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Crazy 8s, Convention Recap · United We Scan

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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. And welcome back everybody.
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It's been a couple weeks. Here we are episode 88, the
0:58
Crazy Eights 2024 convention recap, James, myself and Bill.
1:05
So how's, how's your time away from the microphone been, James?
1:09
It was quite hectic. 2 1/2 day drive across the country to go
1:14
to National Convention. The week before I was working
1:18
the route and then drove the 2 1/2 days back home after that.
1:24
Beat you back because you ran into quite a few problems on the
1:27
way I heard, but I apparently stayed ahead of all of those.
1:31
I didn't, but problems. Oh you mean that the car fire
1:37
and the closed exit? But then on the way there and on
1:45
the way back, I made a few touristy stops.
1:48
Got to see the old Pony Express station on the way there and the
1:53
golden spike tower at Bailey Yard for Union Pacific.
1:56
That was cool to see. They still have two active hump
1:58
yards there. You can watch them working.
2:02
And then ran all the way over to convention.
2:06
Spent the week there and got to see a lot of people from the
2:10
podcast as well as a lot of friends that I've developed over
2:13
the last few years working with the union.
2:17
Lots of good work put in and other things to.
2:20
Talk about with that. Then on the way back, I did 15
2:25
straight hours the first day and got to the hotel and got an
2:30
alert that I was close to the Union Pacific Big Boy, the
2:34
largest steam locomotive ever built, and that it was traveling
2:41
to Chicago from Wyoming. So I ended up pulling off at the
2:47
same town that the Pony Express stations in and caught the Big
2:52
Boy actually running down the rails under its own power.
2:58
So that was cool to see and got back the next day after that and
3:05
went back to my route on Wednesday because apparently I
3:08
had made sure to put Tuesday off as well, which helped me to
3:12
start cleaning up the tree that had fallen in my yard from the
3:15
storm while we were at convention.
3:17
Did a lot of damage around here, but running the route was up and
3:22
down all week. Mini mail survey of course.
3:25
According to the sub that ran my route, I actually got two days
3:28
where I got a full set of DPS as random letters in my mini mail
3:35
survey this year. This this time around.
3:38
So I'm I'm really happy about that.
3:41
And now we're here for this episode.
3:44
How about you, Bill? How is your time off?
3:47
I took the easy way off. I flew in and I flew out.
3:51
So it was all one day journeys for me.
3:55
The, the convention itself was, you know, entertaining,
4:00
insightful, and it's great to see all the people that we have
4:05
on our side getting the support from everybody, getting
4:09
suggestions and comments from individuals that, you know, like
4:13
to see the change. And our, our hotel was fabulous.
4:20
We had a great room. James Yeah, nice, nice, big
4:23
shower, plenty of hot water. And the facilities I I I thought
4:28
were, you know, pretty well, you know, laid out that you can get
4:31
food just about anywhere, just a matter of getting in line.
4:35
And the hotel staff there, they were all very, very kind except
4:39
for the gentleman who forgot to put my laundry in on Sunday,
4:44
which caused a bit of consternation for Tuesday on me.
4:47
But travel was good. It was good.
4:51
What, what, what food we could get when we could get it.
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And that's one thing about the conventions.
4:56
You, you eat on the fly and you, you don't have a, a decent meal
5:00
until what was it Friday night when we went to the M3?
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I think that's the first sit down we really had.
5:07
And that, that was that, that was the end of the convention.
5:12
And you know, the adrenaline Dover, I mean, even even caucus
5:16
night was almost like anti climactic for us.
5:19
It wasn't as eared up as has been in the past.
5:24
But All in all, it's good to, you know, be home.
5:28
But yeah, I miss my friends that I eat there, get to see my Co
5:32
host and get ran baby pictures and everything.
5:36
So it's good to be home. And I came home.
5:40
I, I, I work my Tuesday after the holiday, which turned into a
5:45
fiasco because we're short trucks.
5:48
So I got an hour, 14 minutes of wait time there.
5:51
And then I had to call out the Wednesday, Thursday for a
5:56
respiratory infection and went in Friday morning not feeling
6:02
all that good. And my sub had inadvertently
6:04
showed up and she said, do you want to go home?
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I said, see ya. So I was out the door not too
6:13
concerned about the mini mail survey.
6:15
It, it represents 6% and I have an excellent sub.
6:18
So I'd, I'd have to say that, you know, I, I can't see
6:22
anything changing much for me except for the additional
6:26
footage that I'll get the SD and C that they haven't put on to
6:31
our B2 40s yet after we moved up the to Wayne, my Westchester
6:36
office because of the fire. So that'll be interesting to see
6:40
how much more time that adds on to my 67 hour route.
6:44
Other than that, been a nice quiet weekend grandson over, you
6:49
know, just enjoying the cooler weather.
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Oh my God, it's 58° right now, but I love it.
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So, you know, this coming week looks like it's going to be a
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nice cool week and forward to it and getting back into the swing
7:02
of things. How about you, Kristen Grand
7:05
mom? Well yes, since we were last on.
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My grandson was born August 20th and everything went great and 6
7:18
lbs eight oz 19 1/2 inches long. He's doing awesome.
7:24
It just really hurt that they didn't get sprung from the
7:27
hospital till 9:00 PM Wednesday evening.
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Got the my daughter and grandson home and loaded my car and left
7:37
with my dad by 10/30 11:00 and drove my dad home up at mom and
7:44
dad's and got up and left Michigan about 10:30 in the
7:48
morning on Thursday morning and got into Reno Saturday evening.
7:54
Yeah, drove straight through, had a couple stayed one night
7:59
with one of our listeners and had breakfast and that, that was
8:02
fun. Thank you.
8:03
That was great hospitality up on the road the second night, but
8:07
hey, I don't mind doing that. And then, yeah, we had our
8:10
convention. It was great to meet some new
8:13
people, see a bunch of old friends and had a great time.
8:18
My my two roommates were pretty awesome.
8:20
Can't complain. We had that huge room and yeah
8:24
it went well. And then I ended up not leaving
8:27
Reno till about 6:30 Saturday evening as one of my roommates
8:31
flight wasn't till about midnight to go home.
8:34
So her and I hung out and had a spa day actually.
8:39
So I had a foot massage and we hung out at the spa at the
8:43
resort and I finally about 6:30 decided I needed to get some
8:46
pavement up up from underneath me and hit the road.
8:50
I got about two, 2 1/2 hours down the road and called it and
8:53
then I got home about 10:30-ish on Tuesday night.
9:00
But I didn't have to be back to work till Thursday.
9:02
So I got lots of baby cuddles all day Wednesday and every day
9:07
since I after work. And then of course my K day
9:10
yesterday. And yeah, that was, you know,
9:14
the wrap up of my driving and grandbaby two guys.
9:23
I did, I I only had 11 little hang up coming back.
9:28
There was a car accident fire on I-80 and they just rerouted us
9:32
around on Two lane Rd. So it wasn't that big of a deal
9:36
coming home. But the rest of that, it was
9:38
smooth travelling for the rest of the trip there and back.
