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eBidding, Social Media, and Route Adjustments · United We Scan

• 0:14
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:18
  carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
• 0:22
  podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
• 0:25
  not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
• 0:28
  United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
• 0:30
  Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
• 0:33
  your assigned union representative for guidance in
• 0:35
  your local area. Please like this podcast, share
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  with your fellow rural carriers, and subscribe to be notified
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  each time a new episode is uploaded.
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  Please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:47
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:50
  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody, Episode
• 0:55
  one O 6. I've got a few topics to discuss
• 0:58
  this week. We're going to touch on a little
• 1:01
  bit on ebidding, some social media policies and route
• 1:05
  adjustment. Had some interesting emails,
• 1:09
  phone calls and all that stuff this week.
• 1:12
  So it's interesting toppings. Toppings.
• 1:15
  Yeah, it's interesting toppings to bring up, but topics that.
• 1:24
  Is tip of the iceberg topping? Yes, yes, it really is.
• 1:27
  Because. Bill is back with us this week,
• 1:33
  by the way, so. Munich relief is here.
• 1:38
  Oh yes, James, how was your week?
• 1:42
  Oh it was fun. Not as much as some other areas
• 1:45
  got, but we did get snow up here too.
• 1:48
  And so that was a lot of fun slipping and sliding and what my
• 1:52
  own Mayan and the LOV and stuff like that.
• 1:55
  But really didn't have any delays concerning delivery.
• 2:00
  Thursday off, of course, for Jimmy Carter's funeral.
• 2:05
  Very humble man. And then Friday was, of course,
• 2:11
  super heavy. It was interesting on Friday,
• 2:16
  Yeah, got approached by one of our RC as who was an extra
• 2:20
  because our postmaster actually had everybody that could report,
• 2:24
  report in for work. We had an extra RCA at the
• 2:27
  office, so he took off a bunch of large packages off of me,
• 2:32
  which consisted of about an hour off the end of my route of
• 2:37
  normal delivery. I gave them all the packages of
• 2:39
  that section and then I get about halfway across row 3 of my
• 2:46
  six row K. So I was almost halfway done and
• 2:49
  one of the aux route RCA's comes up to me and he's like what can
• 2:52
  I take off of you? And so I gave him all the
• 2:57
  packages for the rest of my route.
• 2:59
  I didn't give anybody an e-mail, but I gave him all the packages
• 3:03
  except for two packages which had to go down a single lane Rd.
• 3:06
  and I wasn't going to send an RCA down there.
• 3:09
  So I found out what it was like to be an old school carrier of
• 3:14
  delivering mostly mail. And now I can understand some of
• 3:18
  the comments some certain individuals have made about
• 3:22
  rural carriers and where they would have gotten that opinion
• 3:25
  because they don't know what it's like to actually deliver
• 3:28
  packages with the mail at the volumes that we do.
• 3:32
  So I found that out on Friday. I was going through, I was doing
• 3:37
  a row every 30 to 45 minutes After that I got done it.
• 3:42
  I was, I got done at 5:00. I was back at the office at 5:00
• 3:47
  and that wouldn't happen. I would have been back at 7730
• 3:50
  with the packages that I had. So it was very, very, I'm very,
• 3:55
  very thankful to have the relief carriers that I did help me out
• 4:00
  on the route. And then Saturday I did not get
• 4:05
  called in, thank goodness. We actually had enough coverage
• 4:07
  on Saturday and today I ended up going up to the Detroit Model
• 4:13
  Railroad Club in Holly, MI, and they actually have some pieces
• 4:19
  from the former layout that I was on.
• 4:22
  And so I got to see those pieces actually running on the layout.
• 4:27
  So I was kind of happy to see that.
• 4:29
  And then I came home to put up my latest post on my page for my
• 4:35
  candidacy for presidency and then do this podcast.
• 4:37
  So that's about how my week went.
• 4:41
  How about your week, Bill? How was your vacation away from
• 4:44
  us? So two weeks you got to talk
• 4:46
  about. We're not going to talk about
• 4:50
  vacation. I don't.
• 4:53
  I don't want to insult people of the Dominican Republic.
• 4:57
  If they were if they were in the pre show, they could have heard
• 5:00
  what happened. Because I, I, I definitely, you
• 5:04
  know, understand living in a destitute country under an
• 5:09
  oppressive regime that's run by a post office.
• 5:16
  The, the, the facility was nice, very well laid out.
• 5:22
  It was huge. It, it was 4 different actual
• 5:27
  resorts in inside this gated community.
• 5:31
  And for the most part, most people are, you know, very nice
• 5:36
  thing, you know, the, the wait staff and all just, you know,
• 5:39
  some hiccups in the facilities is in regards to what we are
• 5:43
  expecting. And, and then try to get sucker
• 5:46
  punched into a timeshare, you know, pitch, which ended up with
• 5:52
  we're done here. What do you mean you were done
• 5:54
  here? We're done here.
• 5:57
  And I get up and they go, oh, it's like, yeah, 'cause I, we're
• 6:02
  done and I'm standing over you. That's why we're done.
• 6:06
  The, the weather was nice. Like I said, the people were
• 6:08
  nice and everything. It's just, you know, myself and
• 6:12
  Carol, we're, we're more, we, we, we'd like, we'd like to be
• 6:18
  alone on vacation. We'd like to relax.
• 6:20
  We don't want to have to be somewhere at a certain time at a
• 6:23
  certain table, you know, so it, it's not our cup of tea.
• 6:27
  You know it. We, we did that.
• 6:29
  We don't like it. We did the cruise.
• 6:31
  We don't like cruises too many people on there, especially the
• 6:34
  ones that are boiling in the spas, in the hot tubs, you know,
• 6:39
  the ones that can't fit in the showers.
• 6:43
  But we, we'd like, we like our peace and quiet.
• 6:46
  We, we do what we want to do when we want to do it.
• 6:49
  And, and you know, that's just where we are in at this stage of
• 6:53
  life. Even before I like, you know,
• 6:55
  they had zip lines available, which I love zip lines, but I, I
• 6:59
  didn't feel like spending four hours to get there to, you know,
• 7:02
  go climbing up some facility wondering whether or not it'll
• 7:05
  break or not, whether I get hijacked in mid flight.
• 7:08
  You know, that would be one for the books, James, But you know,
• 7:15
  it, it's we wanted to relax and, and it wasn't relaxing.
• 7:18
  So we're back home. And as soon as I was back home,
• 7:22
  my, my phone started lighting up about my old office.
• 7:26
  And we'll get in some detail after, you know, the
• 7:29
  introductions because this is going to make you all scratch
• 7:32
  your heads. OK, About you, Kristen.
• 7:35
  How you doing, Grandma? Where?
• 7:37
  How's my grandbaby over there? He's doing good as you got the
• 7:40
  brief, he came to say hi just. Just the parent.
• 7:49
  Yeah, yeah, Ruby started working at her job at Burger King, so
• 7:54
  I've been on babysitting duty because she does closing shift.
• 7:58
  So I am not cut out for full time parenthood of an infant
• 8:03
  anymore, let's put it that way. I love my grandson.
• 8:08
  I'll do whatever I can for him. But wow, these have been some
• 8:11
  late nights when I'm just used to Sunday night being the late
• 8:15
  night of the week and then I had to do it Monday night and
• 8:19
  Tuesday night and Wednesday night.
• 8:21
  Yeah. Yeah, but no, the my week wasn't
• 8:26
  too bad. It's Friday sucked, let's put it
• 8:32
  that way. Friday was the Monday as Friday
• 8:36
  I have experienced in a long time.
• 8:40
  I mean, the rest of the week was pretty standard.
• 8:42
  So we finally decided since, you know, we were closed on
• 8:45
  Thursday, that they would take those trucks that need to be
• 8:49
  fixed in on Wednesday after everybody got back to our local
• 8:53
  contracted shop and my truck was the only one that did not get to
• 8:57
  return on Friday morning. I wrote my truck up on October
• 9:02
  4th for breaks. It never went in.
• 9:06
  I wrote it up in November for something else and on top of
• 9:10
  blowing the radiator hose two days before Thanksgiving, the
• 9:14
  part came in for that the next day.
• 9:15
  It never went in. So I was working on a patch job
• 9:18
  on a radiator hose since just before Thanksgiving and then I
• 9:22
  wrote it up for something else this month.
• 9:24
  Well, it finally went in and great, you're not October was
• 9:29
  when I wrote it up for the brakes.
• 9:31
  Yes, it has a bad master cylinder and is waiting for the
• 9:34
  parts. So I and they told me I could
• 9:39
  take the City Fours LLV, which is the auxiliary city route.
• 9:45
  So they could play around with times a little bit for that when
• 9:48
  somebody else would come back for that carrier to take an LLV.
• 9:52
  So I stirred up the LLV warm up. And before I looked, I looked,
• 9:59
  there's a CCACCA was standing there.
