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State Convention Season and Management · United We Scan

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Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
0:56
Episode 123, take two. Well, now take three.
1:01
We had an error trying to get this one recorded today on top
1:06
of not being able to record it two weeks ago.
1:08
So we're starting over fresh again, but Bill's not able to
1:13
join us. But we have several other
1:15
special guests up on stage right now, so we'll get this party
1:19
started right off the bat. We'll start with you, Josh.
1:26
My week was interesting, management up to their old
1:30
tricks, baiting stuff that's not contractual, just patent BS like
1:39
water off a duck. And my mattress decided to eat
1:43
itself yesterday, ate its Fender liner.
1:45
So hour and 50, 15 minutes waiting for a tow truck and
1:51
getting towed back to the station and I didn't get done
1:54
till about 7:00 last night. That's when I hit my driveway,
1:59
so I was a tired boy. So.
2:03
Other than that, just a normal week and it's getting hot down
2:09
here and I'm going to be harping on that a little tonight just to
2:12
give you all a little sneak peek.
2:16
Let's see, what about you, Mark? How was your week?
2:23
It was an interesting week. I just got back from vacation
2:29
and when I came back to find out one of my fellow carriers had
2:36
been released from their job, they.
2:42
Were. Doing not so nice things like
2:46
stealing mail and smoking in their vehicle, things that they
2:52
shouldn't be smoking and just stuff like that.
2:58
But it was it was a good week. And we'll throw it to a Fender.
3:09
Good evening everybody. I've had an all right week for
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the most part up here in Wisconsin.
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It's basically been April in June.
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It's been been very cold and wet and lots of rain.
3:24
I've had an interesting week and we're getting ready for our
3:29
state convention coming up this week.
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And I've actually had several carriers that reached out to me
3:35
because they had issues where they are delegates and their
3:39
supervisors were trying to prevent them from going to the
3:41
convention. So we, we've been fighting that
3:44
good fight. And it sounds like my, my, the
3:49
storage system is helping them out.
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So, and it's a good thing because the one carrier is
3:56
actually an RCA and this will be her first convention.
3:59
So I'm really excited that they stepped up and and she'll be
4:05
able to go to her first convention.
4:10
Hey, Barry White, how are you? How was your week?
4:16
Well, you know, it's one of those weeks.
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But seriously, first I had my state convention this week.
4:27
So that's why we're going to be talking about the state
4:29
convention season going on and everybody having the state
4:31
conventions. And of course, I got the con
4:35
flu, got sick after I got home from the convention.
4:40
It started Thursday night. I went to work Wednesday.
4:43
But then Thursday night it was hitting me hard and I didn't go
4:47
to work Friday. And I was told that on the
4:52
release day work list I was working Saturday.
4:55
So the boss asked me if I could work Saturday still and I said
5:01
I'm going to try to make it. I did make it.
5:04
I worked my release day and luckily I did because the only
5:09
other carrier left on the relief day work list got called in that
5:13
morning and luckily came in. Otherwise we would have had to
5:16
split their route. Instead we only split Knox
5:19
route. So it's it's getting kind of
5:22
difficult. We had ARCA that quit a couple
5:26
weeks ago and just hiring people in is the hardest part of this,
5:31
especially with the carrier on EP still.
5:35
So we're down that sub. We got another carrier that just
5:38
went down on a workplace on a workplace injury or surgery or
5:43
whatever. So they're out for six to eight
5:46
weeks. That's another stub down.
5:48
So it's it's getting kind of kind of hard to cover all the
5:56
routes. And so it looks like I'm going
5:58
to be working my relief day for the foreseeable future for a
6:01
little bit. But that's good.
6:02
Sounds like it was an extra. Domino's are falling kind of
6:05
hard and fast. Yeah, it's it's kind of a karma
6:11
thing. You know, the EPD, that one
6:13
carrier and everything just started falling apart after
6:15
that. Yeah, we got, we got three
6:21
people retiring in our office and then that one got let go
6:25
this week. So we're going to have 4 stones
6:28
moving up. So we're only have like 7 left
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out of for 27 rounds. Yeah, yeah, I only have, I only
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have 10 regular routes and two off routes in my office and it's
6:43
hard to hard to get covers and I have an all I have an all
6:47
government vehicle office. We do I I feel even worse for
6:52
the ones that don't. Yeah, we have.
