And when you start treating us
• 1:22:02
  with the dignity and respect that we have earned, but we're
• 1:22:07
  entitled to for all the years that we've been here through the
• 1:22:11
  two plus years of COVID, I said, then you'll get our cooperation.
• 1:22:16
  I said until then I says I'll be pissing on your grave.
• 1:22:22
  After that I never had a problem with that postmaster again
• 1:22:27
  because I told him exactly where I stood in regards to how he
• 1:22:33
  treated people. And after that, every grievance
• 1:22:37
  I took to him when he agreed, I already had the settlement drawn
• 1:22:42
  up, signed, and they were paid within two pay periods because
• 1:22:46
  every grievance I had had a financial penalty attached to
• 1:22:50
  it. Stand up for yourselves, stand
• 1:22:54
  up for others because some people can't and be a unionized
• 1:23:01
  craft. As far as covering each other's
• 1:23:04
  ass, you don't have to be in the union, but you have to be a
• 1:23:08
  craft united against management until they become management
• 1:23:15
  that you can work with. And that's what I hopefully
• 1:23:22
  accomplish at this National Convention, replacing the
• 1:23:25
  national leadership, the people who will have every carrier's
• 1:23:30
  back. All right.
• 1:23:38
  Thank you, Bill. How are we going to wind this
• 1:23:41
  down now for this evening? All yours, Kristen.
• 1:23:46
  Runaway. All right.
• 1:23:49
  Yeah, definitely. I mean, with management
• 1:23:51
  harassment, honestly, the only way we have to fight back is the
• 1:23:55
  grievance procedure or an EEO if it goes that far, which you
• 1:24:01
  know, your stewards are completely outside of an EEO,
• 1:24:05
  they can't assist you with that. That is nothing of anything that
• 1:24:12
  a steward can do. So honestly, you know,
• 1:24:15
  definitely contact your steward under, you know, if there's
• 1:24:19
  harassment going on of any type, you know, that's, you know, it
• 1:24:25
  is where we stand right now. The grievous procedure is our
• 1:24:28
  only fight back with management and their ways of mismanaging.
• 1:24:35
  So definitely, you know, stand up for yourself, stand up for
• 1:24:37
  the other carriers in your office.
• 1:24:40
  It does make a difference. It can make a difference.
• 1:24:44
  So definitely, you know, you do that.
• 1:24:46
  Reach out and if you have to go above, you have a steward that's
• 1:24:51
  not helping you and you have to go above their heads.
• 1:24:53
  Go above their heads, go up the chain.
• 1:24:55
  That's what it's there for. You know, I don't even.
• 1:25:04
  Yeah, it it. It's sad to see offices where
• 1:25:07
  you have management that is so bad that, you know, union hasn't
• 1:25:11
  stepped in to fight harder than they should have.
• 1:25:15
  They're getting in trouble for going above their management's
• 1:25:18
  head and contacting other managers saying we need help.
• 1:25:22
  I I do know of this situation. This manager has been moved
• 1:25:25
  around before prior because of issues in the office.
• 1:25:30
  So, you know, it, it's sad that, you know, that's management's
• 1:25:33
  way of fixing it is let's just move them to another office.
• 1:25:38
  And yeah, it's not right. And they're not, they're going
• 1:25:42
  to do the same thing in another office.
• 1:25:45
  Wherever you put them, they're still going to keep doing it.
• 1:25:48
  And we as carriers have to fight back on it and take it up as far
• 1:25:53
  as we can go. So, James, your last final
• 1:25:58
  commentary for the night. As it stands, management doesn't
• 1:26:05
  know a thing and we have to approach everything as if
• 1:26:09
  management knows nothing because management only does what
• 1:26:14
  management is told. At this point, it's time for us
• 1:26:19
  as a craft to get educated and understand that management is
• 1:26:24
  going to mismanage until we teach management to stop
• 1:26:30
  mismanaging. So the biggest thing I can tell
• 1:26:34
  you guys to take away from this is learn as much as you can.
• 1:26:38
  Try to understand your contracts, MO, us, the PO6O3,
• 1:26:46
  all the documents that are important to your job because an
• 1:26:50
  educated craft is the bane of an uneducated management.
• 1:26:57
  And at the end of the day, no matter what, we're all in this
• 1:27:01
  together, Bill. You know, the, the, the topic of
• 1:27:15
  tonight's material was managerial harassment and barely
• 1:27:19
  scratched the surface on it. I I think you've hit, hit it on
• 1:27:28
  the, the, the nail on the head in regards to standing up for
• 1:27:31
  each other and, you know, learning the documents that
• 1:27:36
  affect our, our jobs, the Elm, the six O 3, the contract, the
• 1:27:41
  RCAM, Oh my God. And and yet it, it amazes me
• 1:27:48
  that yet the national board basically puts it on the carrier
• 1:27:54
  to be well versed in all this. That would be that would be the
• 1:27:58
  ideal situation if, if everybody was but take the Rex program,
• 1:28:04
  the first 100 pages that came out and then the next 101 to 111
• 1:28:10
  pages that came out and then the 97 page version came out.