9:42
But Sunday I forgot. Yeah, Sunday a group of us went
9:45
to Lake Tahoe for dinner cruise. And someday after I got there,
9:49
and that was fun and gorgeous and knocked a few things off the
9:52
bucket list up at the Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt
9:55
Flats and then Lake Tahoe. And Yep, that's about how my
10:01
trips went. Did you buy any Bonneville sea
10:04
salt? I did not.
10:07
I was walking out there when you called me though.
10:12
I, I teased my wife about sea salt because she got this, the
10:16
Paul sea salt. And I'm sitting there going,
10:21
since when was the ocean that high up in Nepal?
10:26
It just, you know, they, they just turn around and put names
10:29
on there, you know, Oh, it's Timbuktu sea salt, really.
10:33
All right. But you know, if you're in the
10:35
salt flats, they ought to be selling that stuff.
10:38
Right. They do, and they also use it
10:40
for their Rd. salt in the area. That was obvious.
10:48
But it's really cool to see. I mean, you go driving across
10:50
there and you can see where people have tried to drive out
10:55
onto it and most of it isn't dry enough to do that.
10:59
Only areas to the far western side where the Bonneville salt
11:03
plaque are are actually usually dry enough to drive on, but
11:10
you'll see the tire track in the salt and that on the way out
11:13
there somebody had actually taken and stuck a mailbox in the
11:18
salt standing up with the flag up.
11:21
You saw that too? I saw that too and I
11:23
unfortunately was going by too fast to get a picture of it.
11:28
I know. I saw it too.
11:29
And yeah, it's it's funny. And it's like, well, there ain't
11:32
no way a mail carrier's going down there to pick that up.
11:36
No, no, I I saw that and left about that as well.
11:40
Oh yeah, There's lots of rock art out there, all kinds of
11:43
stuff. People put names out there and
11:45
things like that. You can actually see it from
11:47
Google, Google Maps satellite view if you look.
11:51
Oh yeah, yeah. Ball tree.
11:53
Yep. Yep.
11:55
They were working on it the last time when we came back through
11:58
the people out there working on because it looks like one of the
12:00
balls fell off and shattered. Yeah, it looked like that going
12:04
out there. I saw that the ball laying in
12:06
half on the ground. Yeah, so.
12:11
Convention 2024. That was quite interesting in a
12:17
lot of regards. It's my first time to the Reno
12:22
Convention Center. I've been to Reno before but.
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That was my first. Time at that Convention Center
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casino, like Bill said, really nice place, really well kept
12:33
too. I mean, usually you see a casino
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and that's been around for a while and stuff starting to wear
12:39
out and things like that, but they've actually kept this one
12:43
up really nicely. Would you guys agree?
12:45
Yeah. Oh yeah, very nice, Very nice
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location. And the layout for the stuff was
12:52
pretty well thought out for even the caucus and things like that.
12:56
Yeah. It it was well planned.
13:00
I'll have to give Patrick Fitz's due on that and everything
13:05
seemed if the flows kind of seamlessly.
13:08
There was no interruption of services or convention events or
13:12
anything like that, except for closing down on what was it
13:17
Wednesday for the? For the banquet.
13:21
Banquet. Thank you for the banquet.
13:23
We had to get out of there early and they had to switch
13:25
everything around. But even still, you know, that
13:29
that seemed to be, you know, seamless transition for the the
13:32
hotel staff. So it was it was good.
13:36
It really was. And like Mountain Dew said, they
13:38
had really good air filtration, couldn't really smell the
13:41
cigarette smoke. Yes, and they made sure.
13:45
I I was. Actually down in the casino area
13:47
a few times and everywhere there was a opening to the second
13:53
floor, there was no smoking right around it.
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So that was another thing they did to keep it from going up
13:58
into the other parts of the building.
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Say what? Well thought out, it really was.
14:05
But even with all the good stuff, I do have to mention this
14:11
three times. People had to step up and say
14:15
something about over disparaging comments on the floor.
14:21
It wasn't just, you know, that person's bad or standard
14:26
comments people made. There were some blatant comments
14:30
that if they were made in the Postal Service would be
14:33
violations of the joint statements on violence and
14:36
harassment in the workplace, to the point where myself, another
14:40
delegate and President Mastin all had to make statements on
14:45
it. These disparaging comments on
14:48
the floor, as I said when I spoke on it, turned first timers
14:54
into last timers. We got to stop fighting amongst
14:57
ourselves, we got to stop going at each other.
15:01
We aren't the enemy. Nobody on that floor is an enemy
15:05
when it comes to union details. We may not like the person, but
15:11
we don't make such rude comments on the floor to the point where
15:17
first timers are like this. I'm not coming back and I've had
15:21
a couple first timers tell me they're not coming back because
15:23
of the comments made on the floor by our own brothers and
15:26
sisters. We had a lot of first timers
15:28
there too. We beat last year's.
15:31
Record. I heard it was a record number.
15:34
Yeah, that's another win for us, getting people involved and
15:38
stepping up and then you have this turn around and just turn
15:42
them right off to even participating.
15:45
But it was good to see some of the first timers from last year
15:48
there again this year as well. There were second timers there
15:51
which was really good to see. But overall the atmosphere was
15:58
quite hopeful amongst a lot of the delegation that was there,
16:02
of the carriers that I spoke to and the fact that we had new
16:08
people as well as the old speaking at the Mikes, you know,
16:12
people not afraid to actually step up and speak their mind.
16:17
Boy, it got quiet. What happened there?
16:21
I don't know. I'm just contemplating going off
16:24
of my mini rant, you know? Now if.
16:28
You're going to do it, get it over with.
16:30
I'm. Finishing my dinner.
16:33
OK, let's see. This is the OK.
16:36
First, I'm going to take a personal point of privilege and
16:40
apologize to Heather Lee on our full time ADR in PA District 2.
16:45
I had made a comment that she hadn't gotten back to us in four
16:48
days in regards to our fire at Westchester.
16:52
And I, I misspoke because it was four.
16:55
Took me 4 days to find her phone number in our PA mailbag.
16:58
So Heather, yeah, sorry, this is your public apology
17:03
announcement. And, and she's been on top of
17:07
our situation ever since. So anyway, this is, this is my,
17:13
this is my rant. And, and like I said, ladies and
17:16
gentlemen, this is not about individual wins.
17:19
This is about wins for the craft.
17:21
And I think we made some major gains this year as far as the
17:25
national Board's concerned and about qualified people stepping
17:29
up for us. My problem with our national
17:33
board is now we still have a president who after 16 years on
17:38
the board is going in to negotiate a contract against his
17:42
friend Louis de Joy. And you know, this is a personal
17:45
point of view, OK. I have no confidence whatsoever
17:49
in Don Madsen negotiations in regards to Table 2 and Table 4
17:55
about our pay increases, about the the no steps for the RC as
18:01
who are paid the same 15 years ago as they are today.
18:04
This is this is about people sitting there and saying, well,
18:08
you can't change leadership in the middle of negotiations.
18:12
Well, like I stated and and let me explain all my caucus
18:16
appearances and all, everything I put out there this year was
18:20
for the craft, for the craft, for the craft.
18:22
It was not denigrating anybody, it was positivity.
18:27
If you go into negotiations and you have hired a whole table of
18:32
experts to assist you and you have a track record of 16 years
18:36
of not getting anything accomplished, whether it be as
18:39
an executive committee person or as the Vice President.
