Latest / United We Scan / Answering the Call
Transcript
- 0:17Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
- 0:21carriers. For rural carriers, the views
- 0:25expressed in this podcast do not reflect the views or opinions of
- 0:29the United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
- 0:32Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
- 0:35your assigned union representative for guidance in
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- 0:56Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
- 1:00United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
- 1:06What are we, Episode 5455? Something like that. 55. 55 Or
- 1:14you know, as we were trying to pull the Seasons Season 2
- 1:18Episode 2 something or another like that.
- 1:20I don't know. It's just how it is.
- 1:23Yeah. Well, we have a special guest
- 1:25with us tonight. We'll get through our weekly
- 1:29thing and then I'll introduce him.
- 1:31Josh, how was your week? My week was not too bad.
- 1:36You know, another day at the post office.
- 1:40That's about all I can say right now because they all blend
- 1:44together anymore. James.
- 1:47Well, it was, you know, normal week after New Year's.
- 1:52Tuesday was heavy. Wednesday through Friday wasn't
- 1:56too bad. I did get a box holder, a
- 1:58monthly shopper that we are usually get and had to deliver
- 2:02that on Wednesday Or no, I delivered it on Tuesday because
- 2:06we got it for Saturday. That's right.
- 2:07I forgot about that. So I had to deliver it Tuesday
- 2:10with the mail because it came in on Friday, so Friday afternoon.
- 2:15So I delivered it Tuesday with the mail and then Wednesday
- 2:19through Friday was really good, ended up.
- 2:22I have a point I have to talk about that.
- 2:24I got back Friday afternoon when I got back from the office about
- 2:29Rex, so we'll talk about that later.
- 2:31I did, did want to make a couple of announcements before we keep
- 2:36moving on here, I wanted to update that.
- 2:39There is for the holiday hours a Step 4 grievance that was
- 2:44settled with the union and management back in O5.
- 2:50It says. Specifically, the parties
- 2:53reaffirm that when the primary leave replacement is unavailable
- 2:58on the carrier's designated holiday and other leave
- 3:02replacements are unavailable in accordance with Article 30 dot
- 3:052D, the regular carrier may be scheduled to work on the
- 3:09designated holiday. Management is not required to
- 3:12schedule a regular world carrier to work a relief day before
- 3:17scheduling another regular carrier to work on his or her
- 3:21designated holiday in accordance with Article 11.2 dot B.
- 3:26So there is a step four that codifies the holiday scheduling
- 3:31issues that we were talking about in last week's episode.
- 3:34So that's one of the updates that I really wanted to get out
- 3:36there to everybody and make sure that it was known.
- 3:39Other than that, you know, the weekend was good for me, nice
- 3:42and quiet as usual, so I can't argue too much with that.
- 3:45Just working on my Director of Stewart Operations information
- 3:50and answering questions because we have now put out a Google
- 3:56form where you can ask us questions.
- 3:59So if you are on the Facebook page or the group or on our
- 4:05Discord server, there is a form that you can fill out to ask us
- 4:09questions about our campaign, so feel free to use that.
- 4:13We may bring them up on air, but those are my updates.
- 4:17How was your week, Kristen? My week wasn't too bad.
- 4:20Pretty straightforward week for the most part.
- 4:24Back to average levels for packages between 120 to 150 this
- 4:31week. Nothing abnormal there.
- 4:33Mail was pretty much DPS. Been a little heavy, but it's
- 4:35the first part of the month, so that's normal.
- 4:38Other than that, it hasn't been too bad of a week for me.
- 4:42I mean, I have the impending shadow day Tuesday for the new
- 4:45RCA and the weather's supposed to take a turn on Tuesday, so
- 4:49this should be fine. And I did.
- 4:53Finally yesterday after I got back from the route, I did
- 4:56finally get the puzzle weights and a couple sandbags and a
- 5:00shovel and and my LLV for the winter.
- 5:03So I do believe I have to do that for the aux truck which has
- 5:09the jump seat in it before I take it out Tuesday.
- 5:11So that may be something I tackle tomorrow, but other than
- 5:15that it's been had a pretty normal week, nothing too
- 5:19exciting honestly nothing here. So Bill is not with us this this
- 5:25week. He has family obligations and
- 5:29but we did want to bring on a special guest and I'd like to
- 5:33introduce Nick. So Nick, it is now your turn.
- 5:36Hello everyone. Yeah, glad to be part of the
- 5:39show and come on here. And my week's pretty much been
- 5:44like everyone else's week. It's it was a little back to
- 5:47normal. Of course it was heavy.
- 5:49The day after holiday we got slammed with a lot of EPS.
- 5:54Packages have finally leveled out and a little back to normal.
- 5:58Now we just can hopefully get everything scheduled and covered
- 6:02and maybe get a day off sometime here in the future.
- 6:05Still wondering what a what a day off is outside of a holiday.
- 6:12Yeah, same here, except for Sundays and a holiday.
- 6:15Haven't had one on since July, Yeah.
- 6:18I love that feeling. I'm looking forward to
- 6:22potentially having an RCA and I'd be like, what's a weekend
- 6:25off? Oh, this is what it's like.
- 6:27Yeah. So why don't you tell us a
- 6:29little bit about yourself, Nick, so we can get everybody
- 6:31acquainted with you? Absolutely.
- 6:33I have been a rule carrier for 19 years This month.
- 6:37Four of those years were as APTF, 4 1/2 years as AP or I'm
- 6:41sorry, RCA. And then 3 1/2 years of the PTF
- 6:46and regular and then got a route that I didn't care much for
- 6:51then. I've been on the same route now
- 6:53for 10 years. I've been in the same office now
- 6:55for 12 years, had many problems over the years with management
- 7:03being an issue. Currently we have it good.
- 7:05Right now the office I'm at and we have some knowledgeable
- 7:08management and supervisors that don't advertly try to subdue the
- 7:14contract as I would say. And yeah I'm I'm here I was.
- 7:21You guys motivated me as long as well as my ADR to reach out and
- 7:27do a little bit more what I can to help our craft that.
- 7:30That is awesome and if anybody is interested about a little bit
- 7:34more of Nick's back story and what he has gone through, if if
- 7:39you're if you listen to Ron, Speakman's Fed up episode 22
- 7:44does have Nick on there and he he kind of talks about his
- 7:47background and the things he has gone through.
- 7:48So it was really cool when he reached out to us and said hey
- 7:50guys. So we welcome him on and this
- 7:54should be a fun night. Absolutely thank you for having
- 7:56me. So Nick, why don't you tell the
- 7:58people your time with the union what what happened when you
- 8:04prior to this and how you got back into the union?
- 8:09Previously, Long story. I was being disciplined and
- 8:15attempted to be removed by the post office as an RCA.
- 8:20I was a thorn in their side because I actually knew the
- 8:24contract. I I knew that continuously
- 8:26violated the 12 hour rule. Among other things, I called
- 8:31them out on their BS. They were attempting to remove
- 8:34me on some fraudulent charges, and my union fell silent.
- 8:40So I had to pick up the torch. My I couldn't get my union
- 8:45steward to answer my phone calls.
- 8:46I couldn't get an ADR to answer my phone calls.
- 8:49I couldn't get the state president to answer my phone
- 8:51calls. So I had to do it myself.
- 8:53I basically had to advocate for myself, fight to get my own job
- 8:58back. Of course, you know, like
- 9:01everyone else, I have a family, I have a home to take care of.
