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Eastern States Conference · United We Scan

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Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
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carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
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not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
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Please leave a comment or question for us below.
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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
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Episode technically 115. James just got home from Eastern
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states, so we'll let him describe that a little bit.
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Our episode 114 will come out eventually.
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It will probably come out as the last episode.
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For those that did not see my post in the Facebook group, my
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audio software updated just before we went on and reset my
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microphone settings and I did not catch it.
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So therefore none of my audio got recorded.
1:28
So yeah, it happens and it's been a week.
1:35
Let me tell you one thing after another.
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But yeah, Bill, how was your Not To Do List this week?
1:45
It was fulfilling and nothing yet done.
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Nice. I mean, you know, that's, that's
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my objective. Actually, though, you're, we're
1:57
busy looking for either a, a house that fits our needs or a
2:01
piece of property. We can build a house that fit,
2:04
fit my needs, but that's a, that's a drawn out process.
2:10
If anybody hasn't noticed, your TSP with the CNS funds has been
2:15
taking a hit for the last two weeks.
2:19
Just hold on to it, Don't panic and, and you know, be moving it
2:23
so fast, OK, it'll rebound. And then myself, I took a little
2:27
over a $28,000 hit in two weeks. So, but bear with it.
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It'll it'll bounce back and you know, like the economy always
2:35
does. And we basically got spring
2:40
breaking here. It's, you know, high 50s, low
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60s. We get a little bit of a storm
2:45
passing through tonight and I, you know, just can't wait till
2:51
the the blossom start. I already have crocuses coming
2:53
up. So I'm looking forward to the
2:55
first day of spring. So I can, you know, open another
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bottle of crown. Other than that and kids are
3:01
fine. You know, wife's little under
3:04
the weather, but you know, getting she's on the road
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demanding and I don't know, maybe it's me, you know,
3:11
cigarettes and Crown Royal and I'm healthy.
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How about you, James? What's going on?
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He muted himself. Oh.
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Yeah, it's wipe. Well, I try to keep it, keep the
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sounds out from my room. But oh, my week was Monday
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through Wednesday. I worked it worked my route like
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I normally do, left out early Thursday morning and took back
3:33
roads to start. I so well, freeways out of
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Michigan. I took back roads to start on
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the way down, went by Cedar Point, checking that out from
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the Lakeshore and what was going on there and saw the motel where
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I usually stay after Cedar Point and it's actually up for sale.
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I'm kind of sad about that. I don't know how much they want
3:54
for it or whatever, but I'm going to look into it and see
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what's going on. And drove all the way across
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there to Cleveland and then drop down to 80 from there.
4:05
And then I took back roads in Pennsylvania go stop at
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Horseshoe Curve because the biggest railroading marvel ever
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created. And when I was getting off the
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exit for Horseshoe Curve, it said Allegheny Portage Railroad
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this way and it's a National Park and luckily it was open,
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but it is actually a cable drawn carriage that pulled rail cars
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up a 10% grade at that location in the mid to late 1800s.
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To see that kind of transportation history was
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amazing. When I left that, I went down a
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back Rd. to get to Horseshoe Curve.
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As I arrived, there was a train going around the curve and it's
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just amazing that you can do a 220° turn watching this train go
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around the inside of this mountain.
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Beautiful. And then got down to Ocean City
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and the hotel in better days. That's early old, but they did
5:09
keep it pretty clean for what it is.
5:12
They had an ice skating rink in the center of the building,
5:16
which made that room very cold. It was always cold out there and
5:20
it was super hot in the room where we were having the
5:24
conference because of that cold air rushing in every time the
5:27
doors are open, that the heaters were working overtime and but
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it's got a got a Street View instead of the ocean view.
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But it was nice to go out and just watch the waves crashing
5:39
against the shoreline at night before going to bed for the
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night. It was great to see a lot of
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people there, a lot of friendly faces.
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It was quite interesting and we'll get into that here in a
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little bit. I left out of there driving
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back, got into the mountains and got into the thunderstorms and
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missed all the tornado warnings that started in Pennsylvania by
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shooting across 70 into West Virginia.
6:09
And actually was driving down the freeway and old Stone Arch
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Bridge, like I got a detour and check this out.
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And it was built in 1818 and it's still standing today.
