Latest / United We Scan / Midweek Bonus

Transcript

Midweek Bonus · United We Scan

• 0:15
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:19
  carriers. For rural carriers, the views
• 0:22
  expressed in this podcast do not reflect the views or opinions of
• 0:27
  the United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
• 0:30
  Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
• 0:33
  your assigned union representative for guidance in
• 0:36
  your local area. Make sure you like this podcast,
• 0:41
  share with your fellow rural carriers and subscribe to be
• 0:44
  notified each time a new episode is uploaded.
• 0:48
  Please rate this podcast five stars where applicable, and
• 0:51
  leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:54
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:58
  United We Scan podcast. Hey, welcome back, everybody.
• 1:03
  A surprise midweek bonus episode.
• 1:06
  This week we have everybody with us, Josh, Bill, James and
• 1:12
  Toasty. Why don't you go ahead and tell
• 1:15
  everybody what this is about, James.
• 1:17
  All right, this was a special quick set up for tonight because
• 1:23
  the National Rural Letter Carriers Association posted the
• 1:27
  opening statement from Don Masten during the current
• 1:31
  contract negotiations of our latest round for our next year.
• 1:37
  They have until the end of this contract to try and figure it
• 1:41
  out, which we know won't happen. They'll usually extend it out
• 1:45
  further and further. But they also are under a time
• 1:49
  crunch because the current national board does have people
• 1:54
  running against them this year and they are running scared.
• 2:00
  And we'll get into points of why they're running scared during
• 2:05
  this episode. The 20 minute video was too much
• 2:08
  to do, a breakdown on, and was too good to pass up on the talk
• 2:13
  about. So we decided to do a special
• 2:16
  episode for our fans, breaking down our president's opening
• 2:22
  statement. Yes, we are.
• 2:24
  I know I did watch it after I got home today.
• 2:29
  Are you sure the rest of you have all seen it now?
• 2:33
  Yep. Yeah, I did you get.
• 2:34
  A chance? Did you get a chance, Bill or
• 2:36
  no? Yes, I did.
• 2:38
  While I was whooping down my cheese steak.
• 2:41
  I did. And you know, I I had to laugh
• 2:45
  because as of what, 8999 months ago when we were campaigning in
• 2:53
  regards to the the National board, especially me, Don seems
• 2:58
  to have a lot of new ideas this year and they're they're
• 3:02
  perfectly aligned with the ones I had.
• 3:05
  Isn't that amazing? You know, he's not really, you
• 3:08
  know, he didn't have an original thought, but the the thought was
• 3:13
  did he get an extra espresso into Starbucks or not?
• 3:15
  That was the thought. The rest of it was basically,
• 3:19
  you know, stolen off of my campaign.
• 3:22
  What really amazes me, OK, as he as he made the introductions,
• 3:26
  when people sit there at the National Convention and they
• 3:29
  say, well, Bill May hasn't worked his way up, you know,
• 3:31
  through the the ladder. You know, he hasn't gone through
• 3:33
  the chain of command and he hasn't done this.
• 3:36
  He hasn't done that and he needs experience to do this.
• 3:40
  Isn't it funny how you know in Don's article in the magazine
• 3:45
  and here he's highlighting all the people there to supporting
• 3:49
  him, Even Michael Gann, negotiators, lawyers, hold it.
• 3:54
  If he had such great skills, why would he need all these people?
• 3:57
  He has consultants that we are we have hired and and we're
• 4:01
  paying for to help assist with contract negotiations.
• 4:06
  Well then why would I need to have to work up the ladder the
• 4:11
  way everybody else has to be a good negotiator when I have a
• 4:15
  whole crew behind me that I'm paying to do it and all I have
• 4:18
  to do is be as a sock puppet to read out the articles of
• 4:22
  contention in regards to a future contract.
• 4:28
  I'm I'm missing something here, Let let me know if I'm wrong.
• 4:33
  Let me throw a few points that he put out in his opening
• 4:38
  statement here, he said. Specifically, and I quote, I
• 4:44
  have been involved in contract negotiations with the Postal
• 4:48
  Service since 2008. So think about that.
• 4:54
  Think about how long ago 2008 was contract negotiations.
• 4:59
  Since 2008. That means he's been involved
• 5:02
  with them, including the 2018 and 2021 negotiations.
• 5:08
  And then he goes on to talk about a lot of other things that
• 5:12
  we'll get into. But this man has been involved
• 5:16
  in contract negotiations since 2008.
• 5:19
  So think about all the stuff the union has given up for The craft
• 5:26
  has given to management. We're not even talking about in
• 5:31
  2012 when Rex was arbitrarily decided to become part of the
• 5:39
  rural craft. And Jeanette Dwyer, who has
• 5:44
  announced the beginning of this was the president in 2012 and
• 5:51
  she's one of our executive committee men up there.
• 5:55
  But these guys have been involved in this system since
• 5:59
  2008. Now I'm not.
• 6:01
  Asking for an answer from anybody here, but just think
• 6:04
  about this phrase. When you do the same thing over
• 6:09
  and over and expect different results, what does that mean to
• 6:15
  you? Just think about it.
• 6:21
  I I believe somebody said that was the definition of insanity
• 6:25
  at the National Convention. Oh yeah, that's right.
• 6:28
  It was. Me.
• 6:34
  The other contention that I have with the way he presented this
• 6:38
  was that he actually acknowledged and called out each
• 6:46
  manager by their first name. Now, in a professional setting,
• 6:54
  when you are doing professional negotiations and being a
• 6:57
  professional negotiator, you call them Mr. So and so, Miss So
• 7:03
  and so, misses so and so a professional setting.
• 7:07
  You don't call them by their first name, which shows that you
• 7:11
  have a very deep familiarity with them, as in you are friends
• 7:16
  with them. He calls Postmaster General
• 7:21
  Dejoy Lewis three times in this video.
• 7:26
  He literally calls him Lewis three times in this video, which
• 7:29
  means he is on a first name friendly basis with the
• 7:33
  Postmaster General and going back to Bill.
• 7:37
  You had somebody say something to you at National Convention in
• 7:41
  the caucus about the Postal Service in the Union, if I
• 7:46
  recall correctly. You do recall correctly.
• 7:52
  I I recall that too, as I was witness to it.
• 7:56
  And what did they say, Kristen? That it's like a marriage.
• 8:06
  My my favorite my favorite caucus night.
• 8:12
  Yeah. And that's when I explained that
• 8:16
  you when you're in the marriage, you usually sleep together.
• 8:19
  So are you saying that the post office and and our union are in
• 8:22
  bed? We'll get to that in a minute.
• 8:25
  There's I'm getting going through this line by line from
• 8:28
  the transcripts from YouTube, which I have to say that either
• 8:32
  he Mumbles way too much or Google needs a better AI on
• 8:37
  YouTube to write the transcripts because it was terrible going
• 8:41
  through. I.
• 8:43
  Really feel sorry. I feel really sorry for our part
• 8:48
  of hearing carriers out there, because this was difficult to
• 8:54
  read by myself while listening to his voice, let alone actually
• 8:59
  trying to read this. Now he talks about in the last
• 9:04
  two rounds of collective bargaining, both in 2018 and 21,
• 9:09
  we successfully achieved agreements that were ultimately
• 9:12
  ratified by our membership. Agreements that not only address
• 9:16
  not only the challenges facing the Postal Service at those
• 9:19
  times, along with the need to improve wages and working
• 9:22
  conditions for rural letter carriers, A dedicated workforce
• 9:26
  without whom the Postal Service would not be able to carry out
• 9:28
  its universal public service mandate.
• 9:32
  So 2018 and 21 contracts, you know, the ones that we have two
• 9:39
  tables on and still didn't get good wage increases for the
• 9:44
  people on Table 2 to get them closer to table one, things like
• 9:49
  that. What do you guys think of that
• 9:51
  statement? I would like to see us get that
• 9:57
  at least to table one for those of us on Table 2, although I
• 10:01
  kind of do still like the table two step system where it's every
• 10:06
  year and not this convoluted, you know, 58 weeks, 46 weeks,
• 10:12
  the next time back to 58 weeks, then back down and just spirals
• 10:17
  out of control. It's a little bit more easier to
• 10:20
  understand, but let's hope that he actually pushes a little bit
• 10:24
  harder on on that. Josie I I agree with you.
• 10:30
  Going the 969640 you know 44 down to the 30s whatever is a
• 10:39
  little difficult. But if you add that all up and
• 10:42
  divide it down by 52, you're looking at 12 1/2 years rather
• 10:48
  than the 15 years the table two is to get to Max out.
• 10:53
  True. That's 1 two, yes.
• 11:04
  The last two contracts had been ratified by 80 plus percent of
• 11:12
  the ballots received, which equated to 20 to 25% of the
• 11:18
  membership. Returning a ballot first of all,
• 11:22
  second of all after 2 rounds in within 3 contracts of going to
• 11:31
  arbitration and getting shit on the craft is afraid partially to
• 11:41
  not. Ratify it I'm.
• 11:44
  Not afraid of arbitration. I'm just saying as a general
• 11:49
  poll. No, as a general poll.
• 11:52
  I, I, I yeah, I understand what you're saying and I completely
• 11:56
  you know, I agree with your opinion on that that majority
• 11:59
  that do vote regularly are afraid of arbitration after what
• 12:04
  happened in the last two. But I don't think it's something
• 12:07
  that everybody should be afraid of every time though.
• 12:11
  And. Right.
• 12:12
  No, I I I agree. And and let me add in there,
• 12:18
  the, the strength of your argument dictates the direction
• 12:22
  of arbitration. So if you go in with a weak
• 12:25
  case, you're going to get an arbitrator leading the other
• 12:28
  way. If you go in there with a strong
• 12:30
  case, you're going to get the arbitrator to side with you.
• 12:34
  So I hate to tell you both, but yet you missed the point in the
• 12:39
  in the whole conversation is that Don admitted that he was
• 12:44
  involved in the last two contract negotiations and what
• 12:50
  hasn't gotten us? More than that, he said.
• 12:53
  Since 2008. Well, yeah, so he he directly
• 12:57
  said, you know that the last two, but he's been there since
• 13:00
  2008. So you know, let's see 2008 or
• 13:04
  2024, we're just going into 24. We'll give him the benefit of
• 13:08
  doubt and say he's only had 15 years of input and the last two
• 13:13
  contracts have been shit. So what?
• 13:17
  What does that tell you about climbing up the ladder, kissing
• 13:20
  ass and being in the part Gang of Nine?
• 13:25
  We're self-serving. We're trying to, you know, get
• 13:28
  to retirement with never carrying a route again and we
• 13:32
  don't care about the craft. Exactly you.
• 13:38
  Know and as I've stated in the past, you know, if in the off
• 13:43
  chance I get elected to board, that's not my retirement.
• 13:47
  I want to retire from my route I would you know they don't it is
• 13:52
  it's complete retirement gift and then you got to look at yeah
• 13:56
  so these you know he hasn't ran a route in what 1617 years now
• 14:00
  been on that board since 2008 and vice president under the
• 14:03
  last two contract negotiations. Yep.
• 14:08
  What is? Well, no, you know, he he he did
• 14:11
  get ousted one year and have to go back to his route in that
• 14:14
  time frame. So he has run his route a year
• 14:19
  during that time frame, but you know, he's never seen his
• 14:24
  current route because it's too far away to drive, yeah.
• 14:27
  It's like what, 320 miles or something like that three?
• 14:31
  122 if you want to be exact. Oh, OK.
• 14:35
  And and and it takes, don't forget it takes two to three RCA
• 14:40
  daily to run his route because it's so overburdened and they
• 14:43
  won't cut it because it's the president's route.
