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Tentative Agreement and More · United We Scan

• 0:14
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:18
  carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
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  podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
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  not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
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  United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
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  Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
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  your assigned union representative for guidance in
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  Please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:47
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody, Episode
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  119. We're going to go over the
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  tentative agreement a little bit and we'll go over some other
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  stuff and we have a special guest host with us tonight.
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  So it's all been interesting tonight.
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  I think it's going to be. How was your week, James?
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  Spent the week training my new sub.
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  I spent the first four days of the week training her and it was
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  as if she'd done this before. She is that good of a sub.
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  She was throwing the mail. I mean the casing part was the
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  hardest part for her, finding the addresses in the case.
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  But once we got out on the route it was almost second nature for
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  her. She was flying through the route
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  on the 4th day and of course I'm riding in the back and getting
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  carsick. Plus it was 85° out so really
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  warm in the back of that truck with no ventilation and I ended
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  up getting car sick and took Friday off because I just I
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  almost couldn't walk to my car out of out of the office after
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  that. I do not do well riding in
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  vehicles but training the next generation carriers is more
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  important than my car sickness. But she seems to be a keeper.
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  She seems to be doing a great job at it, so I'm not, I'm glad
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  I took the time to spend with her.
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  And that's what we need to do is, is train our next generation
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  carriers to be future regular carriers.
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  But other than that, it's been a pretty quiet week overall.
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  Nothing to really report other than the tentative agreement
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  stuff. So we'll get into that later.
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  How was your week, Bill? Oh, it's, you know, just one
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  wonderful and retirement land here.
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  It's ringing out calls, texts and IMS from people and it's
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  it's amazing how you cannot actually make this stuff up.
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  And it goes on across the country in regards to
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  management. The red line rule, I love that
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  one that came up three times this week.
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  Red line rule for a carrier's returning from their routes.
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  It's like, OK, this is not a rule carrier application here.
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  No, no, no, no. Management wants to do it.
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  You know, just let them do it. File a grievance, You know,
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  shortage of carriers. Of course, the TA was a hot
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  topic of discussion. And the fact that, you know,
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  they wanted to keep continue on with these adjustments and
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  creating new routes when they don't have carriers for the
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  routes, let alone vehicles for the existing routes they have in
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  several offices that, you know, I'm aware of.
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  So just another, another normal day at the post office folks.
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  I mean, just can't make this shit up.
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  How about you, Kristen? Where you going otherwise?
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  Oh well, I will let our guest host speak real quick if they
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  want to. Yeah, I mean, so my week was
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  good. I I was off on Monday,
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  thankfully, but they had a bunch of influx of influx of parcels
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  that they got that they hadn't thrown on Saturday.
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  So the sub that was on my route actually was out there until
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  8:30 with two other people helping him.
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  My route's A46K so, but other than that, I mean, it's just
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  been me just researching stuff about the TA and kind of going
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  down a bunch of different rabbit holes and looking at all the
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  comments online and doing my route in the meantime and
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  talking with some of the people in my office.
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  They're adjusting to the 48 KS in my route or in my office that
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  have been overburdened since RX began.
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  And so there's a little bit of chaos going on with that.
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  And one of the guys is not currently in the office that's
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  being adjusted. Yes, thank you, dude.
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  And so it's it's just been a little, little chaotic with that
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  and people just confused and upset and but and then with the
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  contract and then people talking to me about different
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  conferences and stuff. So but yeah.
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  How was your week, Kristen? It wasn't too bad, we've been
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  dealing with a a sick infant this week so I did take a day
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  off Wednesday to help out and whatnot, but other than that
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  it's been a pretty average week for me.
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  I mean, nothing too special at the moment, that's for sure.
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  Ruby ran her route Saturday and did it with an evaluation.
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  The entire route minus, oh, I don't know, 810 parcels that
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  were couldn't fit in because of the size.
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  That was it. She rocked it out Saturday.
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  So other than that, it's been I've got, I've worked, I did
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  work my K day yesterday, no big deal.
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  Whatever seems to be the norm lately, but I heard we have
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  another new RCA in the pipeline, so we'll see who wins the coin
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  toss on training that one. And then yeah, just getting
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  ready to go to mid states coming up next weekend.
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  I'm only going to work Monday and Tuesday this week so got
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  some family stuff. Wednesday, go watch my youngest
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  daughter's state band festival and then I'll hit the road, go
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  spend an evening with my parents and then leave from there.
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  Thursday morning down the mid states with Ruby and Little Man
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  and our travelling babysitter in tow.
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  Sudden that hasn't been too bad. So as we all know there was the
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  tentative agreement that was announced last week.
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  We did our bonus episode Friday and then now we actually have
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  our wait. It wasn't Friday, what day was
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  it? What day did we do the bonus
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  episode guys? Was it Friday last?
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  Week. I knew it was Friday.
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  Yeah. Friday.
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  Friday, Sunday was Easter. That's right.
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  It's been a couple weeks since we've had a regular episode.
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  Yeah, I'm brain fried. That's what happens when I work
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  six days a week. Anymore again?
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  Yeah. So we did that last Friday and
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  they released the PDF version of the tenant agreement with a
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  little bit explanation on it that will be coming to your
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  mailbox coming soon for all the members of the NRLCA.
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  In there is also a list of the Zoom ratification meetings by
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  date and state and times. And they are still putting up
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  the in person ratification schedule as it's as they
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  schedule the states. So yes, I did take next weekend
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  off for mid states. I'm not sure who else is going.
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  I know James will be there for sure.
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  I'll be there. So yeah.
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  All right, James, how did you want to start stuff off?
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  So the big thing is we want to stress this is our opinion and
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  our opinion only. It definitely does not express
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  the views, opinions and strategies of the National Oral
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  Letter Carriers Association because this tentative
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  agreement, as stated on the union website, was a unanimous
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  decision amongst all the board members.
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  Every single person on that board voted yes to accept this
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  tentative agreement. Being with that said, my problem
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  with this tentative agreement will always be the percentage
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  increase to our wages does not match inflation and any wage
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  increase that is lower then the cost of living that we have and
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  cannot be made-up by the cost of living adjustments is a pay cut.
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  You are taking a loss and these percentages do not match
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  inflation, have not matched inflation.
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  We are making less per dollar now because the dollar is worth
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  less now than it was back even five years ago.
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  We are taking a loss in buying power.
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  That is my biggest problem with this.
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  You know, you want to talk about something that hurts carriers.
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  The biggest thing that hurts carriers is having to live in a
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  car. Pay for a Planet Fitness
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  membership in order to do your laundry or do your to take your
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  showers. Do your laundry at a laundromat
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  because you can't afford the cheapest place in the area you
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  live on the wages you are making there aren't living spaces at
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  the post office, and we're definitely not going to owe the
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  company store our soul because we aren't paid enough to
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  survive. That is one of my biggest
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  problems with this. And this not only effects
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  regular carriers, especially those on Table 2, it affects
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  RCA. These wage increases for RCA
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  here. I got you a dollar for giving
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  three years of service to the post office.
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  What about those carriers that have 45610?
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  Or like the carrier that went regular in my office just before
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  I did. Had 17 years as an RCA and never
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  once saw a wage increase for all those years of service other
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  than the same increase that a carrier who just came in off the
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  street saw. There is a disconnect between
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  what is right for the craft and what is good for the post
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  office. Carriers have been taking loss
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  after loss after loss in wages. We gave money back to the post
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  office to help keep them solvent after they got the pre funding
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  mandate. We created Table 2 through
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  arbitration. Granted it was through
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  arbitration, but we negotiated to have Table 2 put in there in
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  the arbitration. We didn't.
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  I'm not saying no we didn't. We didn't ask for it, but in our
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  negotiations with it, we didn't present a strong enough argument
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  to prevent it either. The thing is, that's saving the
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  post office at the time it was initiated with saving the post
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  office $110,000 over the career of a regular carrier, that
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  number is now creeped closer to $200,000 per carrier.
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  And you got to think how many carriers are on Table 2 right
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  now? How much money has the post
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  office saved with that? And yet they continue to have
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  record deficits and pay. It's time to stop taking the
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  money off the back of the carriers.
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  OK, I'll get myself. I mean, just so I mean, I'm, I'm
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  somebody who's still very undecided about this tentative
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  agreement in general. And in regardless of how I'm
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  going to vote for it. I'm trying to educate myself on
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  what's included in it, what us as carriers need and what has
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  happened in the past and what's been historic.
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  And so that's why I've been going down all these rabbit
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  holes of with what have we gained in the other contracts?
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  What have the other unions gained in them?
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  Because I live in a one income household and I am on Table 2.
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  And I was lucky enough that I was only in RCA for about 3
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  years versus the guy that's across from me was in RCA for
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  nine years. And you know, I also have a, a
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  friend who was hired in 2012 and they postponed her hiring date
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  so that she was on Table 2. And so her opinion on a lot of
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  this with table one and Table 2 matters the most to me because,
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  you know, it's we're proportionately more affected
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  with only getting portions of that cola.
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  And that cola is designed to make it so that it's a little
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  bit more livable, but it's not. And you know, that's why I stay
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  on my, I try and stay on my growth 46 K to make ends meet
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  with that. I work my K day to try and work
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  overtime. I try and help the RC as and get
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  overtime when I can on other routes and and my state's
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  expensive to live in. But how do we as carriers, as
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  union members and you know, at the National board argue and
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  show the Postal Service or an arbitrator this is how much
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  we're owed when historically the Postal Service and arbitrators
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  haven't given us much more? I mean, and I, I went back, so I
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  went back from like 2000 and I know you had sent me that list
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  that had the different contractual raises that were in
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  the 70s and in the 70's the contractual raises were a lot
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  more. But so I started going back from
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  2000 and the APWU got a 1.2% raise, a 1.8% raise, a 1.4%
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  raise. And then they ended up getting
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  cash payments of $499 and then they the COLA has been kept.
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  And then the NRLCA, they ended up going to arbitration and then
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  they got a 1.2% raise at 1.8. And then in 2002, each step
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  increased by amount equal to 1 pay level upgrade, which was
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  provided as the same as the city carriers.
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  And then they got like a $300.00 raise there, a 1.4, A 1.2, A
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  1.3, A 1.3, and then a A1 time cash payment of four 99499.
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  And then the NALC, they ratified theirs and their contract
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  negotiations were affected because of September 11th and
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  they got 1.81.51.21.31.3. And then in lieu of the COLA for
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  the first year, they would get lump sum payments.
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  And then in 2006, the NALNALC ratified their contract.
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  They got 1.41.81.91.91.91.85 and then a lump sum of 686.
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  The APWU was dealing with more automation stuff, so their craft
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  was getting a little bit more affected.
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  And then with the retirement mandate stuff with Congress and
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  whatnot, I think they were the ones mostly affected.
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  So they only got 1.3 and 1.2. And then they ended up going up
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  one more pay, like one more step and and they got the COLA, but
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  that's all they got. And then the NRLCA, they
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  rejected that contract and they rejected a 1.21.21.21.2 percent
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  and then it went to arbitration and it got that we only got
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  1.21.51.51.5 and then the one time payment of 686 and then the
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  Co-op. So it was the same as the city.
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  And then in 20/20/10, that was like when the NRLCA was arguing
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  about automation and the mail count and the standards that
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  were affected with it and whatnot, and so the APWU got a
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  one point OA 1.5 and a one point O.
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  So if you go back in our history, there are times where
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  we have had a better argument in arbitration to get those larger
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  increases, whether it was because the other craft got it
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  or because it was more desirable to give that to us.
