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We called it... · 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
• 0:41
  each time a new episode is uploaded.
• 0:44
  Also, please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:48
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:51
  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
• 0:56
  We are on episode 83 and it's only going to be Bill and myself
• 1:02
  today because Kristen's had a concert and Toasty has family.
• 1:09
  So it's going to be a fun one between the two most passionate
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  individuals that I know of other than Toasty and Kristen.
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  So how was your week, Bill? Oh my God, I want a wonderful
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  week not to be working. The heat, the humidity, and then
• 1:30
  my post office caught on fire Thursday night.
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  Fortunately, I have an alibi. A fire started in the building.
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  Supervisor on duty heard a loud popping noise, smelt smoke and
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  from the building called 911. Failing to investigate situation
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  is probably what led to the the burning down of Westchester Post
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  Office. Firefighters encountered so much
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  heavy smoke they had to cut 5 ventilation holes in the roof.
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  The roof is now structurally unsound.
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  Everything in the building scanners, cases, packages, mail,
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  everything is covered with water and soot.
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  So of course the post office and it's ingenious ineptitude took
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  all 88 routes and put them up at tri-county, which is in Malvern,
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  PA. The brand new big facility
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  that's under construction for electronic electric vehicles.
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  The parking lot with a 12 foot wide hole in it.
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  Can't get in the building unless you have a badge with an
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  electronic chip in it which nobody from Westchester has.
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  Facility is almost 3 football fields long and a football field
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  half wide. So if you wanted to go to the
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  bathroom you better know 10 minutes before you need to
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  because that's how far you have to go.
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  They have no cases. They took DPS only out on
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  Friday, took DPS and and parcels on Saturday, then came back and
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  got the rest of the parcels that they didn't have run yet.
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  So carriers were out to six 7:00 at night, which is fine for
• 3:15
  RCA's, but for the regulars you're not getting paid Jack for
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  that except for second trip. Oh that's right, it's not a
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  second trip. It should be 8127 time at least
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  time and 1/2 for any and every hour used in.
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  It's not a second trip because you couldn't fit it in the
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  vehicle. It's a second trip because they
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  didn't have it ready. Now mind you, as of Friday
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  morning, ADR and ADR were all notified of the situation and as
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  of today, neither have gotten back to us.
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  So again, the NSS is up and running and well in Pennsylvania
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  District 2. Other than that, things are
• 3:59
  fine. It's lovely here.
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  Sounds like a complete firestorm over there.
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  Literally. And, and, and on top of that,
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  OK, we don't start till 10:00 on Sundays for Amazon Sunday.
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  Of course, the, the, the carriers go in there and they
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  took volunteer regulars today, this week, and they start at
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  10:00 and had to sit in the break room until 11 because they
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  didn't have anything done yet. So then they discharged them
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  onto the street by 12:30. Then they came back.
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  As they got back, they had to sit back in the break room so
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  they could do a second run parcels on Amazon Sunday.
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  You don't think we're going to lose people?
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  Now, mind you, this new facility we're at temporarily is 22 miles
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  one way away from our old post office.
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  Everybody is going to have to have their mileage adjusted.
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  Everybody's going to have to get their fuel charges adjusted
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  because it's almost going to be 100 miles a day for every route
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  in the office. And you know, you want to tell
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  me that you have a 5:00 dispatch?
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  It's my ass. Nobody's making it.
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  And we have two, what we call very fast people in our office
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  that want to get home early because they have child care
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  issues. They're having a fit.
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  This whole thing, it's just the clusterfuck from the word go and
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  I don't understand by the post office isn't in Westchester,
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  right down the road from where our facility is in an industrial
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  park looking at facilities with docks and some huge warehouse
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  space behind it so that we can utilize that instead of going 22
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  miles away to get our mail and our parcels.
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  Mind you we don't have cases yet so the only thing going out is
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  the DPS. Yeah, make this stuff up.
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  No, you do not. I remember when we had the fire
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  in our post office and we spent over six months shoehorned into
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  the tiniest post office in the area, but it was a lot closer
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  than the other option they had. And yet just around the corner
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  from our post office, again, it's a small industrial area
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  that had places for rent that would have fit all of us in
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  there, plus our equipment in the parking lots, but it wouldn't
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  have worked for them. So we got shoehorned in
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  everybody that had normally 3 wings, 3 cases minimum.
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  We're now in one single case sort and everything.
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  And it was just a mess. So I know exactly what your
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  carriers are going through on that, that aspect.
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  And I know that your office is going to lose revenue for the
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  time that it's down for that, which means that they're going
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  to cut clerks, they're going to cut janitorial, they're going to
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  cut everything they can out of that post office except the
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  carriers. You know, they'll, they'll try
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  to find a way to cut the money out of you, which is one of the
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  things we're going to be talking about today.
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  But, you know, my week was OK, you know, normal Monday, heavy
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  load. Then Tuesday came around, it was
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  all right. Then Wednesday hit and we had,
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  we went from normally 1 1/2 Palace Amazon to 5 1/2 and they
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  were big boxes. Thursday, same thing, 55 pallets
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  Amazon. We only have 12 routes in this
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  office, 10 regular and two walks.
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  And then Friday came along and the boxes size came down a
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  little bit but still had big ones.
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  But we had quite a lot of medium to large Amazon boxes, but not
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  the massive ones that we had that filled our trucks up pretty
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  fast. But it was a pretty good week
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  overall. I mean, still working more than
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  my evaluation every single day for it, but I'm hoping that it
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  affects my bell curve. It keeps my routed decay route
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  status at least. And then Saturday started
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  getting messages from carriers about what's going on in offices
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  with the management being allowed to edit scans.
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  Started getting messages about carriers having issues with
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  management benchmarking again and then today I saw that letter
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  of demand for $76,000 from a carrier.
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  From a carrier $76,000. That's more than most carriers
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  on table two make and a lot of carriers on table one.
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  How in the heck can a carrier accrue a $76,000 letter of
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  demand from management? It just baffles my mind.
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  I I'm going to try and reach out to that carrier and find out
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  exactly what's going on with that.
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  But that is just unreal, you know?
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  And then today I was took the time to join in with the build a
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  fighting in ALC zoom meeting that they had a good
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  conversation there about the exact same things happening to
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  them that are happening to us. They had Corey on there from
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  from 8 arbitration. He spoke for a little while
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  about their convention coming up.
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  And a lot of their rules and procedures are just like ours
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  because just like us, they follow the Roberts Rules of
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  order. They'll have the same issues
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  that their leadership and their committee, the resolution
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  committee will turn around and tell them that they oppose the
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  resolution. And so I actually got on there
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  and told him that we're going to deal with the same thing because
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  I put in the resolution for PTS to payless dues than a regular
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  carrier. And we know that the resolution
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  committee is going to come out and oppose it.
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  The Finance Committee is going to put an absurd number against
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  it. So that way people will vote
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  against the resolution on the basis of money alone.
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  So and then I got prepared for you're in my conversation today
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  Bill. So let's let's just start it
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  right off the bat. I've been reached out to by
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  several carriers in offices that are now testing the editing of
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  recs inputs that carriers make. And this is what this is what I
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  found out. All the scans can be
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  manipulated. Every input you make can be
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  manipulated by the system. There's no way for us to find
• 11:03
  out anything on our own without asking management unless our
• 11:09
  evaluations go down. We can and should ask for the
• 11:13
  MDD print out daily, but they can still go in after the fact
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  and edit it After they've printed out that sheet.