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We have. About half, half government
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vehicles and then the other half are, you know, these.
7:03
All right, so Speaking of my state convention, my state
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convention was attended by 105 delegates and our state could
7:19
actually have 4240 delegates at our state convention if they
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wanted to. That is how many votes we
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actually have for our state convention.
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The problem is those counties or locals that have those high
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votes don't want to give them up.
7:40
They're perfectly fine raising a yay yay card, having one person,
7:44
one vote at the for the delegation.
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But when it comes to voting for the positions of officers, they
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want the full weight of their county or their local or
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whatever they are, because we've had several of them that merge
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together. And there's actually one county,
8:01
that one unit that has 410 votes.
8:10
There are some that only have 20 votes.
8:15
But the most interesting aspect of yeah, we're one for five for
8:21
our delegation. That's why we have over 4000
8:23
delegates, so we get 4240 votes, but we're a big state.
8:36
So James, did you have any county units that had no chose,
8:39
like nobody showed up to vote for the particular county units?
8:44
Not that I'm aware of, Believe they were all there, but usually
8:49
it's just one person showing up. For the ones that you know, it's
8:55
sad, you know that participation right there and the biggest
9:01
thing your state will do, which is your state commit, is
9:09
something that all of us can do. What?
9:14
I thought you you clicked out for a second.
9:17
Yes, me being sick, I have to mute myself when I'm about to
9:20
cough. I'm not going to cough on the
9:23
recording. But even though people are now
9:26
finding out I'm coughing on the recording, but you know, it is
9:31
it's participation is the thing we need.
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And it doesn't matter if your local has 20 votes or your local
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has 410 votes like mine. My my local is a single county
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and it has 265 votes. But because of the people in
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attendance, each person got 44 votes except the delegate at
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large got the extra 1 to make it 265.
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That's a problem when you're going against local that has one
10:05
person voting the entire strength, whether it
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BE120550410, whatever the number is, you know.
10:18
But I will say this, at my state convention we had several of the
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solutions. I got objected to, a couple of
10:27
them got objected to by first timers, and we had first timer
10:33
stepping up and speaking on the mic too.
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And then when it came down to the voting for our officers for
10:43
our state, it was a close race for every single one of them.
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Even with the heavily weighted counties in there, it was
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amazing how close the votes were.
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In fact, most of the time, several of them went multiple
10:56
rounds. You know, and it was a beautiful
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thing to see. It was beautiful to see all
11:06
these people fighting for it. But I know Fender is still
11:10
coming up on his state convention.
11:13
Josh, did you just have yours? No.
11:17
We have ours this week. This week, OK, I know Bill's is
11:22
this week as well, so he'll probably come back and tell us
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about it when next week. And but the biggest, biggest
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thing that people need to understand about state
11:34
convention is it is still a time to work.
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You know, my state had 40 some regular resolutions, plus I
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actually have the numbers right here.
11:50
We had 20 constitutional resolutions and 39 regular
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resolutions. And on top of that we had 3-4
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more after new business. At the end of new business, we
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had four more come up. The one of them, three of them
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were mine. And I want to talk about this
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because this, this was actually very important.
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The first one I put up I rescinded because another
12:34
resolution had passed that was similar in nature to the one I
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had submitted. And the second one I put up was
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for our state and it wasn't anything major.
12:47
It was for them to take out a half page portion of our state
12:56
magazine and put in a survey at least once a year for people to
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explain how they would like to participate.
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You know, what days of the week, what time during the day, stuff
13:12
like that to get people to participate.
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And this actually got pulled to the floor to vote.
13:18
It got a 2/3 majority to actually have it on the floor
13:22
for a vote. And then we went into discussion
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and people discussed about it. Of course, some people chose to
13:30
talk about other things like social media and things like
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that instead of the actual resolution.