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  There was actually an arbitration where we lost our
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  two COLA payments a year, 2 COLA payment adjustments a year, and
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  that was just for one contract and then was brought back
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  immediately after. But if you look, if you look at
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  the history that I had sent you, which shows a lot of the wage
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  increases in Colas that we got, there are points where we've
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  gotten a 5% upgrade in 2002 of a little over $1000 on average for
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  all the pay tables. You go back in 99, we had a 2%
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  wage increase, you know, you go back a little further, you know,
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  1.5, etcetera. And you go back into the 80s and
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  yes, you have 5, three, 2%, you know, but that's, that's right
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  in line with what we're getting at 1.2% now, the same amount on
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  average for each race. And you said it best right there
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  each time we've gone to arbitration.
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  The wage percentage has increased.
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  It didn't decrease and. Well, and then, so, so then in,
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  in 2010, the APW ratified their contract and they got one point
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  O 1.5 and one point O and that's when they agreed to Table 2 and
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  screwed everybody else. And the national, I, I learned
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  that from the national board. I wasn't that I didn't know that
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  for a long time because everybody gets pissed at the
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  union because there's, they think we agreed to Table 2 when
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  we went to arbitration and we ended up getting Table 2, the
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  engineered study and we got one point O 1.5 and one point O.
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  And then the NALC also went to arbitration and they got one
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  point O, 1.5 and one point O. And then from that point
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  forward, and you know, since 2010 and, and all the things
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  that have happened since then, the contracts have been pattern
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  bargaining. And I'm not saying that I don't
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  think that each of the unions are going in there and they're
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  arguing the same takes because we all, we all have different
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  things to argue with. You know, with the Postal
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  Service, we have RX, we have different, we don't have, you
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  know, penalty overtime and, and different rules and stuff that
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  the City side has. But, you know, if you go back in
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  and you read these arbitration awards, the arbitrators
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  specifically state that they look at what these other crafts
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  have gotten and they compare it and they, and the goal
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  essentially is, is, is our attorneys and the union arguing
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  enough to push the Postal Service and the arbitrator to
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  show that we are, we deserve more.
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  And I, I mean, and I think that we do, but we just all have to
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  consciously think about, you know, if we go to arbitration,
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  you know, I, I know, I know that, you know, James, I know
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  that you, there's, I have my own personal qualms with the
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  national board and things in this union and stuff.
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  But ultimately, I mean, we all have to be supportive of them.
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  I mean, because they are voicing our concerns and this is the
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  time where. No, stop right there.
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  I I'm yeah, I've been listening to you rattle off the
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  percentages and everything. And the Table 2 being forced
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  upon us by the Arbor trader, which was set up by the APW.
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  It was then given to the city carriers and then got force on
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  us. Ames you, you said it right when
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  you opened up and said this board unanimously oded to accept
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  this TA Now a gentleman put on in one of the rural platforms of
• 23:09
  the day about collective bargaining from our national
• 23:13
  magazine September 2024, where Don Don Matson announces that we
• 23:20
  opened collective bargaining. Here's what I want you to think
• 23:23
  about. It's in my opening, Don Matson
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  says. I outlined the need for higher
• 23:29
  wages for all carriers, especially for the non career
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  workforce who needs substantially higher starting
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  wages, the need to eliminate the lower wage tiers and a faster
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  path to career or credible service.
• 23:45
  Now I don't want to hear Jack shit from nobody because none of
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  these issues were addressed. This is his opening statement,
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  ladies and gentlemen, and everybody on that national board
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  unanimously voted to put forth this TA for us to swallow, OK?
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  I don't want to hear no shit about supporting a board who's
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  making almost $200,000 a year. And if you're one of the five
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  national board members living in a 800,000 plus dollar house for
• 24:21
  free as well as traveling around the damn country on our freaking
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  dime with your freaking spouse while you're doubling the income
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  that we make, don't tell me about supporting.
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  You're entitled to your opinion, but please don't shove no
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  bullshit down my throat and say oh they have our interests at
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  heart, they do not. All right, back to you, meow.
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  And to double down, to double down on that, you have to
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  remember at the regional conferences after the city
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  tentative agreement was reached before the vote was ratified on
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  it, Don Masten was quoted as saying RCA deserve more than
• 25:11
  $0.50 an hour raise. He got them $0.05 more.
• 25:19
  Well, and I mean what? So what?
• 25:23
  Let's let's I'll just say this to both of you guys and Kristen
• 25:26
  too. Like what do you think the RCA
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  starting wage should be? What do you what do you
• 25:31
  personally? 5 to $25?
• 25:34
  $25. Somewhere between 25 and 30.
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  And what do you? Think that the table one or the
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  end of the table, what do you think as a regular carrier that
• 25:49
  we should be aiming towards and what percentage that they should
• 25:53
  be aiming towards in there? 6 figures, I think by the end of
• 26:01
  end of this contract, at the end of this contract, I think that
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  the percentages should have up to at least 9% because that is
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  how far behind we are on inflation.
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  I'm not asking for the full inflation on this because that's
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  not realistic. That's not realistic.
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  It's not going to happen even in arbitration.
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  But we can get closer. And the reason why I say that is
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  there are laws in place and you can have lawyers left and right
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  arguing what the law actually means because of how vague it
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  is. But there is a law on the books
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  under Title 39 that Postal Service workers shall be paid
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  comparable to the private sector.
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  Now, let me finish the argument out here.
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  The private sector they're talking about in that is
• 27:07
  comparable to the private sector.
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  So you got to use the word comparable to the private
• 27:12
  sector, which means we have to compare it to something that's
• 27:16
  similar to what we do. The closest thing we have
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  similar is UPS, FedEx, Amazon, DHL, your parcel delivery
• 27:29
  services. And if you look at the
• 27:32
  Delivering for America plan and the comments by Don Mastin
• 27:37
  himself, he says we're becoming a parcel delivery service.
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  So there's your correlation, that's your in, that's how you
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  talk to the arbitrator. The law on the books is we have
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  to be comparable. So you take those companies and
• 27:54
  you look at what they're paying their employees.
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  You have to exclude the non union companies on the basis
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  that they aren't comparable because they have a different
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  style workforce than we do. So the only company we can
• 28:12
  compare to is UPS. Well, and, and miss, as Mr.
• 28:18
  Johnson just said in there too, I actually looked up today how
• 28:22
  much UPS starts out at it here in like a, a mile from my house
• 28:28
  and it's $21.00 an hour. And you know, as Mr. Johnson
• 28:33
  said in there, there's the arbitrator's award for the City
• 28:37
  side and he stated that UPS is not comparable.
• 28:41
  So how do, how do we encourage our lawyers, our board to, if,
• 28:49
  if this TA goes to, if our contract goes to arbitration,
• 28:54
  how do we argue to get more than what the City side got
• 28:58
  essentially? I mean, that's, that's the
• 29:00
  bottom line on this because it's identical to that.
• 29:03
  And do we give up the RCA's that have worked for more than three
• 29:08
  years, earning a dollar more? And do we give up the, I know
• 29:13
  that it's not much, but the 30 weeks that was taken off of
• 29:16
  Table 2 here, how do, how do, does, does one arbitrator look
• 29:22
  at the, another arbitrator's decision and the other
• 29:26
  arbitrators from years past and go against the grain and give
• 29:30
  one craft more than another? And what do we give up as a
• 29:34
  result of that too? Because I mean, I, I
• 29:37
  wholeheartedly agree with both of you guys that we deserve way
• 29:41
  more than what this is. But how, how do we
• 29:45
  constructively all come together and, you know, get everybody on
• 29:51
  that page, get the post office on that page, get the arbitrator
• 29:54
  on that page? See, this is, this is one of the
• 29:58
  biggest questions I've had over the years and, and Don has
• 30:02
  preached the fact that we have hired lawyers, we have hired
• 30:06
  skilled labour negotiators, we've hired, you know, all these
• 30:10
  contract people that assist in negotiating the contract.
• 30:17
  Well, you spent all this money doing this and yet we got the
• 30:20
  same damn thing the city carriers did basically.
• 30:23
  So where's your negotiating skills here, Don?
• 30:27
  Because you hired all these people to assist you.
• 30:30
  Didn't you listen to them or, or didn't they give you anything
• 30:33
  good to, you know, to present to the post office in, in the 2000
• 30:38
  when they were talking about the, all the automation with the
• 30:40
  FSS machines and everything. At that time, we, we as carriers
• 30:45
  already knew that the volume of flats were going down, that
• 30:48
  these machines wouldn't be needed the next 10 years or so.
• 30:53
  Yet, you know, they, they turned around and they changed all the,
• 30:56
  the dynamics that are, are utilized in determining the
• 31:01
  value of throwing flats because now the machine's going to run
• 31:04
  them for you. And I, and I still to this day
• 31:07
  couldn't figure it out. It's like, how the hell am I
• 31:10
  supposed to throw 83 flats a minute on an FSS machine?
• 31:15
  You know, especially if you're in the POV and, and didn't have
• 31:19
  a good trace system set up, OK, 'cause you know, you got
• 31:21
  exempted from that, you realize the case and all, but for the
• 31:25
  fact of the matter, the little yellow trays that didn't fit in,
• 31:28
  you had to restock them in the hard trays.
• 31:31
  The, the automation just jumped the numbers up and when they
• 31:34
  went up, so did the, the OR the numbers went up, but the value
• 31:38
  for each one went down and then turned around.
• 31:41
  And there was a correlation for the decrease value of DPS.
• 31:45
  The point now that you're in the 80s and you know, nobody's
• 31:49
  throwing. That's why most people are
• 31:50
  taking it to the street, just casing up their raw mail.
• 31:54
  But all the things they've done to save a buck on our back.
• 32:00
  And even with when, when they got the the Postal Reform Act
• 32:03
  done and and took that $75 billion hunting off our backs
• 32:07
  for, you know, pre funding people into the future who
• 32:10
  weren't even born yet. I mean, it, it just every time
• 32:15
  you turn around, it's off our backs, out of our pockets.
• 32:20
  And yet management, who's it posted up there, they had
• 32:24
  something like 22% pay increase in two years. 22%.
• 32:29
  Are you kidding me? I'd love, I'd love to see 10%,
• 32:34
  but we're not even getting, you know, 6% / 3 years.
• 32:40
  Well, and they're in offices now, trying to make themselves
• 32:43
  look useful. Because Doge is, is watching all
• 32:46
  of the things that they do. So they're trying to justify
• 32:48
  that increase. When when truly, I mean the, the
• 32:51
  carriers are the ones who deserve it.
• 32:53
  We're the ones out there delivering in the race.
• 32:55
  No sleet and shine. And and like somebody posted up
• 32:59
  that we do a different job than UPS, that's right, James.
• 33:02
  We do a different job because we are, we're held to a higher
• 33:05
  standards in regards of protecting the integrity of the
• 33:08
  mail. We are held to higher standards
• 33:10
  in regards to stopping at every mailbox, doing it right every
• 33:13
  day. And we're doing a lot more than
• 33:16
  what UPS does, you know, grab the package, drop the door, drop
• 33:19
  it off. But you know, OK, we are
• 33:23
  responsible for a lot more duties than UPS, so therefore we
• 33:27
  should be getting paid more than UPS.
• 33:31
  That was the exact argument I was going to make, but you made
• 33:34
  it for me, Bill. I'm so happy to assist you.
• 33:37
  That's that's how you have to, you have to arrange it and you
• 33:43
  have to, if management will open the door for you in arbitration,
• 33:51
  they'll open the door for you to try and lower the wages on
• 33:55
  carrier. When they say, oh, we haven't
• 33:57
  made to print off the blah, blah, blah, fine.
• 34:00
  If you haven't made a profit, give us the books.
• 34:03
  Show us the money. Show us everything you spend
• 34:07
  money on because I can guarantee you 50% of that loss of the post
• 34:14
  office is on management alone. 20% of that law is in grievance
• 34:20
  remedies, and none of it is in the salaries of carriers.
• 34:27
  None of it is in the salaries of mail handlers and clerks.