• 14:48
  Yeah, none of these board members.
• 14:51
  I I can't say none because I can't speak for a couple of the
• 14:54
  executive committee. But I mean, I know the one
• 14:59
  position when asked, prior to her being elected in that
• 15:03
  position when the last time she ran a route was and she said
• 15:05
  2002, a full time union employee since 2002.
• 15:17
  Now more. You know, and we're not going to
• 15:20
  talk about what happened with Jeanette when she stepped down
• 15:22
  as president. Yep.
• 15:26
  And then the other parts of this that just don't make any sense
• 15:30
  that he would mention things like this because of the 2021
• 15:36
  negotiations. But you have to remember that
• 15:41
  they have a step four that's been sitting there since 2018.
• 15:45
  They still haven't adjudicated, but he says there are many
• 15:49
  issues before us. Some are new and some are old,
• 15:52
  but all require solutions above and beyond the band aids of the
• 15:56
  past. Now I took that as this MOU that
• 16:02
  he's going to try and wedge into our contract and remove the
• 16:07
  precision provision that every route needs in RCA.
• 16:13
  What do you guys think? I agree, especially with the
• 16:19
  extension of the Mou and him at SWAC saying that he was going to
• 16:23
  try to push that one through too.
• 16:26
  Even though we voted it down at National Convention this year,
• 16:33
  even though the delegates said no, he's still going to try and
• 16:38
  ramrodded into our contract. And the fact that you know and
• 16:49
  and especially you know where we have that provision of you know
• 16:52
  a relief carrier assigned to every route including H routes
• 16:55
  and actually aux routes are included in that as well, not
• 16:58
  just the designator 79, there can also be another sub assigned
• 17:02
  to that. So a lot of this comes into
• 17:08
  retention because I can't even I tell you how many Subs I have
• 17:13
  seen come and go in my little 6 route office in the five years
• 17:18
  I've been there. Well I I personally think that
• 17:24
  the every sub per route article is is outdated because of the
• 17:30
  fact that it used to be that people would work on just
• 17:35
  Saturdays. OK.
• 17:37
  That that's only they were looking for a part time job and
• 17:41
  especially in the rural areas where you need to maintain a
• 17:44
  vehicle capable of delivering mail and parcels that's not
• 17:48
  going to cut it in in regards to the expenses of the vehicle and
• 17:52
  insurance and everything else the repairs.
• 17:55
  So they need to have more hours. I mean we we had a stand up talk
• 18:01
  this morning where they offered the Subs, you know hours at
• 18:07
  other offices if they wanted to. If they weren't on the schedule
• 18:10
  they had other offices that needed Subs.
• 18:13
  And one of the regulars said, well what about the regulars And
• 18:17
  they said well you can go too And I'm looking at them going no
• 18:22
  you can't. Sure you can't.
• 18:25
  No you can't. Well why not?
• 18:28
  Because your your office, your route is is unto yourself.
• 18:32
  The MOU only covers your office. It doesn't cover other offices
• 18:37
  for regular career carriers. Are you sure I said no.
• 18:42
  I'm just an asshole, you know, spewing.
• 18:44
  And then I walked away. Because when you have a
• 18:47
  postmaster that doesn't know the rules, what What's the point of
• 18:51
  even talking to them? And I have been slightly
• 18:56
  corrected because the resolution that passed for something
• 19:02
  similar to the MLU was for in emergencies, that a regular can
• 19:08
  volunteer to work before another qualified employee outside of
• 19:12
  the rural craft. So that provision would be part
• 19:15
  of the O 6 order of consideration.
• 19:19
  It would not have to be actually implemented in the contract,
• 19:22
  they would just have to modify modify.
• 19:26
  It D. The order of consideration.
• 19:28
  So it would not be a contract provision because it is an
• 19:32
  emergency situation and we are not, we are not in a constant
• 19:39
  state of emergency like somebody said in the chat, an emergency
• 19:44
  life threatening situation. James, that flies in the face of
• 19:48
  what Don said of where people want to go home and be with
• 19:51
  their families and spend quality time with them.
• 19:54
  Oh yeah, that's. Before the kids go to bed.
• 19:59
  Yes. That's further down, That's
• 20:01
  further down. We haven't gotten there yet.
• 20:02
  We're still going through the top part of this.
• 20:04
  I haven't even gotten past Page 3 yet.
• 20:09
  Well. Let's but it won't be in help in
• 20:10
  time for dinner, you know? You know.
• 20:14
  I mean, he's, he even said. That these negotiations are
• 20:17
  taking place in the wake of an unprecedented global pandemic.
• 20:21
  Wait, wasn't that the 2021 negotiations that took place in
• 20:26
  the wake of an unprecedented global pandemic?
• 20:29
  I think we're. OK, OK, stop, stop.
• 20:31
  Stop paying attention to the details, OK?
• 20:34
  You're muddying the waters. You're not supposed to.
• 20:37
  Technically that he was in office at that time, OK?
• 20:41
  Technically, would it be in the wake of?
• 20:43
  If you're still in the middle of it, what?
• 20:50
  They. Removed the restrictions,
• 20:51
  remember. Yeah, there are no COVID
• 20:53
  restrictions anymore. You got to treat it like the flu
• 20:56
  now. Yep.
• 20:57
  They're so phone distance thing because they can't stand the
• 21:00
  smell of each other. OK, let's move.
• 21:05
  On all right, and then, he said We are also negotiating in a
• 21:10
  time when parcel delivery has become the focal point of the
• 21:13
  postal services business. No duh.
• 21:17
  They delay the mail because the parcels are more important.
• 21:20
  Amazon is more important. Things like that.
• 21:23
  Or more. Anything with a barcode is more
• 21:25
  important. Except Express.
• 21:27
  Express isn't important, even though if it fails, the people
• 21:31
  get their money back. But the Postal Service isn't
• 21:34
  worried about that. They're making money hand over
• 21:36
  fist. They're in the green.
• 21:38
  Oh, wait. You're not.
• 21:47
  I mean, you need you need clerks to work at these SD and CS in
• 21:50
  order to get the parcel. Oh, wait.
• 21:53
  Yeah. Oh wait, they fired all of them.
• 21:55
  That's right. Or they made them drive 100
• 21:58
  miles to work. That too.
• 22:00
  Or they quit because they don't want to drive into work anymore,
• 22:03
  because it's a lot closer to the post office they were working at
• 22:07
  than that SNDC. But no, don't worry about it.
• 22:10
  We'll find people on the street to to throw these parcels, I
• 22:13
  guess. Or we'll replace them with
• 22:14
  machines that throw the the parcels in the wrong bin when
• 22:17
  they get stuck up and there's nobody there to unclog it.
• 22:22
  And then he turns around and says, in the case to the rural
• 22:25
  craft, delivering six days a week out of your typical sedan
• 22:31
  is a fading memory in our rearview mirror.
• 22:34
  I'm sorry, I know rural carriers that are delivering everything
• 22:37
  they get still in a sedan. They're still able to do that
• 22:41
  and still have room in their vehicles to deliver, especially
• 22:45
  on our high mileage routes that got absolutely decimated with
• 22:49
  Rex. I'm sorry, Rex is the most
• 22:58
  equitable pay system ever to come along.
• 23:01
  Yeah, he said. No longer.
• 23:03
  No longer do we have to argue about the standards that make up
• 23:06
  rural letter carrier salaries. No longer do we have to spend
• 23:09
  hours debating over or under statistics, or whether our pay
• 23:13
  system is an incentive system, or what weeks of the year are
• 23:16
  most appropriate for scheduling of a mail count.
• 23:18
  We have successfully achieved an objectively fair system of
• 23:23
  evaluating rural routes while maintaining Rd. delivery as the
• 23:26
  most effective mode of delivery in the Postal Service.
• 23:29
  How many of you listening to this show of hands, even though
• 23:32
  I can't see him, think that Rex has been fair to you?
• 23:40
  Exactly. Think about that.
• 23:42
  Think about all the carriers. 66% on the first evaluation lost
• 23:47
  big time. 34% did go up. But how many of them went up
• 23:52
  higher than 48 and lost money that way?
• 23:56
  How many of them stayed the same because they were already a 48
• 23:59
  or higher and just got bumped even higher with their
• 24:01
  evaluation? Yet 66% of our brothers and
• 24:07
  sisters lost pay. It's not fair and it's not
• 24:12
  successful. And it's been a year since we
• 24:16
  can even do any type of adjustments and we still haven't
• 24:19
  seen them come in yet. Oh, supposedly.
• 24:23
  Supposedly it's coming. Yes, please don't bring me up
• 24:26
  importedly. I don't care how we.
• 24:32
  Have a crown? OK, Don't go into that one.
• 24:34
  I'll. I'll need to go get the bottle.
• 24:38
  Here's the best line of that whole section.
• 24:41
  Our new system requires continued transparency and
• 24:45
  constant maintenance. Oh, you mean the transparency of
• 24:49
  that comprehensive report? That's more redacted than the
• 24:53
  Sr. 71 Blackbird's Owner's manual.
• 24:57
  And by constant maintenance do you mean constantly giving up
• 25:00
  things to management, like taking the PARS labels from a 52
• 25:05
  week average to a two week mini mail survey or taking away WSH
• 25:10
  that was supposed to be input with WSS?
• 25:13
  And what's the word on obvious parcels since you still haven't
• 25:17
  discussed that? Bridget, you said at Michigan
• 25:21
  State Convention you are in negotiations with management to
• 25:24
  figure out what an obvious parcel is and yet here we are
• 25:28
  coming up on the next Michigan State convention and you still
• 25:31
  haven't done anything. Or my question of the day, when
• 25:36
  you receive your hamper and you have 4 bundles of ECR lot, pre
• 25:43
  sorted magazines advertisements in there, Are you sure you got
• 25:48
  credit for those? Because exactly which which
• 25:53
  radar report am I going to wait for to find out if they're on
• 25:55
  there? And that's if you can get
• 25:58
  management to even print your radar reports and end of run
• 26:01
  reports and PTR reports. But but it's transparent.
• 26:09
  Kristen. Oh yeah, it's it's transparent.
• 26:12
  Unprecedented transparency. Exactly.
• 26:17
  And what's an unscanable parcel, by the way?
• 26:22
  Just to, you know, throw a little gasoline on the fire.
• 26:25
  Oh yeah, exactly. You know, and then we go on and
• 26:28
  he's talking. He says the delivering for
• 26:31
  America plan nine times in his 19 minute presentation.
• 26:36
  So that's one time every two and a quarter minutes, although it's
• 26:41
  more further down in the system. And then he goes on to say the
• 26:46
  Postal Service cannot keep Rcas when they are worked to the
• 26:49
  point of exhaustion without meaningful benefits and time off
• 26:52
  to recover from the difficult work of delivering parcels
• 26:55
  again, parcels seven days a week off and well into the night.
• 27:00
  Even regular carriers are leaving the Postal Service at
• 27:03
  rates I have not seen in my 34 years as a rural carrier.
• 27:09
  I'm sorry, I understand you are a considered a rural carrier
• 27:13
  when you're on the board, but you haven't touched a route in
• 27:17
  decades. Well, from what he remembers,
• 27:24
  OK. Oh yeah, He remembers that we've
• 27:28
  had it too good for too long, and that rural carriers have
• 27:30
  enjoyed getting off too early and getting paid for hours they
• 27:33
  weren't working. That was the base of the
• 27:37
  evaluation system, wasn't it? It was.
• 27:41
  It was a benefit to the rural craft.