- 9:03I got bills to pay and I've lost faith in the union right then
- 9:08and there. When the I couldn't get an
- 9:11answer from anyone, couldn't even get someone to answer the
- 9:13phone call. As I'm sitting at home wondering
- 9:16when I could come back to work and I got out of the union, I
- 9:21dropped out of the union. Fast forward and I went regular.
- 9:25I got into a pretty decent office as a regular.
- 9:31I got complacent. I was still not in the union and
- 9:35my local ADR. He motivated me.
- 9:38He actually started showing that someone actually in the Union.
- 9:44Cares. So he.
- 9:45Motivated me to get back into the union.
- 9:48He didn't actually ask me at all.
- 9:50I send got a message to him. I said, Sir, I am more than
- 9:54motivated by what you do and what you say and the way you
- 9:57care that I am gladly will pay my union dues as long as you
- 10:03keep doing what you're doing and the people in front of you
- 10:08behind you keep doing the same thing.
- 10:10You know what? We want to applaud that ADR that
- 10:13you have there because it's unfortunate that not all of our
- 10:18National Steward System representatives are are like
- 10:21that unfortunately. But those diamonds in the rough
- 10:25definitely, definitely do make a difference for everybody.
- 10:30Yes, they do. Yeah, they they're the godsend
- 10:33that most rural carriers may never actually meet, too.
- 10:38You know, they're working behind the scenes, getting this stuff
- 10:41taken care of too, working their behinds off to try and better
- 10:45the craft for everybody. So we want to give a shout out
- 10:49to every single ADR that does what they can to protect this
- 10:51craft. Every Dr. that does it, every
- 10:54local, every area, everybody in the system that does everything
- 10:58possible in the world to protect this craft.
- 11:00That's what we're here for. Now the reason I say that is I
- 11:05actually have insider information from management and
- 11:09I have a comment that one of the managers made on a Facebook
- 11:14group that talks about Cory Walton's office in Tennessee.
- 11:20It says they have very educated union personnel.
- 11:24The last two union presidents came out of my office and the
- 11:29shop steward handle the arbitration for the Eastern area
- 11:32for the union. I hardly ever got him to carry
- 11:35his route because he was always doing arbitrations.
- 11:38That's something right there that management recognizes a
- 11:42well educated office, well educated carriers.
- 11:46Now granted, they're talking about city carriers, but who's
- 11:49to say that can't be true for rural carriers too?
- 11:51Absolutely. That's what we're all here for.
- 11:53Absolutely. I can imagine a lot of offices
- 11:56would be a lot different if every single carrier educates
- 12:00themselves in one nature or another, or educates each other.
- 12:03I mean, I try to educate my, my rural side in my office all the
- 12:06time. What they want to do with that
- 12:08information, you know, that's up to them.
- 12:11But being educated definitely makes a difference when it comes
- 12:14to handling what management tries to pull.
- 12:17Yeah, Speaking of what management tried to pull, Wow,
- 12:20these just walk right into one another right after each other.
- 12:25The Friday thing that I was talking about, we got back our
- 12:29second mini mail survey results in my office.
- 12:33Unfortunately, mine came back, no action.
- 12:37I had filed on my thing for the coverage factor because my
- 12:42coverage factor was 86% on my route.
- 12:47I only have 4 1/2 minutes to the next hour go from 41 to 42.
- 12:53So I filed on that and my supervisor printed off the NDI
- 12:58report. Now for those of you who don't
- 13:00know what the NDI report is, it's actually how many boxes you
- 13:05stopped at that day. That is what the NDI report
- 13:08shows. My NDI report for the year
- 13:11averaged 6.82% of my boxes were not serviced for the whole year,
- 13:18so that means I serviced 93.18% of my boxes which is higher than
- 13:24the percentage they gave me. I got my report back and it says
- 13:28route coverage is not based solely on stopping at boxes.
- 13:33It is based on breadcrumb data and record of mail volume for
- 13:38the delivery day. I'm sorry, did I not just send
- 13:41you the breadcrumb report of which this is based on?
- 13:44So you're telling me that the NDI breadcrumb report isn't part
- 13:48of my coverage factor, so the bread crumbs technically aren't
- 13:51part of my coverage factor? Is that what you're telling me?
- 13:53Seriously, this is the transparency that we're talking
- 13:56about here. What we're lacking is all the
- 13:59information of what goes into these calculations.
- 14:02And here I have a no action that probably could have gotten me
- 14:06into the next hour. And yes, I did send an e-mail to
- 14:09my district Rep to find out what's going on.
- 14:13I am still waiting to hear back. Reminder this was Friday.
- 14:16You may not have gotten to the e-mail Friday during business
- 14:19hours and doesn't check them until the next working business
- 14:23day. I don't know, but hopefully I
- 14:25get a response soon because I'd like to know what the heck is
- 14:28going on because obviously I don't know exactly what's going
- 14:31on if I don't have the actual calculations.
- 14:33This is the stuff we were talking about with Rex and the
- 14:35transparency. Yeah, I agree.
- 14:38I mean it's one report saying you got this and this other says
- 14:42this and well where are we getting fully all the
- 14:46information because we all know the radar report is not adequate
- 14:49on a daily basis. So yeah, it's, I don't know
- 14:52until we can get that transparency someday.
- 14:55Yeah. And but I mean there's there's
- 14:57so much that you can unpack with a lot of things and a lot of
- 15:01different ways to calculate numbers and things like that.
- 15:05The other side of it is I've been talking with my supervisor,
- 15:07he's actually been looking into this stuff to himself.
- 15:10You know, he's a former rural carrier, so he's quite
- 15:12interested in these things. And he looks at our package
- 15:16numbers and we're usually 20 or 30 packages lower than what we
- 15:20actually delivered on their report.
- 15:22And the two different reports they have have two different
- 15:25numbers for package volumes. Yes, I have seen that when we
- 15:29had our supervisor pull that up before, it was way off from what
- 15:32I had. But yeah, yeah, I don't know.
- 15:35I yeah, I have no answers on that one.
- 15:37Yeah. I.
- 15:38Just keep us in the dark. That's what they want.
- 15:40Yeah, I'm hoping. I'm hoping that at the next
- 15:43convention that I go to or conference that I go to that
- 15:46there they have one of those management people there and they
- 15:50present city carrier data. And then I could turn around and
- 15:53say, well, since we've had Rex for so long, how come you can't
- 15:56show us real carrier data since Rex obviously can calculate from
- 15:59real carrier data, why can't you show us real carrier data so
- 16:02that don't need to go down on your ground fuel, get a radar
- 16:05report. Yeah, yeah.
- 16:06Don't go down there. Many, many, many of them don't
- 16:09get radar reports around our city at all.
- 16:13I had to basically kick and scream to get a radar report
- 16:17posted because we hadn't had one since October the the 3rd I
- 16:20believe and we finally got one posted to show the last week of
- 16:25December. Yeah, I say Raider.
- 16:27And. I get weird looks at me by
- 16:29management. So.
- 16:31They're supposed to post it daily that they said.
- 16:34I haven't seen one since the close of the survey and I did
- 16:40hear that it was locked out for a period of time.
