Latest / United We Scan / Sunday Funday, Amazon, and More
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- 0:14Welcome to the United We Scan podcast. The
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- 0:52for us below. Thank you. Now,
- 0:56here are the hosts of the United We Scan podcast.
- 1:01Hey, welcome back everybody.
- 1:03Episode 69. No
- 1:05joy in Sunday Amazon and much more that we're
- 1:08covering tonight. So it's been a week. How
- 1:12was your week, James? Oh, it was about normal for
- 1:17me. I did get my entire year of
- 1:20radar reports for this past year, plus I got the year
- 1:23priors radar reports as well. And
- 1:27only since January 1st, do I have any coverage factor
- 1:31on the radar reports. So prior to that, I don't
- 1:35have any information of my coverage factor to that,
- 1:38which is surprising because we've had coverage factor
- 1:40for every single main mail serving. So
- 1:43I'm still trying to figure all this stuff out and get
- 1:45my disputes put together before the 19th. And
- 1:49it's been up and down with boxholders, like three
- 1:53boxholders this week altogether. So
- 1:56that was a lot of fun delivering all of those.
- 1:59And just weather and normal
- 2:02stuff and then got to the weekend, got to enjoy
- 2:06yesterday, going around and doing a few things that
- 2:09need to be done. And then today went to the
- 2:12model railroad probably for the last time ever to help
- 2:16them do inventory of all the model railroad equipment
- 2:21that they have in the layout. While
- 2:23one of the guys who loaned display models for the
- 2:28layout came and picked up his stuff off the layout.
- 2:31So I don't know what's going
- 2:32to happen with it, but it's not looking good.
- 2:35Probably will never step foot in
- 2:38that building again. So it's kind of a sad day
- 2:40today for me. But ready to take on this
- 2:43episode and ready to take on this next week. How
- 2:46was your week, Bill? Oh, I'm trying to figure out
- 2:53where the hell I live, because between the rain
- 2:56and the high winds, I swear to God, I'm, you
- 3:00know, doing that. What's the deadliest catch? It's
- 3:06ridiculous. We've got enough rain here that
- 3:09set us through June. The winds are averaging 30 to
- 3:1245 miles an hour a day. I'm
- 3:15sitting on my back porch morning and the little rug
- 3:18we have there at the step off to the ground goes
- 3:21flying by me because Augusta Wynne picked it up
- 3:24and just did I dream a genie right by my head.
- 3:29Dang, what's going on here? I
- 3:32read week, you know, same bullshit, same assholes, you
- 3:38know, just a different day with the same weather. And
- 3:41like I said, you know, I had the certified that
- 3:45we'll discuss later with the arrival at units. It's
- 3:50just it's frustrating that, you know, we have
- 3:53transparency, but nobody's quite sure what the hell's
- 3:58going on. Had both the grandsons over
- 4:03this weekend, so that was enjoyable. And
- 4:07that's about it. I mean, it was a quiet week
- 4:10for the most part at work. How
- 4:13about you, Kristen? How was your week jump? Oh,
- 4:15not too bad. I Monday sucked, but Mondays
- 4:19have been sucking in general anyways. And
- 4:23I took Friday off. I used the next day for
- 4:27Friday just because I didn't feel like going to
- 4:30work Friday. And I went to a concert Friday
- 4:34night. My beloved machine shop in
- 4:36Flint and came home and had the crusted gecko baby
- 4:43that we have now. And it was probably about 3 a
- 4:46.m. before I finally went to bed
- 4:47Friday night and didn't do much of anything at all
- 4:51yesterday. And today I recocked the
- 4:54bathroom tub. Yeah, that's pretty much other
- 4:57than that work has been pretty the rest of the
- 4:59week been, I don't know, not a lot going on. Other
- 5:04than Monday sucking, but that's just Monday anyways.
- 5:08Yeah, pretty much been my week.
- 5:11It's not a whole lot of
- 5:13anything at the moment. You know, kind of a fairly all
- 5:19right week. Weather's been all right. So
- 5:21for the rain and wind, I will tell you that the
- 5:23wind Friday was awful driving the highway. I
- 5:26was blowing all over the place on 75 heading south.
- 5:30It was crazy. But
- 5:31yeah, I don't know. It meant too bad of a week.
- 5:34You know, it's windy when you
- 5:36go to deliver mail into the mailbox. Three
- 5:38times. Yeah, same mail. Yeah.