• 34:32
  None of it's in the salaries of BMF.
• 34:34
  Hell, none of it's in the parts to to repair the LL VS
• 34:38
  comparatively, it's all in the extra expenses they're spending
• 34:45
  for management. So if they open that up and they
• 34:50
  open up and say, hey, we're not making a profit here, show up in
• 34:54
  the arbitrator of the book. We want to see where we can help
• 34:57
  you save money. Now you've opened the arbitrator
• 35:01
  up to be able to actually help them do that as well.
• 35:04
  And your your comment about having to listen to other
• 35:07
  arbitrator they take can take them under advisement.
• 35:13
  That is what happens in arbitration.
• 35:15
  Every time you put an arbitrator's ruling in front of
• 35:18
  an arbitrator, it is an advisement.
• 35:21
  This is what your learned colleague said.
• 35:24
  It's the same thing when you take an argument to a appeals
• 35:31
  court, you know federal appeals court, they cover jurisdictions.
• 35:37
  And in terms of the appeals court, even numbered
• 35:41
  jurisdictions usually match each other and odd numbered
• 35:44
  jurisdictions match each other. You can take an odd numbered
• 35:49
  jurisdiction ruling to an even numbered jurisdiction and say
• 35:53
  your learned colleagues has said this, but they don't have to
• 35:57
  apply it. And the same thing is true with
• 36:00
  arbitrators. They can take it under
• 36:03
  advisement. They could quote it, they could
• 36:05
  use it, and they could agree with it.
• 36:09
  But every arbitration you go into when you start out, you
• 36:14
  have a 5050 chance of winning. But 90% of your chance of
• 36:20
  winning is how you prepare in the first place.
• 36:26
  Well, and you know, and I, when I read the arbitrator decision
• 36:31
  for the City side, I was so disappointed and I just, I, I
• 36:36
  mean, they rushed it. It was Renfro just selling the
• 36:41
  City side out to dry go and it seemed like he went rogue and
• 36:45
  not with the board. I mean, and I, I don't think
• 36:49
  that our board's going to do that, but I just, I think that
• 36:53
  that arbitrator's decision has screwed the rest of us now.
• 36:58
  And it's just, it's, it was supposed to be historic.
• 37:02
  It was supposed to be good for, for all of us.
• 37:05
  I mean, we all heard Renfro talk at our convention.
• 37:10
  But you know, and then the other thing you have to think about is
• 37:14
  in the meantime, while we're waiting for us to either ratify
• 37:20
  it or for us to go to arbitration, what, what is, what
• 37:25
  are our brothers and sisters of the craft?
• 37:27
  What are we losing in the meantime?
• 37:30
  And, and, and do we only gain, you know, .2% like the City
• 37:35
  side? Did you know, I mean, what's the
• 37:38
  cost of that all? I mean, and there's, we're not
• 37:42
  in a very pro labor time in our country.
• 37:46
  And I just, I wish that we were, it was under better
• 37:49
  circumstances. I wish the City side wouldn't
• 37:51
  have taken as long as it did. But the upheaval of all of these
• 37:57
  top people inside of the post office retiring, the joy being
• 38:01
  gone. There's, there's just a lot of
• 38:05
  the, the stuff with the NLRB, the stuff with MSPB, the stuff
• 38:09
  with EEO, you know, how does all of that affect this?
• 38:13
  And if we don't build back up our defenses against that, you
• 38:19
  know, it, we could, we could be having this conversation when
• 38:23
  there couldn't even be, there could be nothing, you know, and,
• 38:26
  and the, the loomingness of privatization and the benefits
• 38:31
  that, you know, that we have are all at risk.
• 38:37
  All right, let me go on that one.
• 38:39
  So the very first thing you said was in this current time, the
• 38:46
  thing about it was we were in a pro labor arena when City
• 38:56
  started their negotiation. We still had the ability to get
• 39:02
  a very good contract. When we entered negotiation, we
• 39:09
  could have gotten a strong pro labor contract before any of
• 39:16
  this stuff hit the fan. It's only been just over 100
• 39:20
  days under the current administration.
• 39:23
  It's been longer than that that we've been negotiating for a
• 39:25
  contract. Now, some people can say, you
• 39:30
  know one side or the other on that, but you had the ability to
• 39:36
  make a difference right then and there.
• 39:39
  When our contract expired and you hadn't made movements in a
• 39:45
  way that was positive for the craft back then, you should have
• 39:51
  gone to arbitration. Back when pro labor was the
• 39:55
  thing, we should have gone to arbitration.
• 39:58
  City carriers should have gone to arbitration back then because
• 40:04
  I can guarantee you under a pro labor government.
• 40:10
  Pro Labour NLRB, pro Labour MSPB and pro Labour in a lot of
• 40:19
  arbitration cases at that time, there could have been a
• 40:24
  significant increase for carriers, There could have been
• 40:29
  significant changes for the better for the craft.
• 40:34
  But the problem is these folks drug their heels, Renfro drug
• 40:41
  his heels out. And with their negotiations
• 40:44
  going on, he may have fooled our guys and said, hey, we're going
• 40:49
  to have an agreement here shortly.
• 40:50
  So just don't put anything out yet that might hurt our, our,
• 40:54
  our historic agreement that we're working on.
• 40:58
  But at the same time, you have to be at the top thinking of
• 41:05
  your craft first and only the city carrier brothers and
• 41:10
  sisters, we'll work with them, we'll negotiate with them if we
• 41:15
  need to on things. But at the end of the day, your
• 41:20
  craft is who you represent and we should have been making the
• 41:24
  move right then and there and try to work for a better TA
• 41:30
  right off the bat. The biggest problem is they sign
• 41:34
  a non disclosure agreement at the beginning of these
• 41:37
  negotiations and while it protects us slightly, it's
• 41:44
  supposed to be management doesn't release details of the
• 41:48
  negotiation and we don't release the details of the negotiation.
• 41:53
  It harms the craft and be able, being able to mobilize to stand
• 41:59
  up for injustices that management's doing.
• 42:03
  Like when Mastin told us that he had taken 3 separate proposals
• 42:11
  to management and they just threw them out.
• 42:15
  Didn't even bother sending a rebuttal negotiation back to the
• 42:20
  union. They just threw them out and our
• 42:23
  president turned around, kowtowed, and sent another one
• 42:28
  with concessions in it. How is that negotiating when the
• 42:34
  other side's not willing to negotiate with you and you're
• 42:37
  sending them a watered down packet of information because
• 42:44
  they rejected the one and threw it out before and then threw two
• 42:47
  more out after that? What are we supposed to do?
• 42:59
  When did that happen? What's happened?
• 43:03
  What? Happened when did he when did he
• 43:05
  say that? I'm, I'm just I, I've been
• 43:07
  trying to follow really closely. If you know, every and and I
• 43:13
  know that it, it's it's all been waiting on the City side because
• 43:18
  we didn't want to jump a gun and go ahead of city.
• 43:21
  And if city got, you know, more than we did and and then we've
• 43:26
  settled, you know, how pissed would we be at that too?
• 43:30
  You know, but I just don't remember when Don had said he
• 43:33
  presented them with something and they just threw it out.
• 43:38
  It was in one of his off the cuff remarks at SAC.
• 43:47
  If you remember I pointed that out in a previous episode of
• 43:51
  United we scan. He said that he had presented A
• 43:54
  tentative tentative contract to management and they just threw
• 43:58
  it in their the bin. So he presented 2 more to him,
• 44:01
  which also ended up in the bin. Also remember James when they
• 44:09
  came up with that agreement in regards to oh, what the hell was
• 44:15
  that they they presented gave them three and they they chose
• 44:18
  the third one 'cause it was the lease negative the.
• 44:23
  The MO. The MOU.
• 44:25
  MOU or. Mou too, yeah.
• 44:29
  Yeah, they had three versions and the one they selected was
• 44:33
  the lease offensive. Least damaging to the craft.
• 44:39
  Least damaging to the craft, even though it was still majorly
• 44:43
  damaging to the craft. It's like, hold it.
• 44:46
  If it's damaging whatsoever, it should never be agreed to.
• 44:51
  If one carrier is harmed, we're all harmed.
• 44:57
  And I also will say that MOU, that was, I believe in the
• 45:02
  history of the NRLCA, that was the first time carriers had to
• 45:07
  pay back management for management's mistake.
• 45:13
  Yep. All these engineers, all this
• 45:18
  data collection, all these AI, you know, computations and you
• 45:23
  couldn't figure out that this was going to happen.
• 45:26
  It wasn't. It wasn't like trying to predict
• 45:28
  the future in regards to, you know, how many children you're
• 45:31
  going to have, how long you live or will you be happily married,
• 45:34
  right? No, this was all data points
• 45:37
  that had a predictive future and they couldn't see that coming,
• 45:42
  even though they have all the information and we're still in
• 45:45
  the in the dark. We predicted it.
• 45:52
  We knew that people were going to go back up right after they
• 45:55
  got their evaluations because guess what?
• 45:58
  We're paid based on the past 52 weeks.
• 46:02
  Unless you're under the MOU, what you did the past 52 weeks
• 46:08
  is what you get paid for for the next 6 months, unless you're
• 46:14
  under the MOU. So you don't get actually paid
• 46:20
  fair wages for Fair Work under this Mou.
• 46:27
  Or do you get paid for more? Anything more than 57.36 hours
• 46:31
  on a 48K. And I believe that if they had,
• 46:39
  if they take the information they have, we have informed
• 46:42
  delivery that's now showing the magazines that are coming to you
• 46:45
  that day, like they have all the data for every single mailbox in
• 46:52
  the United States of America, every single address that gets
• 46:56
  mail has information to it. How can you not know the volume
• 47:00
  factor of each specific box as you move it?
• 47:04
  Yeah, but do they have the server capacity 'cause I mean, I
• 47:08
  know Ken Miracle is the one that said that it can only hold like
• 47:12
  13 weeks worth of data and then they have to like consolidate
• 47:15
  it. I'm pretty, I think that's what
• 47:17
  he said that you know, so if, if we're keeping, sorry, I
• 47:22
  shouldn't say we, if the Postal Service is keeping that data,
• 47:26
  you know, but invasion of privacy is that you know.
• 47:32
  They had 12 years to figure out how to store all this data.
• 47:35
  They did. Yeah, I agree it should have
• 47:38
  been more flashed out than what it's been.
• 47:41
  And, and according to Ken Miracle, OK, they and Joey
• 47:45
  Johnson stated their servers were outdated, overloaded and
• 47:51
  basically antiques. So how are you going to rely on
• 47:54
  equipment that's not capable of formulating all this data for
• 48:00
  years? Yeah, instead of spending all
• 48:03
  this money on SNDCS and these parcel sorting machines, why
• 48:07
  didn't you spend it on servers for this information?
• 48:14
  Well, they have that post, that new postal video that go, we
• 48:16
  have updated our technology and I'm like, how long is it going
• 48:20
  to take for us to get back pay? Yeah.
• 48:24
  But the last time they updated technology was called FSS
• 48:28
  machines that were so big, so expensive, they had to actually
• 48:32
  build buildings around the dam machines.
• 48:35
  They stayed in service for how long?
• 48:37
  Eight years? You you don't update technology
• 48:42
  for eight years like that. And then we still had to pay for
• 48:46
  the machines we didn't even take possession of because the
• 48:49
  contract was written that way. And we lost in court and had to
• 48:53
  pay for machines we never took ownership of.
• 49:12
  The thing for for me the most out of all of this is this
• 49:18
  tentative agreement does not give incentive for people to
• 49:25
  hire in here. It doesn't give enough pay to
• 49:32
  get them here because on the way back in Wisconsin, they're
• 49:38
  hiring at Walmart distribution Center for more than what our
• 49:42
  RCA makes. Same thing in Wyoming.