• 27:43
  Because you know, and I I like those days where I'm off in 6
• 27:46
  1/2 hours because I worked 10 1/2 eleven hours the previous
• 27:51
  day. Or, you know, you get off of
• 27:54
  that 6 1/2 hours after coming in on, you know, Black Friday after
• 27:58
  Thanksgiving, and you worked over your evaluation into the
• 28:03
  overtime period. Past the overtime period and you
• 28:07
  didn't even pay for those hours, which is the basis of the
• 28:12
  evaluation system. So that in the heavier part of
• 28:15
  the year you're being compensated for the time that
• 28:18
  you got off during the summer and spring and summer months
• 28:20
  when it was lighter Exactly. Wasn't.
• 28:23
  Wasn't that the way it's supposed to work supposedly?
• 28:28
  Why they have a 2080 and 2240 format a platform so that you
• 28:34
  don't go over his hours. That's why the whole new system
• 28:38
  is set up on averages. Yeah, I love this.
• 28:44
  We want people who view the World Carrier job as a career
• 28:48
  with stable employment that allows them to put their kids
• 28:50
  through school, buy a home safe for retirement, pay medical
• 28:54
  bills, put food on the table, have time to refresh and
• 28:57
  recuperate, having the training necessary to succeed and work in
• 29:01
  a safe environment. Training.
• 29:07
  I, I, I would like one of our listeners here at the post up
• 29:10
  which post office that actually exists in.
• 29:13
  I know there's a few, but on the basis of 134,000 carriers, I'll
• 29:19
  bet you it's less than 5% of the post offices in this country.
• 29:29
  Someone in the comments asked where the that you mentioned the
• 29:32
  order consideration James, they want to know where in the
• 29:36
  contract they couldn't find it themselves.
• 29:39
  The O 6 order consideration is in our is one of the articles in
• 29:46
  the contract, but there's also just the O 6 order of
• 29:49
  consideration you can find in the on the Union website under
• 29:53
  Departments Stewart, Operations, Stewart Reference guide under
• 29:58
  tab O and then it Scroll down to Order of Consideration on the
• 30:02
  left hand side it's article 30.2.
• 30:12
  So going on, he goes on to talk about all the unions that have
• 30:19
  strike abilities like UPS, UAW, the healthcare workers, the
• 30:25
  Hollywood writers, actors and directors, and so on.
• 30:29
  Again, we go back to the last episode where I asked him, is he
• 30:32
  actually calling for a strike because he's constantly talking
• 30:34
  about all these different striking agencies and called
• 30:37
  carriers that have pulled their dues from the union because they
• 30:40
  weren't listening scabs. Are we right back there again?
• 30:48
  Well, it it would be that maybe he's confused between the
• 30:52
  difference of a government agency versus a free, free
• 30:56
  market. I I maybe he doesn't understand
• 30:59
  that we are not a for profit agency and those people are and
• 31:07
  there are shareholders that have to you know you know be answered
• 31:10
  to in regards to the profitability of those
• 31:13
  corporations and studying those contracts and UPS, yes they did
• 31:18
  get some substantial increases and then they turned around and
• 31:21
  let 12,000 white collar jobs go out the door to offset the cost.
• 31:28
  But isn't culling management a good thing in a lot of places?
• 31:34
  Oh hell no. What about culling management
• 31:38
  here at the Postal Service? Getting getting rid of bad
• 31:42
  management. Oh God, yeah.
• 31:46
  If we did that, we wouldn't have any left.
• 31:48
  And finally. Ron was going to give them
• 31:51
  sympathy points too. And the rural craft would
• 31:54
  actually probably operate a lot better without all that
• 31:57
  management over their head. I have I have an office with
• 32:02
  five supervisors and one postmaster.
• 32:05
  IF4 supervisors and the postmaster didn't show up.
• 32:10
  We'd still be able to operate efficiently and get our jobs
• 32:13
  done if Five rule carriers didn't show up.
• 32:19
  Only the parcels would be delivered on those routes and
• 32:21
  the mail would sit there. Hey, oh what?
• 32:26
  What do we really need folks more?
• 32:28
  Management. I want to, I want to contest
• 32:31
  what you just said. You said if four, the four
• 32:36
  supervisors and postmaster didn't show up, you would run
• 32:39
  just as efficiently. I'm contesting that.
• 32:43
  And even more efficiently. I didn't want to.
• 32:46
  I didn't want to go there. I didn't want to be
• 32:48
  braggadocious in regards to being more efficient because we
• 32:52
  know it would. We one day, one day, ladies and
• 32:58
  gentlemen, three years ago, during the COVID, right before
• 33:04
  Christmas, six of our eight clerks called out Sydney and
• 33:10
  Rule carriers, pitched in together and got every parcel
• 33:13
  sorted faster, more efficient, more efficiently and done
• 33:19
  correctly than when they were there.
• 33:24
  So trust me, yeah, when? When the the will is there to
• 33:28
  get the job done, there's nobody better than a rule carrier.
• 33:33
  Absolutely, because I mean, well, jump in to get it done so
• 33:36
  we can get out. Management doesn't need to sit
• 33:38
  there and micromanage. Half the time ours are sitting
• 33:41
  there talking to the clerks and delaying them anyways over
• 33:44
  something completely stupid. So it's like, come on, you know,
• 33:49
  we, we don't need them. They need us, though.
• 33:53
  We we had a, we had a really good postmaster about 15 years
• 33:57
  ago very strict very stern and and every once in a while I
• 34:01
  would fly off the handle and you know you'd hear it all the way
• 34:04
  across our building which is basically almost 2 football
• 34:07
  fields long. And we had a situation with the
• 34:11
  clerks and in regards to get the DPS up, I jumped in and and yeah
• 34:17
  I got three of the Subs putting up the DPS.
• 34:20
  You know, on our side, I got the one clerk, you know, who had the
• 34:24
  most experience, had him, you know, take charge of the
• 34:27
  parcels. Georgina, she's the head and
• 34:30
  letter clerk. She had the letters and the
• 34:32
  flats and everything taken care. And he comes over, he goes, who
• 34:35
  the hell do you think you are? Run on my floor.
• 34:37
  I said, well, fine, I said you you take over.
• 34:40
  I whatever. Told everybody to stop doing
• 34:41
  what they were doing. He goes, what are you doing?
• 34:44
  And I said, you want to run the floor, Run the floor.
• 34:47
  And he goes, well, I didn't say you weren't doing it right.
• 34:49
  I just didn't didn't know why you thought you could do it.
• 34:52
  I'm like because it was getting done, you asshole.
• 34:55
  And he goes, I really hate you Bill.
• 34:57
  And I said I know, but are you going to let me get the job done
• 35:00
  or what? And he did.
• 35:01
  He said he stepped back and and let us get the job done.
• 35:04
  His city carriers didn't have any, you know, detaining time.
• 35:07
  Didn't have to write up whatever, you know, number form
• 35:10
  they had for, you know, waiting for their mail and everything.
• 35:13
  And and we as rule carriers turned around and let the
• 35:17
  resources get, you know, allocated to the city carriers
• 35:20
  first to get them out while maintaining A minimal crew
• 35:24
  working on ours. And everybody was happy.
• 35:29
  But you know, if you're going to sit there and piss and moan
• 35:31
  about your title or your authority and everything else,
• 35:36
  that doesn't fly. That's not how that's not how
• 35:38
  you work. In an era of cooperation, you
• 35:42
  know that's not how you operate. In an era of mutual respect for
• 35:46
  each other, pitch in, you know, roll your sleeves up, take your
• 35:51
  damn tie off and and get the job done.
• 35:55
  We're in the service industry, so shut the hell up and get it
• 35:59
  done. Yeah, that's like about a month
• 36:06
  ago we had the all all of our management team except for one
• 36:10
  supervisor without. They all seem to have gotten
• 36:15
  sick at the same time with that one supervisor who really wished
• 36:18
  as he could go back to carry a mail that whole week.
• 36:23
  Mail was up, everyone was out, all routes were covered.
• 36:28
  It was a beautiful week. Two weeks after that he took
• 36:31
  annual leave for a week and all the rest of the supervisors and
• 36:35
  manager were there and it was it was a shit show.
• 36:38
  Nothing was getting done, nothing was getting thrown.
• 36:43
  It was horrible. I'm.
• 36:46
  Sorry, we're off on her tantrum. James.
• 36:48
  Continue where you left off. Now this, this is the statement
• 36:54
  of the century from our president.
• 36:56
  This is the one that tells you exactly where his mindset is and
• 37:01
  exactly whose side he is on. The NRLCA, which is us, the you
• 37:10
  the craft, is encouraged and inspired by the Delivering for
• 37:16
  America plan. And our union has been steadfast
• 37:20
  in support of the plan's goals and many of the strategies.
• 37:23
  I need to rephrase And our leadership has been steadfast in
• 37:28
  support of the plan's goals and many of its strategies.
• 37:32
  Our leadership has been touting the Delivery for America plan,
• 37:36
  he said. The Delivery for America nine
• 37:38
  times in this because he's kissing.
• 37:41
  Backside of the joy well. Shall I?
• 37:52
  Shall I continue? I was, I was just going to say,
• 37:56
  you know, you have to coddle the ego of an egomaniac to get what
• 38:03
  you want. And you have to tie a board in
• 38:08
  your ass so you don't fall all the way in his ass when you're
• 38:11
  kissing it too. OK, I don't know how long when.
• 38:17
  I owe you that. Fact, you know at at no point,
• 38:21
  you know did I hear Don say anything in regards to we're
• 38:25
  waiting to see the success of this.
• 38:28
  You know, we're we're, I'm waiting to see how many carriers
• 38:31
  quit because they don't want to drive, you know, an extra 45
• 38:34
  miles. They go to work where they used
• 38:36
  to work, you know, drive 8 miles and then drive, you know, back
• 38:41
  out on their route, deadhead, you know, 2025 miles, you know,
• 38:45
  twice a day just to get to their route.
• 38:50
  Yeah. And what about the what about
• 38:53
  the one SD and C that you know, went up and running the day the
• 38:58
  Mini Mail survey started? Oh, you mean the one that's not
• 39:02
  getting any mail out at all? The one that everything going
• 39:06
  into and not coming out of. That's called Constipation.
• 39:12
  Yeah, well, the Postal Service's acknowledgement that hiring and
• 39:16
  retention issues are not just personnel issues but also affect
• 39:20
  employees, quality of life and safety and health issues is a
• 39:24
  step in the right direction. So the Postal Service
• 39:27
  acknowledges that means the Postal Service realizes that
• 39:31
  means the Postal Service should be fixing.
• 39:33
  The Postal Service is not working on, it's not doing
• 39:37
  anything for. It's not making anything happen
• 39:39
  for. I mean, how many times have you
• 39:42
  seen a job get posted for your office and then it's taken down
• 39:47
  three days later before everybody's even hired and
• 39:50
  stuff? How is it that employee hiring
• 39:54
  and retention is not the top thing that management's looking
• 39:58
  for? No, they're looking at how do we
• 40:00
  write people up? How do we get people in trouble?
• 40:03
  How do we get city carriers out in an hour?
• 40:05
  How do we get real carriers out by 10:00 AM?
• 40:09
  How do we get real carriers to stop?
• 40:11
  Having stationary events has stopped real carriers from
• 40:14
  taking care of their customers, things like that.
• 40:20
  What what got me about that is, is the fact that in in our area,
• 40:24
  which is PA, Delaware, PA 2 encompassing Pennsylvania,
• 40:29
  Delaware, Philadelphia, area, E out towards Lancaster County,
• 40:33
  Pennsylvania and A, it takes average 2 1/2 to three months to
• 40:39
  get hired. OK, there's your first problem.
• 40:43
  Yes, he did say we have to expedite the hiring process.
• 40:47
  That's been a problem for 10 years now.