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Just a Marvel engineering and then got all the way back here
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and jumped on a little bit on the on the freeway to let
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everybody know I was going to be a little late, but I'm here now.
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How was your week, Kristen? I heard you say it was
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interesting. Yeah, it's been kind of hectic,
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honestly. Ruby went and got her, did her
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orientation Monday, she did her shadow day on Tuesday, her
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defensive driving video Zoom thing on Thursday, and her LLV
6:54
training on Friday, and she goes to Academy this next week,
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Wednesday through Saturday and then she comes back to start
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doing her OJT next to the following week.
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So we got her in and got her going and yeah, it's been trying
7:13
to find a POV for her has been a headache and a half and getting
7:17
little man set up with daycare and yeah, it's just been one
7:22
thing after another this week. And yeah, I nicely though I was
7:28
expecting to have to work my K day yesterday and postmaster
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redid the schedule properly and I got it off.
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So I was happy about that. And today I woke up and we had
7:42
no power until about 4:15 this afternoon.
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So that was what a way to spend your birthday sitting around the
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house with no electricity. So yeah, that's and then this
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next week is just going to be just as hectic.
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I Ruby's going to leave Tuesday and little man staying home with
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us. So I took Wednesday off to take
8:05
him to his six month appointment.
8:08
And other than that, I'm going to have to be up by the butt
8:12
crack of dawn to take the other half to work so I can use his
8:17
truck to make sure little man gets to daycare.
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Otherwise I'd just walk to work. But little man's got to go to
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daycare while I'm working on Thursday and Friday.
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So yeah, I, yeah, six months. His six month appointment is
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actually the day before his seven month birthday.
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So. But yeah, it's been, it's just
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one thing after another. My son's getting ready to come
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back home to the States. I talked to him a little bit
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today. His little bean.
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They're 14 weeks is measuring 16 to 17 weeks.
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So we're going to have a big grandbaby possibly.
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But yeah, he next Sunday he flies back to the States and
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he'll be back in Michigan by the end of the first week of April.
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So it'll be fun. But yeah, that's about, you
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know, sums it up. Besides work in my normal and,
9:12
and mentoring the newer Rcas and doing what I can in the office
9:16
to help them out as I can. It's going to take care of
9:19
everything at home. I'm just exhausted.
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So I do apologize for last week's episode not being out
9:26
yet, but it's just one of those things.
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So James, you want to. So, James, just saying you were
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late because you wanted to go look at an old bridge.
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It wasn't just that, it was the people that got into the heavy
9:38
rains, put their flashers on and we're doing 30 miles an hour on
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the Expressway. But that's the whole point of
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Rd. trips, though, is being able to see that type of stuff when,
9:48
when we're on the road. You know, that's that's why I
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enjoy doing the road trips. You know, driving out to Reno,
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I've got to mark three locations off my bucket list.
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And you know, that's, that's what I, I enjoy that as well,
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James, about Rd. Trips is seeing sites that you
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normally wouldn't see otherwise. Yeah, You know, like I'm, like
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you said, on the way to Reno, Like, I stopped at the Pony
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Express station in Gothenburg, Nebraska, of course, stopped
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there again on the way back to catch the big boy going through
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under its own power and the little things that you would
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miss if you flew everywhere. And literally, you call it
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flying over everything. You miss so many things.
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You know, and I always say this, you know, if you rush, life
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passes you by popping snow, the roses stop and see the the
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scenes and and the history and how society was back then versus
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now. Or maybe you end up in some
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famous person's hometown at one time took a truck, took a road
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off the highway because it said covered bridge this way.
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I'm like want to check out what the covered bridge in the middle
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of cornfields looks like. I took to the side rope,
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couldn't find the covered bridge but I ended up in John Wayne's
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hometown. Things you can find.
11:06
Oh yeah, All right. So how was Mid States?
11:09
Airmen Club, Lady Carriers Club National General Insurance,
11:13
National active, retired federal employees was there into the
11:19
speakers, the actual speakers here.
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And we had the Delaware, Pennsylvania poom to liaison
11:29
Kristen Brand there and she talked about all the stuff that
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management's looking at and things like that.
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Like the 4240 times should be pretty close to the input you
11:41
put on the scanner. Not you clock in on the scanner
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at 8:20, but you're 4240 to the 8:00, stuff like that.