• 49:47
  Now Wyoming, I understand they have the oil boom out there.
• 49:50
  They're, you know, paying a little bit more for things out
• 49:52
  there. But still the RCA out there is
• 49:58
  currently making 2038 an hour when they can make 35 an hour at
• 50:05
  the Walmart DC and they don't have to provide their own
• 50:09
  vehicles. I mean, I don't think Walmart
• 50:11
  put on their sign that they have to provide their own forklift
• 50:13
  safety vest and pallet Jack, but these carriers do.
• 50:20
  They have to provide a car that is in good condition, able to
• 50:24
  handle the daily volume of mail, pay for the maintenance on that,
• 50:28
  the insurance on it, everything for their job.
• 50:33
  And they're making almost a little over $15.00 an hour less.
• 50:39
  And good luck finding a vehicle that you can just buy cheaply to
• 50:44
  be able to deliver mail out of without having to do some sort
• 50:48
  of modification. Now back in the day, you could
• 50:51
  when I first started as an RCA, it was easy to find a sedan with
• 50:56
  a bench seat or, you know, I used an O2 Ford Explorer Sport 2
• 51:01
  door. But I could easily didn't have
• 51:04
  to move the console out. I could easily put my foot over
• 51:07
  to the driver to to the pedals. The same with my 99 Blazer.
• 51:11
  You can't find anything like that now at an affordable price
• 51:15
  that would work. I mean, we were lucky enough to
• 51:18
  find Ruby's vehicle for $1500 and it actually runs.
• 51:24
  But then I wasn't able to put the free set of pedals into it
• 51:29
  because it didn't wasn't, didn't work.
• 51:33
  So I had to spend another $715 on the proper pedals to get it
• 51:39
  to work. So now we're already $2200 in
• 51:44
  just so she could start training.
• 51:47
  And she can't get the incentive. Yeah, yeah, I bet off of my I
• 51:54
  used to be on APOV route that went 70 miles and I bid off of
• 51:59
  it when I was pregnant because I I was putting more into it than
• 52:04
  I was getting an EMA and I couldn't there was I couldn't
• 52:07
  find a vehicle that was going to be, you know, to make it worth
• 52:11
  it. And I and I was RCA Table 1, you
• 52:14
  know, sorry, Table 2 going into it and it's it just wasn't it
• 52:20
  wasn't feasible. But I just, I just don't know
• 52:24
  how we, how, how do we, because we can all just pound our fists
• 52:32
  and be frustrated at, you know, the diet cola, the, and, and
• 52:37
  everything that's going on with all of this.
• 52:40
  But how do we collectively come together in agreement and push
• 52:48
  for it as a union? Because you know, regardless of
• 52:52
  how you feel about the national board, how you feel about the
• 52:55
  union, it's all of us. I mean, I, I, it's, I've seen
• 53:01
  all of us on here that are on here right now.
• 53:05
  We're all collectively doing each any bit that we can.
• 53:10
  And it, it, we just all have to come to somewhat of an agreement
• 53:16
  on, you know, this is what we deserve and this is what we're
• 53:21
  holding firm on. And is the, is, is it what, what
• 53:26
  is the Postal Service doing to the national board where it is
• 53:31
  that 1.41.31.5 What, what, what can we do?
• 53:37
  I mean, there's just, there's a lot going on with everything and
• 53:42
  it, it just can't be us slamming our fists down.
• 53:45
  It's it may be cathartic for, for, you know, people to write
• 53:51
  on Facebook and, and, and for us to even have these conversations
• 53:56
  and whatnot, But at the end of the day, what, what good has
• 54:00
  come from it? You know, like, what are we
• 54:03
  doing constructively right now to push this forward so that it
• 54:08
  we do have better wages so that, you know, we, we can't strike.
• 54:13
  I know that's illegal, but it's, and I'm not saying that we
• 54:17
  should ever do that. I'm just, we have to be able to
• 54:20
  do something instead of just slamming our fists and and
• 54:23
  trying to be keyboard warriors on Facebook about all this.
• 54:28
  So we currently have a president who is afraid of arbitration.
• 54:39
  Every time he talks about arbitration and things occurring
• 54:45
  in arbitration, he always talks about it as a loss to the union.
• 54:51
  He always talks about how we have a 22% win rate in
• 54:55
  arbitration. However, I'm not going to
• 54:59
  mention names, but somebody told me, and they're a reliable
• 55:03
  source, that they only take things to arbitration.
• 55:08
  They know they're going to win. So if you have a 22% win rate
• 55:13
  with things you know you're going to win, what the hell are
• 55:16
  you doing in arbitration? Put somebody else in there.
• 55:20
  But at the same time, if you're afraid of arbitration, you
• 55:23
  already are walking in on your back foot.
• 55:27
  Do you already think it's going to be a loss?
• 55:28
  When you walk into arbitration, you're already behind the 8
• 55:32
  ball. Every arbitration you walk into,
• 55:36
  you need to be in the mindset of I'm going to win and I will tell
• 55:40
  you the people who, and I'm going to get crap ton of hate
• 55:48
  mail over this. Rex Bill, hold your tongue.
• 55:55
  Rex was an arbitration decision. It was supposed to be a way for
• 56:03
  carriers to be even more fairly compensated for the work that
• 56:09
  they actually do. And I do applaud the arbitrator
• 56:14
  on that ruling. The reason why is that
• 56:19
  arbitrator specifically said, I'm willing to assist you
• 56:25
  setting this up and making sure it is fair and equitable.
• 56:32
  And our union leadership at the time and management agreed to do
• 56:41
  it together. That means our union management
• 56:45
  believed management would not climb a tree to lie, but would
• 56:48
  stand on the ground to tell them the truth.
• 56:52
  And then we get this abomination of Rex because we could have had
• 56:58
  a neutral third party not associated with any of the
• 57:03
  process assisting us through this whole setup.
• 57:07
  We could have had Rex earlier. It could have been better
• 57:11
  prepared and it could have been actually fair and equitable had
• 57:20
  people not cowed, cowed down. Go ahead, Bill, lay it on me.
• 57:29
  I. I can't.
• 57:30
  I, I, I can't. Rex, to me is one of these
• 57:38
  things where, you know, we're off to see the Wizard, the
• 57:41
  wonderful Wizard of Oz because, because, because, because.
• 57:46
  But the Rex actually offered was a fair evaluation of our duties.
• 57:55
  And then it got as mortified because we had to throw some
• 58:00
  changes in. Well, OK, that's nice.
• 58:03
  But where's the transparency? Well, we don't have any
• 58:07
  transparency. We're fighting the post office
• 58:09
  for transparency. We're not fighting it.
• 58:11
  But you, you can't get, you couldn't tell me that 40% of the
• 58:19
  offices in the, in this country have radar reports and PTR
• 58:23
  reports up every day, OK, including mine, you know, I
• 58:28
  mean, you know, we, we have a, a a week right now.
• 58:33
  So you, you don't have that. You can't tell me that with Rex
• 58:38
  with all the data points. Like I said, wouldn't project
• 58:42
  misalignment of evaluation after the cuts after a mini male
• 58:47
  survey and then turn around and ask for money back from people
• 58:52
  who already have done the work. Are you freaking kidding me?
• 59:00
  I would have been in jail if they would have gave me a letter
• 59:03
  of demand or an invoice. Excuse me, an invoice for back
• 59:06
  pay for something I've already done after spending six years
• 59:10
  with an over evaluated route and never getting paid 1 penny over
• 59:15
  57.36. The problem of it is and and,
• 59:20
  and she points out to me I was correct.
• 59:23
  What can we do? Well, you do what we do.
• 59:25
  We're on a podcast, we're getting people involved.
• 59:28
  We're, we're trying to educate people.
• 59:30
  We're trying to assist them in regards to, you know, how, how
• 59:34
  to make sure your office is running according to the
• 59:36
  contract, that you're being treated fairly, that you're not
• 59:39
  being intimidated, that you're not being retaliated against.
• 59:42
  This is what we're doing. This is our format.
• 59:45
  Yes, one person, one vote for a national board.
• 59:49
  When the national board turns around and unanimously agrees on
• 59:53
  the MOU in regards to paying the money back and saying that was
• 59:58
  their best option, there's something wrong with the
• 1:00:00
  national board having this mindset of being unanimous.
• 1:00:04
  When the national board puts forth ATA that they say they
• 1:00:08
  unanimously support, again, there's something wrong with the
• 1:00:12
  mentality of the national board thinking that this is fair and
• 1:00:16
  just and represents the best interests of our craft.
• 1:00:20
  Or the fact that our president sat there and said, oh, we're
• 1:00:23
  going to get substantial increases.
• 1:00:26
  Uh huh. That didn't happen, did it,
• 1:00:28
  folks? So here we go.
• 1:00:31
  We're going to get go to another convention and you're going to
• 1:00:34
  have these old heads back in there again.
• 1:00:36
  And you know, a third of the people there are going to be of
• 1:00:39
  the NSS who are emboldened to vote for the current status quo
• 1:00:45
  because that's their paycheck. We need to get the national
• 1:00:49
  steward System, dissolve it and put it back in the hands of the
• 1:00:52
  states. You can't keep centralizing
• 1:00:55
  power in one body that leads for corruption, that leads for, you
• 1:01:02
  know, just overall disdain for the craft because it doesn't
• 1:01:06
  matter. As long as they're getting paid.
• 1:01:09
  They really don't have your concern at heart.
• 1:01:13
  Ever. Go look at the home that these
• 1:01:16
  people are living in. Look at the $192,000 a year
• 1:01:20
  they're earning and if one of them were ever to say, well,
• 1:01:24
  Bill, we have to be paid this much because my, my spouse gave
• 1:01:28
  up their job, you know, to, to come live with me.
• 1:01:31
  Well, no, nobody said your wife had to come live with you or
• 1:01:33
  your husband had to come live with you.
• 1:01:35
  Nobody said that they had to, you know, give up their jobs at
• 1:01:38
  all. We're not responsible for your
• 1:01:42
  income in regards to what your spouse may or may not have lost.
• 1:01:47
  We're not paying the spouse, we're paying you.
• 1:01:51
  Well, my my fiance, my fiance, he stays home because childcare
• 1:01:57
  costs more than what he was making.
• 1:01:59
  What's your earning? Yeah, exactly.
• 1:02:02
  You know, I I've got a son the same way.
• 1:02:03
  You know, he's working for a Cooper Medical, making 45 an
• 1:02:07
  hour as a paramedic. His wife works, you know, as a
• 1:02:10
  emergency dispatcher and they're paying 420 a week for daycare.
• 1:02:16
  And it's like, are you kidding? Daycare had to shut down
• 1:02:19
  because, you know, they had a kid with, you know, a little
• 1:02:21
  fever and they still had to pay for the two days that their kid
• 1:02:24
  was fine. So I, I, I realize that trust
• 1:02:28
  me, I worked 6 1/2 years, 2 full time jobs so that my wife can
• 1:02:35
  stay home with the kids. Average 4 1/2 hours of sleep a
• 1:02:39
  night for 6 1/2 years. I know the suffering and the
• 1:02:44
  pain, OK, but my family was worth it.
• 1:02:47
  It was more important for me to have that mother there,
• 1:02:51
  instilling the values in our children to become the young men
• 1:02:55
  that they've become. But not everybody's equipped to
• 1:02:58
  do that. Not everybody has a spouse.
• 1:03:02
  But why are we paying these people double what carriers make
• 1:03:07
  and providing them? Triple the table.
• 1:03:12
  I was just going to say triple what Table 2 makes, but yeah.
• 1:03:16
  Yeah. Well, and I, I just, I thought
• 1:03:19
  that after, you know, out of the the I, I started listening to
• 1:03:26
  you guys when, you know, it was the with our Rex going into
• 1:03:31
  effect and everybody freaking out when we were quote, quote
• 1:03:35
  wrecked and upset. And I thought that that was
• 1:03:38
  going to be the moment where the craft stood up and started
• 1:03:43
  showing up to meetings and getting more involved.