- 5:41Oh, I know this that Thursday too, some males
- 5:47like, Oh, I better hold this a little bit different
- 5:50trying to put my in the boxes there along the lake.
- 5:53That was my biggest fight with
- 5:55the wind was my my mailbox is a long leak here on
- 5:58those ones sucked definitely for sure. And
- 6:01yeah, I mean Friday, like I said, I took Friday off
- 6:04and went got new tires and oil change in my car. It's
- 6:07been about it. It's just had a whole lot going
- 6:09on just chilling and working as usual. We'll
- 6:13see what tomorrow holds for me since I wasn't there
- 6:15for two days. It's gonna be fun for you. Oh,
- 6:18yeah. All right, so let's just get
- 6:21right into the top news story we've got so far.
- 6:24Postmaster Louis DeJoy, the board of
- 6:27governor chair, Roman Martinez IV, postal
- 6:30regulatory commission chair, Michael, I'm gonna slaughter
- 6:34it, Kubeyanda and Inspector General Tammy Hall to
- 6:39appear before the full Senate committee on
- 6:41oversight of the United States Postal Service to
- 6:45answer questions. Apparently all the news articles and
- 6:50information that has been coming on as well as all
- 6:52the gripes of the public going to our senators has
- 6:55decided to drag these poor people in front of the
- 6:59Senate committee. So we're gonna have to see
- 7:02how that goes and whether Postmaster General Louis
- 7:05DeJoy actually shows up this time. What
- 7:08do you guys think? Well, let me correct you. His
- 7:11name is Louis Destroy, not DeJoy, destroy because
- 7:16that's his goal to destroy the post office. Right
- 7:20on track with that, isn't it? I'm
- 7:23telling you he's got this plan down to a T. I
- 7:28just can't believe the reports that are coming out
- 7:31that news groups can't get into CD facilities, mails
- 7:36being rotated incorrectly, not the latest in first
- 7:41out, but whatever is closest to the machine is
- 7:44gonna get processed. I don't understand their
- 7:47mentality and I haven't heard any problems like
- 7:51that out of the SDC in King of Prussia,
- 7:54Pennsylvania, but that sounds like one humongous
- 7:58cluster duck. Clean that up for you there. I
- 8:01have to agree. I mean, for instance, I, you
- 8:05know, tried to send in a last minute state delegate
- 8:10nomination to my local secretary -treasurer for a
- 8:15co -worker that wants to go and it was supposed to be
- 8:19due in on Monday. It was Thursday when I put it
- 8:22out. So I put it priority so it
- 8:24would get, I should have just freaking had a clerk
- 8:28handstamp that sucker so it was postmarked and drove it
- 8:31the two hours down to her house myself because I sent
- 8:34it priority and this was Thursday when it went out
- 8:37and she did not receive it to like Thursday or Friday
- 8:39of the next week and it was expected to be
- 8:43delivered on Saturday. Yeah, I mean it's... Yeah,
- 8:47I mean I'm hearing stories from all across the country
- 8:50people telling me of these things and going on and
- 8:53not to mention the news articles that have been
- 8:55posted all over the place. It's
- 8:57crazy to think that you went into a plan like
- 9:01this, your 10 -year delivering for America plan,
- 9:05you literally did not set yourself up at these new
- 9:09facilities you're creating with the employees there to
- 9:13manage it. I understand we've been having
- 9:15problems hiring employees, but you're delivering for
- 9:18America plan was supposed to transition these
- 9:21employees to these new facilities like dragging all
- 9:25these rural carriers into the S &DCs, the city
- 9:28carriers in the S &DCs, the clerks in the S &DCs, but
- 9:32you're not doing that. You left it to rot and now
- 9:35somebody's got to pay the piper for it and I hope
- 9:39that he does show up and I hope he gets his
- 9:41backside reamed for it by the Senate committee. It
- 9:45doesn't mean it's going to do anything because we know
- 9:47for a fact that anything involving these discussions
- 9:51rarely results in changes that are immediate or
- 9:56effective, but maybe if we can start getting that
- 9:59media outlet out there, that's going to be the
- 10:04best thing we can do, which leads me right into
- 10:07resolution updates because I did have my county meeting
- 10:11on Wednesday. They passed every resolution that
- 10:14I put in front of them without going through them,
- 10:17without reading them, they just passed them and that
- 10:19was by a vote of the entire group that was
- 10:22there. So they're going on to state