- 16:44I don't know from when to when, so I need to start inquiring
- 16:48about that. But as of this Friday, or I
- 16:51should say as of this Saturday coming up, they're doing the
- 16:54supervisor shuffle, making all of our supervisors in the city
- 16:57go back to their form 50s. So I'll have two or three new
- 17:01supervisors in the building, so hopefully I can get one of them.
- 17:06December 12th, it started showing coverage percentages for
- 17:09regular boxes and CB US. That's interesting.
- 17:12I'm going to have to ask for that this week.
- 17:15Get AI don't, won't have time to do that, but you know well you
- 17:19need to do that. I'm asking.
- 17:21Well, if you take 5 minutes out of your time of scrolling on
- 17:23Facebook, maybe you could actually pull it up.
- 17:27Yeah, I'm going to say it only takes a minute or two to to pull
- 17:30it up and print it. Maybe you can do it when you're
- 17:32on your conference call and print it up while you're on that
- 17:35conference call and bored out of your mind as they're picking on
- 17:38city carriers. You know it.
- 17:40It's I I remember one day my postmaster had the conference
- 17:44call on her cell phone and she's walking around the office just
- 17:47wandering around. I don't know exactly what she
- 17:50was doing, but she was just wandering around the office.
- 17:53I don't know. I will have to definitely ask
- 17:55for an updated, updated one. Especially if it does say you're
- 17:58getting 100% when uh, you enter in your full coverage days.
- 18:02That is, uh, good information to know.
- 18:04Yeah, I'll have to inquire about that also.
- 18:07Yes, on our, on our most updated ones, they seem to still be
- 18:11lagging behind a couple days when it comes to your flat
- 18:14volume, whether it be bundled or from the CSM.
- 18:18So it still seems to be lagging back a couple days.
- 18:21That's why in our office they posted one week back so we could
- 18:26see the updated numbers, but some were still zeroed out for
- 18:30the two previous days. Yeah, it seems to have an
- 18:33average I I'm thinking about two to three days on them, so we'll
- 18:37see what goes. I'll definitely have to ask for
- 18:40that report. I know my flats lately have been
- 18:42fairly light, so I'm not going to complain too much at this
- 18:45point. Well, part of the problem with
- 18:47the the bundle flats is it's the shipper gives that number to the
- 18:52post office and then they have to upload it in.
- 18:56So it could be, I've heard, two to 14 days behind showing up on
- 19:01the radar. Like I said in the past, you
- 19:03kind of have to treat it like you're balancing your checkbook.
- 19:07You got to count how many flats you had today and write it, you
- 19:10know, bundled flats you had today.
- 19:12Write that down. And then as you're going, you
- 19:15get the 2-3 days out. You start crossing off your list
- 19:19of numbers and at some point it should start balancing itself
- 19:23out. Yeah, I've also noticed I I
- 19:25have, I have Informed Delivery, which is different from Informed
- 19:29Visibility that they use, but Informed Delivery.
- 19:31And I've noticed that some of my flats are actually starting to
- 19:34show up in Informed Delivery on the day they're being delivered,
- 19:38which is really weird. Yeah, I've had that too a few
- 19:41times. I notice having the flats show
- 19:43up on there too. I have informed delivery as
- 19:45well. So, but yeah, it's, I don't
- 19:49know, I guess, you know, it's just one thing for everybody to
- 19:51go back and if your office hasn't been keeping up on
- 19:55pulling the radar reports daily like they're supposed to be
- 19:57doing, to definitely go and ask for that report again.
- 20:01Wouldn't that hurt one bit? And if they have actually
- 20:05updated it, I've been really curious to see what mine looks
- 20:08like. It's it's pretty easy.
- 20:10Tell your supervisor that Netflix has a pause button and
- 20:13then they can log into the computer.
- 20:20That's a good one. Oh, I'd like that one, yes.
- 20:23But but if they're listening to the United We Scan podcast, let
- 20:27them finish it before they do it.
- 20:28Oh no, they can pause it and come back.
- 20:31No, I want them to listen all the way through first, then they
- 20:33can go back and re listen to it again.
- 20:36There we go. There we go.
- 20:37Yeah, I don't think stainless plug.
- 20:40Right, right. I don't think any of my
- 20:42management listens, honestly. I mean my postmaster, you're
- 20:45lucky if she's there a full day during the week.
- 20:47So I think we were up to a day. No wait, she didn't even stay
- 20:51the full day. Thursday she waited to our 2O4B,
- 20:54came back off his city route and threw him on the desk so she
- 20:57could go home early. But yeah.
- 20:59Must be nice. We talked about the candidate
- 21:03questions that people can present to us as well as there
- 21:08is a possibility. If you'd like to join us on
- 21:10stage, you're welcome to fill out that form as well that's
- 21:13available on the platforms that receive, receive, precedingly
- 21:18stated, Jeez, can't speak tonight like our Discord, our
- 21:23page on Facebook as well as our group.
- 21:26So if you guys are interested in telling your story to us, we're
- 21:30willing to listen and possibly put you on air for it, just like
- 21:33Nick and. I promise I'll make the I'll
- 21:35make it as painful as possible. Absolutely.
- 21:38I don't think anybody can make it more painful than what
- 21:40management does. The bane of our existence.
- 21:43Yeah, yeah, yeah. We did title this episode
- 21:48answering the call and the reason why we titled it.
- 21:51That is because number one, Nick was telling his story of how he
- 21:56got back into the union. That's the other side of this.
- 21:58We want you guys to be involved in this union if you're a non
- 22:02dues paying member and a lot of people give me Flack for saying
- 22:05that. But if you're a non dues paying
- 22:07member and you want to help with the fight, you want to help
- 22:10build this union up. You want to help make change in
- 22:13this union, You got to step up. It's going to be a sacrifice.
- 22:18You're going to sacrifice pay to step up to help the union.
- 22:22But it can be worth it to make that change.
- 22:25We need as many dues paying members as possible because the
- 22:29dues paying members are the voice of the union.
- 22:32Each person that's dues paying is the voice.
- 22:35Just like all of us here on this stage are the voice for this
- 22:39craft. On this podcast we have non
- 22:42speaking contributors that help with this podcast as well as
- 22:47listeners in the audience that help with this podcast and every
- 22:50single one of you. Listening to us out there helps
- 22:53us make this a better podcast for the craft.
- 22:56We need your help, whether it's helping on the podcast or
- 23:00helping in the craft itself. If you can step up, if you can
- 23:03spare the dues to the union, I understand right now you'll be
- 23:07supporting the leadership that's in the union.
- 23:10But that's OK because you're going to help to build a better
- 23:13craft. Because you'll be able to vote
- 23:15on the contracts, vote for delegates, be a delegate, and as
- 23:18a delegate you vote on the resolutions that affect the
- 23:21craft, both binding and non binding resolutions, and vote on
- 23:25the leadership both at your state and national level.
- 23:30How much is that worth to you to be able to make that change for
- 23:33this craft? Now we're talking about that I
- 23:36wanted to bring up that was reading our constitution earlier
- 23:39today for delegates, or even for voting for delegates.
- 23:44A member must be on the rolls at least 50 days prior to the
- 23:49opening of state convention in order to be eligible to vote for
- 23:53national delegates. So if you want to join because
- 23:56you want to vote for delegates for National Convention, you
- 24:00have to be on the dues paying rolls at least 50 days prior to
- 24:06the opening of state convention in order to be eligible to vote
- 24:10for national delegates. Which is when the ballots get
- 24:15mailed out. Yes, I'm bringing that up.