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To learn more about the Rex PowerPoint you should be going
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on, you're asking manager to go under the rural carrier
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resources page on blue to get the PowerPoint.
12:02
He did say that carriers should be the one doing the mapping.
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Those to all the managers out there that are mapping without
12:10
the carriers, that are mapping while the carriers are standing
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behind them, the carrier should be the one sitting there doing
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it. And he admits some routes have
12:20
not been updated and in her area alone that she covers, 4 routes
12:26
have not been updated since 2021.
12:29
And she also said that doing cluster boxes is the cheapest
12:32
way to deliver. No duck, we don't get enough
12:36
coverage factor for them. We had the NRLCA retirement
12:40
seminar, the executive committeeman seminar with Mike
12:46
Marola and Kirby Ricketts. Yeah, Kirby Ricketts.
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Yeah, that's right. Everybody gets Kirby and but
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it's Kirby Ricketts. Grievance numbers are down, but
12:59
investigative interviews are up. They visited offices in Kentucky
13:05
for floor for flooding. They did.
13:08
We're going to go visit the ones in West Virginia, but they found
13:11
out that there is only one office with 1 route that had
13:15
rural carriers affected in West Virginia, I still would have
13:18
visited that office. That one carrier needs to know
13:21
that the national office cares about them too because they said
13:24
most of the offices out there are contract routes.
13:29
In Pikeville, KY, they brought breakfast for the whole office.
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The other crafts were shocked that they brought it for
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everybody, whereas the other crafts, they usually only bring
13:40
it for their specific craft. Then they talked about the
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mailbox angels coming out there and they also talked about the
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route adjustments a little bit, but we talked about that at the
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last conference breakdown. Then the Labor Relations seminar
14:00
was exactly the same as Black and Sack about grievance
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remedies. Then we get into the the meat
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and potatoes Saturday. President Mastin time to speak.
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He tried to do the best he could to share talking about safety
14:17
issues, collective bargaining Doge and he's not going to call
14:21
on people because you can do it in the Q&A.
14:27
He says you can have a lot of confidence that your national
14:30
board is working their ass off late at night, weekends,
14:33
etcetera. Quote that was quoted.
14:36
He specifically said that legislative rallies, working
14:42
with other unions. This is the most interesting
14:44
experience he's ever period he's ever experienced.
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Even COVID was less crazy. I've summarized that, not his
14:52
words. I'm summarizing talking about
14:56
the loss of carriers, the deaths we've had on the job, and he
15:00
says the main cause for a lot of them is not wearing the seat
15:04
belt. You have some things you can
15:06
take responsibility for like wearing your seat belt, texting
15:10
while driving, fingering the mail, not looking ahead for just
15:14
one second. He wants you to sign out at the
15:16
end of the day and go home to your family.
15:19
He specifically said I don't leave my vehicle running when I
15:22
get out. When I go into Walmart, it's
15:25
impossible that the vehicle turned itself on, fell out of
15:29
park and and turned off parking brake.
15:32
I'm sorry, didn't Corey Walton nun from 8 arbitration actually
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have one of those vehicles that they had a grievance on anyway?
15:42
Then he said the most one most important thing you can do at
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the end of the day is go home to your loved ones.
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He said I don't think all carriers falsify their inputs
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that make these numbers on the people who are under evaluation
15:59
and talking about people working off the clock or not punching
16:04
their times right. Like coming back to the office
16:07
on return to DU and immediately clocking out like I've seen some
16:11
carriers do anyone on if you read the stuff on the Internet
16:17
that my route IS300 miles from my house, it's true.
16:20
You got me. He's never stepped foot in that
16:23
office. Then he decided to address the
16:28
elephant in his family. He has been bombarded by
16:33
messages, phone calls, emails and letters about the comment
16:40
that his wife made on Facebook. And he said, my wife is a real
16:44
carrier. He is very outspoken on
16:47
Facebook, right? Facebook is not the real world,
16:50
right? How many women in this room, how
16:53
many of you are told what to do by your husband?
16:56
She's posted some stuff on Facebook which she is entitled
16:59
to. He's married to me but I don't
17:02
tell her what to do. He put some stuff out there
17:05
about the current administration.
