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An RCA's first day, and a Comedy Pulse · 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
• 0:22
  podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
• 0:25
  not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
• 0:28
  United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
• 0:30
  Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
• 0:33
  your assigned union representative for guidance in
• 0:35
  your local area. Please like this podcast, share
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  with your fellow rural carriers, and subscribe to be notified
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  each time a new episode is uploaded.
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  Please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:47
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:50
  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
• 0:54
  Where are we at? Episode 118?
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  Wow. James is on the road heading out
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  to Montana for Western Conference.
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  So how is that going there, James?
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  Oh I'm currently in Iowa heading north to go to I-90.
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  I'll beat up with that then run across 90 to 94 to get there,
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  but it's been pretty smooth sailing.
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  Had a little rain in Michigan but other than that just flew
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  through Chicago somehow I have no clue.
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  There weren't any traffic backups or anything, which was
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  very weird for me, but been in the sun so far.
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  It's been about 75° out here so I'm very very comfortable and
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  the road's been pretty smooth for the most part other than Rd.
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  noise. But this week was pretty good
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  for me though at work things went pretty smoothly and I have
• 1:56
  an actual story to tell. One of our Subs is holding down
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  a retired carrier's route. The bid just went out for it.
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  One of the the top RCA won the bid, but he's not placed on it
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  until this coming Saturday. And they wanted to force the
• 2:15
  carrier that was running their route to work Amazon Sunday.
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  And I told them I actually stepped in for this carrier,
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  spoke with management, you know, just saying, hey, take a look at
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  this. You know, this is what we have.
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  And if he does work, work Amazon Sunday, he can grieve it.
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  And they looked, they took the paperwork, they looked it over.
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  I left for my route. I come back from my route, that
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  carrier's there. I speak with him.
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  He's like, oh, thank you for taking care of that.
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  They took me off of Sunday delivery.
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  So sometimes even though you think you don't have the ability
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  to, you can step up and say, hey, look, here's some
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  information for you. Do with it what you wish.
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  But the carrier has something here if you do something.
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  So for all those carriers out there listening, protect your
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  fellow brothers and sisters. You could probably fix the
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  problem 90% of the time with a lot of good management.
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  But other than that, Saturday, I took the day off, scheduled day
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  off normally, and went to the Holly train station, did some
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  operations on the model railroad, which was different
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  from just running trains to circles that I used to do at Chi
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  Town. So that was a new experience for
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  me. And then I took off this morning
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  to head for Western States and here I am.
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  So how was your week, Bill? Oh, fair to Midland, you know,
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  we're, we're still getting a mix of weather here.
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  They can't make up its mind whether it wants to be winter or
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  not. Again, the wind is, is a
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  continuous factor every day, whether it's nice or hot.
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  And, and I don't understand, like everybody's commented that
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  you've never seen so much wind, you know, from January through
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  and it's, it's getting ridiculous.
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  I mean, especially now that I have hair because it keeps
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  blowing the hair in my eyes. OK, not that bad.
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  But yeah, we're we're currently in the house hunting mode and
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  the last hour we actually put a financial commitment down on a a
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  property as a three quarters acre.
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  It's a little smaller in size, but room for mama's garden and
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  chickens maybe and those sort of work and, you know, needs a
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  couple touches here and there. But you know, it's an exciting
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  opportunity and you know, like James said, you know, you don't
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  have to be a steward to step up and protect your fellow
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  carriers. It it happens in in my old
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  office a number of times and they have an area Stewart in
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  that in our office. So, and I'll, I'll repeat our
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  office, my office 'cause it always will be my office.
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  But the fact of the matter is that, you know, several people
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  have stepped up and to help protect, you know, new carriers
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  who haven't been there for two paid periods, you know, running
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  extra on other routes versus, you know, doing parcel work.
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  You know, people working on Sundays when, you know, when
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  you're not on the volunteer list and you're working before people
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  who do get on there on the volunteer list and aren't being
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  scheduled. Yeah.
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  It it's just a matter of, you know, even a little bit of
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  knowledge is dangerous to stupid management.
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  And most of you agree that's what we have in abundance of.
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  Other than that, just waiting to find out about what's going on
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  with this, this house and son moving to Puerto Rico somewhere
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  around October with his wife and my grandson and that's it.
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  I mean, you know, that's another normal day in in retirement, you
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  know, besides answering all the phone calls and questions, but
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  loving life about you. Kristen how?
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  How's your week on? Oh my week wasn't too bad.
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  We finished up Ruby's OJT Thursday and Friday.
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  I we couldn't find a way to get those darn puddles connected
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  properly in her Jeep Liberty. So I had to put out the money to
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  order a set from Pedal Pros because they only they the only
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  ones that had the type that will work for her.
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  Hopefully those will be in by the end of this week.
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  And so yeah, she used my Jeep Compass to straddle in and had
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  her first day solo yesterday. But she'll be on and I'll
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  probably, I don't know, 1520 minutes or so and she'll, she'll
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  answer you guys questions about her first day solo.
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  Other than that, my week wasn't too bad.
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  And I wasn't expecting initially to be the one to finish her OJT,
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  but I was, so that was fine. And I do have a story that
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  happened. I forgot to tell it last week.
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  So it's been a couple weeks ago that this happened out on my
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  route. And I think this really kind of
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  brings home to why rural carriers are important to the
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  communities. I was on my last main road next
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  to the last Rd., but my last main big stretch of road.
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  And I, yeah, I have a lot of older couples, couples on my
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  route. And one of the older gentlemen
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  and I haven't seen as much as I used to.
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  You know, his wife's always been the one that I've seen lately
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  come out to the mailbox or answering the door when I have
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  packages. But it was one of the nicer days
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  that we had had a couple weeks ago.
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  And I'm driving up the road and I don't know, I'm probably maybe
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  an eighth of a mile from their stop.
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  So I see him just walking down the road like he's out for a
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  walk. And then I see he just keeps
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  walking up towards closer and closer to me.
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  And then he like stops right in the front of the LLV and he's
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  just like looks confused. And so I waved at him and he
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  kind of slides over onto the side kind of between the mailbox
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  where we're at. And he says, do you know where I
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  live? And my heart just sink.
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  Got it. And I just said, well, yes,
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  dear, I certainly do. And I tried to point, you know
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  where I could see his driveway from where I was at.
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  And he's like everything just looks.
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  Everything looks the same. I think I got turned around and
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  I said that's OK dear, I I know where you live.
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  And I said let me pull. I asked him to step back so I
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  could pull away from those boxes and just talking to him a little
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  bit. And luckily I didn't have an
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  e-mail for next couple boxes up besides the one before his and
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  and I was trying to explain it, but he couldn't quite grasp.
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  So I said, I tell you what I said I don't have a place for
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  you to sit in here. But I said, why don't you walk
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  right there on the side of the road and I'll just drive really
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  slow next to you and we can chit chat and I'll get you home.
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  And so we did. And as we got a little closer,
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  then he recognized the sign that's out by his driveway.
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  And he goes, I think that's my, my, my driveway.
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  I said, yes, it is. He's like, oh, good.
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  He goes, you know, it's just such a nice day.
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  My wife told me to not get lost and turned around and here I am.
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  I said, it's OK, I got you home. He goes, He goes, can this be
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  our little secret? I said, yes, yes, it will.
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  I said, I tell you what? I said, how about if I give you
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  your mail and your packages and I'll make sure you get him up
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  the porch? And he and I said, then she'll
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  just think you stopped at the mailbox.
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  And he just gives me this big old smile and he's like, thank
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  you dear. I'm like, not a problem.
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  And I sat there and waited till he was up to his front door.
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  And then she spilled her his secret AB on our podcast.
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  You gave him your word and you spilled it out.
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  Geez. I don't think his wife's going
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  to be listening honestly, but I, I, I think I will make a point
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  if I do talk, talk to her when he's not around just to let her
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  know. But the last, the last time I
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  went to the door with a package, she answered.
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  He was sitting in the chair right there.
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  So I wasn't going to spill the beans in front of him.
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  But if I like catch her walking out to the mailbox or something
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  by yourself, when I'm coming back down the road from the
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  other way, I'll I'll stop and say something to her.
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  But. Yeah.
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  But yeah, you, you've got to worry about somebody like that
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  going out in the winter time and doing the same damn thing.
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  I know, I know. And not knowing, you know, like
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  I said, I always used to laugh because I always thought he was
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  flirting with me and, and you know, so I was just kind of
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  laughed about it. And then because I didn't see
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  him coming out to the mailbox as often and then when I go to the
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  door, it was always his wife. Well, now I understand why.
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  So I do keep an extra eye out when I'm going down that road
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  now. Definitely.
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  And the only only thing people should be thinking about with
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  that story is what if it was an Amazon driver?
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  They change them over more. They change them more more often
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  than I change my T-shirts. Or UPS or FedEx or yeah, any of
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  them. They would have known who who he
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  was or where he lived. And as carriers, we get to know
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  our customers. We know who they are.
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  We know where they live. You know, sometimes I don't
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  recognize them at the gas station when they come up to me.
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  But, you know, it's. Oh.
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  Oh, yeah. Yeah.
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  OK. I just didn't recognize you in
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  your work clothes. Usually I see a, you know, in
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  your lounge clothes at home, but.
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  Yeah, even even local police officers are that way now.
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  They don't know everybody, you know.
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  Yeah, it's, you know, that's, that's one of the reasons why
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  rural delivery is important to the communities.
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  You know we. Any any USPS.
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  Yeah, we take care of our customers.
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  We, you know, we make sure they get home safe if they're turned
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  around and don't realize where they're at, even though they're
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  right there. Yeah, it it, that one, it like I
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  said, it made my heart sink when he came up to me and asked me if
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  I knew where he lived. And I'm like, OK, let's make
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  this as positive as we can for him and we'll get him home.
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  Even if I would have had to, if it was he was that turned around
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  or that confused, I would have just parked the truck, secured
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  it and walked him home if I had to.
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  But you know, I just, we were close enough.
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  Like I said, I could see the driveway right there.
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  So I said, you know, you just stay to that side of me that
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  way. I wasn't worried about some
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  idiot flying down the road too, you know, and potentially
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  hitting him because they do tend to fly through there.
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  Yeah. So yeah, that was my my
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  experience a couple weeks ago, but other than that it's been
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  pretty normal. Surprised you didn't get a semi
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  stationary event recorded. Yeah.
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  Oh, I did get a stationary event recorded last Saturday at one of
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  my hardships. It was Tuesday when the
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  supervisor came up to me and said something.
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  Because you normally don't have these.
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  And I said, well, where was it? Oh, I don't know.
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  I didn't look. I said when was it?
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  Was it yesterday or was it Saturday?
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  I don't know. I didn't check.
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  I said, well, I can tell you it was probably Saturday and I was
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  at one of my hardships. She never bothered me again
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  after that. I I would have turned around and
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  said you didn't bother to find out any information about it
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  that could clue me in. Right.
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  She just saw the notice and didn't bother to look into it
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  further before she came at me about it.
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  So I'm just like, well, when you can give me the information,
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  I'll answer you. But otherwise, I was at one of
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  my hardships on Saturday, a little bit longer than I was
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  normally. That's all I said.