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  It's up to us to prove everything.
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  It used to be that management used to have to prove
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  everything. Now it's on us.
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  The onus on us, More stress on us.
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  The test office only has the carrier sign off but is not
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  required to. They're not requiring them to
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  sign off on it. And what if you refuse?
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  There's no answer if you refuse, you are to file a grievance if
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  they're doing it, if you catch them doing it.
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  But it's your word against management's.
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  And right now, as it stands, our national leadership, our
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  National Union representatives would rather listen to
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  management than us. The national board is telling
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  them to file on anything. But if you have no proof,
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  they're going to say no action required, just like on our
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  disputes. And you can't file unless it's
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  been done. You can't file beforehand.
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  I think management needs to be honest as Step 4, you know, and
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  it's just one of those things that you look at and you go, we
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  told you so we said this when we talked about it when we first
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  heard about it on that last week's episode and then we
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  talked about it on Wednesday after you, you national office
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  put out, oh, by the way, this is now happening.
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  Talk about after the fact. So Bill, go for it, you know.
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  There, there's nothing funnier in a situation where they come
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  to an agreement where a carrier and management has to sign off
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  on, you know, these changes in your scanners, They don't allow
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  for the fact that if the scanner or management refused to sign
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  it, if you're going to propose something that has to be done,
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  then you have to place in and put in place contingencies if
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  they are not done. Again, these, these are only
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  supposed to affect, I believe it was eight items on the scanners.
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  Now you're telling me they can go in and change everything?
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  Are you kidding me? Why don't we have an IT
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  specialist who can create a digital footprint of the entries
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  as they're made, as they're adjusted, as they're deleted, as
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  you can, if you're a good IT person.
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  You worried more about your presence on your videos and
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  you're worried about going to contract negotiations.
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  You have to hire a professional from the Teamsters to assist you
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  in contract negotiations. Well, it doesn't matter what the
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  contract negotiations are. If you keep giving up every damn
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  thing that we are fighting for, everything that we are
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  challenging, it's proof, as you said, you know, they can go in
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  and do this. This is this is just, this is
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  the, the top of the mountain with the lack of transparency
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  that we get from the post office that our leadership is
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  accepting. Well, they can do that, that,
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  that and that's the same we say in Westchester.
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  Oh, they can do that. May I put it on there about
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  something about, you know, getting our mapping change for
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  the route? Do you know our, our ADR
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  actually said let's not be hasty and file a class action
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  grievance for mileage and the footage inside the building
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  because it behooves us not to say anything.
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  It'll change automatically on the scanners.
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  Are you kidding me? Do you actually trust anything
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  that's going in the scanners? You know why people are taking
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  pictures of their scanners or recording how many pieces of
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  flats they get every day from their their machine tubs?
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  Because you can't trust the system, folks, Let me tell you
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  this. Political mail is going to hit
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  the fan. And where is the proof you're
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  getting credit for that? Especially when you're, if
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  you're in an office that they don't post the radar reports up,
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  you can't check them. Because I know I get a foot and
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  a half to two feet of political mail every day.
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  Once it starts winding up where, where's the credit for that?
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  Because that will cover my route with 629 boxes at least three
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  times over. Show me the proof and they
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  can't. And that's what we we are
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  entitled to, according to the arbitrator is transparency and
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  our leadership does not demand it.
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  The the arbitrator said that management is supposed to train
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  the carriers. Never did Our leadership never
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  demanded it. Now as of as of yesterday in in
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  my new office, away from my office, they're telling the
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  carriers don't worry about anything, just do the six scans
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  that you're required. Who the hell came up with a
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  change to a national policy at the district level and where is
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  our union representation? Because the full time ADR hasn't
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  gotten back to anybody since Friday and the new Dr. hasn't
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  gotten back to anybody since Friday.
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  So we had to make a call to our NRO and several people have, but
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  we shouldn't have to. This is the problem.
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  You get these jobs, you're full time, you don't have to carry
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  your route. You've got it made and you
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  forget how you got there and why you are there.
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  You were there to serve the craft.
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  So pick up the goddamn phone and talk to us.
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  I'm done, James. That's the most interesting
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  thing about all of this, you know, because management has to
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  track the politicals that you have to of them because they're
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  supposed to be treated as first class and they you have to mark
• 17:55
  all of them up and put them in a separate area.
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  Management has to record it and all that stuff.
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  But at the front end, they aren't tracking any of that
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  crap. None of it.
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  We're supposed to input it as WSS and our scanners.
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  When we get it, we're supposed to do all that stuff.
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  But now management can delete that WSS after we enter it.
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  You know it. You can't make this stuff up.
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  It's crazy to think that we have gone from a mail count for two
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  weeks once a year at most. And now we're down to every six
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  months we have the mini mail survey.
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  Carriers have to worry about what's input into their scanner,
• 18:39
  how much they have of this, how much they have of that.
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  Are they getting a credit for this?
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  Are they getting a credit for that?
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  Now you got to worry about management editing your scans.
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  You got management coming after you for stationary events.
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  You got them coming after you for benchmarking.
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  Oh, you put in too many trips to door.
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  You put in too many authorized dismounts.
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  You know one of the carriers that contacted me said that they
• 19:01
  had 35 authorized dismounts 1 day and management edited in
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  their office. You only get 20 for this day.
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  Even though they did 34 authorized dismount trips, they
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  got 20 by management. And you want to tell me they're
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  not going to affect the valuations with this crap?
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  You're going to tell me that management's not getting us more
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  worried about stuff? We are on a precipice here.
• 19:29
  Management is stressing rural carriers out.
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  Not only have you got offices where they're turning off the
• 19:35
  AC, shutting off the fans, forcing the carriers off the
• 19:38
  street, that when they come back, the office is 10° cooler
• 19:41
  than when they left and they've shut the AC off when they get
• 19:46
  back to force them out from their end of shift duties, But
• 19:51
  now they've got to also worry about every single penny that
• 19:55
  they're rightfully earning out there on the street.
• 19:59
  It's amazing to think that we have gone from able to do our
• 20:07
  jobs diligently, efficiently and safely to not only worrying
• 20:14
  about it while we're on the job. Now we're going home and
• 20:18
  wondering if management is still sitting there.
• 20:21
  Once we've gone home and editing all our inputs, deleting them
• 20:25
  because their district manager said, oh, you're on a list for
• 20:29
  too many of this, too many of that.
• 20:32
  They are stealing our money on purpose with malicious intent,
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  but yet our national office says it won't affect your
• 20:44
  evaluations, it's just an inconvenience.
• 20:48
  Oh, wait, I'm sorry. That was what Renfro said to the
• 20:51
  city carriers. It's amazing to think that we
• 20:57
  have gone from so much change and yet now here we are
• 21:05
  repeating history. We're repeating history.
• 21:12
  Yeah. We're, we're, we're in the new
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  office now, OK. They don't have any cases for
• 21:17
  us. They don't have any area set up
• 21:18
  for us. People are digging to get their
• 21:21
  DPS out. They, they have to travel half a
• 21:23
  mile to get their parcel hampers.