13:39
But overall, it was a good conversation and I have to get
13:44
my state president props for this.
13:49
All throughout the event and even on this, when they went to
13:53
the vote, they went for everybody show your green cards,
13:57
everybody show your red. He stood there for a second,
14:00
looked around the room at the Reds and said, all right,
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everybody stand up with with your green cards.
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And then everybody stand up with your Reds.
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And he's looking around and he goes, all right, we're going to
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have to count off 1234 on the on the green and then 1234 on the
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red. It was a difference of five
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votes between passing and failing because it only needed a
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majority. People want participation even
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at this level, although they don't want the cost associated
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with it. It's a minor cost.
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They're going to have the cost of printing it in the paper, the
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half the pages you're using instead of using it for other
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things. Plus you've got to have somebody
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who's going through those. It did not pass by 5 votes, but
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I did talk with my president afterwards and he said he's
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actually going to bring it up at one of the board meetings to see
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if they could do something like that.
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And so he asked me to write down what would be probably the best
15:18
way to do it. And so I said to turn around and
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do the half page so people can mail it in, but also have an
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online form for them to do it and only have a specific date
15:31
set for it. So you can only send them in
15:34
during this specific time frame. So that way you're not
15:37
overwhelming, most likely the state secretary and you're only
15:42
checking that e-mail box during after that specific time frame
15:46
and you only have to check it once.
15:49
You don't have to check it every single day.
15:52
Yes, having factual submitted data helps.
15:57
What Meow said in chat. We need to find a way to get
16:02
people to participate. And I figured that the state
16:06
magazine is one of those few places that maybe we can get
16:10
people involved. I'd love to see this actually as
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a national thing too. How can we get you to
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participate in your locals? How can we get you to
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participate in your state? Stuff like that.
16:21
But it was great that my president had the wherewithal,
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that we didn't have to sit there and argue division, that he
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actually did not have the ego to say I'm right, you're wrong.
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He actually said I don't know, let's count and find out.
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James, was that the only vote that he had to do that on, or
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were there any other votes that were that close?
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He's, he did that on every vote that was close.
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He would do that on it. No ego involved.
16:56
He actually trusted the delegation to count themselves
17:00
off and vote. And our state's, the
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convention's small enough that, you know, we can count to 50.
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I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't mind counting to 4240 either,
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you know, just as long as we actually get a proper count in
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the vote. But we had a good, good
17:23
convention. The resort that we were at was
17:27
actually very well staffed, well taken care of.
17:31
It's a ski resort, of course, in northern lower Michigan.
17:35
But the area was beautiful. The food was great for the
17:43
luncheons and, and banquet that we had.
17:45
And our banquet was Hawaiian themed and but overall, I'm just
17:53
going to say this. I shouldn't have driven back to
17:55
work the next day. I should have stayed up there
17:57
another night, slept in and then drove back.
18:00
So that would have loved to have a peaceful drive on the way
18:02
back. Instead I had to high tail it
18:05
back here because I got in at 1:00 in the morning to be up at
18:09
6:00 to go to work. But you guys have any questions
18:17
about state convention that people might ask or anybody in
18:21
chat have questions about state convention before we move on to
18:24
management? Flavor of the month, Most of
18:34
them, they passed most of the resolutions.
18:36
Somebody asked how many resolutions did your state pass?
18:42
We passed most of our resolutions by the gavel.
18:48
I am not sure on the number of actual past and failed because I
18:51
was more focused on following along where we were than writing
18:55
that down. I know I'm terrible at that, but
19:02
I do know most of our most of our non binding resolutions were
19:07
passed by the gavel. James, did you serve on any
19:12
committees or did they ask you to serve?
19:15
No, but I did provide assistance to anybody that needed help that
19:18
was running the event. Like I helped haul out the
19:21
goodie bags for registration and of course guiding people where
19:28
the bathrooms were, stuff like that.