• 1:03:46
  And you know, it if if you looked on Facebook, that's how
• 1:03:51
  it looked. And you know, this kind of
• 1:03:53
  reminds me of that time, but but does that correlate to these to
• 1:03:59
  these people showing up to meetings?
• 1:04:02
  And I get it. I know that it's time consuming
• 1:04:05
  and whatnot, but I, I have AI, have a four year old kid and I'm
• 1:04:09
  involved. I'm still doing it because I
• 1:04:12
  want to make sure that I'm taking care of that.
• 1:04:16
  My Co workers are taking care of that.
• 1:04:19
  The new Rcas that are coming in don't have to deal with the same
• 1:04:22
  stuff that I did. And I just, I, I just don't know
• 1:04:26
  what it will take for more people to get involved because,
• 1:04:30
  because are, are we going to have people actually even voting
• 1:04:34
  on this TA are, are people actually going to do it?
• 1:04:38
  I mean, the, the average everyday rule carrier, you know,
• 1:04:42
  I know doesn't want to be as invested in all of this too, but
• 1:04:46
  they should be able to, to come in when they, when they can and
• 1:04:50
  whatnot. But I mean, what?
• 1:04:52
  What's it going to take? You know the problem is the
• 1:05:00
  problem I have for carriers, the problem I have with with the
• 1:05:05
  carriers being able to go to these things is a lot of them
• 1:05:08
  firstly, can't afford to. I have, I have an RCA in my
• 1:05:13
  office that after they pay all their bills and they are on a
• 1:05:18
  Oxnard hold down just to make sure they have enough money and
• 1:05:23
  helps out whenever possible to make the extra money.
• 1:05:26
  Goes home, pays all their bills, pays for their child care, and
• 1:05:32
  has $6 leftover out of their paycheck, $6 for emergency, $6
• 1:05:38
  for vacation, $6 for anything that comes up.
• 1:05:44
  And then you have the times that these meetings are for instance,
• 1:05:48
  my county's meeting is at six at 7:00 PM on a Wednesday.
• 1:05:55
  Now, if you're traveling from the farthest corner of the
• 1:05:58
  county to come to that meeting and our state just changed them
• 1:06:03
  over to local units, but I, it's still considered Oakland County.
• 1:06:09
  It's an hour drive down back roads to get there before you
• 1:06:13
  can get on the major roads. You know, and some people have
• 1:06:18
  2-3 hours to drive to their local meetings, but they have
• 1:06:23
  them at on a weekday in the evening, which makes it
• 1:06:27
  difficult for those that are on large routes to be able to make
• 1:06:31
  them. And then you have these
• 1:06:33
  conferences where somebody on Table 2 has to get help to be
• 1:06:41
  able to go. Thank you, Bill.
• 1:06:43
  You know, it's, it's one of those things that thank you to
• 1:06:49
  everybody else that has helped me along the way as well.
• 1:06:52
  You know, and it's one of those things that me going to all
• 1:06:56
  these conferences like I have, I've incurred a lot of debt
• 1:07:00
  doing that, but it's for the betterment of the craft.
• 1:07:04
  But there are a lot of people that can't justify paying 130 a
• 1:07:10
  hundred and $5200 for a hotel room, let alone the 200.
• 1:07:18
  I'm not just saying that these big conferences and whatnot, I
• 1:07:22
  mean, I've had meetings with just the RC as in my office, we
• 1:07:26
  just go to, to the, the pizza shop and we all just converse
• 1:07:31
  and have a, a face to face conversation with one another.
• 1:07:35
  I mean that it, it doesn't just take the forum of, of us having,
• 1:07:41
  you know, a district or a, you know, an area conference or a
• 1:07:47
  state convention. I mean, there is other avenues
• 1:07:50
  that we can all be doing and we're just not doing it and I, I
• 1:07:56
  don't know what I don't is it that we just feel like we can't
• 1:08:00
  do we feel like we've, you know, been cathartic enough online,
• 1:08:04
  but but like when I, when I hear these concerns from the carriers
• 1:08:08
  and my office, yes, Sir, yes, you can Yep, you, I, I bring it
• 1:08:13
  to those bigger meetings. You know, we it doesn't I
• 1:08:17
  because I know that not everybody can go it.
• 1:08:21
  It just, it takes more than just yes, it is it takes more than
• 1:08:27
  just these it, it, it can't just be the big ones.
• 1:08:31
  And I know, you know, Western states was in Montana and it was
• 1:08:35
  a lot more remote to get to for a lot of people.
• 1:08:38
  But you know, next year Western states is in Las Vegas.
• 1:08:42
  So is it, is it or a lot of people going to show up there
• 1:08:45
  because it's cheaper to fly to it?
• 1:08:47
  But I, I just think that we need to get back to the, the, the
• 1:08:52
  localized, the localized meetings that we can all have
• 1:08:58
  and voicing concerns there and bringing it to a more official
• 1:09:02
  capacity because just all of us bitching on Facebook is not
• 1:09:07
  going to do any good. It's, it's not, it's not
• 1:09:10
  bringing us together. It's just creating more
• 1:09:14
  division. And it, I have a problem.
• 1:09:18
  Let's write a resolution. I mean, who was it that wrote
• 1:09:21
  that? There was her.
• 1:09:23
  They went to their, their district meeting and this was
• 1:09:25
  the first time that they had had had ever done resolutions.
• 1:09:31
  I want to hear more stories like that going on.
• 1:09:35
  Me too, and and you're right. About the the bitching and all
• 1:09:38
  that. And we do preach against that in
• 1:09:40
  regards as you know. Don't just bitch and quit and
• 1:09:43
  stop putting the anonymous post. Get involved, stand up, become a
• 1:09:46
  voice, become a leader. That that we've we've had people
• 1:09:49
  actually say I became a steward because of the podcast.
• 1:09:54
  And yes, you know, everybody you know, is entitled to their own
• 1:09:57
  opinion and you need to work together.
• 1:10:00
  But the, the problem of it is, is that if you don't put forth
• 1:10:04
  the effort like directs training, if you don't put it in
• 1:10:07
  your wallet, if you don't put it in the scanner, it doesn't go in
• 1:10:10
  the wallet. The same thing here.
• 1:10:11
  If you don't put the effort into learning about the union, the
• 1:10:15
  the rules and everything, you're not going to get anything back
• 1:10:19
  out of it. We have our local meeting coming
• 1:10:22
  up next, next Thursday. I provide food for it.
• 1:10:26
  OK, Then we're going to have Olive Garden food there and you
• 1:10:29
  have to respond. So I know how to order food and
• 1:10:31
  everything, but we are one of the few union chapters, local
• 1:10:37
  chapters that would do this stuff.
• 1:10:39
  When I put out the letter for inviting all our members to
• 1:10:44
  attend, State Secretary says, well, you can't put in there
• 1:10:48
  about them being disillusioned, Bill, why can't I?
• 1:10:51
  Well, you know, that's kind of negative connotation.
• 1:10:54
  Excuse me, It's the truth. People are disillusioned with
• 1:10:59
  the craft, with the union, with the national steward system.
• 1:11:04
  When? When you have an area steward in
• 1:11:05
  your office who doesn't do anything, yes, you're a bit
• 1:11:09
  disillusioned. When he tells you to go to the
• 1:11:12
  supervisor for a grievance form instead of having him readily
• 1:11:16
  available for you, yes, you're disillusioned.
• 1:11:20
  When you file, you know, an EEO and nothing's done.
• 1:11:23
  We actually had the district manager, our SDCSDNC, up on EEO
• 1:11:30
  charges, and then they turned around and switched the Dr. and
• 1:11:34
  the Dr. that took over never pursued them.
• 1:11:40
  This is the stuff we're fighting, the apathy because
• 1:11:44
  what do I get for my union dollar?
• 1:11:46
  You know, you're not much, but we're here every Sunday fighting
• 1:11:51
  the same fight, trying to get people involved, trying to
• 1:11:55
  educate them. You know, I had a carrier turn
• 1:11:59
  around and and text me in regards to who to vote for all
• 1:12:03
  for our delegates going to the National Convention.
• 1:12:07
  I can't recommend that. You know, you need to, you know,
• 1:12:10
  look at these people research and then off to the side, you
• 1:12:13
  know, I turn around and say, OK, here's the ones that really
• 1:12:16
  represent the craft because of the fact that I can't put that
• 1:12:19
  in any type of, you know, traceable communication.
• 1:12:24
  The fact of the matter is you know you have to get involved.
• 1:12:29
  You know, and we're working with people who started out in life
• 1:12:35
  in a time when unions were in turmoil.
• 1:12:39
  You know, in the 70s and 80s, unions were big when we became a
• 1:12:45
  global economy, when we started shipping things off overseas and
• 1:12:50
  manufacturing in the United States started shutting down, we
• 1:12:54
  lost a lot of union jobs and they were replaced with non
• 1:12:59
  union jobs. And over time, especially after
• 1:13:04
  the decision to fire air traffic controllers for striking and
• 1:13:09
  then the corruption within the UAW Teamsters and other union
• 1:13:14
  organizations, they were painted as a bad dog in the media and
• 1:13:19
  and through government, all kinds of places.
• 1:13:23
  The keep the kids that grew up in our time frame here now don't
• 1:13:30
  know what it's like to be in a union household in a lot of
• 1:13:34
  places, don't know what it's like to have that support system
• 1:13:38
  of a union and don't know how to reach out to a union system like
• 1:13:45
  ours. That's the biggest problem is we
• 1:13:50
  have a lack of knowledge across this entire craft.
• 1:13:57
  People that have 2025 years and with the post office don't know
• 1:14:02
  who their first contact is as a designated union representative.
• 1:14:07
  That's a problem. We have designated unit
• 1:14:11
  representatives that haven't met the carriers that they're
• 1:14:15
  supposed to represent. That's a problem.
• 1:14:20
  We don't have union representation in every single
• 1:14:24
  office. That's a problem.
• 1:14:27
  And I'm not talking about covering the office in the
• 1:14:31
  office. We need to get people to know
• 1:14:37
  the union 1st and know how to voice their concerns to the
• 1:14:44
  union. And when they voice those
• 1:14:46
  concerns, those concerns need to be understood.
• 1:14:53
  Just like I said at at Western states in my speech, listen to
• 1:14:58
  understand that's what our union representatives need to do.
• 1:15:04
  And when I talk about voting no on this tentative agreement that
• 1:15:09
  is getting the national board to listen, whether they listen to
• 1:15:17
  respond or listen to understand will be the difference.
• 1:15:21
  Whether we vote this up or we don't.
• 1:15:24
  It's not going to be the end of the world if we do vote this
• 1:15:28
  out. I don't see us hiring many more
• 1:15:31
  people. It's not going to be easy hiring
• 1:15:34
  RCA. It's not going to help the
• 1:15:37
  hiring or retention problem. I don't see any extra protection
• 1:15:41
  for carriers in there from hostile and toxic management.
• 1:15:45
  I don't see a fix where our craft is protected better.
• 1:15:52
  These are the problems carriers are facing on a daily basis, and
• 1:15:56
  not one of those problems was addressed.
• 1:16:00
  That is my problem with this tentative agreement.
• 1:16:08
  Potentially higher starting wages, the need to eliminate
• 1:16:12
  lower wage tiers, and a faster path to career or credible
• 1:16:17
  service. You got none of that.
• 1:16:22
  In workplace environment was not even addressed retention.