• 40:49
  This is nothing new and you've been on that board for 10 years.
• 40:53
  So, OK, good work And you know, realizing it now where where was
• 40:57
  your voice for the last 10 years?
• 40:59
  The other problem of it is that you know you have to save money
• 41:02
  in doing this because of the fact that if you're just pushing
• 41:06
  numbers through the system to show the union that you're
• 41:09
  trying to hire people, well I'm sorry in in PA Two district,
• 41:16
  it's an $8200 expense for training each RCA.
• 41:22
  So where are we making out when you know in less than 90 days
• 41:28
  you you're going to fire this person because of you know some
• 41:31
  little picking any you know rule or you you didn't like what they
• 41:35
  did or you know whatever. Yeah, they they they they didn't
• 41:39
  take a box holder or they're overwhelmed folks.
• 41:46
  Years ago we got three days of training on a route and in those
• 41:48
  three days I rode with the regular carrier on the first
• 41:53
  day. I rode with the carrier on the
• 41:54
  second day and I delivered half the route.
• 41:57
  The rode with the carrier on the third day and took the other
• 41:59
  half of the route. I delivered the other half with
• 42:02
  the carrier in the vehicle with me.
• 42:04
  After that I was qualified. Well I'm sorry the the the work
• 42:09
  ethic of people nowadays isn't of such silk as it used to be in
• 42:15
  yesteryear. It's it's it's you know, simple
• 42:18
  fact. OK.
• 42:20
  The the fact of the matter is that OK, we we have to coddle.
• 42:24
  We have to hold their hands. We have to do this.
• 42:25
  We have to do that. But if you want to make the
• 42:29
  investment in in hiring and training in RCA pay off then you
• 42:35
  have to work with them every day and and Kristen, you can jump in
• 42:38
  on this. This is not a AA1 week two week
• 42:42
  process. This is a continual process for
• 42:46
  months. Absolutely.
• 42:49
  Even though I was saying how great of a job that my sub was
• 42:53
  doing, there's still things that he hasn't come across.
• 42:56
  Like he had an express on Saturday and he left a notice
• 43:01
  for it and or it was Friday. I I must probably say Thursday
• 43:05
  or Friday he had the express, he left a notice for it, they
• 43:08
  signed the slip. He had the slip back at the
• 43:11
  case. When I came in Monday, I went
• 43:13
  and pulled the express. I noticed it was not a signature
• 43:16
  required express. I went ahead, I delivered it.
• 43:19
  So today when I see him, because I hadn't, I didn't see him
• 43:24
  yesterday. And so today when I see him, I
• 43:28
  went over the postmaster and I said hey, do we got, you know,
• 43:31
  where's an express label I need to explain.
• 43:33
  So I took that express label over to myself, even though I'm
• 43:36
  training this up in the next case over.
• 43:39
  But she was doing fine case and flat stuff.
• 43:40
  So I went over to mine and I said, hey, I know you had this
• 43:43
  express. You left a notice, which is
• 43:45
  completely fine. I'm not bashing you for it, but
• 43:47
  I just showed him on the label there and I highlighted it and I
• 43:50
  said just next time, you know, pay attention to what it says
• 43:54
  here. I said if this is not checked
• 43:56
  then you can wave it and put it in the box.
• 43:57
  And he remembers the waiver signature coming up on the
• 44:00
  scanner and what not. So that, you know, not knowing.
• 44:03
  I said, but see, well, you can do that.
• 44:04
  Then you can do the waiver. It is an ongoing process.
• 44:07
  I mean, there's still other things, you know, every day,
• 44:10
  every week that I am, you know, bringing up.
• 44:12
  Like I said, it may not be something that he has dealt with
• 44:15
  first hand before, like holds going up or whatnot and coming
• 44:20
  back that, you know, that's another thing that I can stop
• 44:23
  and say something to. I checked in with the second RCA
• 44:27
  trained in the last month, You know, today she was completely
• 44:30
  on her own. Today she wanted to be
• 44:32
  completely on her own. She didn't want the help.
• 44:34
  But I went over there and I checked with her and asked her
• 44:37
  how she was doing and if there was any other questions.
• 44:40
  She had a few questions about something.
• 44:42
  I answered them, no big deal. Then I went back over to the one
• 44:45
  I'm working with this week and you know, just to see where she
• 44:49
  was at with case in the mail and whatnot.
• 44:52
  Yeah it is always an ongoing thing even our our first, the
• 44:56
  one that started at Christmas time.
• 44:58
  You know there's still things that he's still learning you
• 45:01
  know he actually is like did tell me that he wished that I
• 45:03
  had trained him even though unfortunately I wasn't able to
• 45:06
  but but I'm still teaching him stuff that he may not come
• 45:11
  across or is something new or something.
• 45:14
  You know, when I when I see it and I notice it, I bring it up
• 45:17
  to him and say, hey, you know, and that includes the Rex scans,
• 45:20
  you know when he was taking part of my route one day, split it
• 45:24
  with my sub and he had like 12 packages for one house.
• 45:31
  Luckily they were light but still.
• 45:33
  And I said, now when you get done delivering those, it's like
• 45:38
  when after you scan them at the door and you got them all
• 45:41
  cleared, when you get back to the truck.
• 45:42
  I said go under the wrecks, activity scans.
• 45:45
  He's like, yeah. And I said #9 trip to door.
• 45:48
  He's like, yeah, I said then enter how many trips it took you
• 45:51
  to go to that door and back to deliver all those.
• 45:55
  And he's like, oh, OK, because I never knew that.
• 45:58
  I said yeah, that's just he's like, OK, yeah, I got that.
• 46:01
  So you know that type of stuff I tried to go over with them as as
• 46:07
  I see the opportunity to go over it with them all the time.
• 46:10
  And and and to finish off on the pet Peeves aspects of training
• 46:14
  people, my office we have you know new RCAS, we have some
• 46:18
  experienced RCAS and of course we have experienced rural
• 46:22
  carriers. Monday, a 34 year carrier came
• 46:27
  over to ask me, are we still putting the WSH in Now normally
• 46:32
  I would basically flip out. OK, because hey, you should know
• 46:38
  by now with all the training that I've provided in our
• 46:41
  office, OK, that when they discontinued the WSH credits for
• 46:46
  you put them in your scanners. It was repeated for a month last
• 46:51
  year and here he comes at the third mini mail survey asking
• 46:54
  the same question. Well, Bill, maybe I was off that
• 46:58
  day. No, you weren't.
• 46:59
  You weren't off that day because I did one day, one week.
• 47:03
  I did it three times, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, just to make
• 47:06
  sure everybody was, you know, informed of it.
• 47:09
  And yet here's a guy with 34 years of experience.
• 47:12
  So please don't expect your RC as have been there for, you
• 47:15
  know, two pay periods, 4 pay periods, 3 months, five months,
• 47:20
  six months. I haven't even seen a foreign
• 47:23
  COD and know how to handle that. I know regular carriers that
• 47:26
  don't know how to handle a foreign COD, let alone a yeah, a
• 47:31
  USCOD. But yeah, it's beside the point.
• 47:35
  The thing of it is it's, it's ongoing.
• 47:38
  Back to you, James. So he talks about again.
• 47:42
  He again brings up the S&D CS and how everything's brand new
• 47:47
  and working for carriers. Then he goes on to we know that
• 47:51
  turnover is way too high. We know many of our members are
• 47:54
  working 12 hour days, six or seven days a week.
• 47:58
  We know that the hiring process takes to line in that once hired
• 48:01
  RCA's aren't staying and having kept up with demand, This model
• 48:04
  is unsustainable. Wait a minute, in our January
• 48:08
  February newsletter, weren't you actually chastising the Postal
• 48:12
  Service for having carriers out over 12 hours working till ten
• 48:16
  11:00 at night and now you're saying they're only working 12
• 48:20
  hour days here when you're in the negotiation room?
• 48:24
  Then he goes on, then he goes on.
• 48:26
  Unfortunately, these negotiations afford us an
• 48:29
  opportunity to right the ship and uphold the postal services
• 48:32
  promises. They're not promises, they're
• 48:38
  contractual agreements. They're contractual agreements
• 48:42
  and required work per our Rural Carrier Duties and
• 48:48
  Responsibilities Manual, the PO6O3.
• 48:57
  Now he does go on to talk about non career workforce needs, a
• 49:01
  quicker path to becoming a career employee and in the
• 49:04
  Delivering for America plan, which in Don Masten's eyes is
• 49:08
  converting Rcas to PTFS because an RCA pays less dues than a
• 49:14
  regular carrier. But APTF who's only guaranteed 2
• 49:18
  days a week, has to pay full rural carrier dues to the union.
• 49:23
  So he's not looking to make you career for your benefit, he's
• 49:27
  looking to make you career for the union's benefit, for their
• 49:32
  pay. Benefit because so many people
• 49:35
  have left the union, they got to find a way to get more dues
• 49:38
  coming in with less people in the union.
• 49:42
  So they're looking to convert URCAS to PTS.
• 49:46
  To. Fill the gap of the bleeding
• 49:49
  that has been happening from this union because they're not
• 49:51
  listening to the craft and the craft is pulling their dues.
• 49:55
  Maybe that's a resolution we should write.
• 49:58
  I did write one, actually. One of the nine I wrote.
• 50:05
  The nine I wrote on Saturday or Sunday.
• 50:08
  The nine I wrote on Sunday, another essential piece of the
• 50:13
  puzzle requires improving the workplace environment.
• 50:17
  We need to recognize the mental and emotional toll that
• 50:20
  understaffing over scheduling and bad management imposes not
• 50:23
  just on rural letter carriers, but on managers too.
• 50:26
  Do managers really enjoy denying regular carriers leave or
• 50:30
  forcing RCA to carry parts of two or three routes?
• 50:34
  In a day. I mean, wait a minute.
• 50:39
  You're talking about management treating carriers terribly here
• 50:43
  when you yourself have not stepped up to enforce a very
• 50:50
  specific MOU. We have on the record MOU 25 and
• 50:57
  joint statement on violence and harassment.
• 51:00
  We have 3 joint statements on violent harassment, and yet
• 51:04
  you're not utilizing those. Come on, Don.
• 51:10
  Or to quote Joe Biden. Come on, man.
• 51:14
  I mean, he even goes on to say to achieve this we need new
• 51:17
  ideas and enforceable, effective workplace environment policies.
• 51:21
  Wait, so 3 joint statements and an Mou 25 aren't enough?
• 51:26
  Yeah, we already have them in place.
• 51:28
  The the problem of it is that they're not being resolved.
• 51:32
  They're not. Being enforced, Yeah, even
• 51:35
  though they're enforceable. And of course, not being
• 51:39
  investigated. Yeah.
• 51:42
  Or not being investigated. Or they're settled for language.
• 51:46
  Yeah. Or is in the case of From aid
• 51:49
  arbitration that we talked about in this past episode and now
• 51:53
  we're going to talk about it again.
• 51:54
  He's doing the Memphis shooting incident and how management was
• 52:00
  warned that this manager was creating a hostile work
• 52:04
  environment months in advance of this.
• 52:08
  And the very person who was responsible for investigating
• 52:13
  that was on the stand in the last episode from From 8
• 52:18
  arbitration. The guy who got the information
• 52:23
  signed off on it didn't open an investigation on it.
• 52:29
  And they tried to pass the box, saying that there were other
• 52:31
  avenues that they could have taken this and that that's what
• 52:35
  they do. They like to throw it off, give
• 52:39
  plausible deniability, everything like that.
• 52:42
  But it's not up to the carrier. We say that there's a problem.