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  I was working that that's that's.
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  I was working. Moment she have a bill moment
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  and say hold it. You're coming over here to
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  accuse me of something you saw, but you didn't research.
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  You don't know where, you don't know for how long, and you don't
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  know what day you. Don't even know when.
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  When you get your shit together, come back and talk to me.
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  Right. I swear I know.
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  Oh, I know. The, the one guy on RD20, he's
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  got 123455 cluster box units and, and he's there for 1520
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  minutes every day and they, you know, tell him you've got to
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  take a lunch. He's well, no, I'm, I'm at the
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  cluster boxes, but you can't have a stationary event that
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  long. Well, I've got 5 cluster boxes
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  and I'm making four or five, six trips back and forth to the
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  truck. That's unacceptable.
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  And he just looks at him like, hello?
• 15:54
  Oh, I know, right? It's crazy, you know, like one
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  of my other hardships ones that the one that I helped out, you
• 16:00
  know, get made Thanksgiving dinner for and she Amazon had a
• 16:05
  sale on the expensive dog food. She gets her little dog.
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  So she bought the bigger bag and it was one of the big boxes.
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  And I, you know, I have no problems taking that into her
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  foyer for her. And she's like, well, no, I'll
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  get somebody to help me to take it out-of-the-box.
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  And I said, where do you want the bag at?
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  As I started opening the box for her and she showed me where to
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  put the bag and I did that. I said, now where do you want
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  the empty box? And I put that where she asked,
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  you know, where she pointed me to put it.
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  I mean, that's just the little extras.
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  I'm not going to expect an 89 year old woman to handle a 50 LB
• 16:40
  bag of dog food. You know I'm not going to do
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  that. For an extra $5, you'll clean up
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  the poop in the yard, too. No, no, I just got somebody to
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  do that already. That's what.
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  That's what modern management does not understand.
• 16:59
  Yeah, exactly. You know, they talk, they talk
• 17:06
  about making a more modern Postal Service, making things
• 17:09
  more modern, more advanced. But you have to remember your
• 17:13
  roots. And what was that service we
• 17:16
  provided? Yeah, the management takes the
• 17:18
  service out of it completely anymore and that starts way up.
• 17:21
  Universal. Way up at the top, all the way
• 17:24
  down. And you know what?
• 17:27
  And the people that agree with them are the people that agree
• 17:30
  with them on that don't help the 'cause either.
• 17:33
  No. James, you can have all the
• 17:36
  tools that that you're needed and required to do the job, but
• 17:41
  if you got idiots operating the machine, yeah, you're screwed.
• 17:50
  I mean, really? Yeah.
• 17:53
  Yeah. I, I can't, can't you know,
• 17:56
  enunciate enough that if you don't have properly framed,
• 18:01
  experienced, educated people running the system who are
• 18:06
  knowledgeable in the contract knowledgeable the M38, you know
• 18:11
  in the Elm Arcam Rex, how you how do you expect them to be
• 18:16
  able to manage effectively and efficiently if they don't have
• 18:20
  the knowledge to do the job in the first place?
• 18:23
  And they don't even want to know because they think they're
• 18:25
  right. No better if they're not.
• 18:28
  Because they're told by upper management that they're right
• 18:32
  and we're wrong. Yeah, it's the same way where,
• 18:38
  you know, you're talking earlier, James, about, you know,
• 18:41
  people in the management doesn't want to meet with your
• 18:43
  grievances. And, you know, you document
• 18:45
  every day that you try to do these.
• 18:47
  And at the end, at the end of 10 days, you just push it up there
• 18:50
  and and say, you know, management, you know, failed to
• 18:52
  meet with me in a timely fashion.
• 18:55
  And the fact that they, you know, failed to meet with me was
• 18:58
  their intention to dismiss the grievances.
• 19:03
  So therefore, I mean, you know, they're they're breaking the
• 19:06
  contract by failing to meet with you and wantonly so.
• 19:12
  For some context for our listeners, this was a pre show
• 19:15
  discussion that we were having with somebody who wanted more
• 19:19
  information about grievances with management that refuses to
• 19:23
  meet and what to do with those steps.
• 19:27
  And we had a long discussion about it.
• 19:28
  And the biggest take away from it all is you've got to meet,
• 19:33
  try to meet with management every single day for the 10 days
• 19:38
  you're required to try and meet with them.
• 19:42
  And if they are, if they, there is no mutual agreement to extend
• 19:49
  deadlines. So you have to kick it up to to
• 19:52
  Step 2 as management denied the grievance.
• 19:59
  Exactly. Yeah, you, you, you don't get
• 20:04
  into a pissing match over it. You you just, you know, follow
• 20:06
  procedures. Push it up above them and and
• 20:09
  guess what? You turn around, you're going to
• 20:11
  come be able to come back and file another grievance for, like
• 20:13
  I said, failing to settle it at the lowest possible level by
• 20:18
  failing to hear it in the first place.
• 20:21
  Yes. I had an e-mail come through
• 20:26
  today, couple hours ago. I'm just seeing this.
• 20:30
  I'm going to read this one and let you guys take it.
• 20:33
  There is additional documentation that I'll post
• 20:36
  privately, but regular carrier for over 20 years was out on
• 20:42
  OWCP and on 1st day back petty blue heeler dog ran into me
• 20:49
  biting the bumper on the van. I reported it, etcetera.
• 20:53
  Supervisor one says it's all right, keep going.
• 20:56
  I explained dog how has what appeared to be a broken lid
• 20:59
  etcetera. Owner seen it happen they would
• 21:03
  be calling the office. 20 minutes later supervisor calls
• 21:06
  me and says go back we got to do an accident report.
• 21:10
  Supervisor 2 tells me I'm putting I'm being put off the
• 21:13
  clock. They came out there and left me
• 21:16
  with angry customers and without a secure Uber ride back to the
• 21:20
  office. What can I do?
• 21:24
  What? They left her standing there on
• 21:29
  the side of the road and did not transport her back to the
• 21:33
  office. Well I don't know if this is a
• 21:35
  her or him, but the carrier, yes.
• 21:38
  And this was addressed to the girl.
• 21:40
  Need advice. The title is Bill.
• 21:43
  Need advice. Bill, do you want to take a
• 21:48
  minute to to keep your nerves down a little bit or you want to
• 21:52
  take it and just run with it? Go ahead, you, you start because
• 21:57
  I I'm I'm just like, I can't even believe they would do that.
• 22:02
  I mean, take a change. This is oh God.
• 22:08
  So far I already see 4 grievances in that.
• 22:13
  Just that little e-mail alone. Number one, they abandoned her
• 22:19
  on the side of the road. Management's responsibility is
• 22:23
  to ensure your safety from the time you punch into the time you
• 22:27
  punch out. The fact that they neglected to
• 22:31
  bring her back to that office created an unsafe work
• 22:34
  environment. Secondly, it created a hostile
• 22:37
  work environment. Thirdly, you put her on
• 22:40
  emergency placement for an accident with a dog, which was
• 22:45
  an unpreventable accident. Yes, now I could.
• 22:49
  I could understand if they were looking down at their phone or
• 22:55
  or distracted by something else and ran into a mailbox or hit a
• 23:01
  tree with the vehicle or worse, ran into a guardrail.
• 23:05
  I see a picture of that, but this was unpreventable.
• 23:10
  There was no way the carrier could have taken prevented this
• 23:15
  accident from happening other than not being at work that day
• 23:19
  and you turned around and you created a hostile work
• 23:22
  environment. On top of that you now have a
• 23:24
  retaliation under OWCP claim because it sounds like
• 23:30
  management was fine with it until they looked at who it was,
• 23:34
  found out it was the person on OWCP and retaliated them for
• 23:38
  getting injured on the job. At least that's my first look
• 23:42
  opinion of that bill. All right, I would, yeah, I I
• 23:49
  wouldn't go so far as you know, the retaliation with the OWCP,
• 23:53
  even though there may be some latent feelings from management
• 23:57
  in regard that regards the the first and foremost is that you
• 24:01
  left the carrier on the side of the road, OK?
• 24:06
  James says supervisor is responsible for your safety.
• 24:12
  Therefore, right then and there, I, I would have filed there, you
• 24:16
  know, for a hostile work environment, unsafe work
• 24:18
  condition 1767. And I, I would have been livid
• 24:25
  to the point that you left them at the scene of the accident as
• 24:29
  it sounds like where you just ran over somebody's pet because
• 24:36
  the pet was unrestrained and came after the vehicle.
• 24:42
  Now, I hate to tell you that liability falls upon the
• 24:46
  customer, but the customer's not seen that way 'cause their pet
• 24:49
  is now injured. And you're standing there with
• 24:54
  your lunch bag and, and your purse or your phone or whatever
• 24:58
  in your hand and you've been abandoned.
• 25:03
  And that's what it is. You've been abandoned by
• 25:05
  management. How are you supposed I I would
• 25:08
  file a grievance for, you know, getting paid, getting reimbursed
• 25:12
  for Uber back to the office so you can get your vehicle and the
• 25:19
  time. Yes, because until you clock
• 25:21
  off, you know you're still on the clock.
• 25:25
  They probably took the scanner and clocked her out so you could
• 25:28
  get them for falsifying a time record too.
• 25:30
  Yes, you could. Yeah.
• 25:32
  If they, if they did that, if they, if they were even smart
• 25:34
  enough to do that. James, Yeah.
• 25:38
  I guarantee you they put it in the computer.
• 25:40
  I guarantee you they put it in the computer on the 40 on the E
• 25:43
  4240. So you got them there anyway for
• 25:45
  falsifying it? And plus the fact that if they
• 25:48
  didn't do it on the scanner you that would be your secondary
• 25:51
  proof. It's this is the horseshit that
• 25:57
  really gets me across the country in regards to that
• 26:01
  management's attitude and the reason they feel they're
• 26:04
  entitled to do this is because our national steward system and
• 26:09
  our national board has done nothing to protect the carriers
• 26:12
  are. You.
• 26:13
  Going to have this. Yes, you have enabled them, but
• 26:19
  can you address every situation? Probably not OK, numerically it
• 26:24
  it's impossible to be able to do that.
• 26:27
  But if you set the groundwork, the framework or prosecuting
• 26:32
  management for these egregious acts against carriers, it will
• 26:38
  filter down or in this case up to management.
• 26:42
  Stop playing these games the same way where management turns
• 26:46
  around and they use a formula to make route adjustments in an
• 26:49
  office, give you the route adjustments, and then call you
• 26:53
  back on a later date later that day and say, oh, we were just
• 26:56
  notified by district. We used the wrong formula.
• 26:59
  How the hell could that actually happen?
• 27:03
  And, and, and that's one of our listeners that, you know, give
• 27:05
  me that information. Do they have to send it back
• 27:09
  again and, and get it done? Stuff that they get away with is
• 27:15
  criminal, nothing short of criminal.
• 27:19
  And if my wife was the rule carrier that was left by the
• 27:23
  side of the road, I'd probably be in jail that night because
• 27:29
  I'd have gone to the post office and kicked somebody's ass.