• 10:04
  And I said, was that there before?
• 10:06
  He's like, what? And I pointed to the puddle of
• 10:09
  antifreeze underneath the LLV. He's like no, shut her off, go
• 10:15
  back in say yes, there's a puddle of antifreeze underneath
• 10:19
  this LLV. So then I went on O time and
• 10:23
  drove it up to the shop so they could take a look at it.
• 10:25
  Luckily it was just a a loose clamp.
• 10:28
  They fixed it, not a problem. Back on the road.
• 10:31
  You know, 20 minutes later to start my route at 11:15, which
• 10:37
  for me is not good because I should have been on the route at
• 10:39
  10:30. But anyways, got that done.
• 10:43
  I don't know when I'm getting my truck back.
• 10:46
  Was not prepared to have this truck.
• 10:48
  The heat is completely different than mine didn't have the window
• 10:52
  cover on the delivery window was not dressed for it needs to say
• 10:55
  it was a frozen popsicle by the time I got home.
• 10:58
  So I dressed better yesterday because yes, I had to work my K
• 11:01
  day yesterday to take the same truck and then.
• 11:06
  So yeah, that was pretty much it.
• 11:07
  I Friday was a heavy day, but it is what it is.
• 11:12
  I got back to the office at 6:15, mostly because it was
• 11:17
  11:15 by the time I actually left the office.
• 11:21
  And then I did make amends with the RCA assigned to my route.
• 11:26
  I will not go into details, but I will say that they did
• 11:29
  apologize to me and manned up, so I will.
• 11:35
  I, I, I, I accepted it because it needed to be done anyways and
• 11:40
  the communication between he and I needed to be there about the
• 11:43
  route as it is, so I was happy for that.
• 11:48
  But other than that, I will be this coming week.
• 11:50
  I see. I work tomorrow and then Tuesday
• 11:52
  through Friday I'm finally training the new RCA.
• 11:57
  So given that it's supposed to be a high of in the low 20s, I
• 12:01
  really need to find all my batteries for my socks and my
• 12:06
  vest and whatever else I can find to stay warm in the back of
• 12:09
  the LLV all week. So that was pretty much my week
• 12:14
  in a nutshell. And I'm, I'm glad to see that
• 12:17
  you use my technique to get your sub to agree to apologize, you
• 12:22
  know, grab them by the nads and squeeze it.
• 12:26
  It works on every. Guy, actually, I actually, I
• 12:28
  didn't even have to do that. They're the ones that came up to
• 12:31
  me while we were loading the trucks and all on their own.
• 12:36
  So I know that's that's kind of fun.
• 12:42
  I was a little taken back, but hey, you know, it was good.
• 12:46
  Yeah, yeah, the, the, the weather hasn't been too bad
• 12:51
  around here. They got a, you know, a couple
• 12:53
  sprinklers of snow, like 2 inches and, and an inch.
• 12:56
  But other than that, you know, haven't anything really stuck on
• 12:59
  the road. But they did get into the
• 13:02
  situation where I said coming down the highway to our old
• 13:06
  delivery area, they now have a a service station set up to put
• 13:10
  chains on the trucks. And then when you're done at the
• 13:13
  end of the day, you can stop at the service station and have the
• 13:15
  chains taken off the trucks. Wow.
• 13:21
  It's it's like almost, almost like somebody listened to me.
• 13:27
  Yeah, hey, yeah. You're you're not going up a
• 13:30
  highway. That average speed is 65 with
• 13:33
  chains on. Absolutely not.
• 13:36
  Not not live, you know, so. I mean, they're only they're
• 13:40
  only rated for a maximum of 30 miles an hour in most cases.
• 13:45
  Yeah, it and and that's if they don't hit a rumble strip or a
• 13:49
  pothole and, you know, get dislodged, you know, at that
• 13:51
  speed. I noticed that happens a lot to
• 13:55
  see when you get some breaks in the concrete there that that
• 13:58
  actually, you know, pop that chain out and you start getting
• 14:01
  that slap, slap, slap. Never driven a chain so I can't
• 14:06
  relate to that at all. That allowed in our.
• 14:09
  State all right add off onto my bad vacation tomorrow tomorrow I
• 14:16
  have to do a stress test so today no caffeine, no chocolate,
• 14:22
  no nicotine, no soda no it's like.
• 14:28
  I noticed that you were inside tonight and not outside, so that
• 14:33
  explains it. Just trust me, yeah?
• 14:40
  I would not want to be around you right now, let's just put it
• 14:43
  that way. And the nice thing is that I'm
• 14:46
  actually inside, but I'm up on the ceiling right now.
• 14:48
  I just turned the computer the other way to make it look right.
• 14:56
  Oh, anyway. All right.
• 14:58
  I wanted to touch a little bit on E bidding.
• 15:00
  I had a listener reach out to me this week about bidding.
• 15:08
  Apparently they have an RCA in their office who never set up
• 15:16
  their light blue and couldn't find their pin number who set it
• 15:22
  up with senior RCA. Two years in and well, when you
• 15:30
  have to wait to be able to do it, guess what happens?
• 15:35
  So this is kind of out there for all you, RC as in particular
• 15:39
  because PTFS are already career and they will convert if you're
• 15:43
  the senior PTF even if you don't bid.
• 15:46
  So this is primarily for RC as when you get hired and they step
• 15:52
  you through the light blue setup or pin number.
• 15:55
  However, they do it now because I know it's different than when
• 15:57
  I started. You get that PIN number, set up
• 16:01
  your light blue account right then and there.
• 16:05
  Write down your, your, your EIN and your password.
• 16:09
  Put that in a safe place because if you don't have that, you
• 16:13
  can't bid. And even if you are bidding via
• 16:17
  phone, you need a PIN number. So I'm going to go over the
• 16:22
  rural bidding process real quick.
• 16:24
  The contractual language governing the infinitely.
• 16:27
  This is the rural bidding process that I grabbed off of
• 16:30
  the Steward reference guide. So just says the contractual
• 16:34
  language governing the implementation of the new
• 16:37
  process and found in the Miu #18 Rural Bidding of 2006 2010
• 16:42
  National Agreement. In an effort to improve,
• 16:45
  standardize and automate the bidding process for regular
• 16:49
  rural routes and part time flexible positions, the NRLCA
• 16:53
  and the USPS have agreed to the following position provisions.
• 16:59
  All requirements provided in Article 12, Article 30, MOU 6
• 17:03
  and MOU 7 of the current contract will apply.
• 17:08
  This is when they went from paper bidding to automated
• 17:11
  bidding. Bidding for the regular route or
• 17:14
  routes listed on the posting is not only for the posted vacancy,
• 17:18
  but for any regular route or routes in the office that may
• 17:21
  become available as a result of the file of filling the original
• 17:26
  route vacancy. Eligible rural carriers will
• 17:29
  submit bids using the Employee self-service at the
• 17:34
  www.lightblue.usps.gov, at HR kiosks, web bidding, computers
• 17:42
  or phone bidding and it gives a number.
• 17:45
  It's option 2. The use of telephone, computer
• 17:48
  or other automated bidding at an installation is the prerogative
• 17:52
  of the employer. So I know if City side can still
• 17:56
  do paper bids in office and stuff like that.
• 18:00
  Rural side is all automated bidding.
• 18:03
  The following conditions apply to the automated bidding system
• 18:07
  #1 EIN and PIN numbers are required for carriers to utilize
• 18:12
  interactive voice response. Telephone bidding #2 The
• 18:17
  automated bidding system is available 24 hours a day, seven
• 18:20
  days a week #3 All bids close at 11:59 PM Central time #4
• 18:30
  Employees can enter, withdraw or change preferences and or review
• 18:34
  the status of their bids. And #5 Employees will need their
• 18:37
  employee identification number, your EIN, and your personal
• 18:41
  password to access web applications for a job bidding.
• 18:49
  Make sure with that PIN number because if you don't set it up
• 18:52
  with that PIN and you have to request a new PIN to be mailed
• 18:56
  to you, you more than likely will not get it in time if that
• 19:01
  route has already posted to bid. So please RC as make sure,
• 19:06
  especially if you're at that 12 months, that one year where you
• 19:11
  can bid even if you're not the senior RCA or you're not in a
• 19:15
  position, still go in there in bed, even if it's just practice
• 19:22
  because you never know what can happen to anybody above either
• 19:25
  somebody bid didn't go through correctly, somebody didn't bid
• 19:28
  somebody anything like that. Always go in in bed once you're
• 19:32
  eligible to bid. But please, please, please set
• 19:36
  up that light blue because now we run into instances if you
• 19:40
  don't set up that light blue account and then you wait and
• 19:45
  you're like, oh, I'm the next to go regular.
• 19:49
  I'm the next to go career. Not necessarily regular because
• 19:52
  this could be for PTF positions as well.