17:07
She's got her opinion. I am not apologizing for my
17:10
wife's comments. She's got her own Dang opinion.
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And all of you men and women out there have your own opinions,
17:17
and I'm not going to make any of you apologize for what you think
17:20
or believe. No, that didn't happen.
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Don didn't apologize. And in fact, Don isn't going to
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apologize to stay married. Facebook, give me a break.
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We're all in this fight together.
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Then he went on to talking about the rallies coming up and
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reinforce that you are supposed to talk positively about the
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union and the Postal Service in communications.
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Then we got into the legislative update and there hasn't been
17:51
much change from the last time we talked legislative updates,
17:56
insurance legal with Jean Paul. And then when we got into the
18:02
Q&A, we got into some interesting information and it
18:07
was kind of hidden in there. It was very briefly spoken
18:12
about, but he went on, went on about the MOU again, which we've
18:18
covered in depth, but hey, but we got into some answers about
18:24
the contract negotiations. The first time we've actually
18:29
gotten a little bit of detail of what is being negotiated was
18:34
given at Eastern States and I can I'm hearing, I'm hearing
18:38
Bill passing out over there from a heart attack.
18:42
Well. That.
18:43
The fact that he's got Dunkin' Donuts and the fact that he
18:46
didn't dye his hair for this Eastern states.
18:49
Yeah, that was funny. That was actually let me get
18:53
through these and give you a heart attack a little bit Bill
18:57
and then I'll explain Dunkin' Donuts.
18:59
All right, So this is what he specifically said about the
19:02
contract negotiations able to is not eliminated, looking at
19:09
looking at significantly more than a $0.50 raise for Rcas, not
19:14
looking at career status for RCA's because you're looking at
19:19
modifying at least 30 other rules at the post office real
19:25
craft. He talked about the MOU for
19:28
regulars to volunteer going into the contract.
19:32
He said yes, there has been consideration to that and parent
19:37
child routes having issues. They don't have a specific issue
19:42
for every single parent child route.
19:45
Each one has something that's a little bit different.
19:49
But if you have a parent child route and you have an issue and
19:53
you can point to that issue, you need to get ahold of John Adams
19:57
at National about it because they're looking for the specific
20:00
reasons why parent child routes are having problems.
20:04
But they have to have the facts. So if you have a parent child
20:07
route out there and you have facts that you can put in front
20:10
of National, like missing DPS numbers, things like that, or
20:16
anything that can point to the fact that it's not.
20:19
Working for your evaluation, John Adams needs to know about
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it. But the big thing that I want to
20:26
put out there is that 20, he said 25% of rural routes went
20:33
overburdened with Rex. That's close to the 30% of
20:38
routes that went up in evaluation in the first mini
20:43
mail survey. And he said it was about 21,000
20:47
routes it could have built 1000 new 43 K routes and operations
20:56
have been full of excuses as to why it's not working, why
21:02
they're not getting routes cut, why they're not doing what they
21:04
should be doing. They can't just snap their
21:07
fingers at the post office and get them to see their way.
21:11
It's apparently their operations and labor don't talk to each
21:16
other. Labor knows it's wrong, but
21:19
operations don't care. And that is the biggest problem
21:22
we have in the post office is operations does not care if we
21:26
grieve stuff. Operations does not care if they
21:29
violate the contract, and operations doesn't care as long
21:33
as they make the numbers. Which is not surprising.
21:36
So that's what I got from the Q&A.
21:38
It wasn't a very long one because we were coming up on
21:40
time and they had to leave room for candidate announcements.
21:44
And of course Natasha Patterson was at Eastern States and did
21:48
nominate herself again for executive committee men.
21:52
And I of course, stepped up and nominated myself for president
21:56
of the NRLCA. And then I had to leave early in
22:00
the morning, but they had another business session today.
22:04
I was unfortunately in order to get back in time to run my
22:08
route, was not able to stick around for that.
22:11
But on the Dunkin' Donuts, Masten holding a Dunkin' Donuts
22:17
cup. So somebody got the idea of John
22:22
drinking Dunkin' Donuts coffee, and for a $25 pack donation you
22:28
could get a picture with Don Mastin drinking Dunkin' Donuts
22:31
coffee. So everybody got together and
22:35
said, hey, let's line up. So we all lined up, got our
22:38
pictures taken with Don as he's drinking the Dunkin' Donuts
22:41
coffee. We wanted to try and get him to
22:44
finish the cup. We came close, we came close,
22:48
but it it did raise a lot of money for PAC.