18:43
And ladies and gentlemen, what do you expect him to give us
18:45
when the contract comes time to be ratified?
18:49
If you change in the middle of negotiations with only started
18:53
several months ago, you now have a different person with a
18:57
different perspective looking at the contract go shading on
19:01
behalf of the carriers, not themselves.
19:06
Now I did not did not bring this up and I wanted to so I will put
19:11
it out on the podcast and this is the last time I'll bring it
19:13
up. Don Madsen has a route that 320
19:17
miles away from where he lives in California.
19:20
It takes 2 Subs to handle it. It's overburdened.
19:23
And somebody brought up the point that well, he felt bad for
19:26
his RCA back in his hometown that they weren't going career.
19:30
So he been on an office, you know, further away.
19:33
How magnanimous of Don to do that.
19:36
That's so kind hearted. If you if you believe that he
19:40
gave up a lower valued route for his sub and bid on an overburden
19:46
K route which pads his high three from the post office,
19:50
you're in the same boat as I am. He didn't do it for a sub, he
19:53
did it for himself. This is the same guy that used
19:56
his union miles paid for by the union to take his family on
20:02
vacation to Hawaii. This is the guy that's
20:05
representing our interest. And it it just it, it appalled
20:10
me that these old heads, these these, you know, stick in the
20:14
muds per SE, follow the leader type individuals sitting there
20:19
saying, well, you can't change leadership.
20:21
Leadership changes exactly what we needed.
20:25
We didn't get it. And, and I pray for you guys for
20:29
the upcoming contract because of the fact that not going to get
20:32
any better. And you know, I, I just, I, I
20:36
kept everything positive, did the, the best I could.
20:40
We had a great caucus night. I had 6 great caucus rooms,
20:44
including SAC, which surprised me.
20:47
I had one, you know, good room. And then I had 4 rooms where I
20:51
got, I got set up. I was a gentleman from New York.
20:55
He's a young man from New York who asked me last year about
20:58
anger issues. And, you know, I I made fun of
21:01
him by, you know, screaming at him that I didn't have anger
21:04
issues. So this year he gets up and and
21:07
approaches the, you know, the mic and ask me the question.
21:10
I said, I recognize you from last year saying that I had
21:12
anger issues. He goes, yeah, well, why are you
21:16
asking me the same question about anger issues this year?
21:20
Why? Why are you poking the bear?
21:22
So of course I answered his question, you know, nicely as he
21:26
turned his back. Then I screamed at him that I
21:28
didn't have anger issues. Of course, I got a laugh out of
21:31
the whole room. I had a gentleman turn around
21:34
and they asked me that my state board didn't support me.
21:40
And I asked, well, how would you know that since we, you know,
21:43
the ballots are secret. Have you seen their votes?
21:46
And he said, well, that's what I heard.
21:47
And I said, well, I haven't heard anything.
21:49
And I said, I really don't care because of the fact that I'm
21:52
going for the carrier vote, not the state vote.
21:57
I had a lady misconstrue a 24/7 where I said if a if a local ADR
22:05
area Dr. gets a phone call from the carrier, they need to answer
22:09
the phone call within 24 hours. And I said and this is a service
22:12
job so you're basically on call seven days a week.
22:16
And she got confused saying we're not on call 24/7.
22:19
That's not what I said, but she was antagonistic about the
22:23
entire point, turned around and had a another lady.
22:27
And it was funny because the fact that she gave me a a very
22:32
confrontational question. And then at the end of the
22:34
caucus, as I'm walking down, she said, would you consider running
22:38
for vice president? And I said, if I have to work
22:41
for Don Madsen? No, I said, because I can't work
22:43
for somebody I don't respect. And she said, that's a great
22:47
answer. I mean, I, I, I, you know, you
22:50
feel like you're being set up, like they've actually got these
22:52
people in there answering these questions just to try to be up.
22:57
And, and I didn't fall for it per SE, but the fact of the
23:00
matter is that the entire dimension, the election,
23:04
everything is for the carrier's interest, not mine, not James,
23:09
not Kristen's, But for the carriers, we accomplished a lot,
23:13
like I said, you, a lot of first timers or board positions and
23:17
you know, hopefully a fifth will change next year.
23:20
But the fact of the matter is that they were more contentious
23:24
towards us. And there was even comments made
23:27
towards myself in regards to, you know, out in an alleyway.
23:32
OK, you know, And then to top it all off, when I get back home, I
23:36
get a letter from a South Dakota mail processing facility where I
23:41
had submitted our letters out to all the state officers, NSS
23:45
people for all all 50 states in Puerto Rico.
23:48
And it's and across the top of my top page, it said, if you
23:53
podcast union Busters and and it really hurt that, you know,
23:58
somebody took the time to do this.
24:01
We don't advocate union busting, but they hate out there.
24:05
Like James said, has no place in our craft, in our union, but it
24:11
is overwhelmingly stirred up and basically fermented by the old
24:18
guard. And I, I, I'm just, I'm sad for
24:22
the craft. I really am in the rant.
24:24
You can edit what you want, Kristen, but if that's the first
24:27
and last time you'll hear me speak on this issue and I, I'm
24:31
done addressing that. But you know, I had to get it
24:35
off my chest. Kristen, talk about your
24:38
experiences through caucus and all that stuff.
24:42
My caucuses weren't all that bad.
24:44
And there was, you know, definitely the questions of why
24:47
I was decertified and as a local steward and I owned up to every
24:54
single one of it. You know, I plain and simple
24:57
said it was because of this podcast.
24:59
And when I first started it, it was basically as, as Bill will
25:04
know, because he was there in the beginning was, it was about
25:08
engagement and getting people why, you know, to be active and
25:12
why it's important to be active and, you know, and throw in some
25:16
educational stuff in there. And then it just kind of went
25:19
and got uncontained, which it has.
25:22
And so in the, we, I myself have plans for the future and what
25:28
we're going to be doing and bringing it back to its roots.
25:31
Some of the hard criticism came from some NSS employees, which
25:36
is fine. I did take time after caucus and
25:40
talk to a couple of them and, you know, just to let them know
25:45
that I did appreciate their honesty and, you know, and their
25:50
insight and their side of things.
25:52
And I got good response back, you know, talking to them
25:57
outside of caucus and and and stuff and going forward with my
26:02
career. All in all, it wasn't that bad.
26:06
You know, it was pretty much what I expected it to be.
26:09
And you know, I just, I took it as they dished it out to me.
26:13
Not a problem. That's what you do.
26:15
I agree. It's, you know, it was a lot of
26:20
the same comments as last year, this year that I got the same
26:26
questions, a few new ones. But the biggest take away out of
26:33
all of it was most of it was revolving around what we do here
26:40
and us being decertified were the two biggest things.
26:46
And being that we were in the word decertified and lumping us
26:51
up with the decertified movement, which we have publicly
26:55
said we do not support decertifying the union.
26:58
We support strengthening this union and getting it to do what
27:01
it's supposed to be doing. But they don't listen to that
27:05
part. And one of the people asked why
27:10
I chose to continue doing this with the threat of
27:15
decertification from union, National Union representation,
27:21
sending us letters that if we don't, we'll be decertified.