• 19:55
  I'm the next to go career. I don't have this set up.
• 19:58
  I don't know what happened to that pin number that I got a
• 20:00
  year ago, two years ago, however long it's been.
• 20:03
  And now I got to call and request.
• 20:05
  You're not guaranteed to have that PIN number in time to bid
• 20:08
  on that position. So please please please keep
• 20:11
  that in mind. And I'm going to just say this,
• 20:15
  you said it doesn't really affect PTFS, but I'm going to
• 20:19
  say this. PTFS if you are next in line it
• 20:24
  on the routes because you can put in your order of preference
• 20:30
  on the route. And that has come up in a couple
• 20:35
  of offices where it got an extra route opened up because two
• 20:41
  people retired at once and the PTF got the route that that they
• 20:46
  didn't really want, they wanted the other one.
• 20:49
  So make sure every time a route comes up in your office, even if
• 20:56
  you're a regular and you want a different route, bid on those
• 21:00
  routes that you would rather have than the route you're on.
• 21:04
  Don't bid on route you don't want, but select the ones you do
• 21:07
  and put in order of which ones you would like.
• 21:10
  Because when a single route goes up for bid, every other route in
• 21:16
  that office has the opportunity to bid on that route and the
• 21:21
  other routes in that office. And then once that route is
• 21:26
  filled, any vacancies in that route go with the rest of the
• 21:30
  bids that are in that office. It's a, it's a one and done
• 21:36
  bidding in the entire office kind of thing.
• 21:40
  So if you want to make sure if you're in RCA especially that
• 21:44
  you're bidding every single route.
• 21:47
  I know of an RCA who bid every route but one route and the RCA
• 21:54
  below them bid all routes and the RCA below them got the route
• 22:00
  even though it was the worst route in the office because that
• 22:03
  RCA decided to bid all versus the one who said I don't want to
• 22:08
  touch that route. They jumped that senior RCA and
• 22:13
  became a regular. Yep.
• 22:16
  So it doesn't matter if it's the worst route in the office,
• 22:19
  you're going regular. That should be the biggest
• 22:22
  benefit of them all. If you're APTF, guess what?
• 22:25
  You don't bid on anything. That's the route you're getting.
• 22:28
  Yep, yeah, I mean definitely and you know and that's you get a
• 22:34
  lot of times too. Any light blue is a bear to
• 22:39
  navigate at times, trust me. But that's where you I mean and
• 22:44
  this is going out to new hires, Rcas and PTFS hired off the
• 22:48
  street. The light blue you can go in,
• 22:51
  you can check your pay stubs are actually easier to read on light
• 22:54
  blue than they are on the paper form much easier.
• 22:59
  Paper forms still confuse me. I pretty much only look at my
• 23:02
  stub on light blue and then as well as any health insurance as
• 23:10
  RCA the one health insurance is all done.
• 23:13
  You know, sign up on light blue for that direct deposit, any
• 23:18
  allotments, your tax exemptions or not exemptions, but
• 23:28
  dependents, if you're claiming any dependents on your W fours
• 23:33
  or your and whatnot of that. I mean, that's all done on
• 23:37
  there. So that is very important to set
• 23:39
  up right away. And like I said, if it's
• 23:42
  something that you're not going to get on to all the time and
• 23:45
  now with the multi factor to login, you can't use your e-mail
• 23:50
  anymore. I personally do text message
• 23:53
  much easier, quicker, but you know, you got to get that.
• 23:58
  So that way, when it does come time for bidding, you're not
• 24:01
  screwing yourself, plain and simple.
• 24:05
  There's also another thing on light blue that they can look at
• 24:07
  and that is the training. You know, there's been the lots
• 24:11
  of talk about trainings that have been done where the
• 24:15
  carriers were not present. Go back to to Eugene Gates.
• 24:20
  Eugene Gates was the big one, you know, management falsifying
• 24:23
  training records. So you can go in there and see
• 24:26
  what trainings they signed off that you had and maybe you were
• 24:29
  off that day or you can also take trainings on there if you
• 24:35
  want to. You know, there are a lot of
• 24:37
  people. You can also see what trainings
• 24:40
  that they were supposed to put in for you and they didn't
• 24:44
  because it may say still pending and it could be two years ago.
• 24:50
  Yes, you, you, you can see all that as well.
• 24:53
  But you know our main focus on this because it was brought up
• 24:56
  to me officially because this individual had a senior RCA in
• 25:00
  their office, routes coming up forbid, and they never signed up
• 25:04
  on light blue and they lost their pin.
• 25:09
  Honestly there is absolutely no recourse for that other than
• 25:12
  having to wait for that new pin and to sign up, and probably
• 25:17
  it's done in time before the route bidding closes.
• 25:21
  But Kristen, isn't there a way to do bidding with management on
• 25:25
  the computer? You still have to have a pin
• 25:30
  though. Yeah, you still have to have a
• 25:35
  pin. EINN.
• 25:42
  PIN numbers are required for carriers to utilize even if you
• 25:46
  want to bid over the phone because I know some that can bid
• 25:49
  over the phone but you still need that PIN number.
• 25:53
  I'm wondering if they're because of we know how long it takes for
• 25:57
  mail to move nowadays. Thanks to the Delivering for
• 25:59
  America plan, they came up with a solution to assist these
• 26:06
  carriers getting these pins through their local management
• 26:10
  instead of having to mail it. Or they can mail it and then
• 26:13
  give it to the manager to give to the carrier or something like
• 26:16
  that, You know, oh wait, this is government.
• 26:19
  We can't think logically. Exactly.
• 26:25
  Do we really want to trust local management to that much?
• 26:29
  Well, they're trying to help you bid, you know, I thought maybe
• 26:32
  they'd actually have some class, you know?
• 26:34
  Yeah. You know, but and if you have
• 26:37
  multiple routes that are going up forbid, make sure you get a
• 26:41
  copy of that bid sheet so you know what the bid numbers are
• 26:44
  for each of those postings. That way you know exactly which
• 26:48
  routes, because once you pull up E bidding, it's got all the
• 26:51
  routes. And I want to say there was an
• 26:53
  asterisk. There's usually an asterisk
• 26:55
  symbol or something near the one that is the one that's actually
• 26:59
  up for bid, but not all the time.
• 27:05
  So yeah, if you've got more than one route that's going up for
• 27:07
  bid in your office, get a copy of that bed sheet so you have
• 27:10
  those numbers, listing numbers to bid on.
• 27:15
  But yes, very, very important for all new hires to definitely
• 27:19
  get that set up as soon as possible.
• 27:23
  So next one, we're going to touch on another one.
• 27:29
  This is the fun one. This is this is where my
• 27:34
  expertise comes in handy. This is the US, the USPS social
• 27:43
  media policy. Now, this was taken from a stand
• 27:48
  up talk that was supposed to be given out in October of 2023 to
• 27:54
  social media policy Reminder. The Postal Service wants
• 28:00
  employees to remember that they're prohibited from speaking
• 28:03
  on behalf of the organization on websites, blogs, and social
• 28:08
  media without permission. Under the organization's policy,
• 28:13
  employees must receive written permission from the Postal
• 28:18
  Service social media team and the appropriate vice president
• 28:22
  before establishing any online accounts that represent the
• 28:25
  Postal Service. Failure to follow this policy
• 28:30
  could result in corrective action, including removal from
• 28:33
  the Postal Service. The policy does not infringe on
• 28:37
  employees ability to have their own social media presence or
• 28:40
  personal accounts. However, it is recommended that
• 28:44
  employees note in their personal account profiles that they don't
• 28:48
  speak on behalf of the organization.
• 28:51
  Employees also should not post while on the clock.
• 28:55
  That is the big one. Do not post while on the clock.
• 29:00
  This includes selfies in the plant or office vehicles or
• 29:07
  other workplace areas, and employees are expected to
• 29:11
  conduct themselves during and outside of the working hours in
• 29:13
  a manner that reflects favorability upon the Postal
• 29:15
  Service. The social media team conducts
• 29:18
  routine audits of sites that claim to represent the Postal
• 29:21
  Service. Unverified sites are routinely
• 29:23
  removed and employee conduct addressed.
• 29:28
  The biggest 1 is on the clock in the vehicles, in the offices,
• 29:32
  etcetera. This includes your TikTok videos
• 29:36
  that you film of yourself while you're in your LLV driving down
• 29:40
  the road. Those get back to not only the
• 29:45
  Postal Service but they also get back to union headquarters.
• 29:50
  Do not do wit if you want to gripe, if you want to not
• 29:55
  represent and want to speak and have your TikTok and have your
• 29:58
  Facebook and have your Instagram and have your podcasts.
• 30:02
  You do it off the clock. Not in wearing any postal
• 30:08
  Insignia or uniforms. If you have a uniform for those
• 30:12
  non rural carriers that have uniforms.