- 24:18I know because a few of us have announced that we are running
- 24:21for office. I wanted to bring up what the
- 24:25Constitution says in order to run for office.
- 24:28You have to be a dues paying member in good standing for
- 24:32three and and not served in a higher level function.
- 24:37For at least a year. For at least a year.
- 24:39And to be a delegate, you just have to be a dues paying member
- 24:42in good standing that has not served in a higher level
- 24:45function in the last year. So if you've served as a driver
- 24:49training instructor or a 2O4B or other levels of management that
- 24:56affect carrier pay or their job status, you cannot serve as a
- 25:01delegate or as a leader. The other part of answering the
- 25:05call is the union and the craft desperately need local stewards.
- 25:11You heard my report on the management who calls out the
- 25:15union in Tennessee where Corey Walton is.
- 25:19Imagine if that was your off, where management was upset
- 25:23because they couldn't get away with what their poom wanted them
- 25:26to do, couldn't get away with what regional management wanted
- 25:29them to do or national management wanted them to do.
- 25:33Imagine how much easier the work day would be if management
- 25:38backed off a carriers and that starts with the local steward.
- 25:42If you have the feeling to protect your carriers in your
- 25:45office, step up. Answer the call to help your
- 25:48fellow carriers. I'm going to agree.
- 25:50We just comment here that says let's get more Rcas at national.
- 25:54I completely agree. I went to four National
- 25:58Convention as an RCA and there was always just a handful of us.
- 26:02And I'm going to point this out because as a dues paying member,
- 26:06as a retiree you are allowed to be voted in.
- 26:10As a delegate, I specifically remember a few national
- 26:15conventions to where, you know, they'll recognize everybody.
- 26:18You know, they'll recognize the regular carriers have everybody
- 26:21stand up, the leave replacements have everybody stand up.
- 26:24And the retirees, and I specifically remember I might
- 26:29have been Orlando or even Grapevine that 2/3 of the floor
- 26:32stood up as retirees, you know, it's a.
- 26:35Lot of that is because they have the time available to do it.
- 26:40Rcas especially have a hard time getting the time off to do it.
- 26:44Like Kristen, like Kristen, she's was an RCA in her office.
- 26:47She was the only one and was not able to go to a union function,
- 26:52even though we have the article in the contract to do that.
- 26:56She wasn't able to go because she was the only person to cover
- 26:59routes in her office. And it's the same for
- 27:01individuals on table two who can barely afford to stay afloat
- 27:06every paycheck because they're paid so much less, almost 10
- 27:10grand less than table one on the same same level and are living
- 27:15paycheck to paycheck. In this world, it's a major
- 27:18expense that you have to pay and then get reimbursed for if
- 27:22you're able to be reimbursed and if you're not.
- 27:24Like Kristen takes out a took out a loan to be able to go to
- 27:28National Convention and she wasn't even a delegate.
- 27:30But sometimes there are there are sacrifices that need to be
- 27:34made to answer the call for your brothers and sisters of the
- 27:37Craft. Yep, Out of the four national
- 27:40conventions I've been to, excuse me, I was a delegate for one of
- 27:45them. And actually I got bumped up to
- 27:48a delegate just days before I was to leave for National
- 27:51Convention. That was a Grapevine 2019.
- 27:53You know, I've made it work one way or another, and it is
- 27:57possible. And even as an RCA you are
- 28:00protected under Article 24. If you want to be involved, 24,
- 28:0524 is. It 24.
- 28:08It is Article 24. OK.
- 28:09Thank you. I know that one well.
- 28:12So many articles, so little time.
- 28:14Right, right. I made copies of it and submit
- 28:18it with my leaflets. You know I'm no longer an RCA.
- 28:21I am a month and 1/2 into being a regular now, But I will tell
- 28:26you as an RCA it is possible. As an RCA I have held local
- 28:31office twice my former county. Before I transferred I was
- 28:36secretary or excuse me, I was treasurer.
- 28:38We had a split secretary, treasurer with individual
- 28:40positions for each one. I was treasurer for four years
- 28:43and then I am currently VP of my local.
- 28:47I was voted in at my last annual meeting last spring.
- 28:50I was an RCAI have been a state convention delegate for every
- 28:55year that I have gone starting and my first one was 2016.
- 29:00I have gone to every booster except for two since 2015 right
- 29:05now. I got hired in in December of
- 29:082014 as an RCAI went to my first booster in October of 2015.
- 29:13I've only missed 2 boosters since and one was my most recent
- 29:17fall booster because there was absolutely no coverage for me to
- 29:20be able to go. Yeah, it really bummed me out
- 29:22that I couldn't go because I was really looking forward to going.
- 29:25I am not going to let them deny me going for spring.
- 29:28I did not let them deny me going to National Convention.
- 29:32The four years that I've gone, I don't do it.
- 29:34I mean I flat out print out Article 24 when I turn in my
- 29:38slip for my 3971 for anything that is union based, I include
- 29:44that Article 24 right with it. I mean that's what you can do.
- 29:47You know I I ran for national office as an RCA if anybody
- 29:53remembers from 20/20/22 Orlando, FL I ran for national office as
- 29:58an RCA. I ran for state board last this
- 30:02past year 2023 as an RCA. It is very possible to do any of
- 30:07that as a leaf replacement. You have all the same options
- 30:11for any of the union functions as regulars do, and if you are
- 30:14in an RCA or a PTF it wants to get involved, then definitely do
- 30:20it. Don't.
- 30:21Don't let it. Don't let being a leaf
- 30:23replacement stop you. That's all I can say.
- 30:25I mean, seriously, it's definitely, definitely worth it.
- 30:28I can. I can tell you I've done
- 30:30research. I know that there's a leadership
- 30:34position that the person has only served their route as an
- 30:39RCA by all investigations that I've done.
- 30:42They move their way up through the union with only serving as
- 30:46an RCA. They made their regular when the
- 30:48bid came around because as a leadership member you still have
- 30:53bidding rights in your area just like any other regular carrier.
- 30:57Because as soon as you're done with your leadership position,
- 31:00you have to go back to your route unless you do like
- 31:03everybody at the top is done and serve until you retire.
- 31:06But. I want to, I want to put this
- 31:08out there because I mean that's what you see a lot over over the
- 31:12years when it comes to national board is once they get on there,
- 31:16they serve until they retire and they keep going and that's
- 31:19that's that's their way to retirement.
- 31:21As somebody who has announced that they are going to run for
- 31:24national board again, I would not sit up there until I retire.
- 31:27When I retire, I want to retire from my route.
- 31:30I want to get on the board to pave the way for the future of
- 31:33the craft and to get stuff going for the future of the craft as
- 31:37somebody who has 20 more years to go before I can retire.
- 31:43Unless I wanna buy back. I wanna.
- 31:45I'm not holding my breath on that anytime soon.
- 31:47I wanna make sure that there's a future for the craft for those
- 31:53next 20 years. Not by sitting on the board for
- 31:5520 years, but if elected, 234, maybe five years tops.
- 32:01That's I'm not looking to make it my retirement fund.
- 32:04To me, it's not about the money, I you know.
- 32:07To me, it is about serving the craft, serving the membership,
- 32:13serving my rural carrier brothers and sisters, and making
- 32:17sure that the future of the craft is going to be safe.