22:50
I I I like the fact that he was a good sport about.
22:53
That are you still alive over there, Bill or did you die from
22:55
a heart attack from that information, Bill?
22:57
I think we lost him. Somebody do CPR on Bill?
23:03
Oh, did I lose Internet? No, I hear you, Bill just
23:07
disappeared, that's all are. We good.
23:09
I can hear you, I didn't ever had a problem with that.
23:12
Bill, can you? Can we hear Bill?
23:14
I don't hear Bill. Technical it wouldn't be united
23:18
we scan without technical difficulty.
23:20
Wouldn't it though? One thing after another.
23:23
Yeah. But this one's just audio, so
23:25
it'll be easier to edit. Unless Bill's just, you know,
23:33
passed out somewhere. Bill probably had a heart attack
23:36
from the information. I don't.
23:38
Yeah, I don't know if he wears that heart monitor anymore.
23:41
I think that's done with. I think even if he did, he
23:43
probably broke it with. Yeah.
23:48
So are you going to Western then?
23:51
That's the next one. I am planning on it.
23:53
I already have the time because I came back early.
23:56
I saved 2 days of leave because I set myself up through Tuesday
23:59
because I didn't know which specific days they were actually
24:02
having business for this. Yeah.
24:04
Yeah. So I turned around and drove all
24:07
the way back today, not only to get on the podcast, but to also
24:10
make sure that I in at work on Monday because they were going
24:14
to split routes because we have a carrier on emergency placement
24:17
and a carrier that retired. So we're short Subs now.
24:20
Yeah, how can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you now.
24:23
Did. You have a heart attack over
24:27
there, Bill. No, I I was just saying that I
24:31
would have charged Don $50.00 to have his picture taken with me.
24:36
Any donation to pack is worth it.
24:38
Yeah, I I'm looking forward to mid states.
24:42
Ruby will be coming with me and where she's going to figure out
24:47
what friend can come with us to be the babysitter while we're in
24:51
the conference. So.
24:54
Oh, don't you know, most of the Michigan people will be happy to
24:56
be watching the baby in the back of the room.
24:59
Yeah, but he's at that age where he would just be more disruptive
25:05
than not. So it'll be best to to to take a
25:09
babysitter along with us so. You running around?
25:15
In his Walker, yes, I actually thought about taking that.
25:19
We could set him down the middle aisle and just let him go.
25:25
But it was nice to see so many friendly faces like and others
25:31
and a lot of people coming up saying, I listen to you every
25:35
week. And then one person.
25:37
Where's the episode? Sorry guys it's all my fault,
25:43
you can blame me. Life's been hectic and I don't
25:47
pay attention to stuff like I should when I'm getting stuff
25:49
going so. No, we blame Windows.
25:53
I'm gonna blame OBS, but no, I yeah, it'll be it.
26:00
It'll get there. It wasn't a lot of, you know, Oh
26:02
my God, this has to get out stuff.
26:04
It was a lot of chit chat. So give me a few days and I'll
26:07
just kind of put it out as the last episode.
26:10
So yeah. I just wanna put a put a
26:13
reminder out there of the rallies though.
26:15
Make sure you're looking them up.
26:18
The NALC is having theirs on Sunday the 23rd.
26:23
I believe the APWU has one. I guess they were was one.
26:28
And yeah, somebody had posted on Facebook and one of my local
26:33
boards about what was go what was that protest in front of the
26:36
post office yesterday? I had no clue about it so and I
26:40
don't know if it was our office or one of the other nearby
26:43
towns, but. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly when
26:46
they don't actually have it on the APW website, but I do know
26:52
that there's several rallies put out there and of course the NALC
26:56
1 is on their website under News News tab.
27:02
Make sure you check that out. Get the list of them.
27:06
They are separated by state and you can click on your state in
27:11
the map and it will drop you down to your state.
27:14
If your state doesn't have one link, your state doesn't have it
27:18
doesn't have one. Talk with your city carrier
27:21
brother and sisters in that area.