• 30:15
  But even if you're a rural carrier and you wear stuff with
• 30:18
  a USPS logo, those are not supposed to be in photos videos
• 30:26
  while you're doing it. Go ahead, James.
• 30:31
  I saw you put your hands up. Oh, this is this is the thing
• 30:37
  that I am very well knowledgeable about.
• 30:42
  You know, I've took taken the time to learn and understand all
• 30:46
  the rules and regulations concerning social media
• 30:50
  policies, postings and things like that.
• 30:53
  And yes, Postal Service N discipline you after a proper
• 31:00
  and thorough investigation as well as an investigative
• 31:03
  interview before they can discipline you.
• 31:06
  And the discipline has to be corrective, not punitive.
• 31:10
  But posting videos inside the vehicle, inside the back rooms
• 31:16
  of the post office in places that normally the public is not
• 31:20
  allowed is against the rules. But if you are outside of the
• 31:28
  vehicle, you are off the clock and you are out of a typical
• 31:34
  uniform. So this is specifically city
• 31:37
  carriers have a typical uniform, rural carriers do not.
• 31:41
  And when we purchase those articles at our conventions and
• 31:45
  conferences, those are personal items.
• 31:47
  They are not postal property. The uniforms are postal property
• 31:51
  because they have to be specific materials.
• 31:54
  They have to have specific designs, specific logos,
• 31:57
  positionings, etcetera. The stuff we get at our
• 32:01
  conferences and conventions, that is actually not considered
• 32:05
  postal wear. It is pride wear, which is where
• 32:09
  the definitive line is the difference.
• 32:11
  So technically you can wear it while you're talking, but it's
• 32:17
  highly advised not to. So, but also they talk about
• 32:25
  being, you know, being favorable to the post office in your
• 32:29
  postings. What that basically means is if
• 32:32
  you dog us, we're going to come after you.
• 32:35
  Here's the problem with that. The Postal Service, as well as
• 32:39
  any union out there that has a social media policy, needs to
• 32:43
  understand that since 2011, the National Labor Relations Board
• 32:47
  has ruled against social media policies like the ones the Post
• 32:51
  Office has. And the union has.
• 32:54
  Any union has, when it comes to trying to curtail us talking in
• 32:59
  a concerted action about wages, work conditions and benefits.
• 33:05
  Now notice I said concerted. So something like this where we
• 33:09
  are discussing issues that affect rural carriers.
• 33:13
  That is one instance from 8 arbitration talking about issues
• 33:18
  that affect city carriers. That's another one.
• 33:21
  But when you get into the my postmaster is this, my
• 33:25
  postmaster is that, and it's just basically a giant bitch
• 33:30
  session. That's when you can get into
• 33:32
  legal trouble when it comes to that, especially if you're doing
• 33:36
  so from inside a postal vehicle. Now, there is an article in the
• 33:43
  post office that every post office is required to have, and
• 33:48
  that is poster 7. Poster 7 has the rules and
• 33:52
  regulations when it comes to taking photographs of pictures
• 33:55
  inside the postal facilities. And you can do so in foyers,
• 33:59
  lobbies and other publicly accessible areas of the post
• 34:03
  office. You cannot do so in back rooms,
• 34:06
  offices, inside postal vehicles. But if you are out on the route
• 34:11
  and you are on a lunch break and you are not wearing a postal
• 34:15
  uniform, you could post a video dancing next to a postal truck.
• 34:21
  That is not a violation of a social media policy.
• 34:23
  That would stick with the NLRB, but as always, be mindful, be
• 34:31
  careful and know that everybody is watching your social media
• 34:38
  because I will tell you this, they will pay billions of
• 34:43
  dollars for AI technology to track everything that people are
• 34:48
  doing on social media. So be careful yourself.
• 34:54
  We take the risk here because we know the risk that we're doing
• 35:00
  is less than the reward that is going to go for the carriers.
• 35:05
  But we also do so in a concerted activity, knowing that what we
• 35:11
  are doing is the right thing. Anything to add on that bill?
• 35:17
  Oh, it's funny that James says, you know about them using AI.
• 35:22
  If you remember back in days of I, I, it was Will Smith and Gene
• 35:28
  Hackman. We were in the movie.
• 35:30
  Later on the Bourne Identity series also had it where the
• 35:35
  CIANSA for years has to have had technology looking for words,
• 35:41
  specifics to, you know, key their interests around the
• 35:45
  world. And that's, that's, you know,
• 35:47
  basically what AI has been developed upon and it's been out
• 35:51
  there for 20 years. And it's not just something
• 35:53
  that's going to popped up in the last five years or so.
• 35:55
  Folks been out there for years and they, they will spend the
• 36:00
  money to, to trap your ass because you know what, why
• 36:04
  bother keeping a good employee, you know, from being becoming a
• 36:08
  disgruntled employee versus keeping a, a substandard person
• 36:14
  in management? I mean, I mean, it doesn't make
• 36:17
  any sense to train management any better, does it?
• 36:22
  And I've got a topic for that later on in regards to
• 36:24
  substandard management, but we'll get in that later we'll.
• 36:28
  Save that for the finale. Yeah.
• 36:31
  Oh God. So yes, please be mindful, be
• 36:37
  mindful and don't and and don't even record the stuff in a
• 36:43
  vehicle in an office to post when you get home.
• 36:46
  Don't do it. Don't do it.
• 36:49
  Just no, don't do it. Don't risk it, Don't risk it.
• 36:56
  No, it's not worth the risk at all.
• 37:00
  I just, you know, those are a couple things that have been
• 37:02
  brought up to me by carriers and, and just to say, hey, let's
• 37:08
  get this word out here. And yeah, I mean, there's the
• 37:13
  instances of a postmaster, you know, making a TikTok video in
• 37:17
  their office and getting in trouble.
• 37:19
  You know, it's not just craft employees.
• 37:22
  You know EAS employees are held to this as well.
• 37:27
  Notice it said in trouble a carrier would have been fired.
• 37:31
  The manager just got in trouble. But yeah, you know, it just just
• 37:38
  don't do it. I mean, yeah, it's not worth it.
• 37:42
  It really isn't and by any means.
• 37:48
  So I had something. Well, I heard you had more news
• 37:54
  for us, Kristen. You know some news about these
• 37:57
  route adjustments that happened right around the last mini mail
• 38:00
  survey? Something like that.
• 38:02
  Yeah, this, this is interesting. This really, you know, not
• 38:10
  having route adjustments in my office, I never really thought
• 38:12
  about this. So when this was brought to my
• 38:14
  attention during a discussion, it, it makes you think it really
• 38:20
  does because we all know under the RX system, it's all based on
• 38:26
  52 weeks of data. We all know about the MOU that
• 38:30
  came out with these routes that were adjusted prior to the fall
• 38:34
  mini mail survey that their evaluations.
• 38:37
  Then when the mini mail survey came through, they went back up,
• 38:40
  they went down. We we all know that fiasco.
• 38:44
  Here's one potential fiasco that has not been addressed.
• 38:52
  Routes that were cut either during or the new.
• 38:58
  The cut evaluation took effect right after the most recent mini
• 39:05
  mail survey in the fall. So those evaluations that took
• 39:08
  effect after October 5th after from being adjusted, you now
• 39:14
  have to hit, you know, 52 weeks of data.
• 39:16
  There's a stay on all these route adjustments.
• 39:20
  So 52 weeks of data got the baby back.
• 39:24
  Yeah. If we think about a full 52
• 39:30
  weeks, that is not going to happen at the next fall mini
• 39:38
  mail survey. You will not have a full 52
• 39:42
  weeks of data for the mini mail survey that happens in was it
• 39:49
  September, end of September, you know, whatever I I don't have.
• 39:54
  To take some time at the. Beginning of the new guarantee
• 39:58
  year, so potentially you're looking at approximately 18
• 40:05
  months. Before you have your true 52
• 40:08
  weeks worth of data in evaluation.
• 40:13
  Because. It would be the Spring 2026 that
• 40:17
  you would have a full 52 weeks of data for that adjusted route.
• 40:24
  Why people have not thought about this prior?
• 40:29
  I was just wondering, you know, this is the interesting fact.
• 40:32
  You know, we've always had it 52 weeks previous data to give you
• 40:39
  the valuation of the route. Now you turned around and signed
• 40:43
  an MOU. The carriers that got cut have
• 40:46
  to stay at the evaluation that they were measured at under the
• 40:50
  cut, which obviously as we're hearing from a lot of carriers
• 40:54
  is not the actual evaluation of the route they're working.
• 41:00
  And now you're telling me that these carriers are going to be
• 41:02
  stuck at that evaluation for 18 months?
• 41:06
  What? Who in their right mind would
• 41:09
  sign a stupid MOU like this and screw carriers over for 18
• 41:14
  months? I know, Bill, you know who it
• 41:16
  is. I'm being, I'm being facetious
• 41:18
  here. The problem with me is with this
• 41:22
  is these carriers are still going through the mini mail
• 41:25
  surveys. They're still getting back
• 41:27
  A4241A and M that is showing them that their route value is
• 41:31
  higher than what they're going to get paid.