- 32:21Yeah. And the only way we can secure
- 32:24this craft is if people answer the call at all levels, because
- 32:28there's so much, so much going on right now.
- 32:32You know, we keep talking about Corey Walton from 8 Hour
- 32:34retraced it, but he just did an episode last week where he read
- 32:392 news articles that were city carrier related from the 70s.
- 32:44And the comments that management and the union were making are
- 32:49nearly word for word, identical to what they're saying now.
- 32:54The fact that the post office is in the red, needs this, needs
- 32:58that, so on and so forth. And that the union needs to back
- 33:03off of management because management and the the Postal
- 33:08Service are in dire straits because of funding issues and so
- 33:12on and so forth is the same spot we've been in and that was 50
- 33:17years ago. You can negotiate for 100 plus
- 33:20years, but until you understand exactly who you're negotiating
- 33:24against and what they're negotiating for and why they're
- 33:28negotiating for it, you'll never get anywhere in your
- 33:31negotiations. And that's why you need to
- 33:33answer the call Everybody here does.
- 33:36You know, I had a question. Office will always found
- 33:38excuses. Oh, yeah.
- 33:40I mean, they want to blame financial reasons for
- 33:42everything. It's ridiculous.
- 33:44You know, I, you know, I've said this many, many, many times.
- 33:48This, you know, working for USPS used to be an extremely coveted
- 33:52position. People were lined up to take
- 33:55postal exams. There was wait lists for years
- 33:59to get in the office and now we can't get enough people to give
- 34:03us even a single day off just once to even have a relief day
- 34:08once a month. We're lucky if we can find the
- 34:10coverage. I mean, like I said, my only
- 34:12saving grace has been over the last couple of years is in my
- 34:14office, doesn't didn't have Amazon on Sundays.
- 34:17You know literally that I'm still working six days a week.
- 34:20I'm AK route. I'm hoping the sub I get works
- 34:23out, but that what's that? Stop them from pulling him one
- 34:28of my K days to cover somebody else one day and tell me, oh,
- 34:31you're going to have to work. Oh, OK.
- 34:33Thanks. Because I'm the low man on the
- 34:35totem pole. So guess who gets forced in?
- 34:37Me. Yep.
- 34:38Yep. Meanwhile we have RC as working
- 34:41seven days a week, several weeks in a row and they wonder why our
- 34:45turn around and our burnout is so high and why our retention
- 34:49rate is so low. That's exactly what it is right
- 34:52there. I mean when you're working you
- 34:55know upwards of 12 hours a day and sometimes more depending on
- 34:59your management if they're not following that 12 hour and that
- 35:0212 hour rule is a federal Labor Standards act for Rcas for leave
- 35:07replacements, Regular carriers after working 12 straight hours
- 35:10going to OTRCAS leave replacements do not.
- 35:14That is a fair Labor Standards act that they are violating if
- 35:19they are requiring an RCA or or PT off of leave replacement in
- 35:22general to work more than 20, excuse me, 2012 hours in a
- 35:27single work day And then you got the you know these the offices
- 35:31that have Amazon on Sundays. I mean even though my office in
- 35:34Amazon isn't a Sunday office, I my old office was.
- 35:38I remember that I was there when it came in and started.
- 35:41I worked all out of Sundays, not this past Christmas because I
- 35:45was a regular but the last year Christmas we had Amazon drop off
- 35:49on Sundays. I worked every Sunday from the
- 35:53Sunday after Thanksgiving. I work 27 days straight.
- 35:56My next actual day off was not until Christmas Day.
- 35:59You know, I'm, I honestly can say it's a year later.
- 36:02I'm still recovering from it. You know, it's I'm still working
- 36:05six days a week. Well, thank for the last two
- 36:08weeks. We've had a holiday.
- 36:09I was like, oh, this is what, two days off in a row feels
- 36:12like. I don't know what to do with
- 36:13myself. Not to mention, as being an RCA
- 36:16working seven days a week, excess amount of days or weeks
- 36:21in a row, there's lack of benefits.
- 36:24None of that RCA time counts toward being anything towards
- 36:28your retirement. You could be in your 40s and you
- 36:31could be ARCA for four, 810 years, and none of that counts
- 36:36toward any of your retirement. You literally get nothing for
- 36:39it, and you're expected to bark like a dog and do exactly what
- 36:43they say. Seven days a week, no questions
- 36:45asked, no time off, no doctor's appointments, no family visits,
- 36:51nothing. You better be there operating,
- 36:53doing your job with a functioning vehicle, and in some
- 36:57places you better have a backup vehicle if if not or you're in
- 37:01trouble. Even though a backup vehicle is
- 37:03not required. That is true.
- 37:05There is no language requiring so.
- 37:07Says you required a second vehicle.
- 37:09It just says you're supposed to have a vehicle ready for the
- 37:11route, a vehicle ready for the route.
- 37:14Management wants to construe that any which way they can.
- 37:16I mean it's already been stated. We have one POV route in my
- 37:20office. I used to be the sub for that
- 37:22before I went full time. I can probably count on one hand
- 37:27how many times in the past year, my last year as an RCA, that I
- 37:31actually worked that carrier's K day for that carrier because I
- 37:36was pulled for every other route in the office.
- 37:38And being the only sub at the times, I was running my aux
- 37:43route on top of a full route, even if the evaluation was more
- 37:47than 12 hours. When I when our one big route
- 37:50was 4748 Ki mean that right at that 12 just maybe just over 12
- 37:56hour mark. But you know, yeah, usually I'll
- 37:58got it done in less than 10 hours.
- 38:00But you know, the point was we do what we have to do,
- 38:04especially if we're dedicated. But at the same time we need to
- 38:07stop letting management get away with pushing us to do what goes
- 38:11against contract, MP6O3 and any other employee labor, manual,
- 38:17manual. We really have to start pushing
- 38:20back. And I get a lot of offices and a
- 38:23lot of people are like, well, if I do that, then I'm gonna put a
- 38:26target on my back and they're gonna retaliate.
- 38:28Well, then you file after that retaliation as well.
- 38:30That's the only way to stop that is to have a paper trail.
- 38:34If there's no paper trail, then nobody thinks there's anything
- 38:37wrong in that office. I can't tell you how many times
- 38:40I have said that to the carriers in my office.
- 38:43Oh, she need we we need to do something.
- 38:45So then you have to file that paper trail.
- 38:48As a wise man once said file, file, file.
- 38:52Exactly and file some more. Shout out.
- 38:56To bill there. And of course, Speaking of PO
- 39:02VS. If you are on a government
- 39:05vehicle assigned route, they cannot make you get a vehicle to
- 39:11deliver your route. They have to pay.
- 39:14You owe time for you sitting there waiting for a vehicle.
- 39:18That is vehicle breakdown time. Some want to pay wait time,
- 39:22which is 8127 time owe time. After 8 hours you get a paid day
- 39:27off and it does not disappear. So if you bank 2 hours this
- 39:32year, another hour next year, and eventually get to 8 hours
- 39:36down the line, it adds up. Don't let management tell you
- 39:39otherwise on that either, but if you are on a government assigned
- 39:42route, you don't have to use your own vehicle.
- 39:45If you want to, you can volunteer to and.
- 39:48They have to pay you EMA for the day, but you don't have to.
- 39:53That's for regular carriers only.