• 27:33
  How dare you leave somebody abandoned on the side of the
• 27:36
  road? It's inhumane.
• 27:41
  It's they're treating them that they are less than human.
• 27:47
  Kevin, I'm coming down there for the crawfish, OK.
• 27:50
  But you're right, you can't get a seniority matrix, you can't
• 27:53
  get a radar report, you can't get APTR report.
• 27:57
  You know, the, the, the irresponsibility and lack of
• 28:03
  experience in regards to what they are required to do on the
• 28:08
  local management level is just unbelievable.
• 28:11
  But they're going to be there for their 10 AM.
• 28:14
  You know, telecoms, aren't they? They're going to be able to have
• 28:17
  their lunches whenever they want to or have the food delivered to
• 28:21
  the the window for them. I've seen that more than enough
• 28:25
  times. Jeez.
• 28:26
  Our our Uber Eats driver in Westchester was on the first
• 28:29
  name basis with the clerks of the window.
• 28:34
  Oh, and don't forget that we get emergency placed for having an
• 28:38
  earbud in our ear, but management can be on their
• 28:40
  telecom while they're delivering the mail.
• 28:44
  I heard that one too. Or in in certain situations,
• 28:50
  people have hair that goes down over their ears so you can't see
• 28:53
  their earbuds as they're walking on the floor talking to their
• 28:56
  daughter about what to wear to school that day.
• 29:04
  I got another e-mail for you guys why we're killing time
• 29:07
  here. This one came in a couple days
• 29:12
  ago. Says hi there.
• 29:14
  I've recently found your podcast and have love listening to you
• 29:17
  all lately. Thank you.
• 29:20
  I have some questions and hoping you guys can help me out.
• 29:23
  Number one, can you go over the 4241 M and explain what each
• 29:29
  column means and the numbers along with it?
• 29:31
  I just asked for mine and I've never seen one before this count
• 29:35
  and I'm just a little confused on how it's supposed to be
• 29:38
  interpreted. I don't remember if we went over
• 29:41
  the 4241 M previously. I know we did the 4241A on the
• 29:45
  aftermath. It was kind.
• 29:48
  Of no, we have not gone over, we have not gone over the 4241 M,
• 29:52
  but that would actually be a very good one.
• 29:55
  We'd probably, we'd probably have to break it up into three
• 29:58
  days if we were going to three episodes, if we were going to
• 30:01
  discuss it one episode per page. I I.
• 30:04
  Mean the best because I can say otherwise is in the Rex guide.
• 30:10
  The cover head of Rex guide has explanation of it and how it
• 30:13
  compares to the old one. And that would be in the middle
• 30:18
  of the pack of pages. It's a 99 page document.
• 30:21
  So you're looking right around the 40s or 50s of pages.
• 30:24
  It's going to actually have them broken down right there for you.
• 30:29
  Can't remember the exact case number off the top of my head
• 30:32
  though. But yeah, that is a good one to
• 30:35
  go over #2 pretty often our DPS will come in and be out of
• 30:41
  order, like chunks just stuck in random places in the tray that
• 30:45
  you have to fix beings that I don't case mine.
• 30:48
  I'm wondering if this should be miscellaneous time during count
• 30:52
  because of it happening so often.
• 30:54
  Actually it's a piece count at the end of shift duties.
• 31:00
  Yes, every chunk that's out of order.
• 31:03
  If you already passed the address, throw it in your return
• 31:06
  to the office and case it up when you get back because you
• 31:08
  don't have time out on the route to do that with the the
• 31:12
  standards that we have. Don't take the time to fix it,
• 31:15
  just throw it in your bucket and bring it back to the office.
• 31:19
  Yep, Yep. Number three, I've heard mixed
• 31:23
  information on this so I'm wondering what you've been told
• 31:26
  or no to be true. If you have a larger parcel and
• 31:29
  a spur for the same address and take them both to the door and
• 31:34
  scan, do you get to the door credit for both of them?
• 31:38
  Yes, you took you get the door, you get the single door credit
• 31:45
  for the delivery, but they're both considered medium to large
• 31:49
  parcels so you get a little bit better credit when you combine
• 31:54
  them together like that. Going to the door compared to
• 31:57
  sticking one in the mailbox and delivering one to the door.
• 32:00
  Although sticking one in the mailbox and delivering one to
• 32:03
  the door supposedly gives you 2 scan credits for the address.
• 32:09
  Because you're closing them out individually.
• 32:13
  Because they're separate deliveries.
• 32:16
  Once in the mailbox, once to the door, they don't get combined at
• 32:20
  the end of the day. But to ease people's mind, we've
• 32:27
  also been told that if you take parcels and you deliver over the
• 32:30
  door and you scan them separately, it doesn't matter if
• 32:33
  you scan them separately or scan them together, you get the same
• 32:36
  credit because it's at the end of the day when they all come
• 32:39
  together. You know what you're, you're,
• 32:46
  you're playing with somatics here in regards to trying to get
• 32:50
  most of your numbers. Remember you're, you're still in
• 32:53
  the customer service business, ladies and gentlemen.
• 32:56
  So take them both to the door, OK?
• 32:59
  Is it is there's not going to be that much gain.
• 33:03
  I'm doing it one to the mailbox and one to the door.
• 33:06
  So provide the service that we're known to provide.
• 33:10
  The only time I the only time I recommend sticking it in the box
• 33:14
  is if it's something that can blow away compared to the other
• 33:17
  box and you have nothing to stick on top of it to keep it
• 33:20
  from blowing away. Or medication I I prefer to
• 33:24
  secure medication in the box rather than at the door as well.
• 33:29
  That, yeah, that's very true, yes.
• 33:31
  Windy days I always lift the bigger box and slide the the
• 33:34
  bottom, the bottom, the little piece underneath there with the
• 33:37
  corner, hanging it and holding it down.
• 33:39
  That's just me. All right #4 we were not given
• 33:46
  any walk distance for our countables, and I think it's
• 33:49
  because our clerk pushes the cart around for us to sign
• 33:53
  whatever we have that day. We've always gotten footage
• 33:56
  before, even if it was only to the center of the room from our
• 33:59
  case. In fact, it was something.
• 34:02
  I personally don't think this is right.
• 34:04
  And if we're not getting footage, we should get something
• 34:06
  for having to sign for them, right?
• 34:08
  When I questioned it before count, the PM just said we don't
• 34:11
  get credit anymore because certified mail comes in the DPS.
• 34:16
  True, but we have to sign for our arrow keys daily.
• 34:19
  I feel that we should get something for it.
• 34:20
  Thoughts. So in my office, we do have, the
• 34:25
  clerk did have the clerk coming around to deliver the things to
• 34:29
  us. And so we actually measured from
• 34:33
  our case to where the clerk cart would normally be during the day
• 34:38
  coming around. And that's the footage that we
• 34:41
  got in my office. They've since changed that and
• 34:45
  now the footage is to the cage because the clerk doesn't come
• 34:48
  around anymore. But when it was coming around,
• 34:52
  we measured to where normally the clerk would be standing for
• 34:55
  us to accept our accountables, including arrow keys and any
• 35:00
  other cert accountable mail that they had to hand out.
• 35:07
  And also on to that point, James, if the clerk comes around
• 35:12
  on an infrequent basis, then you should be getting that round
• 35:15
  trip distance to the cage or wherever they store the cart
• 35:19
  because of the fact that it's not provided as an everyday
• 35:22
  service. Yes, the regular location.
• 35:26
  You we we have filed and 1:00 on that one.
• 35:28
  Also because of the fact that the clerks depending on the
• 35:31
  staffing, you know, we're weren't available to bring the
• 35:34
  cart around or, you know, too many parcels any, any number of
• 35:38
  excuses. So we got got got that credit to
• 35:41
  the accountable cart area period.
• 35:44
  So if you're moving, even if it's two feet to the accountable
• 35:48
  cart from where you stand in your case that should have been
• 35:51
  measured. I would say if you have a 0 for
• 35:54
  distance for accountables, file a dispute you have until the
• 35:59
  18th. That would be my advice.
• 36:04
  Yes, mine too. And finally closing out.
• 36:09
  Thank you for your help. Appreciate what you guys are
• 36:11
  doing for our craft. Love getting to listen to you
• 36:14
  while I'm working. That's it.
• 36:19
  Thank you for reaching out to us.
• 36:21
  Yeah. I'm talking about closing that
• 36:28
  one out on a positive note. So.
• 36:38
  We're still waiting for the RC as first day.
• 36:41
  Yeah. Just saying I know.
• 36:45
  Think we should fill fill in with the other topic I have on
• 36:48
  hand? Go ahead.
• 36:50
  Literally. Yep.
• 36:52
  So we're going to have some fun now.
• 36:56
  So everybody obviously knows the Postal Pulse Survey came out and
• 37:04
  we all know how people feel about it.
• 37:07
  We know Kevin Terry likes to tout it in all the groups that
• 37:10
  he's the admin of or controls. And of course, APWU and NALC
• 37:17
  have said not to fill it out, but I wanted to go over the new
• 37:23
  questions they have and kind of do a comedy sketch of what I
• 37:28
  think about those questions. And I want to get your guys's
• 37:31
  comedy sketch of what you think about the question.
• 37:34
  How does that sound? Sure.
• 37:37
  Is this uncensored? Uncensored.
• 37:41
  OK, I'm in. So on the, on the scan, on the
• 37:46
  Scantron style sheet, I'm kind of sad because they removed the,
• 37:50
  I have a best friend at work question on there.
• 37:54
  But I don't think they want us to have friends at work.
• 37:57
  I think they just want us to be mindless drones.
• 37:59
  But question number one, I am proud to work at the Postal
• 38:05
  Service. Well, I am proud to work at the
• 38:09
  Postal Service. I am proud to be part of the
• 38:11
  NRLCA and I am proud of the the work that I do and accomplish
• 38:15
  for my craft and my customers. And whether they take that as a
• 38:21
  positive for the office I work at or not, I don't care.
• 38:24
  I love my job, I love my craft, I love my career.
• 38:31
  How are you guys? Cricket.
• 38:40
  I, I, I, I love, I love being a, a, a, a postal carrier.
• 38:50
  I love being outside with my customers and the kids and the
• 38:54
  animals, the friendships that I've, you know, gained through
• 38:58
  the years. I love the fact that I was able
• 39:01
  to restrain myself. I'm physically assaulting
• 39:05
  anybody inside the post office even though they got on my last
• 39:09
  nerve on a daily basis. And I love the fact that I've
• 39:14
  never been convicted of a crime during my tenure at the post
• 39:20
  office in relation to my job duties.
• 39:29
  Kristen. Kristen.
• 39:34
  My answer would be Yep. No, I, I do, I love my job.
• 39:43
  I love being a, a, a service in a familiar face to my customers,
• 39:47
  even when they don't realize where they're at.
• 39:52
  It it, you know, we are some, you know, we're there for our
• 39:55
  customers. And that's the part that I
• 39:57
  really enjoy about my job. And what makes me proud to be
• 40:00
  part of the post office is being able to provide that service.
• 40:09
  Question 2. I intend to stay with the Postal
• 40:13
  Service for at least the next 12 months.