• 1:16:28
  I you know, besides the wages, especially the starting wages,
• 1:16:34
  the number one reason for the lack of retention is the
• 1:16:41
  workplace environment. The bullshit that we get from
• 1:16:46
  management or or the bullshit that we observe by management to
• 1:16:56
  another carrier or especially even newer Rcas that don't know
• 1:17:04
  their rights yet that don't or are afraid to stand up for
• 1:17:08
  themselves because they are probationary.
• 1:17:14
  To me, the biggest concern is the workplace environment.
• 1:17:19
  I think once that can be tackled and that, and that's just not
• 1:17:26
  individual offices. I mean, yes, we have our Unicorn
• 1:17:29
  offices out there. Thank goodness.
• 1:17:31
  I respect those. I used to work, I used to have
• 1:17:34
  Unicorn management when I first started.
• 1:17:36
  So I know what it's like to work under management that way.
• 1:17:39
  I also know what it's like to work with management like I
• 1:17:42
  currently do, and it's not right.
• 1:17:48
  And you could, yeah, we, we, you know, we have gone down the
• 1:17:51
  grievance Rd. but it doesn't always fix it, at least not
• 1:17:56
  right away. It can take a long, long time.
• 1:18:01
  And that's even if it gets addressed by upper management.
• 1:18:03
  I think something with the workplace environment needs to
• 1:18:06
  come from national to upper management to get these office
• 1:18:14
  level managers and their bosses under control.
• 1:18:23
  Because when we try to do anything in the office, even if
• 1:18:26
  we do have a successful cease and desist, it's it's still they
• 1:18:33
  find their workarounds. So it looks less obvious, but
• 1:18:38
  it's still there. And that was actually addressed,
• 1:18:43
  too. They said, you know, we can take
• 1:18:46
  a grievance to labor and labor will agree with us, but
• 1:18:50
  operations will still do it anyway.
• 1:18:53
  Why is it that operations isn't listening to labor?
• 1:18:56
  Why isn't management listening to management?
• 1:18:59
  That's a problem of management. But that right there alone
• 1:19:04
  speaks volumes to the disarray of management in general and how
• 1:19:10
  even when we fight, management's not going to listen to us
• 1:19:15
  because they don't care. They'd rather it's, it's still,
• 1:19:19
  like I said before, it's like paying out for recalls by the
• 1:19:24
  big auto manufacturers. It's cheaper to do a recall than
• 1:19:28
  it is to fix the problem on the line.
• 1:19:34
  Also, analysis put it on an actuarial table to say this is
• 1:19:39
  what it's going to cost us. Do it now versus later.
• 1:19:48
  You know, and the biggest, the biggest, biggest, biggest thing
• 1:19:53
  we need to remember, if you don't stand for something, you
• 1:20:00
  stand for nothing. You don't fight for better.
• 1:20:04
  You've already lost. You can fight and lose.
• 1:20:09
  But at least you had the wherewithal to step up and fight
• 1:20:14
  for what's right. You know, and it's like me, I
• 1:20:19
  was saying with the social media keyboard warriors, I would like
• 1:20:24
  to see how many of them are actually active.
• 1:20:29
  I know a good majority of them are non union members.
• 1:20:34
  There are quite a few of them that are union members, but how
• 1:20:38
  many of them that our members are actually active?
• 1:20:43
  I don't have time for that, but you know, I, I, I can post
• 1:20:46
  something up in 15 seconds, but I can't go travelling the
• 1:20:49
  meetings and this and that and, and I really don't want to get
• 1:20:52
  involved because I have other things I'm interested in and,
• 1:20:55
  you know, shut the fuck up. Exactly.
• 1:21:00
  I mean, how many people came up to us in Reno to say, hey, I'm,
• 1:21:07
  I threw my name in the head to be a delegate.
• 1:21:10
  I'm here as a delegate because of you guys.
• 1:21:14
  Yeah. I became a delegate.
• 1:21:16
  I came because of you guys. How?
• 1:21:18
  I mean I was like the biggest. Eye opener too, for everything.
• 1:21:23
  It was, I mean, I can't count how many people just that came
• 1:21:29
  up to me and told me that. And these same ones, a lot of
• 1:21:35
  them, I mean not all of them, but I know quite a few of them
• 1:21:38
  and even some of them came on their own dime as non delegates
• 1:21:43
  to be there. And I know quite a few of them
• 1:21:47
  are doing what they can do to come again this year, you know,
• 1:21:54
  and that don't. Forget all the people.
• 1:21:58
  Don't forget all the people that have rejoined as dues paying
• 1:22:03
  members after they pulled their dues because of the good we're
• 1:22:07
  doing on this podcast. But just to get people involved,
• 1:22:15
  that was always my my biggest thing is for people to be
• 1:22:19
  involved. And educated.
• 1:22:22
  And educated, definitely. I mean, I get it can be hard to
• 1:22:25
  go to meetings. I I understand I was in RCA for
• 1:22:31
  just shy of nine years. A lot of things that I went to
• 1:22:36
  was on my own dime. Did it put me in debt?
• 1:22:39
  Absolutely. As A to sleep.
• 1:22:43
  With the trains man in in bed in Florida, it's absolutely.
• 1:22:48
  You know you draw straws and who's bunking with who.
• 1:22:51
  You know, it happens, but you know, it's, you know, there are
• 1:22:57
  ways to make it work, but you have to put the work into it to
• 1:23:02
  make it work. You know, that's I mean, I have
• 1:23:07
  I, I'm rather bummed myself that I'm going to miss fall booster.
• 1:23:13
  I can make this make the state board meeting the day before
• 1:23:16
  booster starts, but I won't be able to attend booster.
• 1:23:20
  And you know, that's only going to be the third booster I've
• 1:23:24
  missed. And that's because that's, you
• 1:23:28
  know, that I've already had plans.
• 1:23:30
  That's where my trip to Italy is.
• 1:23:32
  And I'm actually rather bummed about missing it because I enjoy
• 1:23:36
  going because even if I always learn something new when I go,
• 1:23:41
  it may be a small minute thing but it's something maybe oh hey,
• 1:23:45
  I didn't know that before or oh OK, that's how that should be
• 1:23:50
  interpreted. You do pick.
• 1:23:53
  Or you have somebody ask you a question and you're like, Oh
• 1:23:56
  yeah, I did hear that at this meeting that he said this.
• 1:23:59
  Yes, exactly. I might have, I might have a, a,
• 1:24:04
  a picture of what was up on the, the, the the screen at the time
• 1:24:07
  that to show that here. Let me see if I can find that
• 1:24:09
  for you. I mean, I've got you know, it,
• 1:24:12
  it, it's stuff like that. And you know, when you're
• 1:24:15
  talking about being active and just and I I love me.
• 1:24:18
  I was idea of having meetings with just the Rcas, you know,
• 1:24:22
  pick a pizza spot in a night and try and get everybody together.
• 1:24:25
  I love that idea. That's something that I'm going
• 1:24:28
  to talk to my local steward to about trying to get.
• 1:24:31
  You know, our all of our RC as in our office are we've got
• 1:24:38
  three that are brand new as in one hired in just before peak
• 1:24:44
  season and actually didn't get trained on his route until after
• 1:24:48
  peak season. And then the next one got higher
• 1:24:52
  that that started training right after that one was trained.
• 1:24:56
  And then we've got Ruby. So that's three in the last six
• 1:25:00
  months. And then we've got the other two
• 1:25:04
  that have been there for just over a year.
• 1:25:06
  So they are still relatively new.
• 1:25:11
  You know, I have regulars. I am still the only one in my
• 1:25:16
  office with the exception of Ruby.
• 1:25:17
  Now that goes to the local meetings.
• 1:25:20
  I was heartbroke at my my most recent meeting that we spent 4.
• 1:25:26
  The three board members of us spent almost 1/2 hour, 45
• 1:25:30
  minutes just trying to get one more person at that meeting so
• 1:25:34
  we didn't have to dissolve our local unit.
• 1:25:39
  That's all we needed was 1. Luckily we've got that.
• 1:25:41
  We got that one person to save our local our local unit.
• 1:25:45
  We didn't have a quorum otherwise.
• 1:25:49
  That's why it's important. Yes, annual meetings are
• 1:25:52
  business, but that allows the local membership to see how the
• 1:25:58
  business is supposed to work and what goes into it, even if just
• 1:26:02
  on the local level. Yes, the state level's quite
• 1:26:05
  similar and a lot bigger than national.
• 1:26:07
  Same thing, but it's all under one umbrella for the most part
• 1:26:12
  and rules and constitutions in policies and stuff are set.
• 1:26:18
  So it's a similar process, just on a different scale.
• 1:26:23
  People don't understand that they come to one of those
• 1:26:25
  meetings and it's all business and they get bored and or
• 1:26:28
  they're just like, well, I didn't learn anything.
• 1:26:30
  It was all this, this and that. And I understand that.
• 1:26:35
  I remember our largest turn out for my local, we were to have a
• 1:26:39
  guest speaker. Unfortunately, our guest speaker
• 1:26:42
  was over an hour late. Our membership attending after
• 1:26:49
  that declined greatly. Like I said, to the point of
• 1:26:53
  literally begging people to just show up, hurry up, please show
• 1:26:57
  up so we can do this. That's.
• 1:27:03
  What's happened to ours, too? Our guest speaker has
• 1:27:06
  consistently been late. And I told them I was like,
• 1:27:10
  there's people who are now it's, it's embarrassing.
• 1:27:14
  It's, it's these people came to talk to them.
• 1:27:18
  And I, I just think that we have to take, I don't know if I want
• 1:27:22
  to say take matters into our own hands, but we have to organize
• 1:27:26
  ourselves together in these, you know, all of the smaller little
• 1:27:32
  groups together. You know, this, this podcast is
• 1:27:36
  an example of that. I mean, even discord and
• 1:27:39
  everything, because I mean, I've found a different community with
• 1:27:43
  you guys all on here and, you know, I've reached out to
• 1:27:47
  different people across the whole country and what are our
• 1:27:51
  similar? We have more that we're, we all
• 1:27:53
  have in common than what divides us all.
• 1:27:56
  Because we, you know, I just, I was talking with with somebody
• 1:28:00
  to that, like I could reach out across the whole country and if
• 1:28:04
  I needed something, you know, another rule carrier, another
• 1:28:08
  postal worker will will help because we're all, we're all
• 1:28:13
  together with it all, you know, and I.
• 1:28:16
  Just I don't like. Seeing a division, I don't like
• 1:28:19
  the division that's going on and I just think something's got to
• 1:28:23
  give and I that's, that's actually why I was like Kristen,
• 1:28:28
  like, hey, I got to say something because you know, I, I
• 1:28:33
  know that we deserve more money. I know that, but but what is it
• 1:28:37
  going to take and what is it going to take for people to wake
• 1:28:40
  up and actually show up and care about their job and care about
• 1:28:46
  their, their future and their, their money?
• 1:28:49
  Because I, I personally, I like delivering mail.
• 1:28:53
  There's days where I get annoyed and pissed off, but like seeing
• 1:28:57
  my customers and whatnot. I mean, I want to be able to
• 1:29:01
  keep doing it and and not have to worry financially.
• 1:29:06
  Oh, and I agree. I mean, I love my job.
• 1:29:09
  Yes, there's days where we walk in that office and we see what
• 1:29:12
  we got and we're like, oh great, OK, let's do this.
• 1:29:17
  But once you get out on that street, you know, and you see
• 1:29:20
  and you're interacting with your customers and you're you're, you
• 1:29:24
  know, that's what I love. I come from a customer service
• 1:29:28
  background and, and so still being able to be able to serve
• 1:29:33
  people in a way is what I really love about the job.
• 1:29:37
  But at the same time, we are working for the most part
• 1:29:40
  independent. But when it comes to the union,
• 1:29:46
  we, we, we need to be unified. We need to not be divided when
• 1:29:56
  it comes to things that affects our jobs directly.