• 52:46
  It needs to be investigated. Yep, and if we can solve our
• 52:51
  staffing issues, some of this abuse will likely go away as I
• 52:55
  suspect some bad behavior is brought on by the impossible
• 53:00
  tasks made of frontline supervisor to reach unattainable
• 53:04
  numbers and goals. Given the short staffed they are
• 53:07
  left to manage. So are you saying that our
• 53:10
  frontline managers are having issues from the managers that
• 53:15
  are above them, the district managers, the regional managers,
• 53:20
  the national managers? Are those people putting so much
• 53:24
  pressure on our frontline managers that they have no
• 53:27
  choice but to roll shit downhill under the carriers?
• 53:31
  Is that what you're saying down here?
• 53:33
  Is that what you're telling national leadership that they
• 53:36
  aren't paying attention to? So, Gee, maybe if you had better
• 53:44
  qualified and trained frontline managers and people who treated
• 53:50
  the carriers with respect and the clerks and the city carriers
• 53:54
  and, you know, work with them instead of threatening them all
• 53:57
  the time, you're saying that would help alleviate the
• 54:00
  problems on the frontline? I would think it alleviate 95%
• 54:07
  of the problems on the front line in terms of not only that
• 54:11
  but also in a lot of employee retention.
• 54:14
  I was just going to say on retention as well because you
• 54:17
  know, nobody wants to go to work and be treated like that if.
• 54:21
  You exactly. And if you are a newer RCA and
• 54:26
  you know, I've seen how many leave, you know, within a couple
• 54:31
  days, a few months because they know it may be fine, the
• 54:34
  manager's kissing their behind for those first couple months
• 54:38
  and then they start treating them like dogs, like everybody
• 54:41
  else. They walk out.
• 54:44
  We had a clerk into my office. She went to go take care of her
• 54:47
  sick child, used a sick day, and then the day after they asked
• 54:52
  for documentation, she quit on the spot.
• 54:55
  Like, you can't do that. You have to be a human being,
• 54:59
  not a manager. You got to be a leader.
• 55:02
  Managers managed, leaders lead. And that was the main reason why
• 55:07
  I took FMLA for my daughter's pregnancy.
• 55:12
  But it's because I I mean, I've got a carry right now that's
• 55:15
  getting singled out because he took Monday off as a sick day
• 55:18
  due to new medication he's starting and then had to call in
• 55:22
  Tuesday, and now she's getting on him about his unscheduled
• 55:25
  call. Unscheduled Leaves hasn't had
• 55:27
  that. And and on the other other side
• 55:34
  of that coin, you have carriers who, you know career wise have
• 55:41
  called out once twice a week on the weekends, the day before the
• 55:46
  holiday, the day after a holiday.
• 55:48
  We have, we have PT FS and RCA S also work the system like that
• 55:53
  and there's nothing done to them.
• 55:54
  I have a carrier next to me. Every day is late, is late, but
• 56:02
  since he doesn't put up a grief, any grief about the postmaster
• 56:05
  come over and borrowing his vehicle, he doesn't say anything
• 56:10
  about it because of the fact that she could bring the hammer
• 56:13
  down on him. His tardiness and I told him, I
• 56:16
  said, well fine, come in on time then She has nothing to hold
• 56:19
  over your head, I said. But the vehicle belongs to the
• 56:23
  route, not to the office. That, or he can ask for a later
• 56:28
  start time to align with what he's doing as long as his
• 56:31
  evaluation still gets him back in the time that management
• 56:34
  needs him to get back for the trucks.
• 56:36
  I mean, granted, they're getting getting rid of afternoon trucks
• 56:39
  in a lot of places too, so I mean, it doesn't get too hard of
• 56:43
  an issue. He can't because he already
• 56:46
  explained the problem was that he keeps hitting the snooze
• 56:48
  button too much. I was like, you know, you idiot.
• 56:54
  Are are those same carriers that put in leaf slips for future
• 56:58
  date and then it gets declined denied, 'cause there's no Subs
• 57:01
  but they still when it comes to that day they call in and
• 57:04
  nothing happens to them. Yep.
• 57:07
  They had one carrier that called in from the parking lot.
• 57:11
  Yep, pulled in so. I was still in RCA that day and
• 57:15
  or at that time pulled in, saw that I wasn't there and I was
• 57:18
  just on the Ox Rd. So she called in from the
• 57:20
  parking lot and left. Yeah.
• 57:25
  All right, James. So now we continue on with this.
• 57:29
  We go back to him touting his experience as rural letter
• 57:33
  carriers, many of us with decades of experience working
• 57:37
  for this great institution, as in decades of experience working
• 57:42
  on the national board. Is that what you're saying?
• 57:45
  He he talks about most trusted in the government and then he
• 57:49
  goes. The Postal Service must be
• 57:53
  willing to take the bold and historic steps that are
• 57:56
  necessary to make that aspiration a real reality.
• 58:00
  It begins by improving wages and benefits, offering more
• 58:03
  opportunities for career employment, AKAPTS, providing
• 58:07
  sufficient training to new employees, continuing to invest
• 58:11
  in people, tools and technology, SND CS and ensuring a safe and
• 58:16
  supportive work environment. Perhaps following the JSOV, we
• 58:21
  have given these issues a lot of thought lately that keep us up
• 58:24
  at night and Louis, we can't solve these issues without you
• 58:29
  and your team. Thank you for your vision and
• 58:33
  your plan and what you have put in motion already.
• 58:37
  What we strive to achieve in bargaining aligns with your
• 58:41
  vision. Both parties have a vested
• 58:44
  interest in the success of the United States Postal Service and
• 58:48
  for this historic institution to grow and prosper and deliver for
• 58:52
  America for generations to come. I.
• 58:57
  Think the only thing keeping him up at night is that Starbucks?
• 59:06
  Yes, he did have a non union coffee cup on the table as he is
• 59:11
  doing union negotiations. Hey, I said.
• 59:16
  Well, we should order the color change mugs for the podcast and
• 59:19
  send it to everybody on the board.
• 59:22
  Oh, a black mug. Put your hot coffee in it and
• 59:24
  you got the podcast logo staring at you.
• 59:29
  Now granted, I do like my Starbucks myself, but I if I'm
• 59:32
  going into union discussions, I am not bringing a non union
• 59:35
  coffee into the discussions, but I'll go to where to unionize
• 59:40
  Starbucks. Hey, Kristen, you ordered the
• 59:42
  mugs. I'll pay for them.
• 59:48
  So that that is the basis of the speech that we wanted you guys
• 59:54
  to understand. Now granted, we want you
• 59:57
  listening to us to go out and actually listen to the speech
• 1:00:00
  yourself. Watch how he.
• 1:00:02
  Does speak this? Watch his actions.
• 1:00:06
  Count how many times he licks his lips.
• 1:00:08
  No, don't. Don't, don't.
• 1:00:11
  You're going to get, you're going to get seasick watching
• 1:00:13
  that too much. I would break my.
• 1:00:14
  Flicker that I use for my upsides down.
• 1:00:17
  Yeah, me too. No, my.
• 1:00:20
  Biggest thing? Staring down at this speech the
• 1:00:24
  whole time. Yes.
• 1:00:26
  No eye contact. Thank you.
• 1:00:29
  Yes, that's where I was going with that was, you know, if
• 1:00:32
  you're going into negotiations and grant you not, you have a
• 1:00:36
  speech prepared. You should already have that
• 1:00:40
  speech where you just have to grab the next line with a quick
• 1:00:44
  glance down and know what you're going to say.
• 1:00:47
  And that way you can be making eye contact with those people
• 1:00:50
  that are sitting on the other side of that table from you in
• 1:00:53
  that room that you're going to be negotiating with, not burying
• 1:00:57
  your head and reading the paper and looking up only once every
• 1:01:00
  minute or so. Don't basically show me.
• 1:01:04
  That from what I said. You literally, when you're
• 1:01:09
  sitting there and you're looking down and reading and you're
• 1:01:12
  using the voice he was using on that, you look like you're
• 1:01:16
  already defeated. You look like you're already
• 1:01:20
  submitting to the person sitting across from you.
• 1:01:23
  You have no power behind what you're saying.
• 1:01:27
  And judging by the way he was speaking it, he obviously
• 1:01:32
  doesn't believe in the words that he's saying.
• 1:01:35
  It had no heart behind it at all.
• 1:01:39
  Do do Do you know the difference between Don's speech and what my
• 1:01:42
  speech would have been? You would have.
• 1:01:46
  Actually probably scared everybody on the other side of
• 1:01:49
  the table. And 25 minutes less too I would
• 1:01:55
  I. Wouldn't I?
• 1:01:56
  Probably. I wouldn't have been sitting
• 1:01:58
  there, I'd have been standing up, knuckles on the.
• 1:02:01
  Table and you would have had a podium and when you got to a an
• 1:02:06
  exclamation point you smacked your fist on the table.
• 1:02:12
  Bill would have been standing on the table.
• 1:02:19
  Yeah. But no, yeah, the lack of eye
• 1:02:22
  contact is is big for me and and I can even say that because I
• 1:02:27
  mean, as Bill knows, the first time I ever got up at the podium
• 1:02:32
  at National to nominate him Bright lights 1500 people
• 1:02:36
  staring back at you. I was very nervous and very
• 1:02:39
  intimidated. It can hardly talk.
• 1:02:42
  But I did look out at everybody across the crowd.
• 1:02:46
  I would make eye contact with different individuals in
• 1:02:49
  different parts of the crowd every time.
• 1:02:51
  I've been up on that podium since and including the caucuses
• 1:02:54
  back in 2022. I make eye contact with various
• 1:02:58
  people throughout the room, and when somebody would get up and
• 1:03:02
  question or have a question, I made eye contact with them the
• 1:03:06
  entire time. That is a really big thing.
• 1:03:10
  Especially if you're going to be negotiating with somebody,
• 1:03:14
  you're going to be staring them in the eyes.
• 1:03:17
  I do that with my own boss. When I've got to stop her for
• 1:03:19
  something, I'm looking at her straight in the eyes.
• 1:03:22
  When I've got to say what I've got to say, you know, it's the
• 1:03:27
  lack of and and the lack of passion and lack of any heart in
• 1:03:30
  it. It was literally like somebody
• 1:03:32
  said before watching a teacher read a paper or a book in a
• 1:03:35
  classroom. There was just no emotion there
• 1:03:39
  whatsoever. Well, how you going to have
• 1:03:42
  emotion when you don't believe in what you're saying exactly?
• 1:03:49
  You hit the nail on the head. I mean that that that was a
• 1:03:52
  through and through prepared 4th, 4th draft copy of a speech
• 1:04:00
  that basically said kiss your ass, kiss your ass.
• 1:04:03
  Kiss your ass. Work with you, kiss your ass,
• 1:04:05
  kiss your ass, kiss your ass, work with you better the post
• 1:04:09
  office. Kiss your ass.
• 1:04:10
  Kiss your ass for the future. Kiss your ass.
• 1:04:12
  Oh don't forget, don't forget we're only saying this for the
• 1:04:16
  craft to hear. We're only saying this so we can
• 1:04:19
  get re elected at National this year.
• 1:04:22
  We're only saying this because we have to for the craft.
• 1:04:25
  But delivering for America. Delivering for America and.
• 1:04:29
  Please give us a bone. Please give us a bone.
• 1:04:32
  Somebody said do they not teach public speaking anymore?
• 1:04:35
  I think Don's old enough to actually have had public
• 1:04:37
  speaking when he was in school. Well, what gets me OK and people
• 1:04:42
  who first saw me at Grand Rapids was that 2000?
• 1:04:45
  What, 18? Yes, 2000.
• 1:04:48
  And you know, and you know I'm I'm the angry man.