• 40:17
  I plan to stay with the Postal Service until I retire.
• 40:21
  That's the plan of a career. Now there are other people who
• 40:25
  think that it may not last that long because of specific things
• 40:30
  going on outside of the Postal Service, but I plan to to work
• 40:35
  for the Postal Service to the day I retire because that's what
• 40:38
  a career is for. I think that this question is
• 40:42
  more geared towards non career workforce employees who probably
• 40:48
  will find out how exactly toxic and hostile the work environment
• 40:52
  is and how low the pay really is and how little they get to take
• 40:56
  home. And maybe even first year career
• 40:59
  employees after they've been at RCA for 5-6 years making more
• 41:04
  money as an RCA than they do as a career regular carrier.
• 41:13
  Yep, too late does not apply. She does not apply.
• 41:20
  He's an NA non applicable. Yes, but that's not even on here
• 41:25
  anymore. Do I plan on sneaking around for
• 41:29
  the next 12 months? Well, you've got me for the last
• 41:32
  10 1/2 years. I guess I'm here to stay.
• 41:38
  I mean, I've got 18 1/2 years to go before I can retire, so I
• 41:45
  guess, yeah, I'll be around for at least 12 more months.
• 41:55
  Yeah, here's here's a clincher, one I would recommend.
• 41:59
  The Postal Service is a great place to work depends on your
• 42:03
  idea of a great place to work. If you love being outside in all
• 42:07
  types of weather, dealing with customers who mostly love you
• 42:11
  and animals that mostly love you and very little oversight when
• 42:17
  you're out on the road other than a little computer
• 42:19
  underneath the dash, I mean, it's a great place to work.
• 42:24
  But when you get into the micromanagement, the hostile and
• 42:26
  toxic work environments, again, you know, that's that's where I
• 42:33
  would wonder if I would actually recommend this as a place to
• 42:35
  work. Now, if we get a great tentative
• 42:38
  agreement that that could actually sustain people in the
• 42:42
  most of the jurisdiction of the United States, then it probably
• 42:46
  raised the bar on that. But I don't know if I could
• 42:50
  actually recommend somebody to work for the Postal Service in
• 42:53
  the current condition that it's in, Bill.
• 43:01
  AY FKM are you fucking kidding me?
• 43:14
  Told you it was. Going to be a comedy hour.
• 43:21
  Only only if I really hated you would I do that.
• 43:31
  Kristen. I'm guilty.
• 43:34
  Yes, you are. And you and.
• 43:37
  And and you, daughter, daughter, years from now we'll sue you for
• 43:41
  mental cruelty. I just keep reminding her it's
• 43:49
  not fast food and where else locally are you going to be
• 43:51
  making 2038 an hour? Yeah, see Wawa, Walmart,
• 43:59
  Wegmans. Not here.
• 44:01
  Not here. Yeah, but.
• 44:06
  You don't have to drive your car either.
• 44:09
  Yeah. Hi, all.
• 44:10
  I've got an LLV, but yeah, she's got my car right now.
• 44:15
  All right. What's the next question?
• 44:20
  My work gives me a sense of personal accomplishment.
• 44:24
  I think every time I help a carrier out and and put
• 44:29
  management in line and make sure that management actually follows
• 44:34
  the documentation they agreed to in the 1st place, I think that's
• 44:38
  a sense of personal accomplishment.
• 44:41
  Doing my job every day and going home to my loved ones like Bill
• 44:45
  says, that's a personal accomplishment to me.
• 44:51
  You know, getting the paycheck every two weeks, all cell
• 44:55
  carriers haven't gotten a paycheck again.
• 44:59
  That does give me a sense of accomplishment.
• 45:01
  I did work to earn money. Do I want more money?
• 45:05
  Everybody wants more money, but I think a personal
• 45:10
  accomplishment is the work that I do with the union and the
• 45:13
  craft bill. Now the question was, does your
• 45:19
  job give you a sense of personal accomplishment?
• 45:23
  Right. Uh huh.
• 45:26
  OK. I'm just clarifying, you know,
• 45:28
  because in a lot of sense we are, we are almost robotic in
• 45:34
  nature in what we do, you know, raw mail flats, you know,
• 45:38
  everything we do is, is rope. We do it out of a, you know,
• 45:43
  almost autonomous type nature because we do it all the time,
• 45:48
  the same way day in and day out. As far as having a sense of
• 45:53
  personal accomplishment, I would have to say that, you know,
• 45:57
  being on the route gives you the greatest sense of personal
• 46:00
  accomplishment because of the people you see every day.
• 46:04
  And regardless of the situation, how happy people are to, you
• 46:08
  know, to see the mailman. I mean, you know, other, you
• 46:11
  know, it's, it's people with their pets, kids and all the
• 46:14
  older people. I like the story where the lady
• 46:19
  reported, you know, by Don Madsen's prompting that, you
• 46:24
  know, she was in Louisiana and they had a snowstorm down there
• 46:28
  and they didn't deliver mail for two days.
• 46:31
  And on the third day, they're back delivering mail.
• 46:33
  And it's almost brings having the mail carrier come around,
• 46:37
  almost develops that sense of normalcy.
• 46:41
  You know, you're you're returning back to being, you
• 46:44
  know, normal because of the fact that you have the mailman.
• 46:46
  The mailman is making the delivery.
• 46:48
  So, you know, you're almost euphoric that everything's right
• 46:52
  in the world. But the other sense of
• 46:55
  accomplishment is, is the the people that we've helped, the
• 46:58
  people that have become stewards.
• 47:00
  You know, after listening to us on the podcast, the people that,
• 47:04
  you know, text us and call us and IM us in regards to having
• 47:09
  assistance and helping them out. That's the, that's the sense of
• 47:12
  accomplishment I get because of the fact that nobody else stands
• 47:17
  up for them. And even the people in the
• 47:20
  national steward system, we were supposed to represent them, be
• 47:24
  able to do their jobs in a due diligence fashion.
• 47:28
  We're there to help back it up, back them up so that they have a
• 47:31
  sense of value and worth in regards to doing their jobs.
• 47:35
  Kristen. Yeah.
• 47:40
  I, I think it's more of the times when I really get to help
• 47:44
  customers out more on a personal level that I, I get that feeling
• 47:49
  more than anything. Or when I prove management wrong
• 47:53
  and throw it in their face. I'd be about my 2 scenarios on
• 47:58
  when I would feel that. Next one, I know what is
• 48:07
  expected of me at work, Val, considering the documentation
• 48:11
  that is available to every Craft member, we should know what is
• 48:16
  expected of us at work by the documentation that is that we
• 48:20
  have on file. What we do not expect is
• 48:24
  management to unilaterally, maliciously and intentionally
• 48:28
  violate those documents that we're supposed to know and do
• 48:33
  the jobs that are listed in there.
• 48:37
  So I know what's expected of me unless management makes a
• 48:40
  unilateral decision. Bill.
• 49:00
  Did we lose Bill? I think we lost Bill.
• 49:05
  I'm I'm sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
• 49:07
  I'm sorry. There now, now I was looking at
• 49:13
  the baby. OK, sorry.
• 49:15
  I got distracted anyway. That's a good distraction.
• 49:19
  I, I, I expect the management to treat us like a bunch of brain
• 49:24
  dead zombies without questioning them whatsoever, Kristen.
• 49:35
  Yeah, I know how to do my job. I know how to do my job better
• 49:41
  than management my in my office. So yeah.
• 49:45
  Yeah, I mean, you know, them being people who've never been
• 49:52
  carriers, for the most part are telling you how to do your job.
• 49:56
  Yep. Really.
• 50:00
  Really. Come on now 5.
• 50:02
  More clerks. Yeah.
• 50:10
  All right. Next question.
• 50:13
  I have the resources to do my job effectively as long as
• 50:19
  they're provided for me. If they aren't, I file forms to
• 50:22
  make sure I get the stuff that I need.
• 50:27
  It's that simple, Kristen. What happened to Bill OH?
• 50:33
  We're going to let Kristen go first.
• 50:35
  I thought Bill was. I had another non applicable to
• 50:38
  this one. OK, exactly.
• 50:41
  No, I, I I just still comment on it.
• 50:44
  All right, go. Ahead, Kristen.
• 50:46
  OK, He he wants to subvert me. Go ahead.
• 50:50
  Do I have the tools? In general, Yes.
• 50:53
  But when it comes to getting vehicles fixed, that's totally
• 50:57
  different story. Hazard lights have been written
• 51:02
  up three times. Brakes have been written up
• 51:04
  twice. We have 3 trucks that need a
• 51:09
  transmission. It's a month long wait for
• 51:11
  transmissions but they can't put mine in to get the brakes done.
• 51:19
  And yes, those vehicles are still on the road that are
• 51:21
  waiting for transmissions. Geez.
• 51:25
  As well as the ones that want are waiting for brakes.
• 51:28
  Yep. All right, next question or
• 51:33
  Bill, go ahead, fill it in. Bill. 1st.
• 51:37
  Oh my God, Jesus. I was out of rotation, so you
• 51:40
  know. Yes, I'm whale shit here, you
• 51:44
  know. Damn.
• 51:46
  Yeah, but what was the question? I mean, it doesn't apply to you,
• 51:54
  but I have the resources. I have the resources to do my
• 52:00
  job effectively. No, let's, let's take for
• 52:05
  example the last mini meal survey.
• 52:08
  This is where your tubs go. Here's where the EMF trays go.
• 52:11
  Here's where the EM trays go. A month later they change
• 52:17
  location. Oh, I have a hamper full of
• 52:21
  parcels coming off the parcel sorting machine.
• 52:23
  I have a hamper full of parcels in the bullpen area plus large
• 52:29
  parcel stack next to it. And then you're going to
• 52:32
  question my load time because I have to go get an extra hamper
• 52:37
  to unload the bullpen hamper as well as put the large ones.
• 52:41
  They're not located in the area convenient for me.
• 52:46
  I I can't go get my accountable because there's no accountable
• 52:50
  clerks available and you have it locked up in a cage.
• 52:54
  I can't go out and deliver my route because on average 3
• 52:58
  routes every day have to wait 3 1/2 to 4 hours waiting for
• 53:02
  carriers to bring trucks back because there's a shortage of
• 53:05
  trucks. But you're going to adjust
• 53:07
  routes, create new routes for people who don't exist yet and
• 53:12
  will not have vehicles on top of the other three carriers who are
• 53:15
  waiting every damn day. No, I don't have the resources.
• 53:22
  That was actually a very good answer.
• 53:24
  I'm glad. I'm glad we left it for the end.
• 53:27
  Well, you know, experience counts, Buckwheat.
• 53:35
  My job makes good use of my skills and abilities.
• 53:40
  Obviously the ability of memorization of 85% of the
• 53:44
  information I read does really help things out.
• 53:48
  But I think that in terms of skills and abilities, I don't
• 53:55
  think there are the skills and abilities to do this job are
• 53:59
  taught to you in this in this craft.
• 54:02
  And some people have the ability to pick up the skills and
• 54:05
  abilities to do this job. Some people don't.