• 21:25
  They have to bring it back to their area to sort through it
• 21:28
  because the machines aren't sorting them correctly.
• 21:30
  They're not set up for our office, inclusive of this
• 21:33
  operation. Then you have to go out another,
• 21:36
  you know, quarter miles to the parking lot and then a quarter
• 21:39
  mile in the parking lot to your truck, if you can find your
• 21:42
  truck, 'cause there's no assigned parking spaces because
• 21:44
  the parking lot's under construction.
• 21:47
  All these things add up and time and time again.
• 21:49
  And and yet here this guy, John Harrison, who's who's the
• 21:55
  district manager in this area, walks around like, you know, the
• 21:59
  emperor. And his word is rule.
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  And the reason he can do this is because our union has been so
• 22:06
  weak in the past that he's impugned to anything we throw at
• 22:12
  him. He doesn't care.
• 22:13
  He's not afraid of us because it doesn't matter if he loses.
• 22:19
  He'll still get away with it for a couple months before it is
• 22:23
  properly addressed. And that's what gives me, that's
• 22:28
  one of the reasons he hates me. I, I got into his conversation
• 22:32
  with the gentleman one time and I said, you know, well, that
• 22:35
  sounds like a national issue. I says, I don't remember seeing
• 22:38
  your name on the contract. Smart ass.
• 22:41
  Well, yes, I am. So don't try to push any of this
• 22:44
  bullshit past me. This is the impunity they act
• 22:49
  with the guy from Buffalo. Turn off the air conditioners,
• 22:52
  Squeeze the walls. Petros out in Pennsylvania, you
• 22:55
  know. Oh, and So what if a dog ripped
• 22:57
  your throat out? Too bad.
• 22:59
  Yeah. They get away with this because
• 23:02
  they're empowered to do it. And the only reason they're
• 23:06
  empowered to do is because our national leadership has not
• 23:10
  stood up to them. And it's time we change that.
• 23:16
  This year is the year to do that.
• 23:19
  So another thing was I got my disputes back for my evaluation,
• 23:28
  every single one of them, no action needed.
• 23:32
  And I even gave them all the proof they needed to prove it
• 23:35
  needed to be changed and they still said no action needed.
• 23:39
  And I'm frustrated with that because my Dr. should have sat
• 23:48
  there and went, huh, He's arguing this, he's got the
• 23:51
  proof. We should be fighting this.
• 23:54
  We should be moving this up, We should be taking care of this.
• 23:57
  But instead it's let's get all these done.
• 24:00
  Let's get all these done, Let's get all these done.
• 24:02
  They even combined several of my disputes together in one
• 24:06
  resolution. And then I come back to my
• 24:11
  office and I'm being told I have to deliver to an unsafe mailbox.
• 24:17
  So I filed a 1767 and my man, my supervisor goes out, takes an
• 24:26
  LLV. By the way, he is trained on an
• 24:28
  LLV. He was a rural carrier.
• 24:31
  Drives down this single lane dirt Rd. where this mailbox is
• 24:34
  located, Pulls into a driveway, parks the truck, gets out, takes
• 24:40
  a picture of the truck parked there, then backs out, pulls the
• 24:44
  truck next to the mailbox, takes a picture of that, and then
• 24:48
  comes back to the office and says it's safe to deliver.
• 24:54
  So I'm filing agreements on it on Monday.
• 24:57
  I'm filing two grievances on Monday and the other one is a
• 25:01
  hostile work environment for the discussion we had that evening
• 25:05
  after he told me I had to deliver it.
• 25:08
  My ADR is behind me on this one. My ADR is really good.
• 25:14
  She takes care of me most of the time.
• 25:17
  Sometimes I may not agree with the process but she still
• 25:22
  supports the carriers so I will give her that.
• 25:25
  But the fact is they sit there and make decisions of what's
• 25:33
  safe and not. And yet myself, I'm not the only
• 25:37
  one that said this was unsafe. This road has been trying to get
• 25:41
  delivery to them for years down that road.
• 25:46
  Their mailboxes right now are on a paved road right at the end of
• 25:50
  their dirt road, and the carrier that was on this route before me
• 25:56
  said it was unsafe to deliver down that road daily.
• 26:00
  Going down at once in a while to deliver packages is OK as long
• 26:04
  as it's not iced over, but doing it every day?
• 26:09
  It's a risk of a head on collision on a single lane Rd.
• 26:13
  with swamps on both sides. Not going to happen.
• 26:18
  But this is the management we deal with daily, weekly,
• 26:23
  monthly. The kind of management that
• 26:28
  somebody that has spent decades in an office instead of on the
• 26:33
  route wouldn't understand. Back when they were still
• 26:37
  delivering the mail, we had fighters in the union.
• 26:43
  Granted, the cancer was already spreading, but we had fighters,
• 26:49
  people who stood up for this craft, people who fought tooth
• 26:53
  and nail to get us every dollar we deserved.
• 26:59
  That's what they remember. That's all they remember because
• 27:04
  they haven't seen that in decades.
• 27:08
  But when you have people at the top turning around and telling
• 27:12
  you basically it's an inconvenience and we'll be
• 27:16
  monitoring, I'm waiting for them to say we just want a pound of
• 27:21
  flesh. Well, your case, you just give
• 27:27
  them a testicle. It, it, it's really gotten, you
• 27:38
  know, out of control regards to how management treats us, how
• 27:44
  the union fails to react to this treatment and the failure of the
• 27:49
  national board in addressing this on a nationwide basis.
• 27:55
  And I'd say nationwide because of the fact that all you have to
• 27:59
  do is get on Facebook and, and check all the different pages
• 28:02
  out and see the comments from people, people who are are
• 28:06
  getting ready to retire. People were looking for other
• 28:09
  jobs because this is not no longer an enjoyable job.
• 28:14
  I made a comment that, you know, years ago it was an enjoyable
• 28:19
  job because times are not management would work with us,
• 28:24
  not anymore. Now it's their way or the
• 28:26
  highway. And the problem of it is they
• 28:29
  don't even know the contract to say which way to do anything.
• 28:35
  They're not educated enough, they're not intelligent enough.
• 28:39
  They operate in their own fear of losing their jobs if they
• 28:42
  don't get their reports done and submitted by 10/30 11:00 and
• 28:46
  before their telecom at 11/30 12:00.
• 28:50
  They don't want to work there on Saturdays or Sundays and give up
• 28:53
  their weekends, but we're expected to and holidays.
• 28:58
  The problem of it is that these people who've been promoted into
• 29:02
  management are unqualified. And yet if you have unqualified
• 29:08
  management, you're going to have a tenuous hold on the floor
• 29:12
  because of the fact that there are people like James, myself,
• 29:16
  Tosti, Kristen, just the name of several.
• 29:20
  No more than they do. And it becomes contentious when
• 29:23
  we challenge them. We challenge them because we
• 29:26
  know they're wrong. Yes, we have Arcam now.
• 29:31
  And how many people know about Arcam Malcolm?
• 29:35
  Hell, they haven't even gotten past wrecks yet.