• 1:04:51
  Well, the anger, it's not anger, it's passion, you know and I've
• 1:04:55
  tempered it, tempered my passion down so as not to convey that
• 1:04:59
  I'm an angry person. I'm not an angry person.
• 1:05:02
  I I, you know, I'm pissed as hell.
• 1:05:05
  You know I don't I don't get too angry because when I get angry
• 1:05:07
  you don't hear nothing. Then that's that's scary part.
• 1:05:11
  But the thing of it is that I'm passionate about it.
• 1:05:14
  And there was no no passion in there.
• 1:05:15
  There was nothing there that said to me he cares about the
• 1:05:19
  carriers. There's nothing in there where
• 1:05:21
  he said our carriers are being abused.
• 1:05:24
  And that's the wording that you should have been using.
• 1:05:27
  They are being, you know, intimidated.
• 1:05:28
  They are being threatened. They're being abused.
• 1:05:31
  Not, oh, they're working 12 hours and they're getting home
• 1:05:34
  after the kids are in bed. No, they're being ground into
• 1:05:37
  the ground by inferior management, by people who are
• 1:05:41
  intimidated to the point where they're afraid of losing their
• 1:05:43
  jobs and and you know they can't, can't wait to find
• 1:05:45
  something else. Why do you think 240 people left
• 1:05:49
  SWAC in in what was the six month period, James?
• 1:05:52
  It was in the last year. The last year 200.
• 1:05:56
  And 41 state had a + 10 on that list, but every other state
• 1:06:02
  combined was 250. So if you include the plus 10
• 1:06:06
  from 1 state. You had a loss of 240 dues
• 1:06:11
  paying members. 240 people pulled their dues out of the
• 1:06:16
  union. It wasn't they left the Postal
• 1:06:18
  Service. It wasn't they changed.
• 1:06:21
  It was they pulled their dues. They signed a sheet and said
• 1:06:25
  their dues are being pulled from the union.
• 1:06:28
  And as I posted, these aren't people who just joined up, you
• 1:06:33
  know, at the Academy and and pulled it after their 90 days.
• 1:06:37
  These are educated, experienced carriers who have said, you know
• 1:06:41
  what, I'm not getting no bang for my buck.
• 1:06:44
  I'm getting no representation. I'm not getting any
• 1:06:46
  satisfaction. I'm not getting any protection
• 1:06:49
  whatsoever against management who are clueless in regards to
• 1:06:55
  the contract work rules, Eeos. And I mean yeah, they they they
• 1:07:00
  are totally clueless. I have 5 supervisors of which
• 1:07:05
  none ever carried mail in their life and they're telling us how
• 1:07:09
  to do well. They don't tell other people.
• 1:07:11
  They don't tell me. They they they like to stay away
• 1:07:13
  from me. God, I I would love to see a
• 1:07:15
  post office filled with Bill Mays.
• 1:07:17
  There wouldn't be a problem in the world.
• 1:07:19
  Oh God, I wouldn't like to see that.
• 1:07:23
  Yeah. Bill, I need you to help on her.
• 1:07:25
  No. It may happen.
• 1:07:28
  It may happen if we actually put in a good director of steward
• 1:07:32
  operations who actually takes care of the craft.
• 1:07:35
  And actually. Gets the craft educated, gets
• 1:07:38
  people into those offices to talk to the carriers and get
• 1:07:41
  them involved. But until we get somebody who
• 1:07:43
  wants to do more than just use our dues to travel across this
• 1:07:48
  country to all the conventions just for a free meal on top of
• 1:07:52
  the free housing, it's not going to happen.
• 1:07:54
  But we need to put somebody in there that could actually do the
• 1:07:59
  job of the Director of Stewart operation, somebody who's
• 1:08:02
  willing to put boots on the ground and get them in those
• 1:08:06
  offices. There are so many carriers I've
• 1:08:08
  talked to that have 15/20/25 years in the Postal Service that
• 1:08:13
  have never been face to face with their steward.
• 1:08:17
  That is the saddest thing I've ever heard.
• 1:08:21
  Now when the National Steward System idea first popped up, I
• 1:08:25
  thought about it and and the first thing I said to myself
• 1:08:28
  was, OK, they're doing this to consolidate the power and
• 1:08:32
  authority in Alexandria. That's all to me.
• 1:08:36
  That was my first assumption. Then as I dug into it and found
• 1:08:39
  out the situation of why they were doing it, it was
• 1:08:41
  understandable that the National Steward System was formulated
• 1:08:45
  because of the fact that states couldn't regulate themselves.
• 1:08:48
  And and I'm not against the National Steward System, I'm
• 1:08:52
  against the fact that they are so toothless, they are so
• 1:08:58
  ambiguous in regards to protecting the carriers into
• 1:09:03
  force, enforcing the contract. And I would like it to see a
• 1:09:07
  director Stewart operate, director of Stewart operations
• 1:09:10
  get in there and give these people their teeth back and and
• 1:09:14
  grow some balls to go after. I I don't care if we have to
• 1:09:20
  have an ADR part time full time or ADR out on the street, you
• 1:09:27
  know, away from their home for 20 days out of the month.
• 1:09:31
  I don't care As long as you're protecting the craft.
• 1:09:34
  It's well spent. But you better be showing some
• 1:09:38
  damn results. And right now, yeah, so right
• 1:09:43
  now we're not. Case in point, my current ADR as
• 1:09:48
  of the September Pennsylvania mailbag prosecuted 1 grievance
• 1:09:53
  in 10 months for 20 offices. Tell me what the hell they were
• 1:10:00
  doing the other 9 1/2 months. In the comments right here, the
• 1:10:05
  one steward enhancement I went to there was 1 steward who was
• 1:10:09
  retiring who had never filed a grievance in 20 plus years.
• 1:10:15
  What the? Hell were they doing?
• 1:10:19
  How can that be? And you wonder why people are
• 1:10:22
  leaving the union. They don't see results.
• 1:10:25
  The people that they want to trust or need to trust, they
• 1:10:29
  can't. Well, and then you look at, you
• 1:10:32
  know, you've got them toting in the national magazine about, oh,
• 1:10:36
  we need more local stewards. Step up, we need local stewards.
• 1:10:41
  So then when you have local stewards that were elected in
• 1:10:43
  November who have yet to receive their steward training and got
• 1:10:48
  told in the middle of January, I'll be, you know, we'll be
• 1:10:51
  scheduling it end of January, beginning of February.
• 1:10:54
  We're now into March and they haven't heard anything since the
• 1:10:57
  middle of January. And just like an RCAA newly
• 1:11:03
  newly elected steward has to be held handheld for at least the
• 1:11:08
  first year at least they ought to be doing weekly or bi weekly
• 1:11:13
  phone calls with their area or AD Rs or D Rs.
• 1:11:17
  Whoever they're reporting to. You know, they they ought to be
• 1:11:21
  getting, you know, encouragement.
• 1:11:23
  What to look for, where to look for our our steward enhancement
• 1:11:27
  training. Yeah.
• 1:11:27
  The last one that I went to for certification, I just sat there
• 1:11:31
  and I I felt like I was a 5 year old.
• 1:11:33
  You know, with oh OK, this is as want to prosecute.
• 1:11:38
  Give us your arguments. OK hold on.
• 1:11:41
  For the new people in the steward certification training,
• 1:11:45
  how about showing them your line of thought and how you arrived
• 1:11:49
  there and what articles you were looking at, what publications
• 1:11:53
  you were researching. Where were you going on the
• 1:11:56
  national website to find relevant information?
• 1:12:00
  Where in the database it is there like grievances have been
• 1:12:05
  settled successfully that I can copy or glean off of and James
• 1:12:12
  as. Director Stewart Operations,
• 1:12:14
  We're. Going to get rid of the
• 1:12:15
  language, settled for language and can and you know cannot be
• 1:12:19
  used in any other grievance. Yeah.
• 1:12:22
  No, no settling for any kind. Of language.
• 1:12:25
  Because the language already exists.
• 1:12:28
  If the language. If the language doesn't exist,
• 1:12:32
  guess what? Send it up.
• 1:12:34
  Because we're going to take it all the way up to step four and
• 1:12:38
  make it a national language. Because that should be the only
• 1:12:43
  place where the national steward system creates language for
• 1:12:48
  stewards to use. Because when you turn around and
• 1:12:52
  you tell management you must comply, management will follow.
• 1:12:59
  Management will recognize you're giving them a slap on the hand
• 1:13:03
  that won't hold up an arbitration.
• 1:13:06
  But when you send something up that has everything attached to
• 1:13:10
  it that could win an argument in arbitration and you go to
• 1:13:16
  arbitration, you can get hard binding language that the
• 1:13:22
  arbitrator will put out for it. But sitting down and giving up
• 1:13:28
  with management at the step one level, I understand you want to
• 1:13:33
  settle it at the. Lowest level possible.
• 1:13:36
  But settling just for management must comply.
• 1:13:39
  Doesn't do anything for the craft.
• 1:13:44
  And considering we. Have step fours that have been
• 1:13:46
  sitting. Since 2018 and haven't been
• 1:13:49
  adjudicated. I'm starting to question whether
• 1:13:52
  they actually want to do with deal with the step fours or if
• 1:13:56
  they're just holding them off. I mean, Mastin admits he's been
• 1:13:59
  on the national board since 2008.
• 1:14:03
  Why has it he stepped up with the director of Labor relations
• 1:14:06
  and taken him to Step 4, her arbitration?
• 1:14:10
  Why are we having these delays? This is the biggest problem.
• 1:14:15
  In our. Union is our leadership does not
• 1:14:19
  want to deal with protecting the craft, does not want to deal
• 1:14:22
  with the step Fours, does the bare minimum of lip service to
• 1:14:26
  the craft while turning around and giving the massive lip
• 1:14:30
  service to management's backside.
• 1:14:33
  We have management sitting down and settling things for language
• 1:14:37
  because they can get away with it.
• 1:14:40
  I just had a conversation with a manager today on the management
• 1:14:45
  chat on Facebook and it was actually about City.
• 1:14:49
  Carriers. And that manager is actually a
• 1:14:53
  labor representative for management and was turning
• 1:14:57
  around and telling managers that they can't read anything from
• 1:15:01
  the unions because it's opinionated and it goes against
• 1:15:06
  everything that management trains them to do.
• 1:15:11
  Think about. That one folks, management
• 1:15:13
  doesn't. Care what our union says.
• 1:15:16
  They're going to go and do their own thing anyway, and then
• 1:15:19
  they'll climb a tree a lie, rather than stand on the ground
• 1:15:22
  to tell the truth. OK, I'm off my soapbox.
• 1:15:32
  OK. I didn't hear you step.
• 1:15:34
  Off. But seriously, folks, we care so
• 1:15:43
  much about. This craft and we watch watch
• 1:15:46
  these things diligently because a well informed craft is the
• 1:15:52
  bane of management and is the bane of leadership.
• 1:15:56
  That. Doesn't want the craft educated.
• 1:15:59
  And that's why we on this podcast have been doing this.
• 1:16:05
  Even with leadership forcing a decertification on us, even with
• 1:16:11
  leadership cornering some of us and telling us to stop quoting
• 1:16:17
  them and things like that, we're still here.
• 1:16:22
  And we're going to be here. Because the craft deserves to
• 1:16:26
  have the information. I agree and I think and and I
• 1:16:34
  have to add my two cents in that you know, especially with the
• 1:16:38
  whole Rex and the lack of training by management and the
• 1:16:44
  union saying, well it's on the website.
• 1:16:47
  I I'm sorry if you yeah, and everyone knows if you're not a
• 1:16:54
  dues paying member of the craft that you don't have access to
• 1:16:58
  that. My thing is, is I don't care if
• 1:17:03
  you pay dues or you don't pay dues.