19:30
I don't. I haven't been asked yet, but I
19:35
know that if they need me, they can ask and I'll be available
19:38
for them. But like our Constitution
19:52
committee, our resolution committee and our ballot
19:58
committee, all are people that have been on there for several
20:00
years and are very good at what they do with it.
20:04
In fact, I give them praise for what they go through and what
20:07
they have to deal with. I have been in the room for a
20:10
Constitution committee or a. Resolution committee both and it
20:16
is it is some work same with the ballot committee, especially
20:20
when you have multiple ties. But they do great work and I
20:27
wouldn't want to take that away from them either.
20:31
So but. On a specific question in
20:36
Michigan, do you, do you guys have any rules or regulations in
20:40
your constitution that say where your convention actually has to
20:43
be held or do you guys just try to accommodate given you have a
20:47
large contingent of carriers up in the UP versus in the southern
20:52
part? Like do do you guys try to make
20:56
it accommodating for the UP carriers to get to convention?
21:02
Last last year's convention was in the UP.
21:04
It was in Sioux Saint Marie, right up there by the Canadian
21:07
border at the Sweet Locks. Although one of the resolutions
21:13
they tried to pass for constitution changes was that
21:17
they find a location to purchase a building to hold their
21:21
conventions at because it's getting so expensive to find.
21:25
Find a place that was voted down, that was voted down
21:30
because the cost of maintaining a building is going to be even
21:36
more than what it would be to borrow a facility for a few
21:40
days. But yeah, they could do board
21:48
meetings there too. But there's a lot of different
21:52
things they could do. But the problem is, is by
21:57
centralizing the location, and they were going to find one in
21:59
central Lower Michigan, was everybody from the UP would have
22:04
to pay the toll to go across the Mackinac Bridge to get to the
22:08
event. And plus those counties don't
22:10
have a lot of members because they are very rural.
22:16
So they don't have as much dues to pay their carriers to go to
22:21
these events. So having them in all these
22:24
different locations helps offset the cost for a lot of these
22:32
locations. So you got to you got to weigh
22:35
everything together when it comes to that.
22:37
That's why even our National Convention needs to be done all
22:42
over this country. So that way you're not
22:46
overburdening specific state too much to go to these things.
22:51
That's why we were in Reno. Now we're going back to Orlando,
22:54
then we're going to Texas. You know, we've been to Grand
22:57
Rapids several times, Spokane, WA, etcetera.
23:03
You know, it's one of those things that we have to think
23:06
about not only on a state level, but on a national level too.
23:11
How can we make it equitable for all states except unfortunately
23:17
Hawaii, Alaska and Puerto Rico. So but now I want to get into
23:30
management. Flavor of the week, the flavor
23:35
of the month. So I was, I was reached out to
23:47
and was tagged in a, in a few posts to talk with the specific
23:56
carrier about an issue that they're having.
23:59
And this is one that is going to affect a lot of carriers even
24:04
today. And this is their flavor of the
24:06
month because obviously the pods didn't remove a lot of carriers
24:13
doing the route observations and ride alongs didn't remove a lot
24:17
of carriers. So now they're going after the
24:20
Naki report. You know, we had the SAKI report
24:26
prior to 2015 and then they came out doing the Naki report and
24:37
this carrier had an issue back in 2015 and it was resolved
24:46
through the grievance arbitration process.
24:49
However, they just got put on emergency placement due to their
25:00
unsatisfactory Naki report from that incident in 2015.
25:12
Let's discuss that. What do you guys think?
25:15
These carriers already have the grievance, already have the
25:17
discipline, and got the grievance arbitration process
25:20
through it, got it completely taken care of.
25:24
What are your guys's first thoughts?
25:35
Don't all speak up at once, Fender, Josh.
25:41
Mark, anybody, I'll go first. Just a question.
25:46
I haven't heard that term before.
25:48
What are you referring to an AKI report?
25:54
So it's a report that's in our system that management can look
25:59
at. And is that what you're saying,
26:03
James? Did we lose James?
26:13
So they can. Sorry about that I was on mute.