• 29:39
  It's just ludicrous. And I'm not talking about the
• 29:43
  singer that this has been allowed to go on.
• 29:48
  And, and I, I'm guaranteeing you it's probably been 15 years in
• 29:53
  my estimation, it's been allowed to, to just grow.
• 29:57
  Like you said, James, it's like a cancer underneath the surface
• 30:01
  and it's just pushing up and weeping out.
• 30:05
  And and nobody, nobody here, nobody on the national board can
• 30:11
  hear the anguish cries of our our craft.
• 30:14
  They're not here. You mean to tell me you're not
• 30:16
  hearing this? 240 people quit out of SWAC this
• 30:21
  year, earlier this year. But that's OK because we made-up
• 30:26
  important that new hires. But you need a three to one
• 30:30
  average of new hires to make up the same amount of money that
• 30:33
  you need for your damn salary. Don, those people aren't scabs.
• 30:38
  You know, those people weren't scabs and freeloaders.
• 30:40
  They were union members who gave up their voice because they
• 30:45
  failed to see the value of paying dues.
• 30:49
  But Bill, he can make them up with PTFS, You know, PTFS.
• 30:54
  As he said in the magazine, PTFS will benefit the Postal Service,
• 30:59
  but it will also benefit the dues of the union.
• 31:02
  OK, let let me give you an example, James.
• 31:04
  OK, a person I know used to be a rule carrier, used to be a a
• 31:12
  local president, used to be a local steward, went into
• 31:18
  management. They called me up and they asked
• 31:21
  me about the PTF position. I said what do you need to know?
• 31:27
  Well this office needs a couple PTFS and I tell them they they
• 31:30
  need to put in posting for a couple PTFS.
• 31:33
  I said well how many carries they have?
• 31:34
  Well they have five. Well, they can have one PTF.
• 31:38
  No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because they got 4K routes.
• 31:40
  They can have more than one PTF. You know what I said?
• 31:47
  Come on, ask me. What did you say?
• 31:51
  Flicked. They just hung up.
• 31:57
  Why? You're.
• 31:59
  Going to argue with me about this And you don't know the
• 32:03
  rules of APTF and how many you can have per route.
• 32:12
  Oh that's right, 10 is that what is that the number 10?
• 32:17
  And you have 5 routes? You can't smack enough stupid
• 32:25
  out of people. You really?
• 32:28
  Can't. Why didn't they go to their
• 32:30
  Labour person that they're supposed to go to as management
• 32:33
  to get those answers? Yeah.
• 32:36
  Because we shouldn't have to help man, isn't it?
• 32:43
  Well, this person is a personal friend outside of of the post
• 32:48
  office with me. Doesn't mean they're any
• 32:53
  brighter than anybody else, but you know, you can't, you can't
• 32:56
  pick your friends that well. They're good.
• 32:59
  They're good people outside of the post office, you know?
• 33:04
  Yeah. But I mean, you know it well
• 33:09
  where does it say that in the contract?
• 33:12
  Look it up yourself. OK?
• 33:13
  Jesus Christ. I I just, you know this.
• 33:17
  This is a person with 30 years in at the post office and
• 33:22
  doesn't know this yet. Not because they had 4K routes.
• 33:29
  They could get 2 PTFS. Well yeah, they only have to
• 33:33
  have a minimum of two routes for the PTF to be assigned.
• 33:36
  So he's thinking, oh they only need 2 routes, Well fine, I'll
• 33:38
  get 2 PTFS. They can have two routes each.
• 33:42
  Exactly. And then those two PTFS would
• 33:45
  have to pay full regular carrier dues while only getting paid for
• 33:50
  two routes a week. And one of them is probably on a
• 33:53
  Monday, heaviest day of the week where they're getting paid the
• 33:57
  the evaluation of the route, but working way over it.
• 34:03
  And then the Saturday one, they possibly would be working over
• 34:07
  the evaluation on that too, because sometimes some Saturdays
• 34:10
  are heavier than other days of the week.
• 34:13
  And I guarantee you APTF that is constantly over evaluation is
• 34:19
  going to turn around and quit too, because they want to be
• 34:21
  paid fairly for the time that they put into the work.
• 34:25
  Hello. You know, and I understand a lot
• 34:30
  of people are going to argue go hourly, go hourly, go hourly,
• 34:33
  but that just opens us up for even more abuse than what we're
• 34:36
  already going through. Just look at the City side.
• 34:40
  Yeah. Wait, do you start doing pivots?
• 34:43
  Yeah, yeah. Or you have to start using
• 34:45
  annual leave if you get done with your route in six hours and
• 34:49
  there's no other work, and you have to sit in that office for
• 34:53
  two hours with no AC because they're trying to force you back
• 34:58
  all out of the office so that you can make your 8 hours.
• 35:04
  In responding to the chat and in responding to the chat about two
• 35:07
  PTFS, they only need to get 2 routes.
• 35:10
  It's one PTF per 12 routes. The 12 routes do not have to or
• 35:16
  10 routes. The 10 routes don't have to be K
• 35:18
  routes, but you have to have 10 routes, full routes per PTF.
• 35:24
  As in my office we have two PTFS and we have 18 full routes, no
• 35:28
  walk system. That's why you don't use that
• 35:32
  formula of two PTFS getting two days a week.
• 35:35
  That's the minimum and. Also think about this, if you
• 35:40
  have regular carriers and PTF and PTFS in your office like
• 35:44
  that, vacations be completely screwed up too because you'd
• 35:50
  have to be back to work that day that that PTF has to run his
• 35:54
  route that he is assigned. So your vacation you could put
• 35:59
  OK I want Monday through Friday off because you have a you have
• 36:05
  Monday off with the PTF running your route.
• 36:08
  So you have Monday through Friday off.
• 36:09
  Well guess what you have to be back on Saturday.
• 36:11
  You can't have Saturday and Sunday off too.
• 36:13
  So you have to think about that as well.
• 36:16
  There is so much wrong with this in our national elected
• 36:22
  representatives are turning around and saying it's an
• 36:25
  inconvenience. You know, let's just hire more
• 36:28
  PTS because we can't hire RCA. Why the hell haven't you been
• 36:33
  hammering the Postal Service on their hiring process?
• 36:38
  Why haven't you been hammering them on getting people hired?
• 36:42
  Why haven't you been involved in training and retention of these
• 36:47
  carriers? Why haven't you been in these
• 36:50
  offices finding out why carriers aren't working in these offices?
• 36:55
  There are offices out there that turn over people like they're
• 36:58
  going out of style and they're starting to go out of style, but
• 37:03
  instead of trying to figure out what's going on, they're sitting
• 37:06
  on their hands going. We can't understand why people
• 37:08
  don't want to do this job. They used to line up out the
• 37:11
  door when I was working there. You know National Geographic has
• 37:18
  place the RCA on the endangered species slip, right?
• 37:23
  Yeah. Because you can find them.
• 37:26
  They're very elusive. They don't last long in
• 37:30
  captivity. And if if they don't stop, the
• 37:33
  regular carriers going to be on the endangered species list.
• 37:37
  But you know, and, and that's the situation I'm looking at my
• 37:40
  office because like I said, we're 22 miles away from our
• 37:44
  Home Office that, you know, caught fire.