• 1:17:06
  Your reasoning for not paying dues is your own personal
• 1:17:09
  reasons. You're still a member of the
• 1:17:12
  craft. If anything has to do with your
• 1:17:15
  wages, you should have that information regardless available
• 1:17:23
  to you. Yeah, I I'm hopeful here
• 1:17:33
  because, well, I understand some people pulled their dues for
• 1:17:38
  reasons of their own volition. There are some people that don't
• 1:17:41
  even know that they're not paying dues and they want to pay
• 1:17:44
  dues. And my only hope in doing this
• 1:17:47
  podcast and getting involved with the union and things like
• 1:17:51
  that is to hopefully draw more people into being dues paying
• 1:17:55
  again. Because the only way our craft
• 1:17:58
  can fight for the craft or the union can fight for the craft is
• 1:18:03
  if people are paying dues. And I'm not trying to say that
• 1:18:08
  the dues would be wasted on current leadership, but when
• 1:18:15
  effective leadership gets put into place and we start giving
• 1:18:19
  information out to non dues paying members, I'm hoping
• 1:18:23
  that's enough to entice them to pay dues into this union, to
• 1:18:27
  support this union and to support the craft.
• 1:18:31
  Because involved, yes. Get involved.
• 1:18:35
  Vote. Be a delegate.
• 1:18:37
  That's the biggest thing right now.
• 1:18:39
  The current leadership that. The current.
• 1:18:42
  Leadership that's sitting there is was selected by a delegation
• 1:18:48
  that was voted in by 10% of the voting craft, 10%.
• 1:18:56
  How much difference would it make if another 10% of the craft
• 1:19:02
  voted for delegation or 20% voted for delegation?
• 1:19:08
  The difference would be astounding.
• 1:19:10
  At who's actually? Sitting in that room, granted
• 1:19:15
  there are. People that have been voted in
• 1:19:17
  year. After year that are really great
• 1:19:19
  at being a delegate and studying and understanding things and
• 1:19:23
  talking with the craft. And then there are some that go
• 1:19:26
  there just because it's a vacation and they get paid to
• 1:19:30
  go. But it is up to us as the craft.
• 1:19:36
  To decide who should be voting for your leadership.
• 1:19:41
  Because right now, any resolution that goes up to
• 1:19:44
  change how we vote for the leadership is going to be
• 1:19:48
  rejected. Changing the delegation is the
• 1:19:53
  first step. To getting the craft heard.
• 1:20:00
  You know you you talk about people joining the.
• 1:20:02
  Union and the the union will give you a a whole litany
• 1:20:07
  reasons of why you want to join the and for the most.
• 1:20:11
  Part they're valid. OK.
• 1:20:14
  The money aspect of it to me is minimal, OK.
• 1:20:17
  There is a cost assigned to having this association the
• 1:20:22
  thing that to. Me.
• 1:20:24
  That matters the most. Is that if you are not part of
• 1:20:28
  the union, you can bitch and complain on Facebook all you
• 1:20:32
  want. It's like, you know.
• 1:20:35
  Screaming in a. Hurricane Nobody's going to hear
• 1:20:38
  you. You're going to get drowned out
• 1:20:40
  because you have no voice if you get involved.
• 1:20:44
  In the union, join the. Union.
• 1:20:45
  Get involved. Go to your local meetings.
• 1:20:47
  Go to your. What do you what do you guys
• 1:20:49
  call your little weekend things there?
• 1:20:52
  Boosters, your boosters, or your?
• 1:20:55
  State conventions. Or your regional conventions,
• 1:20:59
  That's how you get involved and. That's how you get the.
• 1:21:01
  The Find out what's going on. You can see the politics in
• 1:21:06
  action. You can see, you know, how
• 1:21:08
  people you know are interact with each other and how they
• 1:21:12
  garner, you know, people's Curry and and or Curry people's favors
• 1:21:16
  and, you know, get promoted up the board.
• 1:21:20
  Or they get assigned to special commissions.
• 1:21:22
  They get to travel to Washington, DC, like several
• 1:21:26
  people in my state do almost every year.
• 1:21:29
  I won't make names, but you know, we all know who you are.
• 1:21:33
  And the thing of it is that you know until you're part of the
• 1:21:37
  Union, until you interact. You have.
• 1:21:42
  No voice. You have no say.
• 1:21:44
  It's like not not being registered to vote.
• 1:21:47
  Don't complain about the politicians if you don't try to
• 1:21:50
  change them. Well, if I vote this way, it
• 1:21:52
  doesn't make any difference. But someday it will.
• 1:21:57
  And maybe this? Year if we get the delegates on
• 1:22:00
  board. Maybe this year we will change
• 1:22:04
  the National Rural Letter Carriers Association board for
• 1:22:07
  the better as as my shirts say, carriers. 1st.
• 1:22:12
  There's no other reason for anybody to be on the national
• 1:22:15
  board except for to take care of the carriers, to educate them,
• 1:22:19
  to promote them, to protect them, period.
• 1:22:25
  And if you're not doing. That you don't deserve.
• 1:22:28
  To be on the board. And the proof is in the words
• 1:22:33
  that they use when they. Speak to the craft, speak to us
• 1:22:39
  on a video how they act when they're around us.
• 1:22:44
  You know when we were at SWAC when Pete, they were walking?
• 1:22:49
  Around it was always. Shirley with Bridget.
• 1:22:54
  Don. With Patrick and Nicky by
• 1:22:59
  himself. Yeah.
• 1:23:02
  He was by himself. The poor guy was by.
• 1:23:05
  Himself, because they had their cliques and he wasn't part of
• 1:23:12
  them. That should give you an idea.
• 1:23:15
  Had dinner with us. Yeah.
• 1:23:18
  That should give you an idea of. What the board thinks about the
• 1:23:21
  people that are even on the board with them when they
• 1:23:25
  actually ostracize one of the 9. Which which?
• 1:23:33
  Which was funny because of the. Fact that.
• 1:23:35
  That. Was actually a question that
• 1:23:36
  they answered at SWAC was why he all the National Board people
• 1:23:40
  sat next to each other and Don got up there and explained to
• 1:23:44
  everybody that, well, you know, you know, we're friends, we
• 1:23:47
  actually like each other. But you get at the dinner,
• 1:23:50
  Bridget and and Shirley sat together, you know, at a table
• 1:23:53
  with one fellow. There were the only three at
• 1:23:55
  that table. I never saw Don or or or Patrick
• 1:23:59
  Pitts there. And Nikki ended up at my table.
• 1:24:03
  And you know, he said come over, can I join you?
• 1:24:05
  I says, you know, long as you don't mind being seen with us.
• 1:24:07
  And he said, oh, I don't care anymore.
• 1:24:10
  So yeah, this, the thing of it is that hold it.
• 1:24:14
  If you're such great friends, how come you're all spread out
• 1:24:18
  but yet all joined? Together when we're in the
• 1:24:20
  conference in. The conference together?
• 1:24:23
  Oh yeah, at the hip. Yeah, I mean, I I still.
• 1:24:28
  Love the fact that he called out.
• 1:24:29
  The live posting on stage and then over half the room went
• 1:24:34
  straight to their cell phones, to Facebook.
• 1:24:38
  I didn't. I just looked.
• 1:24:39
  At my left. Yeah, you looked at me and I
• 1:24:42
  would just. Grin and ear to.
• 1:24:43
  Ear on that one, but the. Fact remains a lot of the times.
• 1:24:50
  Like for that they looked and there were some of them that
• 1:24:53
  actually replied on that post and said it was accurate because
• 1:24:58
  Don had asked the audience to go on and verify it was accurate
• 1:25:05
  and we don't. Want to be inaccurate for you?
• 1:25:08
  Guys, yes, we make mistakes, but we try to correct them as.
• 1:25:15
  Soon as we're made aware. Because there is so much stuff
• 1:25:19
  to know and learn and do. There is so much information out
• 1:25:24
  there that sometimes it gets jumbled up in your brain,
• 1:25:28
  especially when you're doing 99% of it from your memory.
• 1:25:34
  But. We try to give you the best.
• 1:25:37
  Information as possible so that you can make the best decisions
• 1:25:41
  you can by researching, understanding, learning, and
• 1:25:46
  understanding the job that you. Have to do.
• 1:25:49
  As a real carrier out there. That's all I have.
• 1:25:57
  I think that's a wrap. For tonight, I agree guys.
• 1:26:03
  I I have my work cut out. Editing.
• 1:26:08
  Hey, I I I. Didn't say anything.
• 1:26:10
  Wrong. Did I this time?
• 1:26:14
  No. Just a lot of homes and.
• 1:26:16
  I knows. And you knows leave it all in
• 1:26:20
  Ross as a. You know.
• 1:26:27
  Unfiltered, I would I do want to touch on a.
• 1:26:29
  Comment up here real quick. That was posted.
• 1:26:33
  Let me get to it. Why are retired carriers voting
• 1:26:37
  on these things National? Because.
• 1:26:41
  They pay dues, yes. They pay dues.
• 1:26:44
  Therefore they can be a delegate and therefore as a delegate they
• 1:26:50
  have voting rights on national board or on a national board
• 1:26:54
  elections, as well As for resolutions it appeals, but and
• 1:27:03
  there are there are retirees. That actually care.
• 1:27:07
  I mean there are, there are a handful of awesome retirees out
• 1:27:12
  there. While Bill, for instance, yeah.
• 1:27:15
  I don't not Bill that's on the podcast, but I don't
• 1:27:19
  necessarily. Agree to it all the time, but
• 1:27:23
  unfortunately that is the law. That is a Labor Relations,
• 1:27:28
  labor, labor board thing as as long as.
• 1:27:32
  They are in. A good.
• 1:27:34
  Standing member. They are allowed to be a
• 1:27:37
  delegate, yes. You cannot be elected to the
• 1:27:40
  board as a. Retiree.
• 1:27:41
  That you cannot And retirees don't gratify contracts, but
• 1:27:47
  they can vote on resolutions and they can vote and they can elect
• 1:27:54
  national board member. Which Which I think they ought
• 1:27:59
  to be stripped of there. That would require a binding
• 1:28:04
  resolution. That would have to be passed or
• 1:28:07
  constitutional change. What?
• 1:28:11
  And or a constitutional change? Well, that would be a binding
• 1:28:15
  resolution, yeah. A binding resolution would
• 1:28:18
  change the. Constitution.
• 1:28:20
  So yeah, have to look at what the.
• 1:28:23
  NRLB laws are on that as well, yes, the NLRB.
• 1:28:29
  Rulings and and language. Would have to be included in
• 1:28:32
  that resolution to ensure that it is properly written so that
• 1:28:36
  way it does not violate the National Labor Relations Act.
• 1:28:41
  And you know it from my point of view.
• 1:28:44
  In in regards to retirees, there are some that are very good for
• 1:28:49
  the craft as far as their attendance, but when I hear a
• 1:28:53
  retiree. Say.
• 1:28:55
  Oh well, we're good friends with these people, and this is the
• 1:28:58
  only chance we get to see them is at the National Convention.
• 1:29:01
  That is because it's a paid vacation for you.
• 1:29:04
  But if you're such good friends, why are you only seeing them
• 1:29:07
  once a year? Got just throwing that out
• 1:29:13
  there. I have a retired state pastor
• 1:29:18
  who him and his wife are our. Attendees at every convention.
• 1:29:25
  And for 20 years he hasn't been active in In the craft yet.
• 1:29:30
  Every year he gets voted on there as a delegate.
• 1:29:35
  How much do you think he's contributing to the craft on a
• 1:29:41
  hole? Yep.