• 1:30:00
  We need to stand together, whether that's against
• 1:30:03
  management or we stand together in resolutions and taking up
• 1:30:09
  issues with our elected officials.
• 1:30:17
  I've seen also, you know, our, our union has, you know, when I
• 1:30:21
  first started coming to meetings, I had asked the person
• 1:30:24
  who kind of got me involved in a lot of it.
• 1:30:26
  I said, why isn't the union on Facebook?
• 1:30:29
  And she was like, oh, they would never, they would never do that.
• 1:30:32
  And I'm like, but if, if you want to reach this younger
• 1:30:36
  generation of carriers that are coming on, that's what you have
• 1:30:40
  to start doing. And, you know, to have come as
• 1:30:44
  far as having, you know, whether I, I critique Don's videos that
• 1:30:49
  he puts out on YouTube and, and, and laugh just like the
• 1:30:54
  Starbucks cups and everything. But I mean, I'm just happy to
• 1:30:58
  see something. And I think that we
• 1:31:02
  collectively, I mean it, it's our union.
• 1:31:06
  It's not just the national boards union, it's our union and
• 1:31:10
  pushing for them to keep doing better and improving upon that.
• 1:31:14
  We just have to keep that momentum going.
• 1:31:17
  And this was a good one that was just put in, the listener chat
• 1:31:21
  said. Our brothers and sisters are an
• 1:31:23
  army, stewards are munition officers.
• 1:31:26
  We can hand every freaking one of them a bazooka, but unless
• 1:31:30
  they will pull the trigger in battle, we'll lose the war.
• 1:31:33
  And that's true. We can educate and arm every
• 1:31:37
  single one of our coworkers, but until they say hey, you did me
• 1:31:43
  wrong, this is not what how you're supposed to do this.
• 1:31:46
  I'm filing a grievance. I want you know, you didn't do
• 1:31:51
  this right until they're standing up for themselves and
• 1:31:54
  then allowing that steward to go in and fight that battle.
• 1:31:57
  We're not going to we're not going to stop anything.
• 1:32:00
  You're not going to stop anything by just saying, Oh
• 1:32:04
  well, Oh well, it is what it is. That's not going to work.
• 1:32:10
  I mean, I had last Saturday was a rough one.
• 1:32:16
  I, I didn't talk about this earlier, but supervisor did not
• 1:32:23
  only one RCA wrong, but two technically.
• 1:32:26
  And I was hot. I was so hot.
• 1:32:31
  I spent probably a good 5-10 minutes sitting in my LLV to
• 1:32:37
  bring myself back in before I stepped foot in the office when
• 1:32:41
  I got back, because I was going to, I, I was at that point to
• 1:32:44
  where it was a blind rage and I, I was, I was mad.
• 1:32:50
  Probably some of it was, you know, the actual Mama bear part
• 1:32:53
  of me coming out. But I, you know, it, it, to me,
• 1:32:56
  it doesn't matter who that RCA or RCA's were that were done
• 1:33:02
  dirty. It was they were done dirty
• 1:33:04
  because the supervisor admitted to me after I did eventually go
• 1:33:10
  off on her that she had plans and wanted to be gone out of the
• 1:33:14
  office by 4:30. I didn't even get back till
• 1:33:18
  5:00. So you're going to do carrier's
• 1:33:23
  dirty because of your own personal agenda outside of the
• 1:33:26
  office? No, that's the type of stuff
• 1:33:29
  that needs to stop. You know, unfortunately it
• 1:33:33
  wasn't something that directed me personally.
• 1:33:35
  But yes, the steward was made well aware of what happened that
• 1:33:38
  day and it's it's bad. I mean, they supervisor started
• 1:33:48
  to talk to me something and I said, Nope, I can't right now.
• 1:33:51
  I'm not going to say anything. I'm going to go back to my case,
• 1:33:53
  finishing up my stuff away. I would was trying to not do
• 1:33:58
  anything. I did not say anything, not open
• 1:34:01
  my mouth. I was trying not to really,
• 1:34:03
  really, really hard. But then they want to turn
• 1:34:06
  around and say, well, talk to me, tell me, tell me, tell me,
• 1:34:09
  talk to me, talk to me, talk to me, tell me, tell me.
• 1:34:12
  All right. You just flipped the switch and
• 1:34:16
  I don't remember half of what I actually said to them.
• 1:34:22
  It flipped a switch and out came the bitch.
• 1:34:25
  Oh yes, and there was no witnesses in the office when it
• 1:34:31
  happened, so yeah, probably a good thing.
• 1:34:40
  OK, we digress. Digress off the TA so much now.
• 1:34:44
  But no, I mean that's it. It is what it is.
• 1:34:47
  I mean when you see the. Keyboard.
• 1:34:49
  It really does in ways and we're we're talking and that was my
• 1:34:52
  biggest thing was the workplace environment not being addressed
• 1:34:55
  at all in ATA. And when you have instances like
• 1:34:59
  that that happen, and obviously, you know, Steward took care of
• 1:35:05
  what they could take care of at the time, but it's, we can't be
• 1:35:13
  divided. I am so tired of seeing the
• 1:35:17
  divide. I mean, I see it in our Facebook
• 1:35:20
  group, I see it in other Facebook groups.
• 1:35:23
  It's exhausting. It really is.
• 1:35:25
  I mean, I, I, I respect we all have our own opinions,
• 1:35:29
  especially on this TA. You know, I myself do not have a
• 1:35:34
  solid yes or no vote for this yet.
• 1:35:36
  I don't, yeah, I know some people have that solid no vote.
• 1:35:41
  I'm going to respect them for for, you know, they already have
• 1:35:44
  their minds made-up. All right.
• 1:35:46
  I respect that regardless if it's yes or no.
• 1:35:49
  But don't come after the people that don't have the same insight
• 1:35:55
  that you do. Or maybe they have a different
• 1:35:58
  opinion. If it's something you don't
• 1:36:01
  like, just keep going past. You don't have to respond and
• 1:36:07
  belittle and attack. And I know we went on this
• 1:36:10
  before in the past, I've talked about it.
• 1:36:12
  So I'm not going to go down that hole right now.
• 1:36:15
  But the divide, we need to come together more than keep dividing
• 1:36:19
  ourselves. And you know, I get that's the
• 1:36:23
  huge biggest downfall on social media and keyboard warriors is,
• 1:36:27
  is division. Fighting amongst ourselves
• 1:36:34
  instead of uniting to fight the for the greater cause of the
• 1:36:37
  craft. Exactly.
• 1:36:40
  Well, and, and this isn't the moment to, I mean, to just shit
• 1:36:46
  all over the union either or I'm leaving and I know that it's
• 1:36:49
  it's up to those people and it's their opinion and whatnot.
• 1:36:52
  But at this moment it should be what is in the contract.
• 1:36:56
  How does it affect me? Go to a meeting where, when are
• 1:37:00
  the meetings? You know, it shouldn't just be
• 1:37:03
  negative, negative, negative, negative.
• 1:37:05
  It should be constructive and, you know, meeting people where
• 1:37:10
  they are, like you said, Kristen.
• 1:37:14
  You know, in reading the the PDF file that they put on the
• 1:37:18
  national website of the for the tentative for the for the
• 1:37:21
  changes and reading that and reading the highlighted
• 1:37:26
  explanations in red. It's actually reading some of
• 1:37:29
  that actually clarifies some of the things I was questioning
• 1:37:33
  when we were going over the highlights.
• 1:37:35
  What especially with what with the Rcas and being able to bid
• 1:37:42
  on APTF position once they're out of probation, probation
• 1:37:47
  being 90 work days or 180 calendar days, six months.
• 1:37:53
  So now you just cut that probation in half.
• 1:37:55
  So if you're in one of those offices that all the RC as are
• 1:38:00
  newer, yeah. And and then APTF position may
• 1:38:05
  open up. Now they have a chance to jump
• 1:38:08
  in on them. I mean, yes.
• 1:38:11
  Yeah, we actually had, we had it's, it's all in there.
• 1:38:15
  But we had, I mean we had an RCA who was ineligible to bid on
• 1:38:20
  APTF position and then it went district wide.
• 1:38:23
  Nobody bid on it. So it came back and then he was
• 1:38:26
  finally able to do it. But in all of that time, he
• 1:38:29
  would have actually been, if he would, if this, if this T the
• 1:38:34
  what's in the TA would have been present, he actually would have
• 1:38:36
  already been a regular. And so there's a lot of
• 1:38:39
  situations where they're having issues hiring and they're
• 1:38:44
  constantly filling those PTFS immediately on the routes.
• 1:38:48
  And so this, that would actually, that's actually one of
• 1:38:51
  the biggest benefits in there. But I mean, I know in the red
• 1:38:54
  language too. I the only thing that I read in
• 1:38:56
  the red language that I I actually really didn't like was
• 1:38:59
  that the the 50 weeks which start for the Table 2 stuff, the
• 1:39:06
  it'll be like it won't be retroactive like the financial
• 1:39:11
  starts parts are. It's like 180 days from the that
• 1:39:16
  would that. I'm trying to remember it.
• 1:39:17
  I don't have it with me right now, but.
• 1:39:20
  Yeah, and you know, and I'm one of those that would be stuck in
• 1:39:24
  that 180 days thing because my anniversary is in November.
• 1:39:30
  Yeah, me too. My anniversary would be in
• 1:39:32
  December. So I thought that it would be
• 1:39:35
  retroactive and that I would get a step increase two weeks sooner
• 1:39:39
  in the beginning of December instead of the end.
• 1:39:42
  And that red language was like, no, you, you wouldn't.
• 1:39:45
  It would be time would start differently then.
• 1:39:49
  So that kind of sucked a little bit.
• 1:39:51
  But yeah, but you know, that's where you know it's important.
• 1:39:55
  Like I said it when I opened up the show, when you get that hard
• 1:39:59
  copy of of the tentative agreements, the changes, take
• 1:40:04
  the moment to read through them because you know there, there is
• 1:40:08
  some explanation in there. If you still have questions,
• 1:40:12
  there is Zoom ratification meetings that are going on now
• 1:40:17
  that have already started. Look.
• 1:40:19
  Look it up. No, they start beginning of next
• 1:40:21
  month. Oh, do they start beginning of
• 1:40:23
  next? Month beginning of May, all
• 1:40:24
  right. So I believe the 1st of May or
• 1:40:27
  just after the 1st of May. OK, so they're starting later
• 1:40:31
  this week, let's put it that way.
• 1:40:33
  So you know you have that option.
• 1:40:37
  If you can't make an in person ratification meeting, you have
• 1:40:40
  an option of a Zoom meeting. So, you know, there are options
• 1:40:47
  out there if you unfortunately can't make either one due to
• 1:40:56
  plans that you've already had or scheduling or whatever.
• 1:40:59
  I mean, that's understandable. But at least reach out to maybe
• 1:41:03
  somebody in your state that it did attend one and see if any of
• 1:41:07
  those questions could be answered.
• 1:41:09
  Or if you do have questions and you know, somebody's going to
• 1:41:11
  attend one, say, hey, could you ask this question for me, you
• 1:41:16
  know, something like that so you can get clarification on
• 1:41:19
  something that you're still confused on.
• 1:41:23
  There are ways of doing that without having to be present for
• 1:41:29
  the ratification meeting. I know for our Zoom meeting, as
• 1:41:33
  much as I would like to do it, I don't think it's going to be
• 1:41:36
  possible for me. But I, you know, I don't know
• 1:41:39
  that at this point in time. I'd have to double check the
• 1:41:41
  times and where I'm going to be at, but all right guys, we're
• 1:41:48
  going on 2 hours nearly so. We're we're going.
• 1:41:56
  That's a good episode. We're, yeah, I am about an hour
• 1:41:59
  and 45 minutes right now. So we are going to wind this
• 1:42:04
  down and wrap it up because I do have to work tomorrow and it is
• 1:42:08
  Monday. My nurse came by and told me to
• 1:42:11
  get back in my room. I could believe that.