• 1:28:14
  Then the you know, all the amendments to you know that
• 1:28:17
  document and then you come out with our Cam Elm, I believe is
• 1:28:22
  120 some pages. The six O 3 is over 100 pages.
• 1:28:27
  This is a lot of material for people to to try to delve into
• 1:28:32
  while maintaining their jobs, their personal lives, their,
• 1:28:35
  their family, you know, obligations.
• 1:28:38
  So it it behooves people like ourselves to do this for them.
• 1:28:44
  And, you know, frankly, I don't mind doing it because of the
• 1:28:47
  fact that, you know, I have the time and, and effort and energy
• 1:28:50
  to do so. At some point, you have to stand
• 1:28:55
  up for yourself. When you feel like you can't get
• 1:29:00
  a hold of us, text us, you know, put it on our, our, our, you
• 1:29:05
  know, podcast site and let us know.
• 1:29:08
  And, and we're here for you every day.
• 1:29:11
  Like I said, I don't, you know, I don't check the text, but you
• 1:29:14
  know, thankfully James and Chris and always, you know, prompt me
• 1:29:17
  to respond when I'm required to. And we're here for you.
• 1:29:23
  We might not know all the answers, but guess what?
• 1:29:26
  We'll find out. We'll get back to you because we
• 1:29:30
  truly care. We're, we're not a bunch of
• 1:29:34
  suits sitting down in Alexandria, VA.
• 1:29:38
  Don't give a rat's ass about you.
• 1:29:40
  We, we know your trials and tribulations.
• 1:29:43
  We go through them every day with you.
• 1:29:45
  Whether it's bad, whether it's the weather is bad, the, the
• 1:29:48
  equipment is, is shitty, the atmosphere in your office is
• 1:29:52
  toxic. What?
• 1:29:53
  It doesn't matter. We're here for you anytime that
• 1:29:57
  you falter, give us a call, send us a text, whatever.
• 1:30:04
  We're here for you every day of the week, 365 days a year.
• 1:30:11
  And we hope you take advantage of our knowledge and, and our,
• 1:30:15
  you know, dedication to this craft because what is there if
• 1:30:20
  we don't stand up for each other with that?
• 1:30:25
  I mean, everybody have a good week down in Texas.
• 1:30:29
  Be careful of the heat. Hydrate anyway gives you a crap
• 1:30:33
  about your stationary events. Just tell them you're, you know,
• 1:30:36
  sitting in the shade cooling down outside of the vehicle
• 1:30:39
  according to you know, all their promotional materials in regards
• 1:30:42
  to the heat, you know, exhaustion and you know, do the
• 1:30:48
  job professionally, efficiently as you can.
• 1:30:52
  At the end of the day, make sure you deliver yourself home
• 1:30:54
  because you are the most important delivery of the day.
• 1:31:00
  Toasty, your final thoughts for tonight?
• 1:31:06
  I'm thinking back a few episodes where we were talking about how
• 1:31:09
  many times or how much the post office is paid out on
• 1:31:13
  grievances. How much money could they save
• 1:31:16
  by simply training management on our contracts?
• 1:31:20
  How much money could they save by not harassing us, instead
• 1:31:24
  helping us and actually working with us instead of against us?
• 1:31:30
  They could have higher retention, which saves them
• 1:31:32
  costs. They could have happier
• 1:31:35
  employees who call out less, which saves them costs.
• 1:31:40
  And of course they don't have to pay off for grievances because
• 1:31:42
  they don't violate, which saves them more cost.
• 1:31:46
  We need to work together, but it takes two to tango.
• 1:31:52
  That's why we need to read up on our contracts.
• 1:31:54
  We need to be educated. We need to be well versed in our
• 1:31:58
  contract and PO6O3 and Elm and read over the Arcam and even a
• 1:32:05
  nice little snippet is from the special contract edition of the
• 1:32:10
  magazine when they went over the new additions to the magazine or
• 1:32:14
  to the contract. The more educated you are, the
• 1:32:18
  more dangerous you are to management.
• 1:32:20
  When management starts learning that, hey, they're going to file
• 1:32:23
  every time that I violate the contract, let me make sure I
• 1:32:25
  don't, then it starts to turn to that mutually beneficial
• 1:32:30
  relationship. But at this moment, right now,
• 1:32:35
  for the most part, for years on end, a lot of us have been kind
• 1:32:39
  of complacent. We've been under evaluation for
• 1:32:43
  so long, we just kind of, I'll just go along with it.
• 1:32:45
  You know, the pay is good enough.
• 1:32:47
  I get off, you know, two hours earlier than you know, everyone
• 1:32:50
  else. I'll just let it slide.
• 1:32:53
  We can't let it slide anymore. We have to fight back.
• 1:32:56
  And the best way to do that? File file file.