• 1:29:44
  All right, guys, so we're going to.
• 1:29:46
  One I got one last thing. One last thing I'm going to get.
• 1:29:50
  Out of here for tonight and it's.
• 1:29:52
  A shameless plug. Just a reminder, we do have a
• 1:29:57
  merch store available, so if you guys are interested in having
• 1:30:02
  mugs, shirts, even our our candidate shirts.
• 1:30:09
  Are on there as well. So we're shamelessly plugging
• 1:30:12
  that today because of the conversation about the national
• 1:30:15
  leadership. So I figured we could plug our
• 1:30:18
  merch store available. You can check it out.
• 1:30:20
  It's on our Facebook page as well as our group.
• 1:30:24
  So you can find it there and help support us to be able to
• 1:30:28
  come to conventions and things like that, because a lot of us
• 1:30:32
  are doing this out of pocket and some of us.
• 1:30:37
  Are aren't on table. One like some people bill some.
• 1:30:44
  Of us are table two, step one. Fresh.
• 1:30:46
  Out of being an RCA and really hates taking loans out to have
• 1:30:51
  to do this stuff. But no I and honestly.
• 1:30:55
  Our and I I'm. Just going to add to it, our
• 1:30:58
  profits are very minimal. I mean I walk to three or four,
• 1:31:04
  maybe 5-6 bucks tops per item. It's not.
• 1:31:08
  I tried to keep the the rates somewhat low ish.
• 1:31:15
  You tried to keep it affordable for table.
• 1:31:18
  Two pick carriers, yes and so it and most.
• 1:31:22
  Of very little. Profit, but I'm going to post a
• 1:31:24
  link to it. Here as well, so and most of the
• 1:31:28
  most of these profits. At least in the upfront.
• 1:31:31
  Now is to help get Christian better equipment and software
• 1:31:37
  for recording and editing. Because we know sound is one of
• 1:31:41
  the things that's been the big one of the major issues
• 1:31:44
  sometimes. Yeah, aren't you a table Table
• 1:31:47
  one? I am, but I've figured I keep.
• 1:31:50
  Getting pushed to the background anyway most of the time, so I I
• 1:31:52
  don't want to get singled out there by.
• 1:31:55
  Jane Oh, OK. Fashion Prick.
• 1:32:01
  And also if you guys have have ideas or.
• 1:32:05
  Slogans that you want put on something, feel free to let us
• 1:32:09
  know. I know I've had a couple of them
• 1:32:11
  that I've gone ahead and put on merchandise.
• 1:32:13
  So no, just we're we're definitely going to need the
• 1:32:16
  Starbucks Cup 1. Yeah.
• 1:32:20
  I have to get to work licensing for that one.
• 1:32:23
  Guys, put a scanner over it. Again, I have to be careful with
• 1:32:29
  the. Licensing on that one.
• 1:32:31
  You can change one letter in there and then, really.
• 1:32:34
  Create a new brand, yeah. All right, we digress.
• 1:32:40
  Again. Final thoughts.
• 1:32:43
  Well, I mean. It go ahead, Josh.
• 1:32:46
  I was just going to. Say.
• 1:32:48
  There's only two. More days of the survey Don't
• 1:32:51
  get yourself overwhelmed. If you do, take a step back.
• 1:32:55
  Take a deep breath. Step back in.
• 1:32:57
  May the cuds be ever in your favor with the new emails, James
• 1:33:03
  or Toasty. Toasty.
• 1:33:05
  I'll probably just leave it. With this.
• 1:33:08
  Have you listened to that speech And then you listen to this
• 1:33:11
  podcast? Which one felt more inspired?
• 1:33:14
  Which one made you feel better? Which one felt like was actually
• 1:33:18
  fighting for you? We can do this.
• 1:33:22
  The recent. Magazine just came out.
• 1:33:25
  It still has the nominations for national delegates.
• 1:33:28
  Get that filled out. Send it into your state so that
• 1:33:32
  way you can get on to the to the ballot and go to national with
• 1:33:36
  us. Let's change this board.
• 1:33:38
  Let's do it James. I can't really follow what
• 1:33:41
  toasty just. Said he.
• 1:33:42
  Really hit the nail on the head on this.
• 1:33:44
  How many times have you listened to the National Board?
• 1:33:47
  I mean, Mastan's posted 3 videos now and he sounds the same in
• 1:33:52
  all three of them. And now here you have a podcast
• 1:33:56
  presenting it in the best way possible, at least in my
• 1:33:59
  personal opinion. The biggest thing you can take
• 1:34:02
  away from all of this is that no matter what this podcast, it's
• 1:34:09
  listeners and everybody else who hasn't listened to us yet.
• 1:34:13
  It's just like the rest of us and we're all in this together.
• 1:34:16
  Bill, your final thoughts? There's nothing like a rainy
• 1:34:19
  Wednesday. Evening and getting a phone
• 1:34:22
  call. Hey, did you see the Madsen
• 1:34:24
  video? No, I haven't gotten the alert
• 1:34:27
  yet. Whatever.
• 1:34:29
  So of course everything gets forwarded to me, you know,
• 1:34:31
  thanks. Thanks to James.
• 1:34:33
  And you know, I I stopped and picked up dinner and came home
• 1:34:37
  and I'm sitting there with the Don Madsen video on while eating
• 1:34:41
  and my my wife sitting next to me and I'm choking and she goes,
• 1:34:45
  what's the matter? And I unplugged my earpiece so
• 1:34:47
  she could hear, and she said, Does he have a pulse?
• 1:34:53
  I said. OK, we're plugging this back,
• 1:34:55
  you know? Because the the man's just
• 1:34:59
  sitting there droning on and on and on and and we're talking
• 1:35:03
  about our livelihoods, my livelihood, your livelihood.
• 1:35:07
  You know, you're you're talking about, you know, affording
• 1:35:10
  vacations and cars and homes, paying your bills, you know,
• 1:35:15
  soccer practice and everything else.
• 1:35:17
  And this guy's just droning on and on and on And if he if he
• 1:35:20
  said DFA one more time I was going to call him the Joy Junior
• 1:35:24
  because the fact like, OK, you're you're you're getting
• 1:35:29
  behind the postmaster and and as Josh said, you know you might
• 1:35:32
  have to do a little ass kissing there.
• 1:35:34
  You know they get what you want in the contract.
• 1:35:36
  No, no. We've been beleaguered for
• 1:35:41
  almost 20 years. The last five years alone, you
• 1:35:46
  know, through COVID and everything.
• 1:35:48
  And you know, going back to 2018 with the introduction to Amazon
• 1:35:51
  to so many offices, we're getting hammered.
• 1:35:54
  And this guy's sitting there like a sock puppet, just
• 1:35:57
  mouthing words, no emotion, no eye contact, no animation
• 1:36:04
  whatsoever. And I'm sitting there going, how
• 1:36:06
  am I supposed to be inspired by this?
• 1:36:08
  And the answer is I'm not. That's as much effort as he is
• 1:36:12
  putting into our contract, is what he just displayed this
• 1:36:15
  evening. And I don't want to hear nothing
• 1:36:18
  about all the long hours and this and that.
• 1:36:19
  I'll go back to the beginning of our conversation regards to
• 1:36:22
  having a whole crew of lawyers, contract, you know, negotiators
• 1:36:27
  and analysts all hired to help him, you know, get through the
• 1:36:31
  contract and impossible arbitration.
• 1:36:35
  Well, hell if I got that. Many smart people working.
• 1:36:38
  For me. Why do I need you, Don?
• 1:36:40
  I could put anybody up there. I need somebody to inspire me
• 1:36:45
  and and he he has nothing. Nothing for me, nothing for
• 1:36:48
  anybody except themself and the rest of the cronies on the
• 1:36:52
  national board. So let's get our delegates going
• 1:36:56
  to Reno, Let's vote these people out.
• 1:36:59
  Let's turn this union around and let's make it a union for the
• 1:37:02
  craft. Not of the craft, but for the
• 1:37:05
  craft. God bless you all.
• 1:37:07
  Stay safe, make sure you understand to get the job done
• 1:37:11
  efficiently, professionally and get your ass home because you're
• 1:37:15
  the most important delivery of the day every day.
• 1:37:18
  Thank you guys, I really don't know how to.
• 1:37:20
  Follow up on that now. I did have something to say and
• 1:37:24
  now I've lost it. Thanks now.
• 1:37:29
  You know, and that that's the. Difference.
• 1:37:32
  When do you have people that are currently carrying, that have
• 1:37:36
  the passion that want to make things better, That want to
• 1:37:38
  fight for the entire craft rather than the ones that have
• 1:37:43
  been the career politician on the board for a decade and a
• 1:37:47
  half, Two decades at least Full time union employees who have
• 1:37:53
  absolutely no clue of what it's like on the day-to-day basis
• 1:37:56
  anymore. None whatsoever.
• 1:37:58
  No first hand experience and what it is like on a day-to-day
• 1:38:02
  basis change. And I think this video really
• 1:38:07
  like like Bill's wife said, you know, is he alive?
• 1:38:10
  I mean outside of moistening his lips there.
• 1:38:15
  Repeatedly. It there's nothing, there's no.
• 1:38:19
  Emotion. There's no passion.
• 1:38:21
  It was reading from a multi page speech that was probably given
• 1:38:26
  to him within the last 24 hours. No time to prepare.
• 1:38:30
  And if there was time, it was poorly done.
• 1:38:34
  I'm sorry. When I'm talking to the Craft,
• 1:38:36
  I'm talking to you like you're my best friend.
• 1:38:38
  Like I, you know, I could meet tomorrow and we could sit down
• 1:38:43
  and talk and like, we've always been friends.
• 1:38:46
  That's just how I am. It doesn't, you know, reaching
• 1:38:49
  out to the craft is not. They're making it seem more like
• 1:38:53
  it's a job rather than actually caring.
• 1:38:57
  And OK, they're paying me to do this.
• 1:38:59
  So I got to talk now. I'm going to talk like this, and
• 1:39:02
  I'm going to read off of those because this is what they want
• 1:39:06
  me to do. Don't forget to lick your lips.
• 1:39:10
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 1:39:10
  No. I'm sorry, I do wear chapstick.
• 1:39:14
  But I you know, I just yeah, Reno's coming.
• 1:39:21
  Up in August, guys, you know. If if you can't be a delegate,
• 1:39:24
  you can't make it or you understand, but please, please
• 1:39:28
  vote. What are the delegates that
• 1:39:31
  holds your interests at the best that.
• 1:39:34
  That's all I really can ask. I'm not going to tell you who to
• 1:39:37
  vote for, who to not to vote for.
• 1:39:39
  You know, vote for those delegates that hold your
• 1:39:43
  interest in. Even if that means you have to
• 1:39:45
  reach. Out and find out who everybody
• 1:39:46
  is. Have, you know, there's some
• 1:39:48
  homework there. I mean, I've got I finally
• 1:39:50
  getting carriers in my office to start sending in their ballots
• 1:39:54
  and you know, they do come to me and ask me who's what's what or
• 1:39:58
  or whatnot. And you know, I I tell them, you
• 1:40:01
  know, yes, they're retired. No, they're still active.
• 1:40:04
  They're whatever, you know, I. But I don't pencil that circle
• 1:40:08
  in for them that that's their own decision on who they vote
• 1:40:11
  for. And I always stand behind that.
• 1:40:13
  That's your own personal decision.
• 1:40:15
  So we're going to wrap this up for tonight as the midweek bonus
• 1:40:19
  and we shall all be back Sunday night.
• 1:40:22
  So take care, everyone. No, the national ports
• 1:40:37
  listening, yeah. Hi, guys.