27:25
Well, I remember at the beginning of my postal career
27:30
swearing an oath that as a federal employee, I will support
27:36
and defend the Constitution of the United States of America
27:40
from enemies both foreign and domestic.
27:43
In the very first part of the Constitution is our First
27:48
Amendment right to freedom of speech and freedom of press.
27:54
And that is why I have chosen to be on this platform throughout
28:01
all of this because when I swear an oath, I uphold that oath and
28:07
defending my Constitution and your Constitution takes the
28:13
forefront of my mind when it comes to that.
28:16
But the biggest take away that we can get from this National
28:21
Convention overall is that though we were not elected, we
28:28
collectively, us, our listeners and all the people that talk to
28:33
us online and social media and stuff have made change.
28:39
Two of the most important positions in this union, the
28:43
director of Labor relations and the director of Steward
28:47
Operations, were changed over the two people that took it
28:52
over, John Adams and Nikki Phillips.
28:56
Return calls on the weekends, they talk to people on the
29:01
weekends. You pay them to be there for you
29:04
and they are there. And I heard from the stewards
29:08
that attended the training this week that even though they only
29:12
had a week to prepare for this training, they did a hell of a
29:18
job and they appreciate the open candor they had and the training
29:24
that they received. So I am very hopeful over this
29:28
next year of what they can do and what will come between those
29:32
two positions. So this is looking really
29:35
hopeful for our craft and I hope that the new 4 new people that
29:41
are elected to the board, we'll be making the change in the
29:45
board with their votes and with their voices to get this union
29:49
where it needs to be. And it will be up to us, this
29:53
podcast, the people that listen and the people that talk to us
29:57
on social media to make sure we hold them accountable and be
30:01
mindful and watchful of how our union proceeds over the next
30:06
year. Do you guys agree?
30:08
Yeah, I, I would say the biggest thing that was against us, well,
30:14
the two biggest things, one was having that black mark against
30:18
us as being decertified local stewards, which I understand.
30:23
But the second biggest thing was the lack of experience, whether
30:26
that been, you know, further up in NSS or state board.
30:31
I did have a delegate from another state on the elevator
30:35
after convention let out on Friday, rode the elevator up
30:40
with this individual that did say that they wanted to see me
30:43
back next year for executive committeemen, which I did
30:46
nominate down this year. But like I said, when you've got
30:50
already have eight people running and you throw a 9th in
30:53
the hat, I wasn't expecting much.
30:55
But you know, I did have many asked me if I was willing to
30:58
nominate down or go lower at caucus and I said yes.
31:01
And I, you know, I held to that. I was nominated down for
31:05
executive committee, you know, so I just, I followed through on
31:08
that. But as far as the experience, I,
31:12
you know, I get it. You know, I still have 19 1/2
31:15
years left of this career. So, yeah, you know, I'm have no
31:19
issues with taking a step back. And I have been told by several
31:24
in my state that I should be, that I will be running for state
31:27
board next year. So it's a start.
31:30
But yeah, we do have, you know, I, I did like to see the
31:34
positive changes that came about this year with the two executive
31:37
committees and Director of Labor and Stewart UPS.
31:41
I I definitely know that that is a a few steps in in the positive
31:46
direction. It's funny how you say, you
31:49
know, that the decertification I I don't think it even came up
31:53
once for me. The podcast did.
31:56
And I, I think that the only, only reason that actually came
32:02
up was because of the fact that they were saying something about
32:07
why I misquoted something. And I asked the lady, I said,
32:09
well, what did I misquote? She couldn't remember.
32:12
I said, OK, so I misquoted something.
32:15
But we often will turn around and follow up the, the next week
32:20
and correct our, correct ourselves when we, you know,
32:22
find we've made a mistake. This is, can you say that for
32:25
your national board? And she goes, oh, they, they
32:29
don't make mistakes. And I said, well, ask Don if
32:31
we're on call seven days a week and she goes, he never said
32:36
that. I said no, he put it in the
32:37
magazine. It's like it, it never put a
32:42
retraction in there. So I, I mean, you know, I, I
32:45
guess we're held to different standards because we're not part
32:48
of the political party, you know, and, and that's that,
32:52
that's the one thing about being sort of rebels fighting the
32:56
system from outside because of the fact that we haven't climbed
32:59
the ladder way they have. But where has that gotten us
33:02
folks? Where has that gotten us?
33:05
So we've made some changes. We've had plenty of people, you
33:09
know, sign up in, in regards to being delegates.
33:13
You know, we've had a lot of positive reinforcement from our
33:16
people that we've we've enjoined into our trials and tribulations
33:21
over the years. And it was good to see that.
33:24
It was good to see the groundswell and changing those
33:27
two positions. James on the national board
33:30
really was and it was impressive.
33:33
It was impressive to to see John Adams win so handily.
33:38
The director of Labor relations position says a lot in regards
33:42
to how people felt for the job being done.
33:45
Our past Director of Labor Relations and you know, like I'm
33:50
ready to give full support to both John and Nikki in regards
33:54
to their positions. And I will say this, I had one
33:58
person comment that when I was in the caucus about how many
34:03
resolutions I put forth this year, and I was a little taken
34:10
aback by that because half my resolutions were for my state,
34:15
the other half were for national, and half of those
34:19
didn't make it to national from state.
34:21
But apparently I put forth way too many resolutions by myself,
34:26
even though my state actually did not have the most
34:30
resolutions at National this year, which kind of threw me off
34:35
for a second. And then they brought it about.
34:38
Will I be putting that many together as director of Stewart
34:41
Operations? I'm like, I'm not allowed to do
34:44
that. As director of Stewart
34:45
Operations, I'd have to put them through my state and my counties
34:49
and the state and so on. And when they asked and would
34:53
you be objecting to so many of them?
34:55
And I'm like, I would be on the stage.
34:59
I'm not allowed to object to them.
35:01
It's the caucus floor that's to object, you know, but it is what
35:06
it is. And but that's the key is we
35:10
need that change. We need those resolutions.
35:13
And it just, it's not just coming from me, it's coming from
35:16
every state in the United States and the territory of Puerto
35:22
Rico. And we have to understand that a
35:26
lot of the issues that others are facing are the same issues
35:29
we're facing here. And other people actually could
35:32
word it better than we do. That's the greatest thing about
35:35
the convention is it could be worded in a better way.
35:39
And you go. I like that one better than
35:40
mine. Unless we forget, we almost had
35:43
400 resolutions put forth. Yeah, we did 383.
35:49
And James only put it. In half of those.
35:56
I, I, I do want to tell a little story before I forget.
36:00
So we had a first timer. It was Monday as I was sitting
36:05
at my booth that came up to me and a non delegate but first
36:11
timer at National Convention. And I looked up and I saw her
36:15
name tag and I about jumped out of my seat.
36:19
And if she's listening. Hi, Tiff. her and I had been
36:24
Facebook friends since neither one of us worked at the post
36:28
office and she started in 2012 and I started in 2014.
36:32
We got connected through what everybody would call back at the
36:37
time, the crunchy mom groups, the cloth diapering groups.
36:41
I was doing that with my daughter.
36:43
That was my, my, my own business was a natural parenting store
36:47
Prior to joining the post office.