26:18
So they can pull a Nike report through the USPS inspection
26:22
server. Do the report pulling and
26:29
management can ask the inspection service to pull a
26:31
report on specific people if they so choose, and that is what
26:35
they're doing here. They're choosing to pull it on
26:38
people to see if they can find a way to put them on emergency
26:42
placement on the way towards removal.
26:46
So what would be in this report then?
26:50
So it's supposed to look at their background, investigation
26:56
records, you know, criminal history, etcetera.
27:03
So, so, so they're looking for anything outside of the Postal
27:06
Service to try to get rid of us. Or within the Postal Service,
27:10
like this carrier in 2015 had an issue with the Postal Service
27:19
where they got that resolved through the grievance with our
27:22
preparation process. But yeah, management is now
27:26
using it against them again as a reason to fire them.
27:30
So they agreed it one, but it was in the Naki report and now
27:34
they're pulling the Naki report to say that's grounds for
27:36
removal even though it was resolved in a grievance.
27:40
Exactly. Wow.
27:44
Hey Wilkins. Actual limitations on it.
27:49
There's that as well, but I will throw this also out in front of
27:52
you. This person also has veterans
27:56
preference. Are they a table one or Table 2?
28:05
I believe Table 1, But the fact is, is that they are turning
28:14
around and they are doing double jeopardy on this carrier.
28:18
But this carrier is fighting back big time.
28:22
They have contacted Veterans Affairs, they have contacted
28:25
their their national senators and representatives.
28:29
They are going through all the official channels they can as
28:32
well as filing grievances. They're about to bury these
28:35
people with the paperwork that they never thought would be
28:38
coming. But I wanted to throw it out
28:41
there to everybody that these Nike reports are coming back and
28:44
carriers are getting walked off the job because of it.
28:47
Now there's a Step 4, supposedly with the other crafts on these
28:53
Naki reports, because city carriers were getting there
28:57
before we were, and now we're getting them here.
29:05
Yeah, this seems like something that should be kicking up a
29:09
little bit of a media shitstorm. It should be, but at the same
29:15
time you need to do the process too.
29:18
Let the process play out a little bit.
29:21
But I agree this should be one of those that needs to be out
29:30
there. This is 1 where our our
29:33
president should be putting it out there to the media that they
29:37
are treating us like criminals after a situation we resolved
29:42
already in 2013. Well, my, my concern is you
29:46
mentioned that the city carriers had this happening before.
29:49
So if we're just hearing about it now, that feels like it's
29:52
kind of a a let down on their leadership to get the word out
29:56
that's happening to them. That I heard it through for me
30:01
in arbitration. OK.
30:04
So that was, I can't remember when it was, but I've heard it a
30:09
few times through their stuff. But it's again, pattern
30:18
discipline, pattern bargaining. Yeah, exactly.
30:22
Rich, The pattern discipline, pattern bargaining.
30:27
And that's the problem that these postal unions have.
30:30
What happens to 1 happens to the others because management
30:34
doesn't change their way. And that's why I say it's the
30:38
flavor of the month for the world craft because it was
30:40
already the flavor of the month for the city craft.
30:43
Next, next it'll be on the clerk craft, the APDWU.
30:54
So, but that's one of the few things that I see going on with
30:57
management right now. Still have them doing the pods
31:00
out there looking for a violation.
31:02
I just heard of a carrier who got stopped for not wearing your
31:05
seat belt in another state. I can't remember which one, but
31:09
it's still out there. They're still looking, You know,
31:14
it's unfortunately we have to know our job better than
31:20
management. And most of us know the job
31:22
better than management, even if we aren't somebody like the
31:25
people that are on this podcast. Most carriers know their job
31:28
better than management. Yeah, so.
31:39
That is definitely a concern because that's something that's
31:44
our control that that they're trying to pull on us.
31:47
And yeah, I'm definitely going to do some digging now that
31:51
you've brought it to my attention to, to find out if
31:53
it's happening to anyone in in my district.
31:59
Yep. Keep an eye on it my question.
32:02
Is are they going to try and see if someone had like a DUI or
32:07
something like that and use it against them?