27:23
Set one up. They updated every single day.
27:27
There's a another rally on Tuesday in Pennsylvania, James.
27:31
It's being held at the Fine Wine and Spirit stores and it's
27:35
protesting the tariffs being put on Crown Royal.
27:39
I mean, yes, you're setting it up.
27:41
Oh hell yeah. I'm sorry.
27:47
I I need to figure out if the BlackBerry crown pairs well with
27:52
the BlackBerry Doctor Pepper. I think I might try that when I
27:56
get off here. Oh God, I'm going to get sick.
28:01
That's going to make your teeth walk.
28:03
Oh my, you know that that kind of sugar in a in a whiskey?
28:07
Oh, come on now. Anyway, damn.
28:13
I I had to throw it out there because I have both in my
28:15
kitchen right now. Oh, why don't you just get a,
28:18
you know, 4 ounces of BlackBerry crown and drop a tablespoon of
28:22
BlackBerry jam in there. Mix it up.
28:24
You'll get the same effect. But it won't be fizzy.
28:33
I'm going to reserve my comment on that last one.
28:36
Yes, my birthday. But I will say they are people
28:43
of Maryland have are very kind and friendly.
28:47
I appreciate that from them. The hotel staff was very, very
28:51
kind as well. Did a very good job taking care
28:54
of everything, making sure things were set up the way we
28:57
needed them. So it was a that's every state,
29:02
Jen, every state they can't drive.
29:04
But yeah, it was very nice and great group of people to be
29:09
around for that. I will say you're.
29:12
Good to hear. Anything else tonight, guys?
29:15
I couldn't come up with anything on the drive back so.
29:18
That's fine. I can handle short and sweet.
29:21
Yeah. And I, I don't want to talk
29:23
about anything in my old office because, you know, then somebody
29:27
will comment about it. And even though we're allowed
29:34
to. It proves we're still hearing
29:37
about the craft, even into retirement.
29:39
Yeah, we still care. Well right now I I'm arranging
29:43
for a consolidation of our unit with another unit who a can't
29:49
get enough people to run for the three positions of their local
29:52
unit, let let alone have people attend their meetings and sadly.
29:59
That that's happening all over. Oh yeah, and Oh yeah.
30:02
That's, that's when we need to motivate people to get involved.
30:07
Oh yeah, we're talking about I've I've talked with multiple
30:10
people this past week alone on the one member, one vote
30:14
situation, not only national level, but state level 2.
30:20
So they're pushing for people want change.
30:24
They want their voice heard. One way you can do that is to
30:27
attend your local meetings and find a way to attend your local
30:30
meetings. And the problem is, is getting I
30:34
am off to do that is the hardest part.
30:38
So or will come from that. I'm we're going to be working on
30:42
resolutions this next week or two, getting them set up for
30:46
this year. We got a few of them that I want
30:48
to get put forth. If we can get them up to
30:51
national as well as a couple from my state, maybe we'll see
30:55
what happened. Yeah, I got to get mine work on
30:58
mine too. I've got a month before my local
31:01
annual meeting, so me too. Yeah.
31:04
So all right, James, your your final thoughts for this evening?
31:09
If there's one thing I can say about these regional conferences
31:13
is there's not enough participation.
31:18
And the participation is not due to carriers not wanting to
31:23
participate. It's due to inadequate staffing,
31:28
not having available relief carriers to cover that.
31:32
And the conversations that I've had with people at these
31:35
conferences rest the same thing. Our RC as our PTS, even our Arcs
31:42
are still woefully abused by management, hopefully abused to
31:48
the point that they don't want to work here.
31:51
There are Unicorn offices out there that have full coverage,
31:56
but they are few and far between.
31:58
But the one thing that they have in common, they have management
32:04
that actually cares about their people.
32:07
And in the offices that have management that don't, we need
32:11
to start grieving on evens. Numbers are down.
32:16
Why? Because people give up.
32:21
We can't give up now. We need to start fighting, need
32:25
to get stronger. We need to come together as a
32:29
craft no matter what happens, whether people think that we're
32:34
creating chaos or it's trying to fear monger people, we should be
32:40
united as a craft whether it happens or not.
32:45
Our job to be proactive, it's our job to be educated.
32:50
How do we get educated to get involved?