• 37:47
  Now the problem of it is, is that 21 1/2 of those miles on a
• 37:54
  route 2O2 North and South, which is the major thoroughfare,
• 37:58
  Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, up to Philadelphia, Norristown,
• 38:02
  King of Prussia. I want to know who wants to get
• 38:05
  on that road where the average speed, average speed is between
• 38:11
  65 and 70 miles an hour while you're driving a piece of shit
• 38:14
  LLV. I know the metrics will do 105
• 38:20
  miles an hour, but when you're driving down to O2 and you've
• 38:25
  got it floored and you're doing 58 miles an hour, you're going
• 38:29
  to get run over. Because these people, they
• 38:31
  change lanes faster than the NASCAR driver and they don't
• 38:36
  mind tapping you. They don't mind going around you
• 38:38
  on the shoulder. You're the one inside or out and
• 38:43
  it and our lives are going to be in jeopardy again.
• 38:48
  You know, there's an industrial park that we were on the same
• 38:51
  Rd. as there are facilities there that we could lease out
• 38:55
  for a year. But no, no, let's, let's get it
• 38:59
  all under one roof and really create lots of clusterfuck.
• 39:04
  And that's what they've done. Oh, it's just to prepare you for
• 39:07
  the FDCS. Yeah, well, this, this is the
• 39:11
  FDC. That's, that's that's why we're
• 39:14
  up there, because they haven't incorporated the other offices
• 39:17
  in there. They had room for us to to go up
• 39:20
  there and basically work off the floor.
• 39:25
  The funniest part about it is that they have their
• 39:28
  construction, their construction's going on inside
• 39:31
  and out of the building. They have one bathroom for men
• 39:36
  and women. It's functional, the other two
• 39:43
  construction. So if the one bathroom which
• 39:47
  has, you know, 3 urinals and three sit downs is booked, then
• 39:51
  you're welcome to go outside to the parking lot and use the
• 39:54
  porta potties that the construction guys are using.
• 40:00
  Or as we said, you know, pre show get your depends on because
• 40:06
  it's a walk to get. To the bathrooms so you better
• 40:10
  know when you're going 10 minutes before you, you have to
• 40:13
  be there. I believe that's going to be
• 40:16
  under 803. Two.
• 40:19
  One OSHA. Yes, not not enough facilities
• 40:25
  for the amount of personnel working.
• 40:27
  That's the violation. And an unsafe working condition
• 40:31
  because the building is still under construction while people
• 40:33
  are in there. Unsafe working condition because
• 40:35
  you do not have the tools to do your job.
• 40:38
  Unsafe working condition due to the hazards outside in the
• 40:41
  parking lot due to it being under.
• 40:43
  Construction, yeah. Active construction zone, yes,
• 40:46
  Yeah. This is an OSHA violation 100%
• 40:49
  from everything you've told me so far.
• 40:51
  Yeah. I mean, I'm sure you could go
• 40:53
  into more, but that's that's why we call these things out is
• 41:01
  because our national office isn't willing to call it out.
• 41:05
  And when we do call it out and we put it out there for
• 41:08
  everybody to hear, guess who's playing catch up to U.S.
• 41:13
  National office? You know, they try to tell us,
• 41:17
  oh, you don't know what's going on up here.
• 41:19
  You don't know what's happening up here.
• 41:22
  You don't know what's going on out here when you have to get
• 41:26
  your information from a podcast and then put it on your website.
• 41:32
  James. Do you do?
• 41:33
  You realize, Do you realize how inconvenient it is while you're
• 41:37
  at a remote parking spot waiting for the shuttle to take you to
• 41:40
  the airport 2 hours ahead of time of the flight so you can be
• 41:44
  there on time to get through all the clearance?
• 41:45
  Do you know how inconvenient that is?
• 41:49
  No, because I've never flown. Oh, do you know how inconvenient
• 41:54
  it is when you have to go across the country to meet with your
• 41:57
  state officials in different sections of the country, your
• 42:01
  DRS and Adrs, and you have to wait 20 minutes to get a table
• 42:07
  when you're out at dinner? You know how inconvenient that
• 42:09
  is. I don't find it inconvenient to
• 42:14
  have to go out you. Just don't understand the
• 42:17
  sacrifices they make, OK? Oh, you.
• 42:24
  Mean you're in English, you mean that's what that's what I can.
• 42:28
  Say you mean having to wait 20 minutes for somebody to press
• 42:31
  record on a camera while the curtain behind you moves faster
• 42:33
  than you do. See, there you go.
• 42:40
  You're incorrigible, you really are.
• 42:43
  That's. What?
• 42:44
  I like you. That's the thing.
• 42:47
  You know, this is something that even though they're sitting at
• 42:51
  national office doing whatever it is they're doing in there,
• 42:57
  they can still get what's out here on the street.
• 43:02
  They can still get the information that they need to
• 43:05
  know. It can still be passed up to
• 43:08
  them. The problem for me is the
• 43:13
  information is getting passed up to them.
• 43:17
  You talked about that Lady at Orlando on the floor in tears,
• 43:22
  begging for help. That was a chance for them to
• 43:27
  listen to the craft. And our vice president at the
• 43:30
  time didn't do anything. Our president at the time didn't
• 43:35
  do anything. Our director of Labor relations
• 43:38
  at the time didn't do anything. The director of Stewart
• 43:43
  Operations didn't do anything. Secretary treasurer didn't do
• 43:47
  anything. And none of the executive
• 43:49
  committee men did anything. They just waited for the next
• 43:53
  person to get on the mic to talk.
• 43:56
  They didn't talk with that carrier afterwards either.
• 43:59
  They didn't take them aside. Tell them we're going to look
• 44:02
  into this. They didn't even say.
• 44:05
  We'll get back to you on that. That is the problem.
• 44:11
  They are so disconnected from this craft that I don't even
• 44:18
  think they think of this craft anymore because they've turned
• 44:23
  around and everything I've read about the benefits that they're
• 44:27
  doing for the that are in the magazine has been this will
• 44:34
  benefit the Postal Service. This will benefit the Postal
• 44:38
  Service. Delivering for America will
• 44:40
  benefit the Postal Service doesn't talk about how it will
• 44:44
  benefit us. The craft.
• 44:49
  Have you noticed that, Bill? No, I I just noticed that they
• 44:54
  concede everything to the post office.
• 44:56
  You know, they, they conceded this the the forcing of Rex
• 44:59
  through considered the Arcam. They considered the rule route
• 45:04
  optimization program. Now they're conceding, you know,
• 45:07
  this test program in regards to editing scans, you know, I'm
• 45:12
  sorry, do you want my first born to?
• 45:16
  Because yeah, that's that's all I have left to give you besides
• 45:18
  my life. And you're not getting that.
• 45:22
  You know, I I just yeah. I don't understand.
• 45:27
  Where is your mentality in regards to the position you've
• 45:31
  been elected to in the service of the craft?
• 45:35
  Where is your mind at that? You think that you are doing a
• 45:40
  good job representing, protecting, educating, promoting
• 45:45
  this craft. You're not.
• 45:49
  All you're doing is lining your pockets, you know, and, and just
• 45:57
  padding your retirement. Don Matson, 320 miles away from
• 46:02
  where he lives is where he's routed.