32:12
Well, we would know if somebody else got removed from their
32:15
position on a specific union for that.
32:21
But can they do that though? Because I thought in the eyes of
32:24
the Postal Service that alcoholism was considered a
32:26
disease that need to be treated. Well, I mean, if they're trying
32:32
to get people off the rolls, I wouldn't put it past management.
32:39
I wouldn't put pest management to be that shady either.
32:50
Being in Wisconsin, I'm a little bit sensitive to the whole
32:53
alcoholism thing, so I was. Waiting for that.
33:02
Is that the cheese wine I heard about?
33:07
No, that's the spotted cow close.
33:10
Oh, OK, OK. Do you guys have anything you
33:20
want to bring up? Well, I've got some stuff about
33:25
safety, so if we're heading in that direction, I will bring.
33:29
It up. Go ahead, bring it up.
33:31
We just talked about management getting on us.
33:33
We might as well talk about safety.
33:35
OK, so they told us it's getting warm.
33:38
Make sure you're hydrated. Take it from me y'all.
33:42
When I was first in RCA, I thought I'm a little thirsty.
33:48
I drank 232 ounce Gatorade in less than 5 minutes.
33:52
OK, it's getting hot. Except for up in Wisconsin,
33:57
where apparently it's. April.
34:00
So we have to take this seriously.
34:06
There have been carriers that have been found not just for the
34:09
Postal Service, but for UPS. I'm very aware of one near my
34:13
local area. They have been either found dead
34:18
in the truck or unresponsive. I heard of a carrier that was in
34:23
the truck for two hours and management didn't bother to
34:28
check on them. We are.
34:33
We have to take care of ourselves because ain't nobody
34:36
else looking out for us on these streets.
34:38
Make sure you are hydrating. If if it's going to be 95° for
34:43
example, tomorrow, you need to start hydrating now.
34:49
Tonight you need to start getting your body prepared and
34:54
it's not. Just don't fall into the trap.
34:57
And I'm guilty as charged for doing this.
35:01
Try to lay off the caffeine. Make.
35:04
Sure you have water, and make sure you have something with
35:08
electrolytes because you lose electrolytes when you sweat and
35:12
about the time you start to feel thirsty.
35:15
If you haven't acclimated, you're already on that slippery
35:19
slope. So does anyone else's office
35:23
actually provide a pallet of bottled water at all for the
35:28
office? Because like my my office does
35:30
order a pallet of bottled water and and anyone can grab any day
35:35
as many as they want. The the only time management
35:38
gets pissed off is if someone like drinks half one and leaves
35:40
it sitting somewhere. Yeah, we have a hydrate in their
35:47
mind. We have a hydration station but
35:52
it's a little rinky dink thing and we're in an SNDC and I have
35:56
not seen the said pallet of water come in.
36:02
Yeah, we. We don't, we don't have the
36:04
hydration station, but yeah, my, my postmaster will order like a
36:08
whole pallet of, of bottled water and then it'll just be
36:12
there for the summer. We have a water fountain that
36:17
you can fill up. Your water bottle.
36:19
And we have like a whole big. Cart full of.
36:25
Stational water that they give us, that they put ice in to.
36:31
Have cold water with. We do have an ice machine in our
36:37
break room. Oh, that's nice.
36:41
Yeah, we have one of those too. The the the only problem that
36:47
sucks though is when you drink that much water is that you have
36:50
to take so many more pee breaks. And that that's a big problem
36:55
with my other carriers that they don't want to always have to
36:57
keep stopping to have to go to the bathroom.
36:59
But the other safety thing, sunscreen.
37:06
Yes, make sure you are wearing sunscreen.
37:08
Especially those sticking their right arm out the window.
37:11
Make sure you're wearing sunscreen.
37:14
You know you can. Get a sleeve.
37:16
A sleeve there protects your arms too, always.
37:20
There please. I got one for you, James, even
37:26
though the the temptation is there.