32:53
Because at the end of the day, we're all in this together.
32:58
Well, you're right, James. And that leads me to my week
33:01
last week, which was, you know, kind of uneventful.
33:04
But the fact of the matter was that I had two women from the
33:08
South message me and went into lengthy discussions in regards
33:15
to their situations. And the one lady said, you know,
33:19
I know you're retired, but thanks for all that you do for
33:21
the craft. And it's like you got to
33:23
understand that, you know, the, the craft has been my family for
33:26
26 years. You know, the better, the better
33:30
part of my life. So I mean, you know, I'm glad to
33:34
be there. You know, for people, you know,
33:36
they don't have time to look things up or they don't know the
33:38
things they're, they're unsure, whatever, you know.
33:41
But you pop me a message and I get back to you.
33:44
And, and even though I'll complain about people who don't
33:48
bother even trying, I understand that some people have
33:51
restrictions with family and work and everything.
33:53
But to really reedify the point of being involved, going to your
33:58
local means we have four local meetings a year for our
34:03
constitution. That's four times a year that
34:06
you need to put some extra time into.
34:08
OK. And you come to our meetings and
34:10
we feed you and we inform you, we educate you.
34:13
We, you know, we, we give you the, the tools that you need to
34:18
present your situations, your cases, follow through on your
34:21
grievances. And, you know, we always remind
34:25
you to, you know, contact your duly elected local union
34:30
official. But the fact of the matter is,
34:32
if you don't attend these meetings, and I would love to be
34:35
able to do them via Zoom, but we're not allowed yet.
34:39
If you don't attend these meetings, if you don't get
34:41
involved, if you don't message, you know, myself and Kristen
34:45
James or anybody else you know, on there are pages, you know,
34:48
under the Discord format, That's on you.
34:52
Because the one person who has the most interest in your
34:55
paycheck should be you. And that starts with educating
34:59
yourself, earning the contract, earning 6O3M38, the Elm, the
35:07
Arcam Rex. Yes, it's a lot.
35:10
But what do you think we've done?
35:13
You know, I've done it over the years with, you know, three
35:15
growing sons, OK? Kristen does it with, you know,
35:18
her fractured family all over the freaking world.
35:22
James. There's no excuse for James
35:24
anyway. The fact of the matter is you
35:29
really have to put the effort forth to step up for yourself.
35:33
Protect yourself. This is one of the foundations
35:36
of having a union is that they're there to protect you and
35:40
you utilize that resource. But it starts with you stepping
35:43
up and speaking out for yourself.
35:46
You got the what, another two weeks before you're going to get
35:48
your results back from this mini mail survey.
35:51
Make sure you have your dispute ready and in hand, properly
35:53
documented with, but it's proof. Make sure you have them with
35:57
proof and everybody you know, you've got some warmer weather
36:02
coming in. Some of you know, in the States
36:04
still getting snow. Sorry about that.
36:07
But you know, be aware, you know, with warmer weather, kids
36:10
will be out, animals will be out with dogs running around.
36:13
That's because spring's right on the brink and you better be
36:16
vigilant around the the areas that you deliver those
36:21
customers, you know, depend on you because of the fact that
36:24
you're the eyes and ears of the community.
36:27
And I truly believe that. And I, I still am in contact
36:31
with customers on my route. So everybody be professional, be
36:35
efficient, be diligent and make sure you get home to your loved
36:39
ones because you are the most important delivery of the day.
36:42
Kristen. Thank you guys.
36:44
Yes, getting involved is definitely a big thing.
36:47
I know. You know, even Ruby already who
36:51
hasn't even started her OJT, who has attended numerous union
36:56
functions with me already with everything that I've gone to
37:00
with the exception of National last year.
37:02
You know, I was talking to her on her way to the grocery store
37:05
yesterday and was like, hey, 'cause I noticed one of the guys
37:08
that she was in orientation with is going to be in her Academy
37:13
class coming up. And I said, he's in our local.
37:17
I said, did he sign up for the union?
37:18
She goes, I don't know. I said, well, I said, since your
37:22
orientation presenter for the union, you know, kind of used
37:26
you and me as an example, I said, why don't you show?