• 41:33
  Because of this MOU. These carriers are getting
• 41:37
  abused left and right. They're not getting assistance
• 41:41
  because they're A43K, even though they may still actually
• 41:45
  be an overburdened 48. And they're not getting
• 41:48
  assistance from other carriers because they're not protected
• 41:52
  under the contract or getting assistance for an overburdened
• 41:56
  route. And then you have the carriers
• 41:59
  that are on these routes that were overvalued by the cut that
• 42:03
  was given to them that when this 18 months is over, they may
• 42:07
  actually lose money on their route evaluation still.
• 42:11
  Because if these routes haven't actually been cut back exactly
• 42:14
  to 43 K, the carrier that got those pieces aren't going to be
• 42:18
  actually the value that the survey their little system told
• 42:25
  them it was. So they're going to lose their
• 42:27
  evaluation on that anyway. So this this MOU to me was a
• 42:34
  stop gap for something and they aren't telling us what they were
• 42:38
  protecting us from by signing this MOU that management was
• 42:41
  threatening them with. Because no person in their right
• 42:45
  mind would sign an MOU like that unless they were threatened.
• 42:48
  So I want to know what management threatened them with
• 42:51
  to get them to sign this MOU because there's no other way a
• 42:54
  person that is actually of a sound mind would have signed it.
• 42:58
  There is also no projected adjustments prior to the
• 43:06
  upcoming spring mini mail survey at the end of February.
• 43:09
  They will not be adjusting any routes that still need
• 43:12
  adjustment. Also it was talked about,
• 43:21
  discussed about maybe the Postal Service coming up with a program
• 43:26
  where that volume of those territories that are being
• 43:30
  adjusted, that volume would go with that territory like it used
• 43:35
  to back in the day prior to our Rex and so that it would follow
• 43:40
  it. So we would have this main
• 43:42
  issue. And from what I heard, the post
• 43:47
  office pretty much said Yet no, we're not doing that.
• 43:51
  It's funny because they have all the data of all the pieces of
• 43:53
  mail that go into every single mailbox.
• 43:55
  So they could actually have at least the coverage factor for
• 43:59
  those mailboxes and they could put that coverage factor at
• 44:03
  least on these routes. Which is one of the main reasons
• 44:05
  why these routes are actually being evaluated even lower than
• 44:09
  they were before the route was added to.
• 44:11
  It is because the coverage factor gets gutted because these
• 44:14
  mailboxes show a value of 0 across the board when they get
• 44:17
  moved to these new routes. Yep.
• 44:22
  So that's all the pretty much fun stuff that I have.
• 44:31
  I'm. Trying.
• 44:31
  I'm trying to keep calm. I'm trying to keep calm here
• 44:34
  because I'm, I'm really upset about, you know, how rude we got
• 44:38
  over this. I see Bill dancing over there
• 44:41
  like he really, really, really, really, really wants to get into
• 44:44
  it. And I'm trying to prevent it
• 44:45
  from happening for a minute so he can gather his thoughts
• 44:48
  before floating. I I thought.
• 44:50
  He was trying to, you know, get Kingston's attention there on
• 44:54
  the computer. Like, he kind of looked like he
• 44:57
  was having a seizure. He was not so excited to get in
• 44:59
  here, but. I guys, I am going to have to
• 45:03
  step away for a moment. That granuity is needed.
• 45:09
  I can smell it over here. Yeah, I'm sorry.
• 45:12
  Up close and personal. I'll be right back.
• 45:15
  All right, mute. I'm sorry, I didn't know that
• 45:18
  she could smell that. All right, Bill, let her let her
• 45:24
  RIP while Chris is not here. Well, well, the mom and your
• 45:28
  eyes aren't here. Well, let's see, you know Friday
• 45:33
  was a day off, a administrative leave day.
• 45:36
  I was going to say. On that.
• 45:38
  On that MOU stuff before she gets back so she can be involved
• 45:42
  in this. I know you want to go off on the
• 45:44
  MOU again. Oh, God, no, no, we, we, we've,
• 45:50
  we've, we've already gone through this.
• 45:51
  You know, this is the best of three options.
• 45:54
  Are you freaking kidding me? What were the other two options?
• 45:57
  And, and like I said, yeah, the person I talked to on the
• 46:01
  national board said, well, you know, this, this is the best
• 46:05
  that we, you know, we can come up with.
• 46:08
  Why did you sign it at all? If it's not in the interest of
• 46:12
  the carriers, why would you sign this?
• 46:14
  Why would you even consider it? I, I, I'm sorry, no, I, I know
• 46:22
  we made some major changes on the national board this year,
• 46:24
  but you know, it, it, this is the type of explanation we're
• 46:27
  getting for this type of action. I, I can't say I'm thrilled
• 46:32
  about the future. I really can't.
• 46:34
  I. Sometimes I want to ask who who
• 46:37
  was making the decisions on this?
• 46:40
  I'm MU agreed. What would Would you agree that
• 46:47
  nobody, any sane person would have put their name on this MOU?
• 46:51
  No, no, there is no way that anybody who actually took the
• 46:55
  time to read it and think about the repercussions that would
• 46:58
  occur to the rural carriers, that actually cared about the
• 47:01
  rural carriers would have signed this MOU.
• 47:04
  No, not at all. And you know, it, it like you
• 47:08
  said, what are they holding over?
• 47:10
  You know, the, what's the post office holding over our board?
• 47:16
  I, I can't, I can't think of anything.
• 47:19
  You know, I mean, you know, you already screw the, the, the
• 47:23
  carriers day in and day out. How the hell you going to hold
• 47:27
  anything over their heads? Let's just just go with a quote
• 47:34
  that I heard. The system was designed to pay
• 47:40
  carriers for what they actually do and be fair to the employer
• 47:45
  and carry the carriers alike, but still have a substantial
• 47:49
  incentive built in. Let's just go with that.
• 47:55
  Process. I'll just take that quote that
• 47:58
  the it's a substantial benefit to the employer and carrier
• 48:04
  alike that just gives you the mindset of what they're
• 48:10
  thinking. It sounds more like somebody who
• 48:13
  was working for the employer than the carrier.
• 48:16
  It sounds like it's a one way St.
• 48:22
  You know, and that's, that's the thing that's to me, that's the
• 48:24
  worst part. The the worst part for me was
• 48:29
  the person who explained it to me was one of the people that we
• 48:34
  had our a lot of faith placed in into.
• 48:38
  You know, in regards. To the future.
• 48:41
  Same here. You know, I've, I've talked with
• 48:43
  several of them and you know, they all are saying the exact
• 48:47
  same thing. So it makes me wonder if this
• 48:51
  was actually a script that they were told to say about it versus
• 48:56
  it actually being something they really, truly agree with.
• 49:02
  Well, the the thing of it is, even if they didn't agree with
• 49:06
  it or whether or not it was scripted, they should have the
• 49:10
  backbone to stand up and say so. Yeah.
• 49:15
  And, and even if they have to take it off the record, you
• 49:17
  know, and use a non union cell phone to, to contact us and tell
• 49:22
  us, hey, there's an off the record.
• 49:24
  You know, this is This is why off the record, you know, my
• 49:28
  phone's available. Everybody up there has my phone
• 49:31
  number. I guarantee it, you know, but my
• 49:34
  phone's not ringing with them. My phone's ringing with regular
• 49:36
  carriers. You know, my messenger is
• 49:39
  ringing with regular carriers. I'm not getting anybody from the
• 49:42
  national board coming out to explain themselves.
• 49:45
  They don't want to explain themselves because they don't
• 49:47
  want to put themselves in that position of explaining
• 49:50
  themselves to the craft. No and frequency put there that
• 49:55
  they have a video. What of Don dyeing his hair?
• 50:00
  Anyway, all right Bill, you were going to, you were going to
• 50:03
  start your going off on yours. Now that Kristen's back, I
• 50:07
  figured we'd wait for her. I'm back.
• 50:11
  All right, so Friday was your day off after your day of
• 50:16
  memorial reflection for the passing of Jimmy Carter, former
• 50:20
  president and, and in my old office, which is in an SDNC.
• 50:26
  Now, first they had a problem because Friday was a day after
• 50:33
  day off. OK.
• 50:34
  So of course there was a lot of meal parcels.
• 50:39
  Friday was also the last day that every clerk out of the
• 50:43
  Westchester station had a job at the SDNC.
• 50:49
  As of Saturday they had to rebid their jobs so the clerks all
• 50:56
  called out on Friday. Two of the supervisors that were
• 51:03
  on the floor as of Friday also in the same predicament.