37:28
Remember keep you're supposed to keep your LOV door shut while
37:33
you're driving it. You can only have it open when
37:38
you're going very short distances between boxes, and you
37:42
cannot have it open when you're crossing intersections or when
37:45
you're traveling to or from long distance boxes.
37:48
I believe it's under 15 miles an hour if I'm not mistaken.
37:53
I could be wrong, so you'll probably correct me anyway.
38:00
I I haven't has has anyone tried that elbow pipe thing that I see
38:05
a lot of people strap into the the windows?
38:09
A lot of people have those. I prefer having my biggest fan
38:12
in the windmill across from me, little Craftsman battery powered
38:16
fan and I have a blown rate across the truck, but even when
38:20
the truck's off, it's still blowing cool air across the
38:23
truck keeps it about 10 to 15° cooler than it would have
38:26
normally been. Well.
38:34
If you're in a metric, you have air conditioning up until the
38:36
point that the air conditioning gives out.
38:39
OK, so talking. About the battery powered fans.
38:43
Yeah, I have one that's powered by my power tool batteries.
38:47
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just want to make sure this is
38:53
corrected on here. I was we were got comments on
38:57
here. 15 mph, less than 500 feet and no intersections for having
39:02
your door open for people in the chat.
39:06
And make sure your seat belt is on at all times.
39:13
Correct. And just for those in the POV,
39:23
because I have a POV. I have.
39:26
Pedals on the other side, I always wear my seat belt because
39:31
I mean, you get hit, it doesn't matter.
39:35
You're you're going to go out that window or out the other
39:37
window. That's just to wear it no matter
39:42
what. Yeah, and you got to make sure
39:49
you take care of your safety. You know, as Bill said, you are
39:55
the most important delivery of the day.
39:56
Get home to your loved one. We feel that way too.
40:00
Every single person out here feels that way.
40:02
You need to get home to your family.
40:05
Yes. Anything else guys?
40:12
This job is, well, it is a great job.
40:14
I'm not giving my life for this job.
40:19
No to management. You're just a number and they'll
40:22
replace you the very next day. Your family can't replace you,
40:26
No. And remember, if you're feeling
40:30
dizzy or light headed, pull over.
40:33
Call 911. You might be having heat stroke
40:36
or heat exhaustion. Better safe than sorry.
40:40
Get help before it's too late. I did, I did.
40:48
Don't forget they gave us. Don't forget they gave us those
40:52
little charts you have to carry around with you so you're
40:55
feeling any of those symptoms. You look at that little chart
40:58
and go through it and make sure that if you're having any of
41:03
those symptoms that you need to call 911 or drink when rest pull
41:12
over. Yeah.
41:16
When I had my heat sickness, I started feeling dizzy near the
41:20
end of my route and I'm like, I'll just push through it.
41:23
I'll just push through it. I'll just push through it.
41:25
Then I had like 20 boxes left and then I was down for three
41:31
days after that because I pushed myself through it.
41:38
Now I'm actually more susceptible to the heat than I
41:42
was before because of that. Oh that's funny frequency.
41:50
They put the charts in the LL VS and the glue gave it out from
41:53
the heat. You know, I have, I have one on
41:58
MY-1 on my door and one behind me on the sliding door.
42:05
And remember, you can always make a pan of cookies on the
42:08
dash of the LOV if you really, really want something neat,
42:13
well. Even in a if I need to.
42:16
Eat up my. Microwave.
42:25
Oh man. Last call guys, anything else?
42:32
I would just say everybody who has a convention this week,
42:36
learn as much as you can. If you're a first timer, we
42:38
welcome all first timers. Don't be afraid to step up to
42:41
that mic. Ask questions at your caucus
42:46
night, ask questions of your candidates.
42:49
And this is, this is the National Convention, just on a
42:53
smaller scale. This is where the true business
42:55
of the union gets done, the voting for the delegates.
43:00
It's when you'll find out if if you ran for a delegate, where
43:04
you'll find out if you're paid delegate and a paid alternate or
43:07
an alternate. I do want to say with the state
43:12
conventions that if you are a carrier, whether you're sub and
43:18
ARCA regular, if you've never been to a state convention and
43:23
you happen to have the day off, whether it's your K day or
43:27
whatever, or whatnot and you want to go, you can attend as
43:31
long as you're a member of the union.