- 39:55They can force an RCA to use APOV on a government vehicle
- 39:59route, yes, yes. That's why Rcas are supposed to
- 40:03have a vehicle available to use. As well as well As for partial
- 40:08assistance at Christmas time or any other time or or
- 40:13overburdened route assistance if they actually stick to the
- 40:16contract and do overburdened route assistant.
- 40:18Now, I did stop as an RCAI had my postmaster contact me one
- 40:23morning, and it's not because we had an LLV down.
- 40:27She wanted to pull the LLV off the route to give it to somebody
- 40:30else to use for parcel assistance runs.
- 40:33And I said absolutely not. You know that to me.
- 40:36You know, if it's one thing, if the vehicle's in a shop, you're
- 40:38down a vehicle, there's not a loaner available.
- 40:41And I was an RCA and she asked me, OK, that's one thing.
- 40:44But if I'm assigned to scheduled on a route that day that has a
- 40:48government vehicle and you're coming to me saying, hey, can
- 40:51you use your POV on this route today?
- 40:53So, so and so can use it for parcel runs yet.
- 40:56No, not going to happen. And I told her that too.
- 40:59And she's like, oh, well, that's sad.
- 41:03Oh well, that is what it is. That vehicle is up and running.
- 41:06If you want to use that vehicle for parcel runs after I'm done
- 41:09with the route, go right ahead. But but until that routes ran
- 41:14no. And on that, if a vehicle is on
- 41:19a route, it is assigned to that route.
- 41:23Yes. Now granted in my office we have
- 41:27one mattress and sometimes we borrow.
- 41:30We have a sub who is not trained on the Metris so they will trade
- 41:35with an LLV route. So that way with somebody who is
- 41:39trained on the Metris so that both routes can get run.
- 41:44But you cannot be forced. You cannot have your vehicle
- 41:48taken from you from your route in order to run something else
- 41:52and if they use it for parcel assistance or to run another
- 41:56route in the contract and it is required that that vehicle is
- 42:01fueled. Any time it is used for anything
- 42:04other than the route, it is required to be returned with a
- 42:07full tank of fuel. And that includes Amazon
- 42:11Sundays. You use the LLV on an Amazon
- 42:15Sunday. You better be filling that up
- 42:17before you park it back at the office, because yeah, I I
- 42:21remember that in my old office. But now in in my situation, when
- 42:24it comes to vehicles assigned to routes we have, we don't have
- 42:30maintenance or any on my local VMF is over 2 hours away.
- 42:35So we have our aux truck. Our aux route has an LLV
- 42:39assigned to it. Because it is such a small
- 42:41route, it has the jump seat installed into that truck.
- 42:45We don't have anybody that can remove the jump seat and put it
- 42:48in another truck, blah blah blah.
- 42:49So for my shadow day Tuesday, I am using the aux truck and the
- 42:55aux carrier will be using my truck to run the aux route.
- 42:58Let's hopefully pray he doesn't break it, but you know and that
- 43:02is since we're just trading trucks, so each each route still
- 43:05has a government issued vehicle and when I returned that OX
- 43:09route truck on Tuesday, it will have a full tank of gas.
- 43:13And I have actually filed a grievance on that in my office
- 43:18when Amazon Sunday hub was in my office and we had multiple
- 43:23offices at our office and carriers from another office had
- 43:28the rule of if it's over 3/4 of a tank, you don't have to fill
- 43:31it. I filed a grievance on it.
- 43:33My my truck was never without a full tank after an Amazon Sunday
- 43:36after that because I told management I will not tolerate
- 43:39it. And that's basically what a
- 43:41grievance is. You're telling them you're not
- 43:43going to tolerate them violating the rules.
- 43:45Yeah, that's you know and I expect the OX route carrier to,
- 43:50you know, make sure my truck is filled up when he gets done with
- 43:52it on Tuesday. And let's just hope he's not
- 43:55going 15 mile miles out of his way to go to the Ox road again
- 43:58either. But that's we're not going to
- 44:00talk about that. But now, yeah, with that, there
- 44:08was something else that was mentioned and I can touch on
- 44:10this as having been a POV carrier for for several years,
- 44:15for actually the majority of my RCA time I was a POV carrier.
- 44:19And that has to do with the torts, claim the torts and the
- 44:26and what type of insurance you need to have on your vehicle.
- 44:29Now I know a lot of places when you contact them for insurance
- 44:33and tell them what they're going to do, they're going to say you
- 44:35need a commercial policy. You absolutely do not need a
- 44:39commercial policy. The torts, the Federal Torts
- 44:43Claim Act, you would just telling me it's a it's a rider.
- 44:47I don't have the number on me. I wasn't prepared to talk about
- 44:49that tonight, but I'm going to touch on it a little bit.
- 44:52What the torts claim Act covers is in the event that you are in
- 44:59an accident or you damaged property.
- 45:02The Torts claim is in the post office, covers the damage that
- 45:06was done to that property or the other person.
- 45:10Your personal car insurance is going to cover your your vehicle
- 45:13only and the torque claim does not cover your vehicle or you.
- 45:17It covers the damage that was done while you're in the work
- 45:22capacity. Now I'm not 100%, but 521 seems
- 45:27to be jumping out of my head for the number.
- 45:30That could be once I get it updated, we'll go into further
- 45:33detail on that. But I was just kind of wanted to
- 45:35touch that on just a little bit since we were talking about
- 45:37vehicles and PO VS and whatnot. I mean, for the most part,
- 45:40depending on my vehicle, I just when I had my newer vehicle that
- 45:44I didn't want to use on the route, but I did.
- 45:46But I already had full coverage on it.
- 45:48But mainly in the general, I just had liability insurance.
- 45:51I had the bare minimum that I had to have in the state because
- 45:54I drove junk cars. I drove a 93 Cutlass Sierra for
- 45:58almost five years. It was the best one I had.
- 46:01I had an O3 Buick LeSabre. I've had a 99 Blazer, an O2 Ford
- 46:05Explorer Sport 2 door. You know, I I've driven several
- 46:09different vehicles and for the most part I just had liability
- 46:12insurance on it. And most, most accidents that
- 46:15postal carriers are involved in, and I said most are usually not
- 46:19the carrier's fault. It's usually somebody else on
- 46:22the road, distracted driving or not paying attention or
- 46:26something like that. But there are instances where
- 46:29you are, unfortunately, we've all probably thought about it or
- 46:33been involved in one or something like that at some
- 46:36point in our life. Whether it was your fault or
- 46:38not, it's a possibility and it's it's becoming more and more
- 46:41frequent as we see in the news. So brush yourself up on that
- 46:44stuff. Make sure you know what know
- 46:46what's going on. I'd say someone had inquired
- 46:48about in the comments about any updates on cutting route.
- 46:53I haven't heard anything specific, but other than
- 46:57probably after the next survey, I know there is currently a team
- 47:02of it's 8 to 12 people on the team that are capable of doing
- 47:07the route cut adjustments. They have been working the last
- 47:12few months in offices trying to get it worked out.
- 47:17I know they they were going to work on an office coming up in
- 47:22the next week or two. They were going to go into an
- 47:25office to try it. They have to get it, everything
- 47:30start to finish, done in a two week period, one pay period.
- 47:34The line of travel has to be completely rewritten from
- 47:38scratch, start to finish for each route.
- 47:41So those are some of the hang up.