- 10:24and included in that is the resolution put forth at
- 10:28the recommendation of from 8R arbitration that the
- 10:32NRLCA joined with the NALC, the APWU and others in
- 10:38basically going no confidence in DeJoy in his
- 10:41delivering for America plan. Well,
- 10:43it's funny that you bring that up because with the
- 10:46consolidations I have in my area, at least four
- 10:50carriers that are now going to be looking for other
- 10:55jobs. A, they are on table two. B,
- 11:00they're on the far side of their post office that they
- 11:02used to work out of, so they have an extra 45
- 11:06minutes to drive to the SD &C. So
- 11:10that's an hour and a half a day that they're spending
- 11:12traveling to work. Okay, you're getting an extra
- 11:17four hours a week, an hour and a half a day at
- 11:19times. Oh, you're giving up nine
- 11:23hours, you get four hours. I
- 11:25don't know where, any well, it's country or the world,
- 11:29but that math just doesn't add up. And
- 11:32the fact that a matter is that in driving back to
- 11:35their post offices, their post offices are still
- 11:39getting deliveries. So why can't they deliver the
- 11:41mail to those offices and just skip the second truck
- 11:45in the afternoon? They have approximately a half
- 11:49mile walk from their workstation to their truck
- 11:54area, half a mile. People are people are going to
- 11:57get burned up, chewed out, chewed up and spit out
- 12:00over these SD &Cs. And it's happening already in
- 12:03my area. Yes, it's happening. I
- 12:07talked to my good friends that went to an SD &C in
- 12:12New York, right, you know, mini mail survey started.
- 12:16She may come on with us, why
- 12:18Bill's on vacation and give her her insight on what
- 12:23she's had to deal with. And
- 12:26it's crazy is because, you know, and then they added
- 12:29mileage onto the routes. So her route went up to like
- 12:32a 44 or 46. And then with the last mini
- 12:36mail survey, it put her up to a 48. And
- 12:38she's usually done by 230 every day. She's
- 12:41not overburdened. But because the additional
- 12:43mileage, she's now in overburden status. And
- 12:46she was told that she was her route was going to be
- 12:49cut here in the next couple weeks. That's
- 12:52the other side of it is the people going into these
- 12:54SD &Cs were already, a lot of them were already
- 12:57overburdened in a lot of ways. And
- 13:00if like, say for instance, Bill, with his overburdened
- 13:03route, were to go to an SD &C, he'd have those
- 13:06extra hours tacked on. He's already being paid 48K. And
- 13:11then they cut him back to 43 after moving to the SD
- 13:14&C. So he's lost that five, five
- 13:17hours a week in pay, moving to the SD &C after
- 13:21they cut his route. So he's lost money going to
- 13:25the SD &C on top of getting the route cut that
- 13:29he would have gotten at his regular office down the
- 13:31five hours. I mean, that's, and if they
- 13:34had moved her office, she would not be in a 47, 48K
- 13:39position. She'd probably be back up to
- 13:41like a 44, maybe a 45. But
- 13:44they had, I think I'd have to go back and look at
- 13:46the messages, but it was like three or four hours
- 13:48were added just because the additional mileage out to
- 13:51her route went back. And now that put her in
- 13:55overburden status. I mean, to the point that,
- 13:57you know, she was in tears. I
- 13:58spent two hours on the phone with her that day,
- 14:00just, you know, like, wow, it is ridiculous. It's
- 14:05the extra burden that is put on the carriers. I
- 14:09mean, just in transportation to and from work, not
- 14:13including the extra time and miles that's added on
- 14:16to the routes. I mean, for some situations,
- 14:18yeah, it may be good, but then you get in these some
- 14:20situations that's now put you in an overburden status
- 14:23and you're not even an overburden route to begin
- 14:25with. And now they want to cut you.
- 14:28And yeah, it's, and this whole
- 14:31non -delivery for America plan is sure is working
- 14:34great, isn't it? Well, the same way we had one
- 14:37stand up talk this week, in regards to squaring up
- 14:40our route. And according to the postmaster,
- 14:43what that means is that routes won't keep driving
- 14:46by each other, get to their assigned start
- 14:50delivery point. And I looked at her, you have
- 14:53a question, Mr. May? I said, well, how are you
- 14:55going to get to the routes? If
- 14:57somebody starts at A, and they start at X, Y and Z,
- 15:02and you have to drive by A to U to get there.