43:32
You can't vote because you're not a delegate, but you can be
43:35
there. So by all means pretend and
43:40
check it out. And if you attend and you start
43:44
to meet people and, and you, you learn what goes on and then
43:48
maybe you'll run as a delegate next year and you'll get your
43:51
name on the ballot for your county unit and other Co workers
43:54
will vote for you to go that that's where it starts.
43:57
That's how you get more involved.
44:02
I was actually very impressed. An RCA that went to, I think she
44:09
was an RCA at the time. We'll go with that.
44:12
She was an RCA. She is a regular carrier now and
44:17
she is, she was on the ballot this year to be a national
44:21
delegate. You bet your life I voted for
44:24
her because I want to see the first timers to a convention and
44:30
the first timers to a state convention rather and the first
44:33
time to a National Convention that are coming on their own
44:36
dime. I want them to be delegates.
44:38
That shows commitment. I agree with that completely.
44:45
How about you Mark? What's your final thought?
44:52
Like you said, it's getting hot and just need to stay.
44:55
Hydrated. And for those that have state
44:59
conventions this week, Yep, up. Make your voices heard, please.
45:09
This is your, some people won't get to go to the National
45:12
Convention. So like I said, step up, make
45:15
your voices heard so that that because there's going to be a, a
45:20
national person at your convention.
45:23
So let them know what you think if it's about the ratification
45:30
process or just anything that you feel like that question
45:39
anything about the contract. That's all like Bill says, you
45:48
are, you are the most important delivery of the day.
45:52
So get home to your loved ones. Thank you very much, guys.
46:00
I appreciate you guys jumping up here and joining in.
46:03
We there's only going to be me and Josh tonight.
46:06
Bill, you've been, you've been surrogated by two people and
46:10
they can't feel your shoes. We miss ya.
46:13
But they did a very good job. I will give them credit and I
46:17
hope they come back up to join us again another time.
46:21
They're all right. We do have to take care of
46:24
ourselves and we do have to go to these conventions.
46:30
We do have to participate in this union.
46:33
The only way we make change is through these conventions,
46:40
through resolutions that are voted on 1st at your local
46:44
meeting, then your state convention, then at National
46:47
Convention. That is how our national board
46:52
gets the information of what we want to see.
46:57
And right now that's the only way they get to know what we
47:00
want to see. But we need to step up first,
47:06
come together, show up for these events.
47:10
And I will tell you, you don't have to be a delegate to speak
47:13
at these events because at my very first state convention over
47:18
here in Pontiac, MI, my county was hosting it.
47:22
I asked the most popular delegate of the state convention
47:29
to get the rules suspended for me to present a resolution and
47:34
they did it and I got to present that resolution and the name of
47:38
that person was Bridget Boziak. She suspended the rules for me
47:44
so that I could present a three page resolution.
47:47
It passed at stake but failed at National because it was too
47:50
wordy. But I took the chance.
47:54
You can too. You can get involved now and
47:58
make some make a name for yourself through the delegation
48:02
as well to be more inclined to be participating in the future
48:06
conventions and and conferences etcetera.
48:12
And it still made it there. We still make a difference.
48:18
Every single resolution that we pass tonight that is national
48:23
level oriented is going to national for my state.
48:28
So will all the rest of the state resolutions that get voted
48:31
on during their state convention.
48:35
Participation is key. Taking care of yourself to be
48:41
able to participate is key as well.
48:44
As Josh said, hydrate yourself, take care of yourself.
48:52
It doesn't matter if you're an ARC, RCAPTF, regular carrier, or
48:59
retired carrier, you want to participate to help this craft,
49:06
come join us. Come participate in these
49:09
events. Come see what it's all about
49:13
because at the end of the day, we're all in this together.
49:19
Good night everybody. We'll see you next week.
49:24
Good night and good luck.