• 51:08
  Their jobs have been eliminated. They walked off the floor after
• 51:13
  clocking in. Old postmaster who is now like
• 51:20
  an assistant supervisor for city and rule craft out of the
• 51:23
  Westchester office, who I have no idea who she is.
• 51:29
  Where she came from. We'll find out.
• 51:30
  Though they had three open routes on Friday.
• 51:35
  They were forcing regulars to help on the vacant routes.
• 51:42
  Of course, you know, I'm still up on one of the, the text
• 51:45
  groups the in our office. So when it comes up, I put up
• 51:48
  all the, you know, arguments in regards to the MOU and camp
• 51:54
  forces. And you know, I, I, I had put
• 51:58
  about, you know, a, a good 10 minute read on a text, but you
• 52:01
  know, for me takes 20 minutes to post.
• 52:05
  But anyway, they had one carrier, he turned around and he
• 52:11
  refused to help. And this lady comes over and the
• 52:14
  female supervisor comes over and says, what do you mean you're
• 52:17
  not going to help because, well, this is my drop day, you can't
• 52:20
  pay me anything extra, so I'm not helping you.
• 52:23
  And another carrier turned around and said, OK, my truck's
• 52:29
  already full. I, I can't take any more.
• 52:32
  And she walked him out to his truck to see if the truck was
• 52:35
  actually full, that he couldn't take any more.
• 52:38
  And then, you know, like I said, was forcing regulars to help one
• 52:42
  regular. She turned around and did a
• 52:44
  route split it up in half and she took half and a sub took
• 52:48
  half. But the fact of the matter was
• 52:51
  that either, you know, you, you had the option of delivering
• 52:54
  everything OK or being back by 9 O clock.
• 52:58
  Well, you can't have both, you know, not not when you're,
• 53:01
  you're, you're 3 routes short, you know, 3 routes short.
• 53:05
  And the fact of the matter is that they now switched the
• 53:10
  routes over in Westchester to different numbers.
• 53:14
  OK, now route 17 is now route 67.
• 53:21
  Here's the problem. She didn't have her original
• 53:25
  scanner so she hasn't been able to do the load truck feature.
• 53:31
  So she doesn't even know if she's getting credit for the
• 53:35
  information going in there because her route is now 67.
• 53:40
  But nothing's showing up now since they haven't in three
• 53:44
  months. It's dumb asshole left since
• 53:47
  they haven't gotten their their radar reports or their PTR
• 53:51
  reports. They don't know if they're
• 53:53
  getting there at, you know, accurate numbers.
• 53:56
  So I said, well, you better start asking Monday morning
• 53:59
  because when you're switching routes, if they don't have this
• 54:02
  dated being transferred into your Rex program for your old
• 54:08
  route, you're going to start a whole new program.
• 54:13
  Your 52 weeks are going to start all over.
• 54:16
  And I says since we don't have any transparency since Rex
• 54:22
  started, how the hell are you going to trust the fact that
• 54:25
  these numbers are being transferred over to your new
• 54:28
  route number and and nobody has an answer on that.
• 54:34
  The funny thing is the the steward for our office is
• 54:40
  supposed to come in Friday, comes in, has some kind of nasal
• 54:45
  infection and has to leave. And this is the bullshit that
• 54:49
  bothers me about the the post office.
• 54:51
  The former ADR who I took the office off of and the former
• 54:56
  postmaster are buddy buddies again.
• 55:00
  But the former ADR is telling the postmaster that the steward
• 55:04
  can't communicate with the carriers about grievances for
• 55:09
  being forced to take these routes out because he's on sick
• 55:13
  leave. So technically he can't be paid
• 55:16
  to do for steward duty. Not that it would stop either
• 55:21
  one of you from doing it, because you know, you don't have
• 55:24
  to pay us to get it done. But this rat ADR did it on top
• 55:33
  of everything else. The post office is hired a
• 55:37
  carrier back. She's been hired twice as a rule
• 55:42
  carrier. The first time she got fired was
• 55:45
  because using of a fuel card to a personal vehicle.
• 55:50
  The second time she got fired was failing to do the job while
• 55:55
  we were at Westchester. She turned around and got hired
• 55:57
  by the highway contract lady there.
• 56:00
  The Rep, she ended up getting fired by the highway contractor
• 56:05
  lady this past Saturday. The post office hired her as a
• 56:11
  CCA that would don't don't shake your head like that, James.
• 56:17
  You can't make this shit up, you know, you, you, you belittle
• 56:24
  people, you know, treat them like shit and then you bring
• 56:28
  back a three, three time loser and thief as a CCA.
• 56:36
  Explain this to me, somebody, because I'm just so fucking glad
• 56:42
  I got out of there before I lost my mind.
• 56:45
  This, this makes no sense whatsoever.
• 56:50
  The regulars are PTF that oh, by the way, James, you're wrong.
• 56:55
  The the Elm 432.32 the the RCA is allowed to work 12 hours, but
• 57:01
  then they have to take 1/2 hour lunch.
• 57:04
  You you must must have read the Elm wrong.
• 57:08
  No, it's 1/2 hour lunch in the 12 total hours at the office.
• 57:15
  Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's what this lady was.
• 57:18
  No, this new supervisor is saying you're wrong, James.
• 57:23
  And. She didn't know the exact, she
• 57:25
  didn't know the exact language and she didn't know the exact
• 57:28
  article. But when somebody, you know,
• 57:30
  told her what it was and she went and looked at it and said,
• 57:34
  well, we're not going to worry about that.
• 57:38
  You're just not going to worry about that, OK.
• 57:41
  We won't worry about getting back by now.
• 57:43
  Yeah, What the hell? But they've actually, they've
• 57:47
  actually had in the past week, had to bring packages back.
• 57:53
  They're not scanning them, you know, late, you know, anything.
• 57:56
  They're just bringing them back. And I guess management's living
• 58:00
  with the consequences of not having them, you know, clear the
• 58:02
  clock. But this, this whole route
• 58:06
  thing, like I said, if you don't find out on, you know, Monday,
• 58:09
  Tuesday, whether or not you're getting the proper allocation of
• 58:12
  data per Rex to the your new route, you might be getting
• 58:17
  screwed right now, especially after the just the completion of
• 58:22
  the holidays. But it, it's, it's awful, awful
• 58:28
  quinky dinky that that is happening now.
• 58:32
  Why you change the route numbers, nobody knows.
• 58:35
  It's so that way it's easier for the mail handlers at the SNDC to
• 58:39
  sort them to the routes, because if all the routes say R17 or R16
• 58:44
  or whatever in the SNDC, it makes it harder for them to sort
• 58:48
  them. But when they have the zip code
• 58:52
  attached to it too when you got multiple zip codes.
• 58:56
  Not when, not when the scanner's reading them.
• 58:59
  When the when the scanner is reading it, it says R13R12R18
• 59:04
  whatever. It doesn't doesn't specify the
• 59:07
  zip code, it just says the number because we have two zip
• 59:10
  codes in my office and it just shows the route numbers.
• 59:13
  Yeah, we've got 3 zip codes and I'm talking about like your DPS
• 59:17
  trays and stuff like that. Do have the zip code attached
• 59:20
  along with the route, but yeah when you're sorting parcels
• 59:24
  whatnot it will just give the route number.
• 59:28
  That's that's where. CI Yeah, our our ours does it
• 59:33
  too, but it calls it out whether it's a city or a roll route.
• 59:37
  Yeah, E13R13. They'll even say HO5 too if you
• 59:42
  have a highway route. H62 for us, yeah, yeah.
• 59:46
  Yeah, so. So what what's, you know, what's
• 59:51
  going to happen to all this data that may or may not, you know,
• 59:54
  travel with the new route number?
• 59:59
  Like I said, she, you know, she finally got her own scanner back
• 1:00:02
  and, you know, the load truck feature wasn't even working on
• 1:00:06
  it anymore. So how does she know that she's
• 1:00:09
  getting any credit? I said, well, you can ask for
• 1:00:11
  past, you know, printouts. Don't ask just for today's, ask
• 1:00:15
  for the ones in the past. Go back in several weeks.
• 1:00:21
  It should be available. Well, yeah, it's it's a it's a
• 1:00:28
  mess, you know, but I'm not there.
• 1:00:33
  But when, when you when you plan to do what I was planning to do.
• 1:00:37
  OK, that's when you know it's time to get out of the post
• 1:00:41
  office. Yeah.
• 1:00:43
  When, when things are going, Yeah, yeah, you did.
• 1:00:47
  You made the right decision. Oh God, yes, yes.
• 1:00:52
  Yeah, you definitely, definitely chose to get out of there at the
• 1:00:55
  right time, you know, under the right circumstances.
• 1:01:00
  I'm not a violent person, but I'm an angry one.
• 1:01:09
  Oh. Oh, yeah.