• 1:33:05
  Thank you, gentlemen. We, I appreciate it as I'm sure
• 1:33:08
  all of our listeners do. Yes I mean there is if you have
• 1:33:12
  that spare time please. You know the six O 3, the
• 1:33:16
  contract, the Arcam, the all the other ones.
• 1:33:21
  The other ones that launch out to me is the F21, the M38
• 1:33:25
  publication 552 and 553J SOVI mean it's endless on the amount
• 1:33:33
  of reading. I mean, I can't say I've read
• 1:33:35
  everything cover to cover, but I have read quite a few when it
• 1:33:40
  pertains to a certain a certain issue that gets brought to my
• 1:33:43
  attention. You know, it's not only looking
• 1:33:46
  for the craft members that reach out to us and helping them, you
• 1:33:51
  know, gear them to the correct information, but it's also, you
• 1:33:54
  know, for my own benefit too, especially if it's something
• 1:33:57
  that may pertain to something going on in my office or it may
• 1:34:01
  not, or it could be something in the future.
• 1:34:03
  You know, even my local steward will still, you know, he's
• 1:34:07
  newer, so he, you know, he'll give me a call or come up to me
• 1:34:10
  in the office and be like, hey, do you?
• 1:34:12
  Yeah, it's article such and such from this or it's, you know,
• 1:34:17
  it's outlined in this manual or that one or whatnot.
• 1:34:20
  You know, it's just because he hasn't had to deal with
• 1:34:24
  everything quite yet. And so he's still learning and I
• 1:34:27
  don't have a problem with it. It's the same thing, you know,
• 1:34:29
  with when I'm training my new RC as you know, it's going through
• 1:34:35
  with the Rex scanning and and trying to teach them what each
• 1:34:38
  one is for even out on the route.
• 1:34:41
  It's all about the educating yourself and if you can assist
• 1:34:47
  in educating your Co workers, that's, you know, going the next
• 1:34:51
  step up and knowing that we're all here to help educate you or
• 1:34:55
  point you in the right direction on to get that information and
• 1:35:00
  who to reach out for. You know, I, I had a carrier
• 1:35:06
  reach out to me about some issues as well.
• 1:35:08
  And I said, you know, I don't know off the top of my head, but
• 1:35:11
  I'll have the information for you before the end of the day.
• 1:35:15
  I reached out to these guys and I got back to her before the end
• 1:35:19
  of the day after I got home. I had that information for her,
• 1:35:23
  got her going in the right direction and she she didn't
• 1:35:27
  even know she hadn't had to use any stewards or, or have union
• 1:35:33
  issues before to try and contact somebody.
• 1:35:35
  So she didn't know where to look or who was, you know, who to
• 1:35:38
  contact. And I said, hey, you know, give
• 1:35:40
  me your zip code and I'll figure out who you got to go to.
• 1:35:43
  And I found, I got found the person contact info.
• 1:35:46
  I screenshot it and sent it to her.
• 1:35:47
  You know, it's just even that little my new help of pointing
• 1:35:52
  somebody in the right direction on who to go to or where to look
• 1:35:58
  for the, for the language and whether it's contractual or in a
• 1:36:02
  different manual, you know, and even using management's
• 1:36:08
  procedures against them because they're not following their own
• 1:36:12
  policy and procedures. You know, the M38 handbook is
• 1:36:16
  the management's guide to management rural carriers.
• 1:36:19
  Of course it's quite a bit outdated, but that's what we
• 1:36:22
  have, you know, just those little things you could turn
• 1:36:27
  around. They're not even following their
• 1:36:28
  own policy and procedures and you have that in writing.
• 1:36:32
  You can file on that and you can force them to follow, you know,
• 1:36:36
  be following, following their own policy and procedures.
• 1:36:40
  That's what we have to do to protect ourselves and protect
• 1:36:44
  our Co workers and stand up to management.
• 1:36:47
  If that's what we have to do, then we have to do it, you know,
• 1:36:51
  and we are here for everyone, you know, whether it's that
• 1:36:54
  shoulder to lean on or that ear to vent to or just say, hey, I
• 1:36:59
  don't know where to look. I don't know how to navigate the
• 1:37:01
  website or this, you know, where is there language for this?
• 1:37:06
  You know, getting somebody pointed in the right direction
• 1:37:09
  is the least that we can do to help everybody out there.
• 1:37:14
  And that's what we're here for. You know, we've got everybody's
• 1:37:16
  back and that's what we want to do and that's what we're
• 1:37:21
  passionate about. So everybody have a safe
• 1:37:24
  Memorial Day tomorrow. Again, this is in remembrance of
• 1:37:29
  those have gave that off that ultimate sacrifice for our our
• 1:37:34
  freedoms and our liberties. And everybody be safe.
• 1:37:38
  Returning back to work on Tuesday.
• 1:37:40
  I know it is not going to be fun at all and we'll be back next
• 1:37:46
  week. Anybody get a hold of Bill to
• 1:38:01
  see if he's coming? No.