• 54:08
  We've we've met those people, Bill Kristen, both know they've
• 54:11
  taken people out as trainers and went they're not going to make
• 54:16
  it. It's clear and simple because
• 54:18
  they can't, they won't be able to grasp the skills and and
• 54:21
  abilities to do the do the task. But overall, as a craft
• 54:26
  employee, I I have the skills and abilities to do the job
• 54:31
  Bill. Yes, I, I probably took a month
• 54:39
  when I first started to develop the, the skills and abilities to
• 54:44
  do the job as I was trained. I refined those skills and
• 54:48
  abilities over the course of a 26 year career based on male
• 54:52
  volumes and the increase of parcel volumes over the years.
• 54:57
  I've modified, you know, my, my skills and abilities to, to
• 55:02
  mirror the wants and needs of the career as it's changed over
• 55:09
  the years. So being, you know, adaptable to
• 55:13
  situations. I I have to say yes and I've
• 55:18
  developed the skills and abilities on my own with no
• 55:21
  support from management. Yeah, Kristen.
• 55:29
  Yep. Well, if you're going to be.
• 55:36
  Answering it like you're taking the survey.
• 55:38
  Yeah, Yep, obviously I'm stuck with it for the last 10 1/2
• 55:46
  years. Yes, I do have the skills and
• 55:48
  abilities for the job. I am given opportunities to grow
• 55:57
  and develop in my current role. Now that could be any any idea
• 56:04
  you guys, I'm going to let you guys take this one because you
• 56:08
  know, to grow and develop in our current role as a rural carrier
• 56:12
  means our routes get bigger, we develop more work to do, not get
• 56:18
  smaller and develop more work to do.
• 56:21
  But go ahead, Bill, go ahead first.
• 56:25
  Yeah, I'm going to keep this short and sweet Christian.
• 56:35
  Yeah, that's about where I'm at too.
• 56:46
  How do you really answer that? Exactly like if if I was a
• 56:52
  manager, maybe if they were offering higher positions for me
• 56:56
  as I grow and continue to actually do a good job.
• 57:00
  You know, by honoring the contracts that are signed by
• 57:02
  national management, following the rules and regulations of the
• 57:06
  post office and the manuals that pertain to the job that I'm
• 57:09
  doing. I mean, if that was the case,
• 57:12
  then maybe you could answer that question.
• 57:14
  But for Craft employees, I don't know if you can actually grow
• 57:18
  and develop beyond the craft employee that you are without
• 57:21
  going into management. Well, the other exceptions would
• 57:24
  be, you know, stepping up to be a local steward, stepping up and
• 57:31
  being active within the union to 1 extent or another, becoming an
• 57:35
  OJI and training, becoming an Academy facilitator in training.
• 57:42
  The new RCA is onboarding and then training in the office as
• 57:46
  an OJI. Those are the only other things
• 57:49
  that I could think of that where you would develop and grow as
• 57:53
  you continue on. That would not be.
• 57:56
  Management is doing the extras, whether it's within the union or
• 58:00
  within your office, helping the newer people coming in.
• 58:09
  I like my answer better. I understand how my job
• 58:17
  contributes to the success of the organization.
• 58:19
  The success of the organization, I should say, Well, I believe
• 58:24
  that all craft employees, whether it be the rural
• 58:28
  carriers, city carriers, clerks, janitors, VMF mail handlers
• 58:35
  contribute to the success of this organization.
• 58:38
  Upper management, no, they don't contribute to the success for
• 58:43
  it. They actually contribute to the
• 58:44
  decline of it because of their micromanagement.
• 58:49
  If they would just turn around, take 5 seconds to take a deep
• 58:52
  breath and look back at what this organization has been and
• 58:55
  where it's going, I guarantee you instead of moving the
• 58:59
  metrics, you fix the problems. This organization would run a
• 59:02
  heck of a lot smoother Bill. I believe that for the most
• 59:11
  part, most craft members, regardless of which craft they
• 59:16
  belong to or are there, you know, in their own interests of
• 59:21
  earning a paycheck, maybe for furthering your career, you
• 59:24
  know, getting retirement and everything.
• 59:27
  Whereas management only looks to their own means in regards to
• 59:32
  what they can do to aggravate the craft members.
• 59:38
  I mean, and, and every and everybody's seen it in all the
• 59:40
  offices except for the unicorns that management belittles
• 59:44
  everybody. They don't build them up.
• 59:46
  They don't assist them, they don't offer words of
• 59:50
  encouragement. This, this is how you motivate
• 59:52
  people. No, they nitpick, you know, oh,
• 59:55
  you had a stationary event. Oh, you ran over some of these
• 59:59
  dogs, so we're going to leave you on the side of the road.
• 1:00:04
  That's not the way you generate. Yeah, the, the, the type of
• 1:00:08
  employee that you want and it, and it's funny because if you
• 1:00:14
  get rid of OK, if you don't get rid of it, if a seasoned
• 1:00:19
  employee leaves you and you have to hire someone to replace it,
• 1:00:25
  on average, it's probably 4 to one in the post office just to
• 1:00:28
  get a replacement for that individual.
• 1:00:32
  And that one individual may or may not have the attributes to
• 1:00:36
  fulfill the duties of a rural carrier and develop those
• 1:00:41
  skills, you know, over the years.
• 1:00:44
  How likely is it that that it, that individual is going to meet
• 1:00:49
  or even exceed the capabilities of the employee you lost and you
• 1:00:54
  lost them over what? You lost them over an EP that
• 1:00:57
  was unfairly filed against them and the union failed to protect
• 1:01:02
  them. You got rid of them because of,
• 1:01:04
  you know, personality differences.
• 1:01:08
  You, you, you don't know what's going on with people's lives
• 1:01:10
  because you're not involved with the carriers on a personal
• 1:01:13
  level. And, and that's a shame because
• 1:01:16
  the fact that a lot of management can't separate the
• 1:01:21
  business and the personal and, and still be involved with the
• 1:01:25
  carriers that are under them. The fact of the matter is that
• 1:01:35
  I, I, I, I really, I really stay up late at night worrying about
• 1:01:43
  where the hell this post office is going with the current crop
• 1:01:46
  of management. They do nothing but belittle and
• 1:01:51
  berate their employees. And that's not how you motivate
• 1:01:55
  people and that's not how you create a successful
• 1:01:57
  organization, let alone a profitable 1.
• 1:02:02
  And we, we could go down a whole different, you know, row on that
• 1:02:07
  1. And in regards being a
• 1:02:08
  profitable organization, you know, even though we're
• 1:02:10
  considered a service, but the fact of the matter is that we
• 1:02:14
  could be, if it was run correctly.
• 1:02:18
  Imagine the money the post office would have if they didn't
• 1:02:22
  violate the contract every damn day.
• 1:02:26
  So I'm done, Tristan. Ditto, Ditto.
• 1:02:37
  Ditto. Ditto.
• 1:02:41
  All right, this is, this is a really, really big one.
• 1:02:45
  My opinions matter. Well, not on this damn survey,
• 1:02:50
  but in my office with management that actually listens to
• 1:02:55
  understand instead of listening to just respond.
• 1:03:00
  Yeah, my opinions do matter. And so do the opinions of my
• 1:03:03
  fellow Co workers in the office. And that's the most important
• 1:03:08
  part. My opinion doesn't matter to my
• 1:03:10
  Pope. My opinion doesn't matter to my
• 1:03:14
  district manager. It doesn't matter to anybody
• 1:03:18
  above my local management. It matters to our listeners.
• 1:03:24
  It matters to our union because we know they listen to us, but
• 1:03:31
  in the higher levels of the organization, lowly craft
• 1:03:34
  employees don't matter. Bill.
• 1:03:41
  I would have to say my opinion does matter because of the fact
• 1:03:45
  that when when I do speak, management does listen.
• 1:03:49
  They often will ignore my opinion in fear for their own
• 1:03:54
  jobs. But the fact of the matter is
• 1:03:57
  that they know what I'm Speaking of.
• 1:03:59
  That's why I was successful in in filing grievances and
• 1:04:02
  winning. My opinion matters to my fellow
• 1:04:05
  carriers because they see me standing up for myself and
• 1:04:09
  others and they know that there's a voice out there and
• 1:04:13
  that they also have opinions that you know should be heard.
• 1:04:18
  Do they matter to management? For the most part, no.
• 1:04:23
  Do they matter to me and others around me?
• 1:04:25
  Yes. Because as soon as you become
• 1:04:28
  silent, you lose. If you don't stand up and fight,
• 1:04:34
  you lose. They'll they'll tell you if you
• 1:04:38
  can't win every fight, Bill, well, you know, if you don't
• 1:04:41
  show up for the fight, you'll never know.
• 1:04:44
  And when you don't show up for the fight, management wins.
• 1:04:49
  So stand up and fight, offer your opinion, offer your advice,
• 1:04:54
  and let others see you do that so that you can encourage them
• 1:04:57
  to stand up and offer their opinions too.
• 1:05:00
  Kristen. Oh, another one of those.
• 1:05:04
  How the hell would I answer this one?
• 1:05:11
  Puff, puff, drag. Right.
• 1:05:16
  Wow, yeah, I mean those higher up, no.
• 1:05:21
  And I guess it would depend on which person in management, my
• 1:05:25
  office you were talking to one may take under consideration the
• 1:05:29
  other one will go on the defense and claim that they're right
• 1:05:33
  about everything. As for coworkers, yes and no.
• 1:05:39
  It just depends on the circumstance or even the
• 1:05:42
  question that they're asking my opinion on.
• 1:05:45
  But honestly in my personal the thing it's yes or no both ways.
• 1:05:52
  It just depends. There's really no yes my opinion
• 1:05:57
  matters or Nope absolutely not. It just really depends on the
• 1:06:01
  situation, what it the topic it's about, and who's the one
• 1:06:05
  asking. Isn't that funny?
• 1:06:11
  Or not asking and is on the receiving end of it anyways.
• 1:06:20
  All right, let me. My back cap section cap picture.
• 1:06:24
  Is there any more questions, James?
• 1:06:28
  There is so we through one through 10 and there's 23
• 1:06:32
  questions. Oh well, let's I think we're
• 1:06:35
  good. Just pick the juicy ones, OK?
• 1:06:38
  Let me mute myself real quick and get the new RCA down here.
• 1:06:44
  I know baby's getting temperamental so.
• 1:06:49
  Well, we can wait for that. That's fine.
• 1:06:52
  I just wanted to have a little fun with the postal pulse we
• 1:06:55
  were waiting for. But you it's it's.
• 1:07:00
  You know how many, James? You know how many times I've
• 1:07:03
  sent that postal survey back with my name and address on it?
• 1:07:08
  OK. And my my post office explaining
• 1:07:12
  to them in no uncertainty it it with severe profanity included
• 1:07:17
  that it's a waste of time, a waste of money.
• 1:07:20
  You don't care. You're only doing this because
• 1:07:22
  one of these requirements that you have to have saying that you
• 1:07:27
  you take into consideration the employees, it means nothing.
• 1:07:31
  What a waste of time and money and they keep sending them out.
• 1:07:37
  Yep, I actually had somebody comment.
• 1:07:41
  Right Rich put in here. You supposed to get paid for it?