• 1:42:17
  So meow, I'm going to start off with you for your final thoughts
• 1:42:21
  for this evening. Oh wow, OK attend the meetings
• 1:42:29
  if you can. Just to kind of reiterate what
• 1:42:33
  Kristen was saying, try and educate yourself on how the TA
• 1:42:38
  would affect you. I mean, do you know, call your
• 1:42:41
  Dr. or your or your steward if you need help trying to
• 1:42:44
  calculate out how much the financial part of it would be
• 1:42:50
  because I think that's a key component.
• 1:42:52
  I know a lot of people are complaining about it.
• 1:42:55
  Don't just be a keyboard warrior on Facebook.
• 1:42:58
  Please attend meetings, reach out to your Co workers, look out
• 1:43:03
  for one another. And yeah, that's yeah, just look
• 1:43:10
  out for one another guys. James, Bill.
• 1:43:14
  Or Bill? Either one.
• 1:43:18
  I get to go. I get to go.
• 1:43:20
  Yeah, I'll go. Yeah.
• 1:43:21
  Go for it, Bill. I, I'm, you know, I'm not voting
• 1:43:27
  on this because I can't, but the fact of the matter is still
• 1:43:29
  being involved. I, I just, I, I wish there was
• 1:43:33
  more in there, you know, besides the, the 180 days.
• 1:43:37
  I, I wish there was more in there for the reimbursement for
• 1:43:42
  buying the right hand drive vehicle or the conversion kits
• 1:43:45
  because they, they represent less than 10% of the cost on
• 1:43:48
  most of of the equipment. You can't even buy a right hand
• 1:43:52
  drive for under 40,000, can you? Not no anyway, but you know,
• 1:43:59
  the, the somebody I won't mention a certain person in
• 1:44:04
  North Carolina by name said, yeah, well, we have gains and
• 1:44:07
  made no concessions. The gains that we made are
• 1:44:11
  concessions because of the fact that they're so minimal and we
• 1:44:16
  deserve more. Yet you deserve more.
• 1:44:19
  The RC as deserve more. I every office that I noticed
• 1:44:23
  shorthanded, the RC as are being worked to death and we got an
• 1:44:28
  office. My office is down to two PTFS
• 1:44:32
  and and two RC As and they're working 6-7 days a week and have
• 1:44:37
  two vacant routes every day that haven't been posted yet.
• 1:44:41
  Again they have an ADR an area Stewart in the office who hasn't
• 1:44:46
  turned around and fought for these damn routes to be put up
• 1:44:49
  forbid since February 28th. I mean, come on, folks.
• 1:44:53
  I mean, let's do your jobs. If you're going to, if you're
• 1:44:57
  going to be a steward, then be a steward and serve your office.
• 1:45:02
  If you're going to be an ADR or ADR, serve the craft.
• 1:45:05
  That's what it's about. It's not about not getting off
• 1:45:08
  your route. It's not about not having to do
• 1:45:12
  all the molding things that carriers do for a living.
• 1:45:15
  It's about serving the craft and same thing for the national
• 1:45:20
  board. It's about serving the craft and
• 1:45:23
  most of them have used this as a ticket to retirement.
• 1:45:26
  I mean, the, the most blatant and obvious example of this was
• 1:45:31
  Clifford Daling when, you know, he proposed the change from, you
• 1:45:35
  know, them getting their sub higher rate, their sick and
• 1:45:38
  annual leave to what their pay rate was as a national office in
• 1:45:45
  dollars. And, and then people go, wow,
• 1:45:49
  you know, they work hard. And you know what, nobody works
• 1:45:52
  harder than than a rural carrier.
• 1:45:56
  And I, you know, a lot of people are, you know, super efficient,
• 1:46:00
  but a lot of you, a lot of you are, are working over your
• 1:46:04
  evaluations, not getting paid for it.
• 1:46:06
  And it's, it's a, to me, it's a, it's a crime.
• 1:46:09
  It's, it's fucking theft. And there's no other way to say
• 1:46:13
  it. You deserve more.
• 1:46:15
  And, and somebody has said, if you vote against this, you know
• 1:46:19
  you're, you're not going to get anything better.
• 1:46:21
  If you vote yes, then you're conceding that the board and the
• 1:46:24
  post office are saying this is a fair agreement.
• 1:46:27
  So it's a a no win situation. But if you don't speak up,
• 1:46:32
  that's your no win situation. So everybody got a new week
• 1:46:37
  starting weather's starting to turn nice.
• 1:46:41
  Go out there, be safe to be proficient, be professional.
• 1:46:46
  Your ass is home to your loved ones because you are the most
• 1:46:48
  important delivery of the day, James.
• 1:46:53
  Well, I'm going to disagree with you, Bill.
• 1:46:55
  We got a couple of days of severe weather coming up, you
• 1:46:59
  know, tomorrow. Well, Monday and Tuesday are.
• 1:47:03
  James. Jamie James.
• 1:47:05
  Hold on, James. Not my problem.
• 1:47:11
  He's retired. Actually, I am outside of that
• 1:47:17
  severe weather, so I'm good with that.
• 1:47:21
  Yeah, but I had to disagree with Bill a little bit there first,
• 1:47:30
  but I have to agree with the points that he made.
• 1:47:32
  I also have to agree with points Meow made.
• 1:47:35
  You know, now is the time for everybody, listeners, non
• 1:47:39
  listeners that are in this craft to unite together.
• 1:47:44
  And I will say a vote for yes on this would be very, very risky
• 1:47:53
  to this craft, more so than the risk it would take to go to
• 1:47:56
  arbitration, because in arbitration they've already got
• 1:48:02
  the standards set by the city craft.
• 1:48:06
  So that's the minimum that management can offer if we have
• 1:48:12
  pattern bargaining. So we're already working from a
• 1:48:17
  higher standard in arbitration. Now granted, they could use the
• 1:48:24
  Nolan mediated award as the basis for everything we get, but
• 1:48:30
  it was a mediated award. It wasn't an arbitrated award.
• 1:48:38
  Management and Renfro went into the mediation with Nolan to
• 1:48:45
  create their contract and Nolan admitted that in his award.
• 1:48:56
  So we have to remember that is not an arbitration award, it's a
• 1:49:02
  mediated award. So something that is mediated
• 1:49:08
  should have gone to city carriers for a vote.
• 1:49:11
  It didn't. We have the opportunity here to
• 1:49:16
  vote yes or no on this tentative agreement.
• 1:49:19
  I've already given my position. It's not enough to fix the
• 1:49:23
  hiring problem, to fix the retention problem, to fix the
• 1:49:30
  hostile work environment, the work condition if the increases
• 1:49:36
  in pay do not even cover the increases and our Postal Service
• 1:49:41
  health benefit plan for most carriers.
• 1:49:47
  So we've got wages, work conditions and benefits that
• 1:49:51
  were not addressed in this tentative agreement.
• 1:49:54
  The three major things that our union is supposed to fight for
• 1:50:01
  for us in these tentative agreements, we're not fully
• 1:50:05
  addressed with it and we're supposed to believe that this is
• 1:50:10
  the best that we can get. I don't know about you.
• 1:50:15
  I would rather fight and lose then roll over and just accept
• 1:50:20
  what we got because I believe wholeheartedly with the right
• 1:50:26
  person arguing in arbitration, we could do better.
• 1:50:32
  We deserve better. We need better for this craft to
• 1:50:39
  survive. I'm not saying voting yes on
• 1:50:42
  this won't allow this craft to survive.
• 1:50:45
  We'll survive because we have that dedication to our customers
• 1:50:52
  and to this craft. But there are quite a few
• 1:50:55
  carriers that won't be able to survive with this tentative
• 1:50:59
  agreement, and I support those carriers who are living by a
• 1:51:06
  shoe screen budget and not even able to provide a real roof over
• 1:51:14
  their head. Every single carrier in this
• 1:51:19
  craft is affected by the TA, the ones working.
• 1:51:25
  We need to remember at the end of the day, we're all in this
• 1:51:31
  together. All right, thank you guys.
• 1:51:38
  Now, I I may, my opinions may be slightly different from
• 1:51:45
  everybody else's, which, you know, like I said, to each our
• 1:51:49
  own. We're all we're all allowed to
• 1:51:51
  have our own opinions. Do I think this TA is wonderful?
• 1:51:55
  No. Do I think it's complete trash?
• 1:51:59
  No, I do see baby steps in the right direction for certain
• 1:52:05
  things. Again, baby steps.
• 1:52:12
  Like I said, my mind is not made-up on which way I'm going
• 1:52:16
  to vote on this yet. I'm still waiting on
• 1:52:18
  ratification meetings and what not.
• 1:52:22
  Be interesting to what we hear at mid states this next weekend.
• 1:52:28
  So like I said, guys, do your research, do your homework, make
• 1:52:32
  your own choice on what you're going to vote.
• 1:52:36
  And the number one thing is please vote when you get that
• 1:52:40
  ratification ballot in the mail. Do not throw it away for the
• 1:52:47
  price of a stamp. You're contributing, you're
• 1:52:52
  you're, you're putting your vote in.
• 1:52:55
  That is the most minimal thing that you can do to be active.
• 1:53:00
  That same goes for the delegate ballots.
• 1:53:03
  I know some states have already had some out.
• 1:53:06
  Majority of them are either just coming out or coming out soon.
• 1:53:10
  I know ours are coming out soon. You know, vote for your
• 1:53:13
  delegates. Do your research on those names
• 1:53:19
  that are on that list. You know, whether or not people
• 1:53:22
  get to publish something in their state papers or, you know,
• 1:53:28
  another suggestion I've done in the past was, you know, pull up
• 1:53:31
  a copy of the proceedings from the last National Convention or
• 1:53:39
  the prior ones and you know, and see names and see the people
• 1:53:43
  that were at the microphone and speaking on your behalf, whether
• 1:53:48
  or not you think they were speaking for you or not.
• 1:53:51
  And choose your vote that way. You know, research people, you
• 1:53:56
  know, ask questions, ask other people that may know who they
• 1:53:59
  are. If if they know who they are,
• 1:54:02
  you know, that's that's the most bare minimum thing that you can
• 1:54:06
  do to be active is to vote both on a ratification and your
• 1:54:13
  delegates for National Convention.
• 1:54:16
  All it all it's going to cost you is the price of a stamp.
• 1:54:21
  So on that note, guys, be safe this week.
• 1:54:25
  And I know those that have impending spring weather, please
• 1:54:28
  be extra cautious. I wish temperatures were a
• 1:54:31
  little higher for me, but I will take 50s.
• 1:54:38
  It's better than 20s, zeros below 0, I'll take it.
• 1:54:44
  But everybody stay safe this week.
• 1:54:47
  And James, next week, are you going to be home in time?
• 1:54:55
  I should be, I mean, I I believe it's only what, 3-4 hours away?
• 1:55:00
  Huh. It's 9 1/2 for me.
• 1:55:04
  Oh. Springfield, IL South Yeah,
• 1:55:09
  yeah, it's, and actually I, I'm leaving from my parents house
• 1:55:16
  Thursday morning, so it'll only be about a five and a half hour
• 1:55:18
  drive. So I'm going to put it, it's up
• 1:55:24
  in the air. And whether or not we'll have
• 1:55:25
  something next Sunday, we'll let you guys know on the Facebook
• 1:55:31
  pages or whatnot. If for sure, I can't guarantee
• 1:55:34
  I'll be back in time. So if not, maybe we'll do
• 1:55:39
  something in the middle of the week.
• 1:55:40
  We'll see what's going on with everybody.
• 1:55:42
  But on that note, guys, be safe there this week and we'll talk
• 1:55:45
  with you next time.