36:48
And, and back then I was also in Group selling, you know, doing
36:52
bulk fabric orders for making your own cloth diapers and
36:56
whatnot. And that's how her and I
36:58
connected. And we had never met in person
37:01
until that until Monday when she walked up to, to my booth and
37:05
introduced herself and I jumped up and just, I, I wanted to give
37:08
her the biggest hug in the world.
37:10
It was absolutely awesome to finally meet her in person.
37:13
So that was, I'm still like thrilled about it.
37:16
It's just one of those things that you just what I wasn't
37:19
expecting to happen. And that was her first
37:21
convention and she will be back. She will be coming to National
37:26
Convention more. So yeah, that was it.
37:29
It was just really awesome because you know, you're
37:32
somebody that you connected with to have a sort of something
37:34
totally different. You both end up doing the same
37:37
thing again line of work. And then you finally, you know,
37:41
1314 years later or here we are. It's been about 13, yeah, 13
37:47
years ago. And, you know, getting to meet
37:49
each other in person for the very first time, it was really,
37:52
really cool. But yeah, now I, you know, this
37:55
convention it, it was the atmosphere was different than
37:57
I've noticed in the previous ones I've been to.
38:00
And, you know, there was there was quite a bit of support, but
38:04
again, I like a lot of it came down to contract negotiation
38:07
time as well as, you know, the the lack of experience that they
38:12
felt that we didn't have. But All in all, I am not
38:14
disappointed in this year's National Convention at all.
38:18
Like I said, of talking to people that really slung the
38:20
criticism and talking to them outside of caucus and, you know,
38:25
letting them know that I appreciated their insight and
38:29
their side of things and you know, to get good response back
38:33
from that as well. And you know, one of them
38:35
actually gave me a couple good ideas that we can talk about on
38:39
future episodes. You know, trying to stay away
38:42
from the steward advice I should say, but still leaning more
38:47
towards the educational and why it's important to be engaged and
38:51
be active and to educate yourself.
38:54
That that's a fine dance that that you have to.
38:57
It is. Balance.
38:58
Balance because of the fact that the people, a lot of the people
39:02
listeners don't get the steward advice that they're they're
39:06
entitled to and or uncomfortable in regards to reaching out to
39:11
somebody who's not their local steward or even they they are
39:15
uncomfortable reaching out to their local steward because
39:18
you're not always going to be best friends with the people who
39:20
represent you and, and and and you know vice versa too.
39:26
But the fact, the fact of the matter is that there's got to be
39:29
a point where you can sit there and, and cross that line
39:34
delicately in regards to giving advice without infringing on the
39:39
steward aspect of it. Because if, if we hold back too
39:43
much, then then we're not being of service to the, to the
39:47
listeners either. So yeah, we've, we've got to
39:49
find that delicate balance between crossing the line and
39:53
and just stepping on it once or twice, you know?
39:56
Oh, I agree. You know, there's definitely
39:57
ways to walk that tight line and we'll work on that more.
40:03
And no, I like this go. Ahead, like you know, you're
40:06
talking about the experience. OK, well, I've got real world
40:09
experience dealing with contracts with you know,
40:12
international organizations, suppliers, vendors, you know,
40:16
trucking services. You have a years of experience
40:19
in in the hospitality business that you know which would suit
40:22
you well for the Vice presidency in regards to setting up
40:26
conventions as well as your OJI training and everything else.
40:30
These are experiences that you know they don't take into
40:33
consideration. And yet, after all said and
40:36
done, just like with me, that several people approach me after
40:41
things have have occurred and they discuss it with you,
40:44
Kristen, and they find out. Well, hold it.
40:46
There's more to her than what we're we're seeing because but
40:51
because we're in the crowd, we're we're in the flock per SE.
40:56
We follow, we follow the, you know, the head sheep and they
41:00
they don't think for themselves. And that's kind of disappointing
41:05
that people feel that way. But I guess that's the way
41:08
society is. I mean, who are you to believe?
41:11
What are you to believe if you get that person to person
41:14
interaction that works so much better because of the fact that
41:18
you you can sway them or at least present your perspective
41:23
for them to have a better better understanding of the individual
41:25
that you are? Yeah, no, it is.
41:28
And being able to talk to people directly, even afterwards, you
41:31
know, to definitely helps, you know, then you can't kind of get
41:35
the, the sense of where they were coming from at the same
41:38
time. So, yeah, I mean, talking to
41:40
people one-on-one really does help in, in ways.
41:45
But again, it is kind of the herd mentality at the same time.
41:49
But it, like I said, it, it, it's getting better.
41:51
It, it's, you know, we, we have a future ahead of us.
41:56
And I'm looking forward to the the positive steps we've made.
42:00
James. I am also looking to the to the.
42:04
Future of this. I'm looking to the future of
42:07
this. I am staying down on my optimism
42:13
on this because I know that in the past some people come out of
42:18
the gate really strong and then it slowly subsides.
42:22
But now is the time for everybody in the craft to start
42:27
stepping up. We've seen what we could do in
42:31
just less than a year. What can we do in the next 12
42:35
months? What can we make happen in the
42:38
next 12 months? I challenged the national board
42:43
members when I did my concession and removed my name from the
42:49
nomination list to double the number of people who became non
42:56
dues paying members to bring them back into this union. 65
43:02
people that restarted paying their dues in the last year.
43:07
Now the national board needs to bring 130 of those people each.
43:15
That's nine people on that board.
43:16
That's over 1000 people and added dues into this union.
43:21
It can't be new people that sign up at as they get through
43:24
Academy and stuff like that. It has to be people who have
43:28
pulled their dues for one reason or another because those are the
43:33
people that we need back in this crap.
43:37
We need back speaking in this union.
43:40
Those are people that we need to hear their voices and they need
43:45
to use their voice in both their vote, in resolutions, at
43:50
conventions, in union meetings. That is where we need the people
43:54
participating. I understand after this election
43:58
some people said they were going to pull their dues and stuff
44:01
like that. That is not what we need right
44:04
now. We need to strengthen this union
44:07
because if our current new director of Labor relations and
44:11
new director of Stewart Operations start doing the job
44:14
that the position is supposed to be doing, they're going to need
44:19
those dues to pay for all the grievances that they're going to
44:25
be working on. That is what our dues money is
44:27
for mostly is to pay for grievances, to help support the
44:34
process of grievances, to pay for the lawyers, pay for the
44:38
workers that work on it and researchers etcetera, in order
44:42
to set up for either the step fours or arbitration.
44:46
Because if they do what I think they're going to do, we're going
44:51
to raise our arbitration win percentage sevenfold because,
44:59
but I'm, that's what I'm hoping for.
45:01
Because we need that. We need those arbitration wins.
45:06
We need to get the people involved.
45:09
We need to get the people engaged.
45:11
And it's time to step up. Our national board members need
45:15
to step up. Our state board members need to
45:17
step up. Our NSS needs to step up.
45:21
We need to step up our game just before this this new contract
45:26
comes around because we need to review that contract.
45:30
We need to look at every single aspect of it because one of the
45:35
biggest arguments I made on the floor was several resolutions in
45:41
the non binding section where about the MOU of regular
45:45
carriers working, extra taking city carrier pivots, extras off
45:52
of other people's routes working.
45:54
On on their. NSA as well as on Amazon Sunday,
46:00
those were all voted down. But we need to be cognizant that
46:05
that is something that may come up in this contract.