• 46:04
  He bid on an overburden route 320 miles away.
• 46:08
  Why? Because that high value route
• 46:13
  contribute towards his high threes for his retirement from
• 46:16
  the post office. It is simple.
• 46:21
  He never intends to do a day on that route.
• 46:26
  When he loses this election in August, he will never serve a
• 46:33
  day on that route. That's why they need to go.
• 46:41
  They have no intention of working their routes.
• 46:46
  Didn't you see Shirley or Bridget out there trying to do
• 46:50
  their routes? I.
• 46:54
  Would probably, I don't think, more than Bridget.
• 46:56
  I I don't think Bridget would want to get her pink outfit
• 47:00
  messed up with the ink of all the mail and packages.
• 47:05
  I don't think either one of them would.
• 47:08
  Shirley, you got to remember she's got a nice stipend build
• 47:12
  up from her husband. OK, she doesn't have to work,
• 47:17
  but it's a nice bonus towards retirement.
• 47:22
  Bridget, I have no idea if she she would be able to do a route,
• 47:25
  let alone case route. I like the where is she from?
• 47:32
  She's from Michigan, isn't she? I'd like to find out from
• 47:37
  somebody in that office, you know, what route she has, how
• 47:40
  big it is, how many miles, how many CB us?
• 47:45
  Can you imagine her being out there trying to service that in
• 47:49
  the dead of winter? No.
• 47:53
  These people have gotten themselves elected to positions
• 47:57
  of retirement. From what they've told me, she
• 48:00
  hasn't test touched her out in 30 years. 30 years, That's what
• 48:07
  they tell me. Bridget has not touched her out
• 48:09
  in 30 years. I could be wrong, but that is
• 48:13
  what people have told me. Now, granted, she's only been on
• 48:23
  the national board since 2022. I think she was elected.
• 48:32
  Yeah, 2022 at Orlando, she was elected to director of Labor
• 48:36
  relations. She was re elected last year to
• 48:40
  director of Labor relations, but that was her first position on
• 48:43
  the national board, was director of Labor relations in 2022.
• 48:47
  Prior to that she was a regional steward.
• 48:51
  Before that she was a state steward.
• 48:54
  Before that, she was a local steward.
• 49:03
  Question comes up about Nikki Phillips.
• 49:08
  He will reserve comment on Nikki Phillips because of the fact
• 49:12
  that he is a candidate. And on a personal level, I
• 49:16
  really like Nikki and some people.
• 49:19
  Yeah. He reminds me of the coach, the
• 49:24
  manager for the Philadelphia Phillies and, and, and Charlie
• 49:27
  is of the same background with the the slower Southern draw.
• 49:32
  And everybody took that to be, you know, slow mentally or, you
• 49:35
  know, dumb. Let me tell you, neither one of
• 49:37
  those gentlemen are, are slow or dumb.
• 49:40
  They're very precise in their wording.
• 49:43
  They're they're very precise in what they try to convey to you.
• 49:49
  They're very calculated. Yes.
• 49:51
  Do not confuse Nikki Phillips to be some slow old man because
• 49:56
  Nikki knows his stuff. As I said, he's running for, you
• 50:00
  know, a position as an executive committee person, person or
• 50:05
  national board position, don't know yet.
• 50:08
  But the thing of it is that I like Nikki personally, and I
• 50:12
  will reserve my comment except for that I respect them.
• 50:17
  I will say this, I do respect him too.
• 50:19
  He is a Southern gentleman, and when I stepped up there last
• 50:23
  year by myself on stage, he was the only person on that stage to
• 50:30
  shake my hand and wish me luck as I went up there to make my
• 50:35
  nomination speech. Nobody else up there except the
• 50:39
  president, because I, because he introduced me, shook my hand as
• 50:45
  I went up there. Malcolm, I think he'd be more
• 50:51
  capable than a couple others up on that national board, you know
• 50:55
  what I mean? I'm not saying any more about
• 50:58
  that. But I.
• 51:01
  Promised Chris. I promised Chris and I would
• 51:03
  behave myself tonight. So getting back to our topic of
• 51:09
  us calling it, you have to think about all the things that US
• 51:14
  carriers deal with on a daily basis.
• 51:19
  Not only do we have to listen to the craft as national board
• 51:24
  members, we have to act. We have been reactive for so
• 51:31
  many years. It's almost like we were in
• 51:34
  survival mode. And that's what we're doing now
• 51:38
  is we are just barely surviving all the stress that management's
• 51:43
  putting on us. We have been fighting and
• 51:47
  fighting and fighting. A lot of carriers have bowed out
• 51:50
  of this fight. Carriers have quit.
• 51:53
  Carriers have pulled their dues. Why?
• 51:56
  Because this has become one of the most stressful times ever in
• 52:02
  the career of the world, Carrier.
• 52:05
  Because you have to keep track of so much stuff.
• 52:08
  Like just now they put out the 2080 tracker again.
• 52:14
  Why are we having to track our 2080 and 2240 hours if
• 52:20
  management was actually doing their job?
• 52:23
  If we were holding management accountable, if we were taking
• 52:26
  care of our carriers, we wouldn't have to put out a
• 52:30
  20802240 tracker. One of our listeners just put we
• 52:35
  are dying. We aren't surviving anymore.
• 52:37
  Yeah, there are a lot of carriers out there dying too.
• 52:39
  We just had that one in Chicago. Rest her soul, get murdered on
• 52:45
  her route. We had carriers die in this
• 52:50
  heat. We've had supervisors die in
• 52:52
  this heat. We've got people who are just
• 52:56
  falling over left and right. We have carriers that are going
• 52:59
  home after they're done with their shift and dying from heart
• 53:04
  attacks because of the stress. It shouldn't be like this.
• 53:12
  We shouldn't have to be fighting day in and day out with
• 53:16
  management. Our union elected
• 53:20
  representatives should be fighting tooth and nail for us.
• 53:24
  They should be the one stressing out management.
• 53:28
  Management needs to be the one stressed out.
• 53:30
  Management needs to be stressed out to the point they finally
• 53:33
  realized, hey, it's much easier if I just follow the contract
• 53:38
  and the manuals. Hey, I don't actually have to do
• 53:42
  much work if I just follow the rules.
• 53:48
  Imagine how much easier management would have it if they
• 53:54
  didn't micromanage, and how much easier it'd be if we weren't
• 53:59
  micromanaged. But they won't think like that
• 54:05
  because they're so worried of chasing pennies, they're losing
• 54:08
  dollars. And if they put, yes, as
• 54:15
  somebody said in there, the Postal Service put as much time,
• 54:18
  effort and money into training their people as they do the new
• 54:21
  centers, we'd be in a much better place.
• 54:24
  Yes, we would be. If they put enough time and
• 54:27
  money and effort into actually training management on the rules
• 54:31
  and regulations, policies and procedures of the post office
• 54:35
  and the contracts, I bet you half of this crap would stop.
• 54:42
  Not all of it, but at least half.
• 54:45
  I know some people will hold me to that, but.
• 54:49
  OK, 48%. OK, fine.