• 1:01:14
  It's crazy to think of all the little things and nuances that
• 1:01:17
  happen in these little catacombs of small areas of of the Postal
• 1:01:24
  Service. You know, we're supposed to be a
• 1:01:26
  nationwide agency, but even me making a post about using the
• 1:01:32
  weather delay for a lot of these offices that they couldn't even
• 1:01:34
  get the packages out of the offices that turned into, well,
• 1:01:38
  we can use it here and we can't use it here without digital
• 1:01:41
  permission or our postmaster told us to use it here or I use
• 1:01:45
  it all the time and never hear a problem with it.
• 1:01:48
  You know, some say it wasn't a stop the clock for a longest
• 1:01:50
  time and now it's a stop the clock.
• 1:01:52
  You know, the fact that there's so much of A lack of
• 1:01:55
  communication in an organization who makes its money off of
• 1:02:00
  communication just amazes me. You know, there's no nationwide
• 1:02:06
  standard to each thing. There actually is, I mean, but
• 1:02:14
  when you look at all of the manuals and, and, and the
• 1:02:19
  contracts and all of the manuals and documents and everything
• 1:02:23
  that we have in print on, on policies, procedures and and so
• 1:02:29
  forth, you would think, because those are supposed to be across
• 1:02:33
  the board, that that's how it would be from office to office
• 1:02:37
  to office. But we all know for a fact some
• 1:02:41
  things that are going to be done, said and told differently
• 1:02:45
  than in my office than they are in James's office.
• 1:02:48
  Heck, even just to the office, just, you know, a neighboring
• 1:02:52
  office, things could be totally different.
• 1:02:54
  And you're going no, no, that's OK.
• 1:02:59
  Yeah. It, it, it's, you know, when you
• 1:03:02
  have those things already set in place, yet they're not adhered
• 1:03:06
  across the board like they're supposed to, or it's because,
• 1:03:09
  again, everybody makes their own rules.
• 1:03:14
  Oh, I'm sorry, it says national contract, national agreement.
• 1:03:19
  It doesn't say Southern Illinois agreement, S Chester, PA
• 1:03:24
  agreement. It says national.
• 1:03:26
  That means it applies across the board to everyone.
• 1:03:31
  Period. Interpretation there.
• 1:03:36
  There's no Gray area, it's in black and white.
• 1:03:38
  Well, that's like, you know, the stand up talk that I read a
• 1:03:42
  little bit of on the social media, retail and delivery stand
• 1:03:46
  up talk. It doesn't say retail and
• 1:03:49
  delivery stand up talk for this office or this office or this
• 1:03:52
  state or this state. It's for everybody.
• 1:04:00
  Oh, then again, we've seen the ones out of PA 1 and the one up
• 1:04:03
  there in Buffalo, NY where they do them by districts.
• 1:04:09
  So yeah, it depends on you know what Jesus complex persons in
• 1:04:15
  charge of what area because you know, they they have a high
• 1:04:19
  opinion of themselves and not their carriers.
• 1:04:22
  Unfortunately, yes, that's how it goes.
• 1:04:28
  Do you have anything else we want to touch on tonight,
• 1:04:30
  gentlemen? Yes.
• 1:04:34
  See my pink thong? No, no, I'll pass.
• 1:04:36
  Thank you. Inside, so I wore it.
• 1:04:44
  All right. Oh, you say?
• 1:04:51
  Damn it broke. Did not want to see that.
• 1:04:54
  Put it away, Put it away. All right.
• 1:05:01
  I have nothing else I really want to add today so all right,
• 1:05:04
  we'll. Go ahead and wind those down so
• 1:05:08
  I don't have to stay up too late tonight and hopefully when I
• 1:05:11
  make my edits, everything lines up and I don't have to redo it
• 1:05:17
  at 7:00 in the morning tomorrow like I did this past week.
• 1:05:23
  But other than that, guys, you know, especially, you know, with
• 1:05:28
  the with what we've covered tonight, just stay off social
• 1:05:33
  media posting. It's when you're on the clock,
• 1:05:35
  plain and simple. Don't film your TikTok scraping
• 1:05:39
  about whatever while you're in the truck driving down the road.
• 1:05:44
  Don't you know, you know, off the clock, out of uniform, not
• 1:05:50
  in the office, not in the vehicles, you know, keep it,
• 1:05:54
  keep it straight and all of your new hires and all your new Rcas
• 1:05:59
  and everybody out there, please, please set up your light blue
• 1:06:04
  first thing. That way when it comes time to
• 1:06:07
  be able to bid to go career, you can do that and not miss out.
• 1:06:15
  Please. I mean that's our big and as of
• 1:06:18
  for route adjustments, 52 weeks worth of data.
• 1:06:22
  Again, this is just second hand hearsay at this point and ideas
• 1:06:29
  of what's what could happen. It's not saying it's going to
• 1:06:33
  happen, but it's the potential for a full 52 weeks worth of
• 1:06:37
  data is going to be 18 months on these routes that got cut and
• 1:06:43
  new evaluations after the most recent mini mail survey.
• 1:06:49
  So we'll see what happens there. It's and then I feel for all
• 1:06:55
  these carriers way South of me that have gotten hit with this
• 1:07:00
  weather that they're not used to.
• 1:07:06
  Yes. They got more snow down there
• 1:07:08
  than I've got here. Yes, same.
• 1:07:11
  Then I've got here, you know and you know I did have it did start
• 1:07:15
  snowing pretty good on me Friday while I was out there It you
• 1:07:19
  know and that's the difference. I was talking to a carrier the
• 1:07:25
  other day who couldn't complete their route.
• 1:07:27
  They had to call it. And, you know, they're out of
• 1:07:31
  one of those affected areas. And I'm just like, you know,
• 1:07:35
  then that's the difference between like James and I up here
• 1:07:39
  and even Bill in circumstances when he was delivering where,
• 1:07:43
  you know, we grew up with this weather.
• 1:07:45
  We learned to drive in this weather in general, and we've
• 1:07:49
  delivered in this weather our whole career.
• 1:07:53
  It's a lot different for us than it is for people in those parts
• 1:07:58
  of the country that are affected that, you know, even the locales
• 1:08:02
  don't have the public works, don't have the road commissions,
• 1:08:07
  don't have the equipment to, to keep up with it and, and do
• 1:08:10
  that. And people may not have the
• 1:08:13
  experience of driving in it like some of the rest of us do.
• 1:08:18
  So for those areas that are affecting that, please stay
• 1:08:21
  safe. Remember, safety is your your
• 1:08:25
  call once, once you leave that office out for that route.
• 1:08:29
  And even if you just barely get out of the parking lot and
• 1:08:32
  you're thinking I can't do this, safety is your call 100%.
• 1:08:36
  And don't forget about that 1767 to cover your behind.
• 1:08:40
  But and then of course, these wildfires out in California and
• 1:08:46
  out by LA and whatnot. And those those are their
• 1:08:50
  amongst us that are definitely in our thoughts and prayers that
• 1:08:54
  are in have been affected or could be affected.
• 1:08:57
  You know, stay safe everybody out there regardless of your
• 1:09:01
  circumstances, whether or general crisis that happens
• 1:09:06
  around. And so on that note guys, stay
• 1:09:11
  safe. This week.
• 1:09:13
  I am going to have to dress warm Tuesday through Friday as I will
• 1:09:16
  be writing in a back seat of the LLV for a change again.
• 1:09:20
  But on that note, guys, go ahead James, your sign off.
• 1:09:25
  You didn't let us close before you I.
• 1:09:27
  Was going to, I was just going to do mine and I'll let you guys
• 1:09:30
  do the end. We're going to close it right
• 1:09:34
  there. I know you were.
• 1:09:36
  Not close. It would have been fine.
• 1:09:38
  I mean, we did, we did good, you know, I mean, that was really
• 1:09:40
  good. Closing I.
• 1:09:42
  Was watching your reactions. It was kind of funny.
• 1:09:44
  That's why I kept going. I'm sitting.
• 1:09:46
  There going, she closed. No, no.
• 1:09:50
  I was sending it off to you. I mean, we, we Bill can close it
• 1:09:55
  after me, then there we go. But yeah, like, like Kristen
• 1:10:01
  said, you know, you want to make sure that you're learning
• 1:10:04
  everything you can to put yourself in the best position to
• 1:10:07
  get to that point in your career where you can be like Bill and
• 1:10:11
  retire from the Postal Service. You know, a lot of lot of the
• 1:10:15
  younger generation will not make it to retirement in this current
• 1:10:19
  climate of this organization. But we're going to do our best
• 1:10:24
  to try and make it better for every single carrier out there
• 1:10:27
  by giving just enough information for you to go out
• 1:10:30
  and seek out the actual information through actual
• 1:10:35
  documentation on the union website or through another
• 1:10:39
  trusted source like public documents that are available on
• 1:10:44
  other platforms. So make sure you're taking care
• 1:10:49
  of yourself, make sure you're educating yourself, and make
• 1:10:51
  sure you're doing the best you can with what you have
• 1:10:54
  available. I feel sorry for the people that
• 1:10:57
  are dealing with the snow down South.