46:08
We need to be cognizant of the pay that they're giving us
46:12
because I passed a Walmart warehouse where starting pay is
46:16
$36.00 an hour, Walmart $36.00 an hour starting pay at
46:21
warehouse worker. We need to be mindful of that
46:26
next step and we need active dues paying members, paying
46:31
attention to this because this contract is going to make or
46:34
break this this craft that is our next thing that's coming up
46:39
and we need to be mindful of that.
46:41
And that's like what I've always said in the past too.
46:44
I mean, when you've only got roughly 20% of the craft
46:47
actually even voting on a ratification and they want to
46:51
come back and say, oh, it passed by 83%.
46:55
But what they're not saying is it passed by 83% of the 20% of
47:01
the craft. And everybody gets a copy of the
47:05
tentative agreement prior to ratification votes going out.
47:09
Every dues paying member gets a copy, it gets sent to your
47:11
house. Well, you know, like the
47:13
national magazine, people need to take take the time and
47:17
actually go through it and see what the changes are and vote.
47:23
I mean, could you, and, and I've been saying this for years, is
47:26
could you imagine the difference things could be if even 50% of
47:32
the craft return to a ballot? No, that's that, that's what it
47:37
takes and why it's important to be involved.
47:41
Even, you know, I get, you know, going to local meetings.
47:44
I would love to see more than two people outside of the board
47:49
at one of my local meetings that was a normal meeting and didn't
47:52
have a DRADR there to speak about a certain topic.
47:58
I would love to see that. I mean, I wish it would happen.
48:02
I really do. But, and I get where sometimes
48:06
it's not always feasible for people to go to local meetings
48:09
with, you know, childcare and work hours and locations and the
48:14
times and locations of the meetings.
48:16
I get that at times. But if the but if people would
48:20
just take that time to read a tentative contract and actually
48:25
vote, whether they want to ratify it or not, that's your
48:29
choice to choose. But to actually return that
48:32
ballot and actually vote, I mean, that is that is one way of
48:36
having a voice. Every dues paying member has a
48:41
voice, whether they realize it or not.
48:43
A lot of people don't think they do, you know, well, for one
48:47
reason or another. But every dues paying member has
48:50
a voice. And look how many new delegates
48:54
we had this year. First timers.
48:56
Yes. So, you know, they, they stepped
48:58
up and you know, they, they realize, OK, I do have a voice.
49:03
I have a say in the direction of this craft.
49:06
Yeah, I mean resolutions. It's never too soon to start
49:10
resolutions for the next annual meeting, whether that be a, you
49:15
know, something for your state or something to go on for
49:18
national. It's never too early to start
49:20
doing resolutions and, you know, going to a local meeting, going
49:26
to a regional conference. Regional conferences are great.
49:30
They're not business. They're all informational.
49:34
You get a chance to talk one-on-one with your national
49:38
board and your NRO. It it's, you know, being to just
49:43
try and take the time to do that stuff and it can really, really
49:48
make a difference. Yeah, I remember meeting you at
49:52
our Mid States Regional Conference in 2022, Kristen.
49:56
Yes. Council.
49:57
Council Bluffs, IA. We drove through there, didn't
49:59
we? Twice.
50:01
Yeah. Yeah, that's where James and I
50:05
met, you know, it's. And then I saw him again, you
50:08
know, and the booster later on and you know are going to state
50:13
meetings. I've got 1 coming up in October.
50:16
Yep. I have been invited to go to SAC
50:20
with some individuals, so hopefully I can work it out.
50:23
I would really like to try to get another regional conference
50:27
in this year one if not two more than just mid states.
50:31
But you know, we'll see where we're sitting financial wise and
50:34
leave wise and RCA wise by that point.
50:37
But you know, it's it, you know, I look at all these people and
50:44
you hear 1 excuse or another. But as somebody who has been
50:47
active, I mean, I went to my first local meeting five months
50:52
after I hired in and was elected to my local board.
50:56
You know, as an RCARCAS have voices too.
51:00
Every dues paying member has a voice.
51:03
It's just whether or not you know how to use that voice.
51:06
And the ones that don't want that don't, that are just
51:09
complacent and then they want to gripe and complain and, and it's
51:14
just like, you know, why can't you just take a turn that turn
51:17
that energy that you're using to complain and gripe and bitch
51:20
about it into actually doing something about it?
51:24
And, you know, that's I, I, I guess that's just, you know, I'm
51:28
one of those that has been doing something about it from the
51:31
beginning and one way or another.
51:33
And I will say this, using your voice doesn't mean you have to
51:37
step up and make resolutions and talk about them or even try and
51:42
find somebody to suspend the rules to put your three page
51:45
resolution in at state convention.
51:49
You can do it just with your vote.
51:52
You can do. It by being involved in the
51:56
meetings, just going to them and listening to everything that's
51:59
going on, paying attention to what your manager is saying
52:03
versus what it says in the manuals and PO6O.
52:06
Three the M38 the. National agreement, things like
52:12
that. Making sure you're paying
52:14
attention to what's going on and then exercising your right to
52:19
vote on it. Your vote is a more important
52:23
voice than stepping up and saying something.
52:26
On another note, you know how we talked about the involvement of
52:29
the retirees in in our delegate selection process.
52:34
And this is from a personal point of view.
52:39
Excuse me, I've always said that there's, there's good retirees
52:43
in regards to the information they provide, the support, the
52:48
knowledge and everything else. And it was funny that I was
52:52
addressed in regards to not giving my states support.
52:56
And four of the retirees in my state supported me and two
53:02
others from other states came up and told me, you know, that they
53:05
were, you know, giving me their support.
53:09
There are retirees out there that can see the situations that
53:14
we're addressing and the concerns we have for our craft,
53:21
excuse me, are willing to, are willing to actually, you know,
53:25
put their vote in for change. Yeah.
53:29
And I will say this, the retirees that I've spoke to also
53:34
were very up to date on a lot of the things going on in this
53:39
union. You know, it's hard for anybody
53:45
to try and downplay the role of a retiree, but the biggest role
53:51
a retiree ever has is teaching a regular carrier how to become a
53:58
retired carrier. That is their biggest job.
54:02
That is what they need to be doing and the ones that I've
54:06
spoken to have been there proving that they can still
54:11
stand with the rest of us and help in a lot of ways.
54:16
You know, frequency says retired rethought Rex was a new name for
54:20
the yearly mail count and that that's what you know, concerns
54:24
that I've seen several posts on social media where people are
54:28
concerned that their paychecks are going to be changing month
54:31
to month now because of the Rex program.
54:34
And I'm sitting there going, please go down that rabbit hole.
54:38
And that comes with the inner. That'll cause panic.
54:41
That'll cause the panic. And I think a lot of that came
54:44
with the announcement of the interim adjustments as well,
54:49
whereas and then you got management spewing that it could
54:52
change. And you know, a lot of this is
54:56
just. Yeah, Speaking of what?
54:59
Yeah. It's just misinformation across
55:03
the board. You know, you have managers that
55:05
aren't getting the full information from their managers
55:09
and those managers aren't getting the information from
55:11
their managers and our stuff. You only get that information
55:16
from the union website, you know, So the the issue is, is
55:21
there's not a Cliff Notes version or Rex for Dummies
55:27
system out there for carriers to actually break it down a lot
55:31
easier for a lot of people to understand.