- 47:43There are offices, certain offices like I know offices with
- 47:49seasonal routes. There's issues with those
- 47:52getting them done in those offices, so it's a hit or miss
- 47:55at this point on what they can and can't do.
- 48:01And the other, the caveat to that is once they do everything,
- 48:06it won't be until 52 weeks of data has been collected after
- 48:11the adjustment that they know actually where you ended up.
- 48:14So a. Lot of variables.
- 48:16That is something. If they cut you from a 48 to
- 48:21what they suspect is a 43 and a year from now you end up at a,
- 48:25you know, counting at a 41, they potentially, there's nothing in
- 48:30writing on this, but they potentially would have to build
- 48:33you back up those two hours somehow.
- 48:35But at this point, there's nothing set in stone.
- 48:38Now, well, there was a new release, a revised edition of
- 48:42the Rex Comprehensive Guide, and I do believe somebody pointed
- 48:47out that it was something in there about route adjustments.
- 48:52Yeah, it'd be nice if they highlighted what they changed in
- 48:54the in the guide when they make a new change, you know, just
- 48:58like just like how they highlight what's new in the
- 49:00contract when they're doing contract ratifications.
- 49:03You know, it would be nice if they highlighted what was
- 49:05changed in the Rex guides, the Q&A and things like that.
- 49:08You know when you. Know that they did take out.
- 49:12We've had a few people that have kind of gone through it and kind
- 49:14of highlighted what they have found.
- 49:16They did where it was talking about the WSS and the WSH
- 49:22entering into the scanner. They did take out the WSH
- 49:26language and I only left it as WSS.
- 49:30Of course, because WSH we found still isn't being counted
- 49:33properly. So why not just remove another
- 49:36count for us, another number for us?
- 49:38Right. They also they also changed it.
- 49:42They also changed it that carrier pickup is 2 lbs or over.
- 49:45Don't forget that part. Yeah, you know.
- 49:48And there's there's a few other things in there that they
- 49:51changed recently, but those are the big ones that affect your
- 49:56pay, they lower your pay and your leadership agreed to this.
- 50:02Now the only thing that touches on route adjustments is
- 50:05calculating base hours on new auxiliary routes after route
- 50:10adjustment. And I'm going to go ahead and
- 50:12read through this real quick. This is number 12.
- 50:15It's page 20 of the updated Rex guide that came out January 4th
- 50:20says a background adjusted routes.
- 50:23Local managers need a simple procedure to estimate base hours
- 50:26on newly created auxiliary routes after route adjustments,
- 50:32and the decision that follows will refer to the new auxiliary
- 50:35route that is created as the aux route and the existing adjusted
- 50:40route or routes as donor routes. Carriers on both the aux and
- 50:44donor routes must be paid immediately after the
- 50:47adjustment, while Rex procedures are not are new.
- 50:51While Rex procedures for new routes can produce interim
- 50:54evaluations after 13 weeks of data collection, they do not
- 50:59include a procedure for the first thirteen weeks after
- 51:02adjustment. This section of the report
- 51:05describes the automated procedure that will be used
- 51:08during the initial 13 week period.
- 51:11B Business logic adjusted routes.
- 51:14The donor route contributes time to the AUX for the following 10
- 51:17transfers. Route miles, Regular boxes,
- 51:22Central boxes, dismounts, Dismount distances, Inter Unit
- 51:28Mail, low volume, Inter unit mail high volume, collection
- 51:32points, Blue box in parentheses, collection compartments, and
- 51:37mail volume. These are the same 10 items used
- 51:40to adjust the base time. In the interim adjustments, the
- 51:44Postmaster enters the amount of the transfer for eight of the 10
- 51:48items, excluding route miles in mail volume, and the business
- 51:52logic calculates the time transferred to the Oxtra for
- 51:57route miles. The Postmaster must enter three
- 52:00pieces of information, the pre transfer mileage and the drive
- 52:04time, basic route for the donor route and the miles transferred
- 52:09from the donor route to the aux route.
- 52:12The business logic calculates the Standard Time for the
- 52:15transferred miles from these three data points.
- 52:19For mail volume, the Postmaster enters the volume factor of the
- 52:24donor route and the business logic calculates the Standard
- 52:28Time for the mail volume transferred from the donor to
- 52:32the aux route. The process is repeated for each
- 52:35donor route. The total time from the 10
- 52:38calculations represents the time by which the donor base hours
- 52:43are reduced. The total time for the new
- 52:46auxiliary route is equal the sum of the time transferred from
- 52:52each donor route plus the time for fixed activities, actual
- 52:57actual time activities, additional miles on the
- 53:01auxiliary route, and office walking.
- 53:03To determine fixed time, the postmaster must enter the
- 53:06withdrawal option and the vehicle time on the aux route.
- 53:11The business logic selects the appropriate fixed time for the
- 53:15combination entered. Actual times on the aux route
- 53:19are based on average times for load, vehicle, and end of shift
- 53:24activities. No entries are necessary.
- 53:28Additional miles are the stem and connecting segments that
- 53:32link transferred miles to the delivery unit and each other.
- 53:37The postmaster must estimate these miles.
- 53:40Google map comma driving that's in parentheses and enter total
- 53:46additional miles. Finally, office walking requires
- 53:49the carrier and supervisor to take the actual measurements for
- 53:52the new auxiliary route. The business logic calculates
- 53:55total standard minutes for the aux route by adding transferred
- 54:00fixed actual additional miles and office walking minutes.
- 54:05The logic automatically calculate space hours for the
- 54:09new auxiliary route. The route adjustment process
- 54:12requires A postmaster to enter 12 pieces of information for
- 54:16each donor and three pieces of information for the new
- 54:19auxiliary route. All calculations are automated.
- 54:23The output shows the base hour, deductions from each donor route
- 54:27and the base hours for the auxiliary route.
- 54:29And that's all that says about that.
- 54:31Now let me. Be the devil's advocate here.
- 54:36You just said 13 weeks for them to calculate it out with the REC
- 54:41system, that's 2 1/2 almost 2 1/2 months.
- 54:44So there's a possibility that when they do these cuts that a
- 54:48carrier may not be paid for 2 1/2 months while they figure
- 54:51this out. There's a possibility a carrier
- 54:54could be underpaid or overpaid for that.
- 54:58And if they're underpaid, they may or may not do a pay
- 55:02adjustment for that. And if they're overpaid, you
- 55:05know damn well that management's going to try and get that money
- 55:07back. And what do you do if you get a
- 55:10letter of? Demand file file file.
- 55:14There you go it. Wouldn't be the first time for
- 55:17me to do that? I'll fill in for Bill tonight.
- 55:20There we go. That's quite a promotion.
- 55:24Yeah, that's actually. That's actually happened to me.
- 55:28Before years ago, I unknowingly to me as an RCA on a hold down a
- 55:34route, was given a assigned a vehicle.
- 55:37I was receiving EMA because it was previously an EMA route and
- 55:43that actually happened to me unknowingly to me after I had,
- 55:47you know, I had got a couple checks and then realized that
- 55:49yes, EMA was on there. I pointed out the discretion.
- 55:52I pointed out that they were paying me EMA incorrectly.
- 55:56And then not long after I they corrected the problem on our
- 56:00local level. They did.
- 56:01They sent me a notice that I needed to pay that money back
- 56:05and not going to happen. Yeah, because that's.