37:30
She pulled out her phone and in her notes she typed out the date
37:34
and time and location. And she's going to mention it to
37:37
that RCA when they're at Academy together this week going, hey,
37:42
you should come out, you should be involved.
37:44
I mean right out of the get go, you know, I guess they kind of
37:47
raised your right in that aspect, but we'll see.
37:49
It's that simple. And I know sometimes it's hard
37:53
to get to them. I have to drive an hour
37:55
currently after I get out of work to go to my local meetings,
38:00
you know, carpool if you have to try and get somebody there.
38:03
I, you know, I've poached all my newer Rcas that came in and
38:07
saying, hey, we have an annual meeting coming up next month.
38:11
Then you know, you'll get the notice in the mail.
38:13
But here's the details right now.
38:15
So you have a head start. You know, if you know those
38:18
things, you know, pass it on, try to bring them.
38:21
You know, we, we tend to feed our people as well.
38:24
You know, unfortunately, lately we've only had one meeting a
38:28
year, which really sucks and I'd like to see that change.
38:32
So, you know, they're try and go if you can, you know, be be a
38:36
voice even even if you can make the one and you think a
38:40
different day or time or location would be better for the
38:44
next 1, you know, feel free to to raise your hand and make that
38:48
suggestion to that local board. You know, I hopefully they're
38:52
willing to listen. If it's something that can be
38:54
feasible to try and get more people there.
38:56
You have to work together on it, you know, and go, you know, be a
39:01
delegate to your state convention.
39:02
I mean, if you really want to see how things work and how
39:05
things pass and go through and have a voice, you know, go to
39:09
your state convention, sign up to be a delegate or send in your
39:13
nomination. However your state does it.
39:15
I know they states tend to do a little differently in some
39:18
areas. You know, that's the one thing
39:21
you can do. The one way you can have your
39:22
voice heard is going to things like that, you know, resolutions
39:27
submitting at your annual local meetings that could pass and go
39:31
up to state convention. And if they pass at state, if
39:34
it's something for national, they can go up to national and
39:36
get voted on the national floor. I mean, James and I have had
39:39
both have had resolutions up on the national floor.
39:42
Some have passed, some haven't. But that's, you know, to know
39:45
that it got that far definitely can make a difference,
39:49
especially, you know, for somebody who's like, you know,
39:52
this may I have this idea? How do I go about it?
39:55
Put it in a resolution, you know, do your research, reach
39:58
out to some way that can help you writing it if needed.
40:00
That's the bare minimum, you know, And my biggest thing that
40:04
I say, if you can't do it when your delegate ballots get mailed
40:09
out to you for National Convention vote, reach out and
40:14
people that you know to know who your names are.
40:17
Go through the proceedings from the.
40:20
Previous national conventions and see if you recognize any
40:23
names that are on there and what they you know what they have
40:26
said, you know it it it's that simple.
40:29
That is one of the easiest things you know.
40:31
And then when we have a contract ratification in the future, when
40:36
don't know, but you know, when that does happen, vote, vote.
40:41
You know, is it something you like vote yes.
40:43
If it's something you don't like, vote no, but that vote is
40:46
yours. That is one way to use your
40:49
voice as being a member of the union, those simple things like
40:53
that. So, you know, that's biggest
40:56
thing I can say is people to step up and be active.
40:59
You know, if it's something you've been thinking about, do
41:01
it. Just do it, you know, and people
41:03
will welcome you with open arms as first timers.
41:05
I mean, we've all been there. We've all been a first timer and
41:08
we know people will welcome you with open arms and be happy to
41:11
see you and somebody will take you under their wing and show
41:15
you the ropes. That's how it goes for
41:16
everything. So, but but yes guys, the
41:19
weather has been interesting. It was 60° yesterday and it
41:23
snowed here today. So we're looking at high 30s,
41:26
low 40s all week. As we all know that can be a
41:29
mess. I am going to put the NALC
41:33
rallies link in the show notes to this week so everybody will
41:38
have a chance to click that if they want to.
41:41
So guys, stay safe out there. Don't forget to stay hydrated
41:45
and make sure you get home to your loved ones.
41:49
And we will be back next week. Hey, Bill, everybody's stealing
42:05
your line. I I swear to God, and you know,
42:09
plagiarism at its best. Hey, imitation is the most
42:12
sincere form of flattery.