• 54:53
  I'll give you that 49. Yeah, You know, it's funny,
• 54:59
  James, that I dropped off a a printed copy of ARCAM to my
• 55:03
  supervisor. She looked at me and said,
• 55:06
  what's that? And I said, that's your reading
• 55:09
  material for tonight. I don't have time for this.
• 55:15
  You better, because this is what's going to get your ass
• 55:18
  whopped every time there's a grievance.
• 55:22
  Didn't have an idea of what the Arcam was.
• 55:29
  That's how well they're trained. Oh.
• 55:31
  Oh, here comes my dogs. Here comes my dogs.
• 55:34
  They're going to come to get their biscuits.
• 55:37
  Come on, Molly. Come on, baby.
• 55:40
  Here we go. I'm getting attacked by these
• 55:44
  huge dogs loaded out. There you go at your biscuits.
• 55:50
  This is like postal harassment. Oh, God, folks.
• 55:55
  Yeah, you can't believe it. These these dogs look for me.
• 56:02
  You don't get your throat ripped out.
• 56:04
  Yeah, Oh, baby. Big fluffy balls.
• 56:12
  There you go. That's the best part of our mail
• 56:15
  route. Is the dogs more the kids charge
• 56:18
  you $5 for lemonade. Take care.
• 56:24
  But. And see and see that's, that's
• 56:26
  the part of the job you love. You know, these, these are my
• 56:29
  neighbors that that I don't deliver to.
• 56:32
  We we live in a different zip code and everything, but every
• 56:35
  time they come around, the dogs run for my back porch to see
• 56:39
  Bill the mailman. And I love it.
• 56:43
  I love it. I don't like the kids telling me
• 56:45
  that lemonade for $5 and it's warm, but you know what the hell
• 56:49
  you know? Yep.
• 56:52
  Exactly. And then that's the thing that
• 56:55
  management, especially those that are above local management
• 56:59
  don't understand. That is what District, regional,
• 57:06
  national don't understand and I have a feeling that our national
• 57:10
  board doesn't understand it either.
• 57:12
  They don't understand that this is not a business.
• 57:17
  You know, we've heard it from Mastin, he said.
• 57:22
  We are becoming a parcel business.
• 57:25
  The Joy has said we're working on the business of the Postal
• 57:29
  Service and I think they've all forgotten the definition of the
• 57:35
  word service. Now I understand you have UPS
• 57:41
  parcel service, but those are businesses, they're private
• 57:47
  businesses. We are a service.
• 57:50
  We are a government controlled agency that has never turned a
• 57:58
  profit ever. And they're trying to make it
• 58:03
  turn a profit off the rural carriers, off the city carriers,
• 58:09
  off the clerks, off the janitors, off VMF, off the mail
• 58:14
  handlers, but not off of management, $80 million to the
• 58:18
  University of Oklahoma to train management in business.
• 58:26
  They're going to business classes, they're not going to
• 58:29
  management classes, they're not going to contract understanding
• 58:33
  classes. They're going to business
• 58:36
  classes for $80 million. You know what they could have
• 58:42
  done with that $80 million sent. Postmaster.
• 58:46
  General, they could have sent Postmaster General Louis de Joy
• 58:51
  to each and every single district for a week to train
• 58:57
  management on the contracts, pay him his salary plus per diem,
• 59:02
  plus his expensive hotel suite and entourage that's with him,
• 59:09
  and train every single district on the contract, the rules and
• 59:13
  regulations for each craft and still had money leftover.
• 59:21
  I did not say on a private jet, but that could have been put in
• 59:24
  there and probably made-up all the $80 million, but they could
• 59:29
  have trained every single manager in the country for $80
• 59:35
  million for all crafts. And it's one of those things
• 59:44
  that we are repeating history, and the history is the 60s.
• 59:53
  If you go back and listen to movies and audio from back then,
• 59:59
  from the unions that were involved back then, you can hear
• 1:00:05
  the exact same things we went through back then are happening
• 1:00:12
  today. What's What's going to be the
• 1:00:18
  catalyst? That makes that change to where
• 1:00:21
  we don't end up where we were back then, where we don't have
• 1:00:26
  Royal Oak, where we don't have Memphis or we don't have Los
• 1:00:30
  Angeles. We are the only agency or
• 1:00:35
  company in this country with our own negative slogan.
• 1:00:48
  Doesn't have to be this way. We don't have to allow that to
• 1:00:55
  happen. We can't allow that to happen.
• 1:01:00
  We cannot. We can't.
• 1:01:02
  We can't regress back like that. No, and we need to do something
• 1:01:08
  to make that change. We need to step up in our
• 1:01:14
  National Convention and make that change because I've talked
• 1:01:22
  to carriers who are scared to go to work because of management,
• 1:01:29
  carriers who are scared because the way management is treating a
• 1:01:33
  carrier that they're going to be the their office is going to be
• 1:01:37
  the next headline news. But yet we're told it's
• 1:01:43
  basically an inconvenience what management is doing to us from
• 1:01:48
  our national officers. It's time, guys.
• 1:01:54
  Time for us to become the craft. We need to be the people who
• 1:02:03
  step up and say enough is enough of the managerial butt kissing.
• 1:02:13
  We don't have to treat them with kid gloves anymore.
• 1:02:18
  The labor movement has proven that we don't have to treat them
• 1:02:22
  with kid gloves anymore. Your president said we don't
• 1:02:27
  need to bang the table. Well, I'm sorry, they aren't
• 1:02:32
  listening to well if we're going to talk with them.
• 1:02:35
  And if, if talking fails, we'll step out of the room and then
• 1:02:38
  we'll step back in and talk some more.
• 1:02:40
  It's not going to work. I'd like to bang that table like
• 1:02:49
  I bang that trash can. So we're getting a little over
• 1:02:57
  an hour here. Bill, you want to start wrapping
• 1:02:59
  this up. Give your final thoughts.
• 1:03:04
  Final thoughts this half two months really has really been
• 1:03:14
  trying on my soul. And you know, reading everything
• 1:03:17
  in in social media, talking to people, you know, I've had
• 1:03:21
  people call me from across the country and it's like, is this
• 1:03:23
  the bill? Yeah, that's the bill.
• 1:03:26
  And then I get a get a story. You know, I see the pictures of
• 1:03:29
  a car today where the packages are so many they actually have
• 1:03:34
  the trunk open, bungee corded and another parcel, big parcel
• 1:03:40
  between the back window and the trunk lid, bungee corded there.
• 1:03:45
  And I'm like, you know, OK, yes, we're transitioning from mail to
• 1:03:49
  parcels, but this is ludicrous. I mean, you know, and then the
• 1:03:54
  carrier reports. I have to make a second and
• 1:03:56
  third trip. We've got to give the carriers
• 1:04:01
  the equipment to be able to do this.
• 1:04:04
  There. There's a way to do this.
• 1:04:06
  And when I become president, I'll reveal it.
• 1:04:10
  But I'm so, so disheartened by the fact that so many people
• 1:04:15
  want to quit. And between James, myself,
• 1:04:20
  Toasty, Kristen and and many others, we don't know how to
• 1:04:24
  quit it. It's not that we like the fight,
• 1:04:28
  but we rise to the challenge and we rise to defend our fellow
• 1:04:32
  carriers, our brothers and sisters in this craft because
• 1:04:36
  some of them can't speak up for themselves, don't have the
• 1:04:39
  personality, the knowledge or the backbone to speak up for
• 1:04:42
  themselves. Like the shepherd dog, OK, here
• 1:04:47
  to protect the weakest of the flock against the wolves.