55:34
And I think that's the biggest trouble that we have is just the
55:38
breakdown of what it actually means.
55:40
Yeah, yeah, we, I mean, we have the 99 page guide, but unless
55:45
you understand a lot of the jargon, there isn't a Cliff
55:49
Notes version for it. But you know, it's, I mean, and
55:53
that's something, you know, that I've been thinking about too for
55:56
the future is, is breaking some of that stuff down and making
56:00
sure we have the interpretive correctly prior to doing that.
56:05
But, you know, I think going forward, it's going to be we're
56:10
going to be taking this back a lot, back to the roots of what I
56:13
intended for this all to be. Yeah.
56:16
No scanning, no money. That's a good one.
56:18
As Bill always said, it goes on your scanner, goes on your ball.
56:21
No scanning, no money. But I do I really, I want to
56:24
give a shout out to the six individuals that walked with me
56:28
during caucus, four of which were first timers to National
56:32
Convention. And I thank you for going
56:36
through that, that, that that mad rush of room to room to room
56:41
with me. It, it was nice to have a group
56:45
of people this year, 2 years ago, I just had one person that
56:50
we pretty much had to beg to get permission to go with me.
56:52
So I wasn't alone. I mean, James has walked it
56:54
alone. He understands.
56:56
But again, I big heartfelt thank you to those six individuals
57:01
that walked with me and it was really appreciated.
57:07
My knees still hurt. I'm still recovering too.
57:11
It's OK. I, I do have to thank Richard
57:18
Ellerson from New York, who was my campaign manager at National
57:25
when my previous person was only an alternate and could not
57:30
actually nominate me at the time, and Kathleen Miller from
57:34
my state who also walked with me.
57:37
They were very instrumental in helping me through each caucus
57:41
room as well as handing out stuff and giving me constructive
57:47
criticism from each room. They, they did a really
57:50
wonderful bang up job on that. So I really do have to send my
57:53
utmost thanks to them as well as all the people in the podcast
57:57
and on social media that have supported me along the way, as
58:00
well as the rest of us. You know, you guys have been
58:03
very instrumental in in US doing this.
58:06
So I just have to put that. Thanks out there for that.
58:10
And I got to thank Jamie Powell because she filled in admirably
58:14
for you, Kristen, in regards to making sure I didn't go off
58:18
track anywhere. Kudos.
58:21
Thank you you. Know and, and the thing of it
58:25
was that out of out of every room, out of first 7 rooms, like
58:30
I said, we're, we're the six were great.
58:32
The 7th was, you know, mediocre, I mean, but you know, nothing
58:36
negative. And even through the the the
58:39
four that you know, had what I consider, you know, Ord plants,
58:44
you know, Jamie kept saying, you know, stay on the message, stay
58:47
on the message. You're doing fine.
58:49
You know, don't worry about these and I don't worry about
58:51
those people. You know, like I said it, it was
58:54
one of those things where you just sat there go really, you
58:57
know, you got to ask me the same question you did last year about
59:01
my anger. Course, I got angry at them.
59:03
So. But yeah, it was funny.
59:05
And I also pulled it. It was funny because
59:07
Pennsylvania was my last room, my home state.
59:10
And somebody asked me, well, Bill, did you did you lose your
59:14
temper? And I sprayed.
59:15
No, I didn't lose my time. And they all laughed and go,
59:18
yeah, we know you, Bill. So.
59:21
Yeah. But Jamie did a a very good job
59:22
in keeping me, you know, down the path.
59:26
Yeah, you know, it's, and having those four first timers really
59:32
that gave them an insight of what candidates actually go
59:34
through when it comes to caucus and the different realms.
59:37
You know, they, they were troopers and I appreciate it.
59:43
Definitely all six of them. I one from my home state, of
59:47
course, My, my, my GAIL Pale there, Lynette and and roommate
59:52
Jen and Pam and Diane and Herman.
59:55
And it was, it was nice to have everybody there and thank you
1:00:00
again. I I appreciate it, yeah.
1:00:03
So yeah, it's. Frequent frequency saying PA had
1:00:07
a buffet. I'm telling you, I I thought I
1:00:09
was at a restaurant when I walked in our room.
1:00:12
Wings and you know. Tacos and this.
1:00:15
I was like, Oh my God, you know, it's, you know, it's a
1:00:17
restaurant here, but you know, PA does it up good.
1:00:22
On armed stormtroopers. That's a good way to put it.
1:00:30
But yeah, you know, and now we're we get ready for, you
1:00:34
know, Orlando again next year. And, you know, whether or not
1:00:38
I'm actually going to run, it's the future is unseen at this
1:00:42
point in time. I do know I'm going to step up
1:00:44
and run for my state board for sure next year and we'll see
1:00:47
what that goes. You know, like I when I answered
1:00:49
back to the one delegate in the elevator, you know, they really
1:00:53
wanted to see me come back and run for executive committee next
1:00:56
year. I said, well, if I'm not on my
1:00:57
state board, we'll see, you know, it's we'll see what's
1:01:01
going and where, where life leads us when it comes to this
1:01:04
time next year. You know, either way, I'll be at
1:01:07
National Convention. We'll be celebrating a little
1:01:09
man's first birthday during National Convention.
1:01:13
So he will be there. Actually, my boyfriend's even
1:01:17
talking about going down to Orlando too.
1:01:19
So I may bring the whole family with me.
1:01:21
I don't know. I.
1:01:23
I think I had the best response to somebody being on the
1:01:26
elevator is it was an older couple and they looked, they
1:01:29
said, are you here for convention?
1:01:30
I said no, I found the badge and I go into each room and eat for
1:01:34
free every day and they're looking at they're, they're
1:01:38
looking at me. I said, look, they got good food
1:01:41
in there and they just kind of just turned away.
1:01:45
I thought what the hell, got to have some fun.
1:01:48
Right. Oh yeah.
1:01:50
You guys got anything else for tonight?
1:01:53
No, I'm pretty good for the night.
1:01:55
Yeah, I'm, I'm done. I I got that off my chest.
1:01:59
So. All right, guys.
1:02:01
And it wasn't even that bad, Bill.
1:02:05
No, no, but but the thing the thing if it gets me is you know,
1:02:10
you want to talk about experience.
1:02:12
You don't take into account, you know, we've had experiences
1:02:15
outside the post office. You want to talk about
1:02:17
leadership. Leadership is not bad mouthing
1:02:20
the, you know, you're your craft and your craft includes
1:02:25
everybody in the union and not in union because of the fact
1:02:28
that you represent every one of them.
1:02:32
You can't badmouth people and then turn around and call
1:02:35
yourself a leader. It just doesn't work that way.
1:02:38
And it's just, hey, you know, like I said, yeah, we, we know
1:02:43
we're fighting an uphill battle. OK, Now we're fighting the
1:02:46
decertification. We're, you know, we're fighting
1:02:48
the podcast for union Busters now.
1:02:50
Oh my God, that came out of left field.
1:02:53
But the fact of the matter is we're true to our word.
1:02:56
And our word is, you know, we're here for everybody.