• 1:07:43
  Yes, put it on your damn 4240. All right, here's the thing.
• 1:07:49
  I actually, I got a comment on that and they said, you know,
• 1:07:54
  the last time they saw a survey with these pretty much the same
• 1:07:57
  exact questions was when they worked at a nuclear power plant.
• 1:08:00
  And it really is. It's just a survey sent out by
• 1:08:03
  management that has absolutely no blank crew clue of what's
• 1:08:08
  going on on the work room floor. Yep, All right, we have Grubby
• 1:08:16
  joining us now. She is.
• 1:08:19
  A. We have a brand new carrier
• 1:08:21
  joining us. Brand new RCA, Yes, her first
• 1:08:26
  solo day was yesterday. Go ahead, ask her the questions.
• 1:08:34
  Yesterday all my troubles seem so far away.
• 1:08:39
  Then you delivered the mail. On the way.
• 1:08:45
  So how was it Ruby it? Sucked.
• 1:08:49
  I'm not going. To, well, tell us about it.
• 1:08:54
  What what what specifically was the problem with it?
• 1:08:56
  What sucked? About it, yeah, Don't hold back.
• 1:09:00
  Don't hold back. We're we're friends here.
• 1:09:02
  So are the listeners. Come.
• 1:09:06
  On she said she doesn't want to do it now can I tell him all
• 1:09:12
  right I guess I will I I I'll give the story and if she
• 1:09:17
  decides to jump in and correct me she can I'll.
• 1:09:22
  Get some of it just a little wrong.
• 1:09:23
  So she does. Let's warn the let's warn the
• 1:09:28
  listening audience that this is second hand hearsay.
• 1:09:33
  Yeah, she's sitting right next to me, so she can jump in and
• 1:09:36
  and correct me anytime. Yeah, so being that yesterday
• 1:09:41
  was my K day, obviously I can there's no way of me being
• 1:09:45
  compensated to go out and help. So I, as with any new RCAI will
• 1:09:52
  help get him out of the office. That's just how I am.
• 1:09:57
  So got her situated with casing. I'm over casing my route, I
• 1:10:02
  checking on her in between, but I'm still waiting on the clerk's
• 1:10:05
  finished throwing, you know, because if she's can't find
• 1:10:10
  something or if it belongs to the PO Box, because that is the
• 1:10:14
  route, it does have a lock pouch on it.
• 1:10:16
  So, so I, you know, go back to casing she's casing up her DPS.
• 1:10:21
  I'm load, take my first load of parcels out, blah, blah, blah.
• 1:10:25
  So I get all done. I'm got my last load ready to
• 1:10:28
  go, pulled down and go over there and help her with the
• 1:10:31
  packages and so we but it was time for her to go load.
• 1:10:36
  I went out and loaded mine as well and she still had to pull
• 1:10:40
  down. So while I was loading my truck,
• 1:10:43
  she was pulling down and then so we both departed to the route
• 1:10:48
  about the same time. She left just a little ahead of
• 1:10:51
  me and, you know, I'm, I'm going and I get a phone call probably
• 1:11:00
  within the first hour. And we had put markers in the
• 1:11:08
  case for the hardships that was there for, you know, borrowed
• 1:11:11
  Rcas or whatnot. The first hardship though,
• 1:11:14
  didn't have a marker and she missed it and it threw her
• 1:11:19
  completely off a lot. And she called me basically in
• 1:11:27
  tears, ready to call the supervisor to figure out how she
• 1:11:32
  can effing get the mail delivered because she was going
• 1:11:34
  to quit, am I right? Yeah.
• 1:11:41
  She's nodding and smiling. I talk her out.
• 1:11:44
  I talk her down. I said where are you at?
• 1:11:47
  And I don't know. And she says, I said no, no,
• 1:11:51
  where, where, where is what box are you physically at right now?
• 1:11:54
  Is the car sitting in front of And she told me, I said, all
• 1:11:58
  right, take all that mail that you missed and toss it to the
• 1:12:01
  side, take it back, case it up. I said take a deep breath and
• 1:12:06
  you know, get yourself back on track.
• 1:12:08
  And I got her calmed down the best that I could and she
• 1:12:12
  continued on. And then she called me back
• 1:12:16
  again probably about 1/2 hour, maybe 45 minutes later.
• 1:12:20
  Just double check in her turn around, which normally Monday
• 1:12:23
  through Friday isn't a lock pouch RMPO drop off.
• 1:12:26
  But it's not on Saturdays because the office isn't open
• 1:12:30
  and the clerk takes it over to do the PO Box.
• 1:12:32
  So she asked if that's where her turn around point was for
• 1:12:35
  yesterday and I said yeah, that is much better sounding mood.
• 1:12:40
  So she's like, OK, just checking.
• 1:12:43
  So if she continues on, I heard from her a few times, just
• 1:12:48
  clarification on something on where to turn around or you know
• 1:12:53
  what, the next road or double verifying a certain box that
• 1:12:57
  maybe wasn't marked because yeah, we're not going to go
• 1:13:01
  there. But so the rest of the day was
• 1:13:04
  going pretty good. Supervisor and plus I have Life
• 1:13:07
  360 on my phone. So if I had a moment at a box, I
• 1:13:11
  was double checking where she was to see how she was going.
• 1:13:14
  The regular happens to live on that route.
• 1:13:17
  So I got a a message from him saying that she had arrived and
• 1:13:25
  and so you know if it is following through and then
• 1:13:30
  supervisor calls me and since my stuff was running another route,
• 1:13:35
  so to go help where where she was getting about ready to start
• 1:13:40
  the back half. It was probably about 2:30-ish
• 1:13:43
  and you know, she was proud of how far has she gone and just to
• 1:13:49
  see because the back half is just so hard to split off.
• 1:13:52
  It's so it's a lot less populated, but it's a lot more
• 1:13:56
  miles driving wise. And so I suggested a certain
• 1:14:00
  spot because this used to be my old primary before I went
• 1:14:03
  regular so And so when she fired up with him, he's like really?
• 1:14:09
  This is why am I even out here if this is all I'm taking?
• 1:14:12
  She did just over 3/4 of the route yesterday.
• 1:14:18
  I think he took the last 30, maybe 45 minutes off total.
• 1:14:25
  It is a 44K. So it's an 8.8 hour route.
• 1:14:29
  Her fish stay out on herself. She did all but the last 3045
• 1:14:34
  minutes, I would say on a heavier day.
• 1:14:37
  And yet yesterday was a heavier day Saturday for that route
• 1:14:40
  compared to what she's done through OJT.
• 1:14:43
  So she was back. I was, when I was still in the
• 1:14:48
  office, like supervisor where she was at, knowing what he was
• 1:14:51
  taking off of her. I said, yeah, she should be back
• 1:14:54
  about 5:30. She had a package that she
• 1:14:57
  missed, so she had to deliver that when she was done.
• 1:15:00
  And she had two that she forgot or they got missed.
• 1:15:03
  I'd say no, she didn't forget, but I got missed giving it to
• 1:15:05
  the other RCA to take off of. So she delivered those two and I
• 1:15:10
  told Supervisor 530 she'd probably be back.
• 1:15:13
  She was back at 5:38. And really the only mail she
• 1:15:18
  brought back was that one small little section that she got a
• 1:15:22
  little messed up at, and I think maybe just a couple of their
• 1:15:25
  boxes for the rest of the route. So she put in eight, four, 9 1/2
• 1:15:35
  hours on her very first day on an 8.8 hour route and did
• 1:15:39
  everything but the last 15 miles of it.
• 1:15:46
  Can we just give her a round of applause?
• 1:15:48
  Of a 95 mile route. She deserves a round of applause
• 1:15:53
  for that. That's that's spectacular.
• 1:15:56
  But I guess that you just trained her well.
• 1:15:58
  That's that's the most important part.
• 1:16:02
  BK a mother. Yes, she, she did very well when
• 1:16:09
  we did the back half on Friday and she was straddling in my
• 1:16:14
  Jeep for the first time and I sat in the back seat and the
• 1:16:21
  back half of the route for the regular carrier for myself, when
• 1:16:24
  I ran, it was usually 2 1/2, two, 2 1/2 hours.
• 1:16:31
  She knocked it out. It was a little bit of a lighter
• 1:16:34
  day, but that's all right. You know, she's straddling in a
• 1:16:37
  different vehicle and moving along and she did it in about 2
• 1:16:41
  1/2, just under 3 hours. In fact, we had an hour and 45
• 1:16:46
  minutes to hang out at the office to complete her 24 hours
• 1:16:50
  of OJT time. And so in that time, we went
• 1:16:54
  through the OJT checklist, we went over forms, information.
• 1:16:59
  She got a full tour of everything in the office,
• 1:17:01
  including the storage rooms. So yeah, I, I, everybody was
• 1:17:09
  quite proud of her for how much she did on her first time out.
• 1:17:15
  She did quite well. We're proud of her too.
• 1:17:17
  We're proud of her, too. Thanks.
• 1:17:19
  Guys, no accidents, no animal kills, you know they Yeah,
• 1:17:23
  today. And she got home safely.
• 1:17:27
  And my car is in one piece. The most important part?
• 1:17:33
  And to clarify, I only hit one mailbox with the mirror and she
• 1:17:38
  only nudged one mailbox with my mirror and it was a plastic 1 so
• 1:17:41
  that was great. Not bad, not bad, but good job
• 1:17:48
  on her first date she. Didn't hit it, she rubbed it.
• 1:17:51
  It happens to the rest. We all do that, even in our LO
• 1:17:54
  VS. Well, tell her it we say it's
• 1:17:59
  only gets better from here, gets easier over time.
• 1:18:04
  Yeah, that. That's James.
• 1:18:06
  Easier doesn't get better, it gets easier.
• 1:18:13
  But no, yeah. I'm trying to fuck her up.
• 1:18:14
  Come on now. No, no, you know, we, we had
• 1:18:19
  some good stuff during training. She got to do a certified, she
• 1:18:23
  had a signature Amazon package. She, you know, she, she got to
• 1:18:29
  experience a little bit during training.
• 1:18:31
  So that helped and being a POV route, I I told her case that
• 1:18:37
  DPS for as long as she's comfortable doing it, if that's
• 1:18:40
  going to work best for her, they can't tell her no.
• 1:18:48
  So yeah, she's. Got a problem with that?
• 1:18:51
  Talk to my mom. Her regular is also the local
• 1:18:55
  steward. There you go.
• 1:19:01
  Yeah, yeah. So no, she did well, did very
• 1:19:05
  well out on the street. She did awesome.
• 1:19:10
  Even the other Subs, Like, why am I even out here if this is
• 1:19:13
  all you're giving me? So I think even if she would
• 1:19:18
  have took the whole route, she still probably would have been
• 1:19:21
  back around 6:00. I'm thinking pretty close to it.
• 1:19:28
  So yeah, she did really good for her first time out, proud of
• 1:19:34
  her, and she gets to do it all over again next Saturday.
• 1:19:42
  Yep, and she took care of the most important delivery of the
• 1:19:44
  day. Yes, she did got home to her
• 1:19:48
  baby. Yep.