• 1:04:51
  And the Wolves in our case are not only United States Postal
• 1:04:55
  Service management, it's our own national board because they're
• 1:05:00
  the ones have created this season of apathy that has been
• 1:05:07
  going on for almost 10 years now.
• 1:05:10
  We can't do anything. The old boys rule the club.
• 1:05:14
  You know nothing's ever going to change.
• 1:05:16
  Yes, you're right. Nothing will ever change until
• 1:05:18
  you make it change. And to make it change, you have
• 1:05:22
  to keep me involved. And to be involved means if you
• 1:05:26
  get punched in the mouth, you have to get back up and swing
• 1:05:29
  again. Can't give up because you lost a
• 1:05:32
  fight. You lose a fight, but you don't
• 1:05:35
  lose the war. And we're here for the long
• 1:05:39
  stretch. We're here for the entirety of
• 1:05:41
  the war. We've been doing this for how
• 1:05:44
  many years now, James? Two years.
• 1:05:48
  Two years together, yeah. Yes.
• 1:05:50
  And you know, I don't have any more years.
• 1:05:53
  We're going to be doing this, but as long as we're involved,
• 1:05:55
  we're going to be swinging and we're going to be swinging for
• 1:05:58
  the set fences. We do not want to settle for
• 1:06:01
  language. We do not want to hear that, OK,
• 1:06:05
  you know, we made a mistake. We want financial penalties on
• 1:06:08
  every grievance. We want the language to
• 1:06:10
  immediately cease and desist in every settlement.
• 1:06:16
  We want bad management removed. We want to sit there and put out
• 1:06:22
  an e-mail talking about ripping the dog, ripping a carrier's
• 1:06:27
  throat out, somebody dying because they didn't wear a seat
• 1:06:30
  belt, saying we spend millions and millions on training and
• 1:06:33
  education. Well, why don't you turn around
• 1:06:36
  and spend some of that money on your management team?
• 1:06:40
  Because, ladies and gentlemen, they're the dumbest of dumb I've
• 1:06:45
  never met. And the worst part is some of
• 1:06:48
  them are nice people, but they're horrible supervisors.
• 1:06:53
  They're they're over in over their heads, they're inept,
• 1:06:57
  they're unknowledgeable. I won't say stupid because of
• 1:07:00
  the fact that they they have certain intelligence, just not
• 1:07:05
  in the rule craft or the contract.
• 1:07:08
  Like I said, I handed my supervisor an arcam and she
• 1:07:12
  looked at me like I had three eyeballs.
• 1:07:14
  I had no idea what the arcam is. And This is why we're in this
• 1:07:20
  fight, because it has to be fought and we don't quit and we
• 1:07:27
  don't back down. We're in it for you.
• 1:07:31
  We're in for ourselves. We're in it for the entire
• 1:07:34
  craft. Whether we like you or not, we
• 1:07:37
  will represent you. We will be your voice.
• 1:07:42
  We sure to hell are not going to take any more shit from the post
• 1:07:46
  office. Put us in office.
• 1:07:50
  Give us the opportunity to prove it.
• 1:07:52
  Like I said, I don't want to a career position as president of
• 1:07:56
  the NRLCAI, just want to get it back on his feet where we're
• 1:08:00
  respected as a union, a knowledgeable, powerful union.
• 1:08:08
  And then I'll be glad to hand it off to somebody else.
• 1:08:10
  More presidential in in in regards to their looks and
• 1:08:15
  behavior. But right now, we need a pit
• 1:08:17
  bull, and I'm the dog in that fight that everybody be safe out
• 1:08:24
  there. Do the job the best you can.
• 1:08:28
  As, as Josh would say, when you get overwhelmed, step back, take
• 1:08:34
  a deep breath, step back in. Now just just take a moment to
• 1:08:38
  yourself and then go about and do your job as productively,
• 1:08:42
  efficiently and as safely as you can.
• 1:08:48
  And remember to make that last delivery to your home because
• 1:08:52
  you are the most important delivery to your loved ones.
• 1:08:54
  God bless you. Thanks, Bill.
• 1:08:59
  I agree. You know, it's it's time for
• 1:09:02
  this craft, this union, this organization to step up to
• 1:09:10
  become the strongest union in the Postal Service, the one
• 1:09:17
  union that management knows it can't mess with because the time
• 1:09:24
  of going it won't affect your evaluation.
• 1:09:27
  Don't worry about it is over. Sitting there and twiddling your
• 1:09:34
  thumbs saying things like that is not going to cut it anymore.
• 1:09:41
  If we were told management was bringing this out to work, we
• 1:09:46
  would automatically say no, it's not happening.
• 1:09:50
  Any officers that this is happening in and management
• 1:09:53
  edits anything, file a grievance because management, especially
• 1:10:00
  the local management, has been caught too many times falsifying
• 1:10:06
  carrier data, falsifying mapping, falsifying training
• 1:10:13
  like heat illness prevention. Management cannot be trusted.
• 1:10:21
  They would rather climb a tree to lie, to stand on the ground,
• 1:10:24
  to tell the truth. They would rather falsify a
• 1:10:28
  government document then be on a list of their district manager.
• 1:10:36
  It's crazy to think that we're sitting here having to discuss
• 1:10:41
  these things on a podcast because we have a national
• 1:10:45
  elected representatives that would rather put out small
• 1:10:50
  little notifications here and there while keeping everything
• 1:10:54
  else closely guarded. Because they're afraid of what
• 1:10:58
  the craft will say about them. They're afraid of how their
• 1:11:04
  words will be used against them. They're afraid of the media.
• 1:11:13
  They're afraid to look bad to their buddy at the top, the
• 1:11:19
  Postal Service. We're not afraid of that.
• 1:11:24
  We will shout it from the top of every mountain in America, from
• 1:11:29
  the Alleghenies to the Rockies, up in Alaska, down to Hawaii,
• 1:11:35
  even Puerto Rico. We will shout it from the top
• 1:11:39
  because this has to be out there to everybody, exactly how we are
• 1:11:45
  being treated, because thanks to the Supreme Court, the National
• 1:11:51
  Labor Relations Board has been handcuffed a little bit
• 1:11:56
  concerning union activity. But public opinion always rules.
• 1:12:07
  Public opinion changes perception.
• 1:12:13
  If you haven't noticed, when the UAW, the Teamsters and everybody
• 1:12:19
  else started putting their negotiating out there to the
• 1:12:22
  public, they got better results than anybody else.
• 1:12:27
  The time for hiding and cowering is over.
• 1:12:31
  It's time for every rural carrier to come and stand up and
• 1:12:37
  tell everybody in the world we're all in this together.
• 1:12:43
  We'll see you guys at our normal time next week unless something
• 1:12:45
  interesting comes up and we have a special midweek bonus.
• 1:12:49
  Stay safe out there everybody. Sometimes we know what we're
• 1:13:06
  talking about. What?
• 1:13:08
  You hear that, Don? Hey, Don, did you hear that?