- 15:06Well, we're going to fix that.
- 15:08And I said, how much experience
- 15:09do you have in, you know, squaring off route? Well,
- 15:12they're going to train us. And
- 15:14I said, who's training the trainers? Well,
- 15:16don't you worry about that. I
- 15:17said, oh, my paycheck, don't worry about that. And
- 15:20I just turned around and walked back in my case.
- 15:22I'm not done my service talk.
- 15:23I said, oh, yes, you are.
- 15:25Yeah, I mean, I got one route
- 15:26that I could think of off the top of my head that
- 15:28drives through three other routes to get to the start
- 15:31of their route because they're completely different
- 15:33zip code. Yep. I've got two of them like
- 15:36that. They're completely different zip
- 15:37codes to where they're driving through at least
- 15:40one, if not two other routes just to get to
- 15:43their first box. Because like I said, completely
- 15:45different zip codes. So, you know, when you're
- 15:48driving 10 miles out to your first box, you're
- 15:51going to go through other routes. I
- 15:52mean, my route, what's up with two other routes? And
- 15:56I literally drive through the middle of the city
- 15:59route to get to the other end of my route. Because
- 16:01mine's the way the lines divided up. I
- 16:04drive through three on the way out on the way out to
- 16:06mine and then three on the way through my route and
- 16:10then pass her two of them on the way back to the
- 16:12office. And let me remind you that
- 16:14squaring up also means that everybody's going to average
- 16:18K 43. Yes, that's what I have heard.
- 16:21When she said that, I heard
- 16:25somebody do the old bullsh**t bullsh**t bullsh**t
- 16:29bullsh**t bullsh**t, excuse me. Yeah,
- 16:34I don't want to order three. I'm
- 16:36happy with my 46. I don't know who said that,
- 16:40but you know, it sounded familiar. People
- 16:45have no clue. They really don't. No,
- 16:49management has absolutely no clue what they're doing.
- 16:53They have no clue how to do
- 16:54this stuff. And they've proven it time and
- 16:57time again. And unfortunately for me, it
- 17:00also proves that the union leadership is showing that
- 17:04they don't know how all of this stuff works. I
- 17:07mean, the latest thing they've come out with is,
- 17:10Hey, here's a spreadsheet for you to figure out your
- 17:12route coverage, even though they turned around and
- 17:16recently put out information about those, how route
- 17:22coverage works. And the first one says that
- 17:25they use breadcrumbs as well as DPS. And,
- 17:30of course, your flats that you're supposedly credited
- 17:35for. But yet I have on the 42, 41
- 17:39A and M dispute sheet, it says route coverage, there
- 17:42is currently no report available to calculate this.
- 17:45So management apparently has no
- 17:47way to calculate it, even though they're showing it
- 17:50now on the radar report. And
- 17:52yet I've had contacts with the union tell me that
- 17:56breadcrumbs aren't used for coverage factor. And
- 17:58it's been proven by the people who have stopped for
- 18:01three to five seconds at every box and not gotten
- 18:03100 % coverage every single day that they stopped at
- 18:06every single box. I had a person tell me that
- 18:09they believe that it's not just active boxes, but even
- 18:14your inactive vacant addresses, addresses that
- 18:18haven't had a box or mail delivered to them in 20
- 18:21years or so, stuff like that, that are also part
- 18:25of your coverage factor. So nobody has a clue what our
- 18:28coverage factor is, but supposedly if you do this
- 18:31little spreadsheet, you could know if your coverage
- 18:34factor is accurate or not. But
- 18:36yet it says on the 42, 41 A and M, you can't use
- 18:39that spreadsheet to dispute your coverage factor either.
- 18:43So I don't know what you guys
- 18:45think. Do you think that leadership
- 18:48even knows what goes into our coverage factor? I
- 18:50saw that sheet and I printed it off and I put
- 18:54it in the bathroom just in case I run out of toilet
- 18:57paper. I mean, that's how useful
- 18:59that is. You know, your coverage factor,
- 19:02we have informed delivery, we have informed visibility,
- 19:06we have this, if you have a box holder, you don't
- 19:08have to worry about it. Okay,
- 19:10what happens when the clerk hands you off a foot and
- 19:14a half of clerk mail and you have to deliver to an
- 19:18address that's getting no DPS or any other type of
- 19:21mail item that's on their forms in their data, but
- 19:25you're actually delivering it. That's
- 19:26an active box, that's coverage, and that's not
- 19:29factored in. And they can't prove it to you
- 19:32because they don't know. And
- 19:35that's the problem with this whole program. There
- 19:37is no transparency to the national board because they
- 19:41don't care. They're taking the word of the
- 19:44engineers as gospel and we're getting screwed over
- 19:48it. And you're right, James. And
- 19:50they're the management. You're
- 19:52right. They do have people who stop at
- 19:55every box for three to five seconds, mail or no
- 19:58mail. And they're coming back with 73
- 20:00and 78 % coverage factor. So
- 20:02stopping at the box is not making a bit of difference.