1:03:00
We, we represent everybody. We truly do.
1:03:04
And I can say it. Nope.
1:03:06
No, better than if it's not for the craft, than for what?
1:03:10
Because if it's for yourself, you're not doing your job.
1:03:14
It's not about being in the position of authority or
1:03:17
leadership, OK? It's a position of service to
1:03:21
the craft. And I, I guess that's the
1:03:24
message that people just didn't get.
1:03:26
It's not about the individual. It's about the 120,000 people
1:03:31
that make up the rule carrier craft.
1:03:34
Well, they would have known that if they'd actually listened to
1:03:36
the podcast. Just saying.
1:03:40
It's James. I, I, I sat there and explained
1:03:45
as clear as day that, you know, you need to answer, you know, a
1:03:49
phone call within 24 hours. You know, if you're, you know,
1:03:53
ADRDR, you need to be able to respond, you know, seven days a
1:03:57
week because people can't wait all the time.
1:03:59
They might wait till it's the last day to, to file a
1:04:02
grievance. And, and next thing you know,
1:04:05
the lady turned around. I'm not, I'm not on duty 24/7.
1:04:08
I didn't say that just spoke to you and you didn't even get
1:04:11
that. So what?
1:04:14
What the hell? You know you can't think stupid
1:04:18
unless you hit them with a frying pan.
1:04:21
Trust me, my wife sent me with more than a frying pan.
1:04:25
I am not surprised OK many mail survey #4 is done with now new.
1:04:38
The 4241 A's are supposed to come out September 28th.
1:04:43
Don't forget to ask for your 4241 M because management
1:04:48
doesn't have to print those, though some management is good
1:04:52
and we'll print both for you. Make sure if you don't get the M
1:04:57
that you do requested at that time.
1:04:59
New evaluations are scheduled to take place October 5th, which is
1:05:04
the beginning of the new guarantee period.
1:05:08
As we get closer to that, we'll remind everybody what that means
1:05:13
and anything else. Last words there, James.
1:05:19
You know, this is this is a small victory for the craft.
1:05:23
The changeover that has happened on the board will be
1:05:26
instrumental in getting this union ship righted.
1:05:31
And I am hopeful, I am positive for it and I'm looking forward
1:05:38
to working with them as we go on through this next year.
1:05:43
It's going to be rough. We got a new contract coming out
1:05:48
eventually that we're going to have to go through with a fine
1:05:52
tooth comb before we actually vote on it.
1:05:57
Don't just take somebody's word for it.
1:06:00
Go through it yourself, read it, find out what they gave up to
1:06:06
give you the positives you see. Compare it to our current
1:06:10
contract, compare it to the contract before that.
1:06:13
Make sure you go through it because this is the contract
1:06:18
we're going to be following for the next few years.
1:06:21
So make sure you stay on it. Same with your 4240 ones.
1:06:26
Go through them fine tooth comb because you never know what
1:06:30
management might have missed and no matter what the results of
1:06:34
your previous disputes were, always dispute issues you have
1:06:40
leave a paper trail. But other than that, it's
1:06:43
looking like it's going to be a nice week again for me down here
1:06:46
and weather wise. So I hope everybody else has a
1:06:49
good week at work. And no matter what, no matter
1:06:54
what happens, no matter what contract we get, always remember
1:06:59
when we stand up, we show management we're all in this
1:07:02
together, Bill. Well, I'm going to disagree with
1:07:06
you a little bit, James. I think we made more than a
1:07:09
little gains on the national board because we actually have
1:07:12
two people in positions of responsibility who will react,
1:07:18
will return phone calls, who will basically engage with us in
1:07:24
regards to concerns that we have.
1:07:27
So I've, I've never seen that type of change, a shift in
1:07:31
attitudes that is going to benefit all of us.
1:07:36
And they'll answer phone calls from non union members also
1:07:39
because of the fact that they still have to represent you,
1:07:42
which you may have to work your way through the chain of command
1:07:45
to get there. But the fact of the matter is
1:07:47
that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
1:07:51
And I, I'm, I feel very confident in that respect.
1:07:54
I, my concern is the contract in it getting settled.
1:07:59
Of course, Renfro for the NALC has been putting out statements
1:08:04
for the past eight months that the contract's almost done and
1:08:08
it's still not done. They're well, well over a year
1:08:11
and a half now, I think to their negotiations, though I, I don't
1:08:16
foresee anybody moving before Christmas to, to settle our
1:08:20
contract. It, it would be small miracle,
1:08:23
but the post office is not going to want to settle the contract
1:08:27
before year's end because of the Christmas overtime.
1:08:31
They want to save that money for themselves.
1:08:34
It'll be retroactive in our raises, but it won't be
1:08:37
retroactive for our overtime. So that's one of those questions
1:08:41
of, you know, are they going to wait till the end of the year,
1:08:44
the beginning of the year? I think it'll be the beginning
1:08:46
of next year, you know, maybe around Valentine's Day or so.
1:08:51
But that that's the timetable I would foresee.
1:08:53
If we go by the language where somebody put in the comments
1:08:57
column, that's 99% done, you know, hearsay.
1:09:02
I just, I, I'm worried for the craft And, and that's why I, I
1:09:07
keep eating myself, you know, at the national level because of
1:09:10
the fact that think that our craft deserves better.
1:09:14
Really do. And, you know, the question was
1:09:17
posed to Don Madsen that the, the bill may have something
1:09:21
personal against you because I ran against him as vice
1:09:24
president and twice as president.
1:09:26
And the thing of it is, is that it's not the individual, it's
1:09:30
the position. He's just in my way.
1:09:32
So, you know, I want better for the craft.
1:09:36
And I'm not sure what his intentions are, but my heart, I,
1:09:40
I don't see him being concerned as much as I do.
1:09:44
I am because of the fact that, you know, I'm out there with you
1:09:47
every day. And I see it and I hear it and I
1:09:51
talk about it. But we'll see.
1:09:54
Yeah. I I, I'm hopeful for the future,
1:09:57
James and and Kristen and Toasty and everybody else is, you know,
1:10:03
all out there putting themselves out there for everybody
1:10:06
listening and everybody not listening because of the fact
1:10:10
that we feel that we deserve better and we do.
1:10:13
So God bless you all. Be safe, do your jobs most
1:10:18
efficient professional manners you can, and make sure you make
1:10:22
that most important delivery of the day you to your loved ones
1:10:26
at the end of the day. God bless you.
1:10:29
Thank you guys. Also relief day work list and
1:10:33
Sunday work list sign up start on Saturday the 14th.
1:10:37
Those are supposed to be up for 10 days though in effect on I do
1:10:42
believe it is October 5th as well.
1:10:45
So we have those coming up as well as the many the results
1:10:50
from the mini mail survey coming up as well.
1:10:53
And yeah, guys, it's, it's a time.
1:10:57
I mean, we're almost into the new guarantee period and we'll
1:11:01
probably touch on that a little bit more before that starts and
1:11:04
what that actually entails. But other than that, we hope
1:11:09
everybody has a good, safe week and we'll be back next week.
1:11:27
Episode 88 Crazy 2024 consumption recap.
1:11:34
What he said what Bill just said.
1:11:37
Yeah, Yeah. No, you sounded nothing like me,
1:11:39
but thank you.