• 1:19:59
  So yeah, that was her. Her first day as an RCA on her
• 1:20:05
  own. And this just goes to show
• 1:20:09
  anybody out there you're gonna have a a rough time your first
• 1:20:14
  time there are there are carriers like myself.
• 1:20:17
  It took me 6 months to get used to the job.
• 1:20:21
  Me too. Six months to get it to click.
• 1:20:24
  I. Bill's an exception, Bill's an
• 1:20:26
  exception, said he got it in a month so.
• 1:20:29
  I still remember my very first day, oh, solo, I didn't even get
• 1:20:35
  through 1/3 of the route. I was on a 47 KPOV route.
• 1:20:39
  I didn't even get through 1/3 of the route by 5:00 PM and I had
• 1:20:43
  two RC as coming out and taking the rest off of me and splitting
• 1:20:46
  it up and sending me back to the office.
• 1:20:48
  So yeah, I, I remember how, how, how bad it is the first day and
• 1:20:53
  she, she impressed us all. She tailed it.
• 1:20:59
  Mm hmm. And it was heavier than the
• 1:21:02
  other four days. I mean, it was quite a bit
• 1:21:04
  heavier and the regular had a feeling it would be just because
• 1:21:09
  there during the week it had been lighter.
• 1:21:11
  So he kind of figured Saturday would end up being heavier for
• 1:21:14
  that route. It was heavier for her.
• 1:21:16
  It wasn't for me. But again, she's got a totally
• 1:21:19
  different zip code and whereas my route's more in town and so,
• 1:21:27
  yeah, you know, get me getting out of the office normally, like
• 1:21:30
  on a Monday, I'm mad if I'm out of the office at 10:30 because
• 1:21:32
  that doesn't put me back till 5530 sometimes.
• 1:21:35
  But I was still back by 3:30. So I was able to monitor how she
• 1:21:42
  was and field a couple phone calls with a couple questions on
• 1:21:46
  something was the right address or where to turn around at.
• 1:21:49
  So she did good because she's a stalker.
• 1:21:59
  No, I was just, you know, your trainer keeping tabs on you and
• 1:22:03
  how well you were doing. So Big Mama's watching.
• 1:22:11
  I do. I do like the comment when you
• 1:22:14
  you said, yeah, well, where are you?
• 1:22:16
  I don't know why I'm just look at the mail, you know?
• 1:22:20
  Yeah, it's like, alright, you know, I OK, where are you
• 1:22:23
  physically sitting right now? That way I know what mail you
• 1:22:26
  just tossed to the side. She made sure all the packages
• 1:22:30
  that she had missed, she a couple of them that she had
• 1:22:33
  missed on one Rd. It was really great that she
• 1:22:35
  caught them before she was completely 20 minutes 20 miles
• 1:22:38
  away on the other side of the route.
• 1:22:39
  She caught them right away and backtracked to go deliver them.
• 1:22:43
  And I told her I said that's fine.
• 1:22:44
  I, I miss sorted 4 of my packages and had to go back for
• 1:22:49
  all four of them yesterday. You know, it happens.
• 1:22:51
  We we all do it. Even as regulars, we have to
• 1:22:54
  backtrack at times. So no, she did.
• 1:22:57
  She made sure everything was delivered before she came back.
• 1:23:00
  She knows how to use her package.
• 1:23:02
  Look ahead. And yeah, she did really good.
• 1:23:08
  Meow says follow the mail Lolii had to laugh because my my last
• 1:23:13
  route that I had for years and years and years, you hit a
• 1:23:16
  mailbox, but then you came to a curve and kind of made a, a, a
• 1:23:20
  veering left to the house, which had a business.
• 1:23:24
  So I had to make a left turn there.
• 1:23:28
  And most, most times when you're doing your route, you're making
• 1:23:30
  right turns. So they missed that one.
• 1:23:33
  So when you came out of that second mailbox, you also had to
• 1:23:37
  make a right turn and then a pull forward and back up to hit
• 1:23:41
  2 mailboxes on the same side of that road and then turn left
• 1:23:46
  back on the Schonel town. Well, they went down to the next
• 1:23:50
  Rd., turn right on Rosewood and they couldn't find the mail.
• 1:23:54
  You know, they couldn't find the addresses for what they had on
• 1:23:56
  Sconelltown, so they delivered Rosewood.
• 1:24:01
  They went down and you're supposed to turn left on
• 1:24:04
  Shropshire. They didn't.
• 1:24:06
  They turned right on Springwood. So they took all the mail, which
• 1:24:10
  is a probably a third of the route from Shropshire all the
• 1:24:13
  way to Springwood and put it in the back because they couldn't
• 1:24:16
  find. So they, they couldn't follow
• 1:24:19
  the mail because they couldn't look for the next address before
• 1:24:22
  they left the last mailbox from Scottletown and see that it said
• 1:24:26
  Shropshire came back and had almost 70% of the mail with
• 1:24:34
  them, plus all the parcels. As you know, if you're having
• 1:24:39
  problems, why didn't you call? Well, I don't want to bother you
• 1:24:43
  on your day off, like, oh God, of course.
• 1:24:48
  Yeah, I, I, I don't need to explain to you that they didn't
• 1:24:53
  make it so. You know, yeah, she made sure
• 1:24:56
  all the parcels were delivered and that little bit of mail that
• 1:24:59
  she missed from that, having to turn left into that hardship
• 1:25:03
  because it's when you got to go up and, you know, you still
• 1:25:06
  service it from the car, but it's up the driveway and it, you
• 1:25:09
  know, the line of travel needs some work.
• 1:25:13
  She caught some spots where it was wrong and where you're
• 1:25:15
  supposed to turn right off the one Rd.
• 1:25:17
  I said to turn left, but it worked out for her because she
• 1:25:21
  had missed a package going that way.
• 1:25:23
  So she delivered that and then turned around and and we got
• 1:25:26
  back on track. So now she did.
• 1:25:29
  She did pretty good. That's that's why I always
• 1:25:33
  thought it was important for a sub to get 2 days of training
• 1:25:37
  seeing the route. Yeah.
• 1:25:41
  Because because of the fact that then they get familiar with the
• 1:25:43
  the the way the route rolls and and once you see the route to
• 1:25:49
  me, you can see the case. Yes.
• 1:25:53
  If that makes any sense to you. Yeah, it does.
• 1:25:56
  Because yeah. Because you remember.
• 1:25:58
  Yeah. Oh my God, yeah, that's over
• 1:26:00
  here. It's not over there.
• 1:26:02
  And yeah, I I always thought that was important, but, you
• 1:26:06
  know, management knows better. Yeah, it happened, but you know,
• 1:26:13
  I said we will get a placard in for that hardship so you'll
• 1:26:16
  remember it next time. She we ended up dividing her
• 1:26:20
  training up between the two weeks because they were going to
• 1:26:23
  do 3 days last week and then one day or three days the week
• 1:26:27
  before and one day last week and then put her on her own.
• 1:26:30
  I said if you're going to split it up, let's do it the two this
• 1:26:33
  week and then it do 2 next week, do Thursday and Friday and then
• 1:26:36
  it's still fresh in her brain on on Saturday because we've been
• 1:26:41
  doing 4 days, six hours a day. And Oh yeah, I guess that makes
• 1:26:48
  sense. Well, yeah, it does.
• 1:26:50
  So hello. And even Friday when we finished
• 1:26:53
  up, she still went out and drove that front part of the route
• 1:26:57
  because like I said, that's the most populated and has the most
• 1:27:00
  turns and roads. So she still went back out
• 1:27:04
  Friday evening and drove most of the first half of the route
• 1:27:08
  before she just realized it was getting late, she was tired and
• 1:27:10
  wanted to come home and go to bed.
• 1:27:13
  So yeah, no, she, she wanted to quit probably about 6 different
• 1:27:19
  times, including about three times in the office yesterday.
• 1:27:23
  But you know, she stuck through it and she did really good.
• 1:27:27
  Sounds about normal. Yeah, yeah.
• 1:27:34
  Hey, I know regulars do that, you know, four or five times a
• 1:27:37
  day. Yes, we all have those days, but
• 1:27:45
  yeah, she made it through her first solo day.
• 1:27:49
  Can't wait till we get those extra pedals to get installed.
• 1:27:52
  I got somebody that's going to help install them so she can use
• 1:27:55
  her vehicle and not mine. Nice.
• 1:28:00
  Yep. Well, we wish her luck and we
• 1:28:03
  are very proud of her for what she did.
• 1:28:06
  And she is attending mid States, so she will be there.
• 1:28:09
  So a little man and she's bringing a friend with her to
• 1:28:13
  babysit little man while we're in the conference.
• 1:28:16
  So it sounds like Bill needs to attend mid states.
• 1:28:20
  Oh, oh, you just, you just want me to start shit, that's all.
• 1:28:31
  When don't you? Exactly.
• 1:28:38
  Yeah, So it's the first weekend of May, Mr. Johnson.
• 1:28:45
  I don't have anything else. And neither do I.
• 1:28:49
  We hit our third concert in three weeks last week as well.
• 1:28:53
  So outside of that, I don't have anything else.
• 1:28:58
  You got anything else, Bill? Might be a house owner by the
• 1:29:03
  end of tomorrow, I don't know. All right, guys, we'll wrap this
• 1:29:10
  up for tonight. Final words, James.
• 1:29:18
  Yeah, we were all over the place on this episode.
• 1:29:20
  We went from questions and answers and things that were
• 1:29:23
  going on in our offices to the Postal Pulse Survey.
• 1:29:26
  And that is your option. There are identifying markers on
• 1:29:31
  it. The barcode at the bottom of the
• 1:29:33
  back of the page matches the numbers that are on the front of
• 1:29:37
  the page that matches the numbers that are on the envelope
• 1:29:40
  when it's delivered to you. On top of that, the QR code
• 1:29:43
  matches at the top right corner on the front, matches the number
• 1:29:47
  to the left of it. So there are identifying numbers
• 1:29:51
  on there. If you write on it like Bill
• 1:29:54
  said he did, they're going to just throw it out.
• 1:29:58
  So if you want to fill it out, just fill out the bubbles and
• 1:30:01
  send it in and it gives management a bonus.
• 1:30:05
  And there are sometimes where management will come and talk
• 1:30:08
  with you about your answers on the survey.
• 1:30:10
  Not always, not guaranteed. So don't think if you put
• 1:30:13
  specific answers on there that management's going to come talk
• 1:30:16
  to you. But they might just putting it
• 1:30:19
  out there. And if you are afraid of that,
• 1:30:21
  don't fill out the survey. If you feel like you can handle
• 1:30:26
  it, want to put up with management coming after you,
• 1:30:28
  retaliating against you for the answers in some instances, fill
• 1:30:32
  it out. But I'm not going to give an
• 1:30:36
  opinion one way or the other because I believe everybody's
• 1:30:39
  smart enough to make their own decisions.
• 1:30:42
  Other than that, it's looking like it's going to be a fun week
• 1:30:45
  for me out here ahead to Montana.
• 1:30:47
  And severe weather is possible at the end of this week.