- 20:05No, it's not. And
- 20:07yeah, you have this whole spreadsheet that you could
- 20:10do for 12 days, blah, blah, blah. They
- 20:13put it out there. Case every single mail and then
- 20:17count the spots in the case that don't have any
- 20:21mail. I'm sorry, I don't have time.
- 20:24I am not going to sit in
- 20:25the office for 12 days straight and case every
- 20:29little point of mail. I take my DPS to the street.
- 20:33I'd rather just use my clicker
- 20:35that I use for my invertees and then just
- 20:39click on whatever active boxes I drive by. Maybe
- 20:42it would make a lot more sense than having to case
- 20:44every single piece of mail that I don't normally case
- 20:48anyways. You know what I mean? And
- 20:50I know that a lot of people that were stopping
- 20:53at every box for three to five seconds, I had a
- 20:56manager tell me that, oh, well, you have to be
- 21:01within five feet of the point you mapped on the
- 21:04mapping program in order for it to register. You
- 21:07stopped at the box. And I sat there and I gave
- 21:10him the deer and headlights look because the GPS that's
- 21:14in your phone, if you have nine satellites pinning your
- 21:20location, it can be accurate to within 15 feet.
- 21:25But most often, if you're in
- 21:27an area with low satellite coverage, it could be 30
- 21:30feet, 60 feet. If you only have two
- 21:33satellites, it would be accurate within 150 feet.
- 21:37So there's no way that anybody
- 21:39could literally be five feet in on the on the box
- 21:42and be accurate on that. It's
- 21:45crazy to think about that stuff that technology is
- 21:48not as accurate as they want us to be to these
- 21:52points. And then you got areas with
- 21:54high tree coverage, which also messes with that as
- 21:57well with your GPS breadcrumbs or lack of cell
- 22:01service. Since all these scanners run off
- 22:04of a cell towers. Oh, that's that's what they put
- 22:07the transponders in the trucks. Remember,
- 22:09I thought that was for VMF purposes only. I
- 22:12don't have a transponder in my truck. That's
- 22:15why you're getting the low coverage factor. Yeah,
- 22:1773 % normal and 43 % CVU was my coverage factor this
- 22:23time around. I got 88%. First
- 22:27time I got 98%. Second time I got 80%. And
- 22:30this time I got 88%. I'm 96 and 92. Show
- 22:34off. All right, so speaking of
- 22:41leadership, not doing what they need to do and
- 22:45protecting the craft, Sunday, Amazon, I got a
- 22:49couple of topics and that right now. The
- 22:52first one I have is more Sunday, Amazon changes, more
- 22:56officers are going to the 10am start time. And
- 22:59the other interesting aspect is the clerks are starting
- 23:03later too. I thought it was supposed to
- 23:06be that you come in at 10am, everything's up. You
- 23:09grab your cart, you go load your truck, you get
- 23:11the heck out of there within 15 minutes is what
- 23:14management wanted. But no, I've heard reports that
- 23:17they're going into these offices and the clerks are
- 23:18still sorting parcels. They're
- 23:20having to help the clerks or parcels. And
- 23:23it's a it's a foobar all the way up through the
- 23:27through the whole system. And
- 23:28then carriers are out later, 6 .15, 7 .00, 8 .00
- 23:32o 'clock at night, getting out there in the dark.
- 23:34It's a safety problem. But
- 23:36they're literally just pushing back everybody now,
- 23:39including the clerks. When is our leadership going to
- 23:42step up a file of step four on this for safety?
- 23:45They're not going to. Well,
- 23:47I'm trying. We know they listen. So
- 23:50I was hoping we'd we'd hit them into it. I'll
- 23:55ask a critical question. What
- 23:57makes you think they care? Exactly.