- 56:07And yeah, we fought. We, yeah, yeah.
- 56:10And we fought and we won that, that.
- 56:12That was an easy win, as they like to say.
- 56:15I mean, and it's not difficult. For them to just go in and click
- 56:18that little button to say that you used a government vehicle on
- 56:21that or no emai mean, there was plenty of times when I had my
- 56:25aux route and I ran my primary, which was the POV route and if I
- 56:29had to run them both on that day, I used the AUX truck and I
- 56:33did not get paid EMA for when I did that for running the primary
- 56:37route, they used to be 1 route. So it was no big deal, you know,
- 56:40But but yeah, it's it. Yeah, that is completely 100%
- 56:45management at fault on that. Yes, it is.
- 56:47Yeah, at that time, they. My station manager and
- 56:51supervisor were a little too busy having personal meetings in
- 56:54the office to log on to a computer.
- 56:59So yeah, maybe they were just a little bit busy with other
- 57:01activities. Anything else to touch on
- 57:04tonight? James, Josh.
- 57:07Well, oh, you asked me. And then Josh and Nick, well,
- 57:10you know, the biggest, the. Biggest thing we want to.
- 57:12Take away from this is as you can tell there are a lot of
- 57:15moving parts going on. There are a lot of things going
- 57:18on behind the scenes that we don't know about and then we
- 57:21just get a quick blast about it later on.
- 57:25Or we get the 99 page document where they don't tell us what
- 57:29they've changed, they just say here's an updated version of it,
- 57:32you figure it out on your own. And they didn't even announce.
- 57:36They didn't even announce. They put a new updated version
- 57:39out there. I just happened to somebody was
- 57:42looking for the previous updated version and I logged in and
- 57:45went, oh, there's an updated version as of today.
- 57:48Interesting. Yeah, I still haven't put a
- 57:52something out. Saying that they updated.
- 57:53Have they? No, they have not.
- 57:55No, they haven't put anything out that they've updated.
- 57:57Anything. And usually they don't, you
- 58:00know, You just have to constantly be looking at the
- 58:02website to find out. And if you are, what are the?
- 58:05Standard non. Dues paying craft.
- 58:08Members, you would never know unless somebody else pointed it
- 58:12out to you. That is correct.
- 58:14And. I think that's.
- 58:15Something. That I completely disagree with
- 58:19is if it's it. If it's something that affects
- 58:22your pay, your route, your evaluation, your pay, it doesn't
- 58:27matter if you are a dues paying member or not, you should be
- 58:30Privy to that information, and unfortunately there are.
- 58:34Actually stewards out there and AD Rs and D Rs that will not
- 58:39field people's phone calls or questions when it you know when
- 58:43it comes to things. Regarding.
- 58:44Our pay if you're a non doing dues paying member, not mine.
- 58:49But I have heard stories and and read reports of people like
- 58:54literally go unanswered when they have questions just because
- 58:57they're not dues paying, Non dues paying, you know?
- 59:01And when this whole Rex thing came.
- 59:02Out, they said I started a test study office, so I was already
- 59:05kind of familiar with the scans and whatnot a lot, you know,
- 59:08quite a few things have changed from the top.
- 59:11I had transferred out of that office into a non test study
- 59:13office and when it was finally implemented and I remember
- 59:17talking about it in the office through those few couple years
- 59:20of this thing coming. And even I was getting like the
- 59:22deer in the headlight stare from my postmaster who had been a
- 59:26parole carrier in the past, you know before.
- 59:28And And then when it finally came about I printed out
- 59:34everything. Every little PowerPoint
- 59:36presentation on the website. The When the Rex, the 99 page
- 59:40manual came out, I printed out everything and my boss, which
- 59:46you know, as much as I complain about her, I'll give her her
- 59:48credit when credit is due, Took those copies and ran photocopies
- 59:53of every single thing for every one of the routes in my office
- 59:58and made sure everybody had a copy regardless.
- 1:00:01You know that I like I said, I'll give her a credit where
- 1:00:04credit's due. It's far a few in between but
- 1:00:06there are instances like that. But we're going to go ahead and
- 1:00:11wrap this up for this evening and.
- 1:00:14Josh, your final commentary for this evening.
- 1:00:17Be safe out there, everyone. It's.
- 1:00:19Still getting dark early? It's starting to lighten up a
- 1:00:22little bit. I know there's bad weather going
- 1:00:25across the country now, so the extra diligent out there, since
- 1:00:30he's not here like Bill would say you are the most important
- 1:00:33delivery of the day, so make sure you're getting home to your
- 1:00:36loved ones. Don't get overwhelmed.
- 1:00:38If you do take a step back, take a deep breath and step back in.
- 1:00:44Have a good week. Talk to you next time.
- 1:00:46Go ahead James. Well, the.
- 1:00:48Biggest thing out of all of. This, for any of us involved in
- 1:00:52this craft, is knowledge. Knowledge is power.
- 1:00:56Knowing where you stand, what the contract is, what you have
- 1:01:01to do. As a role, carrier is the most
- 1:01:03important thing you can do. An educated craft is the bane of
- 1:01:08management, and as long as you, like everybody on this podcast,
- 1:01:12continue to learn, continue to divulge yourself into the
- 1:01:17information that's available for you, You can be that bane for
- 1:01:21management in correcting the problems that are in front of
- 1:01:24you. And no matter what, even when
- 1:01:26you think there's nobody left, there's still people that help
- 1:01:30us stay all in this together and for our special.
- 1:01:34Co host tonight Nick Yes, thank you for having me.
- 1:01:38First off, I'd like to remind everybody that's listening to
- 1:01:41this that it is the United States Postal Service, infamous
- 1:01:47on the service. We are not robots, We are not
- 1:01:51numbers, We are not a program. We are out there for the
- 1:01:54customers. If it wasn't for the customers,
- 1:01:57we wouldn't have a job. If it wasn't for the customers,
- 1:01:59we wouldn't have a paycheck. We are not there for management.
- 1:02:02We are not there to make numbers or make hours or make whatever
- 1:02:06arbitrator things they make, they may come up with next week,
- 1:02:10go out there, do the best job that you can every single day
- 1:02:13and service the customers. And just like the rest of you
- 1:02:16say, go home to your family and be the best human being you can
- 1:02:19be now in this tough world. Thank you guys.
- 1:02:23Definitely. Yes.
- 1:02:25And I know if you're in the Midwest, maybe a little bit on
- 1:02:28the East Coast, I haven't caught the New England state servant
- 1:02:32caught quite where all the the storm fruits coming in is going
- 1:02:35to be like. But stay safe out there.
- 1:02:38Know that you do have the say on your safety out on the route and
- 1:02:43if you feel that is not safe for you, continue.
- 1:02:46You go back, you fill out that 1767 to cover your behind and
- 1:02:50you just recase up about everything you brought back.
- 1:02:53And we try again the next day because that's what we do.
- 1:02:56You know, I don't want to hear of people getting into accidents
- 1:02:59and getting hurt or worse because the weather turned nasty
- 1:03:03and management was telling them they couldn't come back.
- 1:03:05That is your call. And if you make that call on
- 1:03:08safety, definitely fill out that 1767 safety form.
- 1:03:12And on that note, everybody stay safe out there.
- 1:03:16Have a good week and we'll be back next week.
- 1:03:31I'm not paid enough to tell you what to do.