• 1:30:51
  So if you're in the affected areas that already have one is
• 1:30:55
  considered a slight risk for severe weather by the Storm
• 1:30:58
  Prediction Center already. Keep your eye out, keep your eye
• 1:31:02
  on the weather, but if not, you know, still keep an eye on the
• 1:31:07
  weather 'cause there's still fire weather out in the West TX
• 1:31:10
  and other areas as well. So keep your head on a swivel,
• 1:31:14
  keep yourself safe, make sure you educate yourself because at
• 1:31:19
  the end of the day, we're all in this together.
• 1:31:22
  Phil. Well.
• 1:31:26
  The, the topics are like you said, we're all over the place.
• 1:31:30
  And yeah, it was fun with the survey and everything.
• 1:31:34
  And you're right, James. I mean, they, they tracked them
• 1:31:37
  surveys. It don't believe that they're,
• 1:31:40
  you're anonymous in any fashion whatsoever.
• 1:31:43
  I do remember one year when the supervisors came around and
• 1:31:46
  actually handed them out to us and I opened it up in front of
• 1:31:49
  them and looked at it and I says, what?
• 1:31:51
  You know, what's this? Well, you, you, you have to do
• 1:31:53
  this. I turn around and tore it up and
• 1:31:55
  threw it in the trash. And he said, you know that you
• 1:31:58
  know, you can, you can be fired for that.
• 1:32:00
  I said, why? It's a voluntary thing.
• 1:32:02
  I said I don't volunteer to waste my time on it.
• 1:32:05
  And I said not required by contract to do it.
• 1:32:08
  So, you know, you go ahead and do what you want.
• 1:32:10
  I said because you know, a lot laugh all the way to the bank.
• 1:32:13
  If you try to do any disciplinary, you know,
• 1:32:15
  procedures on me. Well, you know, of course it
• 1:32:19
  never became an, you know, item for them.
• 1:32:22
  But the fact of the matter is that, you know, like James says,
• 1:32:25
  we're, we're intelligent enough. You do what you want to do in
• 1:32:28
  regards of filling it out and submitting it.
• 1:32:32
  But don't believe for one minute that they take any of this in
• 1:32:37
  into context in regards to improving management at any
• 1:32:40
  level. It's just a survey day to do.
• 1:32:44
  And James repeated that it's a similar to a survey that other
• 1:32:48
  people have done. It doesn't mean Jack shit, you
• 1:32:53
  know, educate yourself, stand up for yourself, stand up for
• 1:32:58
  others. The intelligent carrier is the
• 1:33:01
  most dangerous carrier in the office because you're you're
• 1:33:05
  fighting a battle with people of less guile and intelligence in
• 1:33:10
  regards to the contract. Rex, Arcam, M38, the Elm, right
• 1:33:16
  anything. They're all following the
• 1:33:19
  example of the people above them.
• 1:33:22
  I, I, I got a phone call this weekend from a carrier slash
• 1:33:27
  steward who then turned around and put their, their postmaster
• 1:33:32
  on it. And he wanted to know if I knew
• 1:33:34
  of anything about fringe benefits.
• 1:33:37
  And I said, well, you know, in regards to what he says, well, I
• 1:33:40
  got a, a e-mail today mentioning fridge benefits.
• 1:33:44
  He says, do you know what that is?
• 1:33:45
  I said, yeah, having helpful management and he started
• 1:33:50
  laughing. He said I don't think that what
• 1:33:51
  that's what it is. I said no, but it would be
• 1:33:53
  helpful. But the fact of the matter is,
• 1:33:56
  is, you know, here's a postmaster asking me a question
• 1:34:00
  about an e-mail he received and they had no idea what the fringe
• 1:34:05
  benefits. I don't know in what context of
• 1:34:07
  fringe benefits we're referring to, but how can you have
• 1:34:12
  somebody in that position asking a carrier about something they
• 1:34:18
  received in an e-mail? How can you be responsible for
• 1:34:23
  everybody in that office and not know what the hell the e-mail
• 1:34:27
  was addressing? It's just another point that the
• 1:34:32
  people in management are not there because they're good
• 1:34:35
  managers. They're good because they will
• 1:34:38
  obey the people above them. They will be on their 1030
• 1:34:42
  telecom when they're supposed to be.
• 1:34:46
  They'll try to enforce rules that violate the contract
• 1:34:50
  because they're afraid of losing their jobs.
• 1:34:53
  They and, and it's a shame that they live in fear of losing
• 1:34:57
  their positions because of somebody above them.
• 1:35:00
  That's not how you manage a successful company and treating
• 1:35:04
  your ground troops, the carriers, the clerks, the BMF,
• 1:35:10
  anybody managing them and and treating them like scum is not
• 1:35:18
  the way to run a successful organization.
• 1:35:21
  And until that actually changes and it's an uphill battle folks,
• 1:35:26
  I'm not going to lie, the the post office will never get any
• 1:35:31
  better financially from a managerial standpoint, from a
• 1:35:35
  labor standpoint. But if you don't start small,
• 1:35:39
  it'll never grow into a movement to make those changes.
• 1:35:46
  We are now coming up on May 1st where we're having a local
• 1:35:49
  meeting by local chapter where we have two other local chapters
• 1:35:56
  considering merging with us because they can't get enough
• 1:35:59
  for participation at the local level for meetings for
• 1:36:05
  participation in their state conventions.
• 1:36:09
  How sad is that because of the fact that so many people have
• 1:36:12
  given up. No, don't give up.
• 1:36:16
  Stand up, speak out, write resolutions, research the people
• 1:36:22
  who are on your delegate ballot for the National Convention.
• 1:36:26
  Don't select people just because you recognize their names.
• 1:36:30
  Select people because they represent your views or
• 1:36:35
  represent yourself. Nominate yourself.
• 1:36:37
  Most states will allow you to nominate yourself for the
• 1:36:40
  National Convention and then talk it up in your locals, at
• 1:36:44
  your office, to, you know, to people that you associate with
• 1:36:48
  in other offices. But don't accept the status quo.
• 1:36:55
  This is what this is all about. This is about changing the
• 1:36:57
  status quo and making things better for the craft in its
• 1:37:02
  entirety. Not one or two people, but for
• 1:37:06
  everybody. Whether you're in the union or
• 1:37:09
  not, we have a responsibility to protect our fellow carriers from
• 1:37:15
  mismanagement, from threats, from intimidation.
• 1:37:21
  And if you don't step up for somebody else, one day they'll
• 1:37:23
  come for you. And I can give you a history
• 1:37:27
  lessons in regards to what happens when you don't step up
• 1:37:31
  for people. But the fact of the matter is
• 1:37:36
  once it starts, it never stop until you step forward and say
• 1:37:41
  enough. God bless you all.
• 1:37:45
  Be safe James. Be careful in your travels
• 1:37:47
  there. Everybody have a good week
• 1:37:50
  depending on where you are weather wise, be safe, be
• 1:37:54
  diligent, be efficient, be professional, be courteous, be
• 1:37:58
  kind of each other and make sure you get yourself home to your
• 1:38:04
  loved ones because you are the most important delivery of the
• 1:38:06
  day. Kristen.
• 1:38:08
  Thank you, guys. Yes, James, we make sure you
• 1:38:12
  have a safe travels for the rest of your commute out there and of
• 1:38:16
  course your commute home. And we look forward to the
• 1:38:19
  highlights from Western states when you get back.
• 1:38:24
  And yeah, as you know, Bill makes a valid point.
• 1:38:27
  You know, you got to, you got to stand up, you got to educate
• 1:38:32
  each other, educate yourself, be active.
• 1:38:36
  I know we've had several locals combine in with others just in
• 1:38:41
  my state alone because of lack of participation.
• 1:38:47
  You know, even I my, the annual local meetings coming up later
• 1:38:51
  this week. I mean, that's the first meeting
• 1:38:53
  we've had since our annual last year.
• 1:38:56
  So I understand it's not easy. I'm trying to bring in all the
• 1:39:02
  newbies that I can. I really am.
• 1:39:04
  I've even told some of the newer ones in my office, Rcas.
• 1:39:07
  Hey, if you want to go, let's carpool.
• 1:39:11
  I'll take you. I'll just, we need to get them
• 1:39:14
  there. So tell you know so they know
• 1:39:15
  what it's about. But on that note, guys,
• 1:39:19
  everybody have a safe week. If you're in weather areas,
• 1:39:25
  please make sure that you stay safe.
• 1:39:27
  Definitely. I did have one question come up
• 1:39:31
  on the messenger. I want to bring up real quick
• 1:39:34
  for you guys before we wrap up because I personally don't know
• 1:39:37
  an answer and I don't know if either one of you, but we'll
• 1:39:40
  see. Can a carrier be fired if found
• 1:39:43
  Jesus and want to take their children to church on Sunday?
• 1:39:48
  I'm going to assume that this would be an RCA or APTF.
• 1:39:55
  So if it's an ARC, If it's an ARC, they were specifically
• 1:40:01
  hired on the basis of Amazon Sunday, mostly for an RCA.
• 1:40:09
  Now it is. If it doesn't cause a detriment
• 1:40:13
  to the office, it is possible. That was the ruling that they
• 1:40:18
  got. Do you remember that?
• 1:40:22
  It's if it's not a detriment to the office and you know
• 1:40:25
  management will turn around and make it a detriment to the
• 1:40:27
  office. But that that case was
• 1:40:32
  specifically in Pennsylvania. And that gentleman won that case
• 1:40:36
  because he was an RCA. And they said they can't do that
• 1:40:41
  because of the fact you'd have to prove that it was a he could
• 1:40:45
  scream hardship. And they they couldn't prove
• 1:40:48
  that it was an extreme hardship. Was it the detriment?
• 1:40:52
  Yes. But the fact of the matter was
• 1:40:55
  that it was not an emergency situation and did not create an
• 1:40:59
  extreme hardship. And that guy won the case arcs.
• 1:41:04
  You're correct. Yeah.
• 1:41:06
  You sign, if you sign on it for as an arc, you're signing up for
• 1:41:09
  Sundays. You know, let's not be stupid.
• 1:41:15
  All right, thank you guys. I just want to put that one out
• 1:41:19
  there and definitely if they are having push back in their
• 1:41:23
  office, they need to reach out and to their designated union
• 1:41:27
  Rep for that anyways. So, but on that note guys, stay
• 1:41:32
  safe. Yeah, stay safe guys.
• 1:41:35
  And we shall be back next week. Oh wait, next week's Easter.
• 1:41:44
  Do we want to take the Easter holiday off?
• 1:41:48
  I'll be driving back so. All right, so, so yeah, Speaking
• 1:41:53
  of Jesus, next week is Easter weekend.
• 1:41:56
  We will take this week off if we come up with a midweek or if I
• 1:42:01
  get my edit book thing done this week.
• 1:42:03
  I don't know if I will or not, I'll post that.
• 1:42:05
  But all right, we will be back for sure in two weeks.
• 1:42:10
  So everybody take care and be safe out there.
• 1:42:27
  And and don't forget us older people, we're out till dark
• 1:42:29
  trying to find that where we hid the eggs in the first place.
• 1:42:37
  There's your closing. Yes, yes.