• 1:10:59
  I've seen pictures, I've seen videos, I've seen all that
• 1:11:02
  stuff. The people in the California
• 1:11:04
  wildfires, I just saw a picture of a postal truck delivering
• 1:11:07
  through those burned out neighborhoods and there's not a
• 1:11:10
  single mailbox available because they all burned up too.
• 1:11:13
  But that carrier's still out there.
• 1:11:15
  Because we are the second most important agency after a
• 1:11:20
  disaster. And the first most important
• 1:11:22
  agency is the first responders. We are the first sign of
• 1:11:26
  normalcy after a disaster. We go out when it is safe to go
• 1:11:33
  out. We don't go out when it's
• 1:11:35
  unsafe, we don't go out when it's a hurricane outside, we
• 1:11:39
  don't go out when there's a tornado tearing through the
• 1:11:41
  town, and we don't go out when there's a wildfire burning up
• 1:11:45
  the entire town. And any manager that does that
• 1:11:50
  should be kicked back down to a carrier status.
• 1:11:53
  Protect your carriers. They are the most important
• 1:11:57
  piece of this agency. They are the face of this
• 1:12:01
  agency. This is the clerks are at the
• 1:12:04
  front counter of the Postal Service.
• 1:12:06
  Protecting your carriers is the utmost importance of any
• 1:12:11
  manager, any leader protecting carriers.
• 1:12:17
  Now I have, I have spoken with a lot of carriers about these
• 1:12:20
  snowstorms and how unsafe it is. And I've had people turn around
• 1:12:25
  and say we're supposed to deliver and everything we never
• 1:12:28
  used to, to park it for snow and stuff like that.
• 1:12:32
  This ain't your Mama and daddy's snowstorm.
• 1:12:36
  These snowstorms are getting stronger.
• 1:12:39
  They're more vicious. And it's not talking vicious as
• 1:12:42
  in like strong winds or it's going to bite you, but you're
• 1:12:46
  talking it's going to snow and then it's going to melt and then
• 1:12:49
  it's going to freeze. And these areas down South don't
• 1:12:52
  have as much capability as, say, the UP of Michigan or Minnesota
• 1:12:57
  or North Dakota in clearing snow and ice off the roads.
• 1:13:03
  And picking on these carriers for choosing their safety over
• 1:13:08
  delivering the mail is not right.
• 1:13:10
  We're supposed to be unified. We're supposed to be 1 union,
• 1:13:17
  one craft and to sit there and disparage each other on social
• 1:13:25
  media or any other place even in the office is not right.
• 1:13:31
  Attacking your fellow brother and sister is not going to make
• 1:13:35
  this job better. It's going to make it worse.
• 1:13:39
  So take care of each other. Look out for your brother and
• 1:13:43
  sister because seriously, at the end of the day, when all the
• 1:13:48
  chips are down and management's coming after us is we have to
• 1:13:53
  stand up and be all in this together.
• 1:13:58
  Bill, go ahead. Well, yeah, just the follow up
• 1:14:03
  on the weather problems. The the South is experiencing
• 1:14:07
  storms they've never seen in years.
• 1:14:10
  In the meantime, yeah, you've got the wildfires out there in
• 1:14:15
  LA County. And I hate seeing them
• 1:14:17
  politicize, you know, the the problems they're having.
• 1:14:21
  But that's what politicians do. They they go after each other.
• 1:14:25
  And like James says, we don't need to go after each other.
• 1:14:28
  We need to stand up for each other.
• 1:14:30
  You know, we need to be, you know, one in our mindset of of,
• 1:14:36
  you know, making management accountable, calling them on the
• 1:14:40
  carpet, looking out for each other.
• 1:14:43
  And and that's, that's what the the truest form of a union is
• 1:14:47
  those who stand together and, you know, we won't get it, like
• 1:14:51
  you said, by backstabbing each other, you know, on Facebook or
• 1:14:54
  anything else. Stand together against
• 1:14:57
  management, help those who don't know as much as you.
• 1:15:00
  If you don't know as much, Start learning, you know, start
• 1:15:03
  picking up the manuals, start, you know, getting on, you know,
• 1:15:07
  rural information, you know, or let's see, what was that?
• 1:15:10
  The podcast United We scan. Yeah, learn these things on how
• 1:15:16
  to protect yourself, how to protect your job.
• 1:15:19
  You know, how do you do E bidding?
• 1:15:20
  You know, you're not getting this information that at your,
• 1:15:24
  your, your Academy, you know, because they don't expect to get
• 1:15:28
  you through anyway. But the fact of the matter is
• 1:15:31
  that it's just too much information.
• 1:15:33
  And that's what we're here. It's a continual educational
• 1:15:37
  program for you guys. You know, it's a support system
• 1:15:41
  for others. It it's a bitch session for even
• 1:15:45
  even more people. But the fact of the matter is
• 1:15:47
  we're here for you. You know, since we have all this
• 1:15:52
  weather, everybody has to be more vigilant about ice and and
• 1:15:56
  snow. Just, you know, be careful
• 1:15:59
  depending on whether you have a APOV or, you know, one of those
• 1:16:03
  mattresses which you can't put chains on and are wheel, wheel
• 1:16:06
  driven and that by all accounts aren't worth anything in the
• 1:16:11
  snow. And like James says, you know,
• 1:16:14
  if we, if you're an experienced drivers like ourselves are used
• 1:16:17
  to this weather, then you know, you have an advantage and, and
• 1:16:21
  help help the, the RCA's out. Like I always explained mine, I
• 1:16:25
  said whenever I'm driving in the snow, it's in second gear.
• 1:16:28
  OK, I've got, I've got the OverDrive option off and you
• 1:16:33
  know, I'm ready, you know, to watch out magnetically.
• 1:16:37
  I don't know how, but magnetically, no matter how far
• 1:16:40
  you are, when you pull away from a mailbox, the rear of the truck
• 1:16:43
  is attracted to that mailbox. Don't ask me why, it's just a
• 1:16:48
  fact of nature, You know, put it in second gear, take the
• 1:16:52
  OverDrive off. And that's how you drive when
• 1:16:54
  you're doing your route, you know, from mailbox to mailbox.
• 1:16:57
  Let off the gas, not so fast on the on the brake, just you know,
• 1:17:01
  ease on there. Be safe.
• 1:17:04
  I mean you know, and and get the job done.
• 1:17:06
  If you can't get the job done, then go back and file a 1767.
• 1:17:12
  It's too dangerous. It's not worth your life.
• 1:17:15
  It's not worth, you know, your name being in the newspaper.
• 1:17:18
  OK, your family needs you. The post office only uses you.
• 1:17:24
  So do your job to the best of your ability.
• 1:17:26
  Get home safely every night to the ones who really care about
• 1:17:29
  you and, and truly believe that we're here, you know, to help
• 1:17:34
  you all out. Anybody wants to they can get a
• 1:17:37
  hold of us, social media, phone numbers, you know, through the
• 1:17:40
  podcast, We're here for you. So anybody has a gripe or
• 1:17:46
  complaint or just, you know, just needs to shoulder, give us
• 1:17:50
  a holler. OK, God bless you all.
• 1:17:53
  Be safe out there and you know, go with the grace of God and and
• 1:18:00
  and good for each other. OK, Good night all.
• 1:18:05
  Thank you guys. And now the official sign off
• 1:18:07
  for the week if are you guys opposed to doing a revisit of
• 1:18:14
  the rec scans next week? Unless something else comes up.
• 1:18:19
  All right, so next week we're going to plan on doing a revisit
• 1:18:23
  of all 24 of the R rec scans. And we did it really early on at
• 1:18:28
  what was it, Episodes 1617, it was right back. 17 and 19
• 1:18:33
  between 16 and 19. It was way back when.
• 1:18:36
  So I know I, I did have somebody who just recently went regular
• 1:18:42
  who obviously the regular wasn't doing what they were supposed to
• 1:18:46
  and wants to know what all the additional ones they should be
• 1:18:51
  doing. And that was the perfect way.
• 1:18:53
  Oh yeah, we need to revisit this.
• 1:18:54
  So that way you know, all all of our newer listeners, our newer
• 1:19:00
  leave replacements, our newer regulars, anybody who's newer,
• 1:19:04
  especially newer to the post office in general since our Rex
• 1:19:07
  has started, we will revisit those next week, so.
• 1:19:11
  Yeah, 'cause we do have to do the changes that our union gave
• 1:19:14
  away with compared to the original.
• 1:19:17
  Yes, we're going to have to do that too, yeah.
• 1:19:19
  Yep. So next week we'll plan on
• 1:19:21
  revisiting the R Rex scans and whatever else may come up
• 1:19:25
  between now and then. But Yep, stay safe out there
• 1:19:29
  guys, and we'll see you back next week.