- 24:00I said, they're not going to. They
- 24:02they, you know, this is one of those things where
- 24:04management made this call and they're just gonna be
- 24:06like, yeah, all right, whatever. Meanwhile,
- 24:09I saw I saw a video earlier today, somebody's
- 24:14second time out on Amazon Sunday and the truck caught
- 24:16on fire. Yep, just saw that one to
- 24:18myself. Yeah, yeah, burn to the ground.
- 24:21Yeah, burn to the ground. There
- 24:22was absolutely nothing left with the frame, a little
- 24:25bit of aluminum and the the wheels and the engine
- 24:30block. That was it. That
- 24:31was what was left. It'll be back on the road next
- 24:34week. Yeah. But did you scan everything
- 24:36before it caught on fire? You
- 24:38know, no, sorry, I'm going to make sure everything is
- 24:41off. Yep, I'm going to make sure
- 24:44that myself gets out safely. I'm
- 24:46not going to go back in there to a vehicle fire
- 24:49and get out everything that I can or scan it or
- 24:52whatever. No, that's that's that's
- 24:55dangerous. That's not safe. I
- 24:57mean, these things could explode. I'm
- 24:59getting my ass out of my lunch bag, so I can sit
- 25:02there and watch it burn while I have something to
- 25:04eat. You know, I call 911 to let
- 25:06them know I got a vehicle fire. That'd
- 25:08be about it. Wait, oh wait, got to call the
- 25:10supervisor if there's even one available to contact on
- 25:13a Sunday. And just hope Amazon didn't
- 25:15send anything flammable or in there as well. Battery.
- 25:20Oh yeah. More fun. All
- 25:21right. And the next topic on that,
- 25:26the Sunday work rotation. When
- 25:29there aren't enough to rotate, subs are working
- 25:32seven days a week because there aren't enough people
- 25:35to cover routes during the week as well. How
- 25:39can they manage to get some time off for
- 25:42themselves and stuff like that when management is
- 25:45turning around and just basically abusing them? We
- 25:47know that we as the presenters here know that
- 25:50contractually there is no obligation for management to
- 25:53give RCAs any days off. But
- 25:56how do we deal with the Sunday work rotation? Yeah,
- 26:01if you don't have enough people to rotate, I'm going
- 26:04to say that's where your 3971 comes into effect and
- 26:08hope that they allow you to have it off. Or
- 26:13there's other options of getting the day off that
- 26:15I'm not going to endorse. But
- 26:18yeah, it sucks. Yeah, as an RCA, unfortunately,
- 26:25management has the right to mismanage, to use and abuse
- 26:29you in any way, shape or form they can if they need
- 26:32to. And I know it sounds terrible
- 26:36the way I'm saying it, but that's unfortunately the
- 26:40contract is written. Yes, that's gospel there. Yes.
- 26:45And the fact is there are districts out there that
- 26:49say that RCAs can only work six days and have to
- 26:53have a day off. Some say that they can only
- 26:56work 13 days and have a day off. But
- 26:59that is a district rule. It
- 27:01is not contractual. And if you want to work that
- 27:04day that they want to force you off, you can
- 27:06file agreements on it because it's in the
- 27:08contract that you are not required to have a day
- 27:11off. And if you are a Designation
- 27:1574 or a Designation 79, they cannot pull you off
- 27:20your route one day so that they can have you work on
- 27:23Sunday. They can't do that. Yep.
- 27:26And we just had it posted in the live stage chat.
- 27:31And if you're listening to us
- 27:33on the podcast forums, we do have a live stage where
- 27:39we do these recordings on our Discord server. So
- 27:42if you're not in our Discord server, why not
- 27:44join us on here? Hashtag shameless plug. I
- 27:49know Discord has been doing some updates on their apps.
- 27:52So definitely those that are
- 27:54having issues hearing us, I would definitely try and
- 27:58maybe see if your update is needed or what not. I
- 28:01know my computer updated both last weekend and this
- 28:04week when I logged in. So I haven't tried to update
- 28:07on my phone, but I use my computer on Sundays. I've
- 28:11heard iPhone users have been having problems with
- 28:13it. Another reason to have an Android.
- 28:17Famous plug. That's
- 28:22the thing is with Sundays in RCAs, as you really are
- 28:26left at the mercy of the post office. You
- 28:28really are. I've been there. I
- 28:31have been there. We all have to a point. And
- 28:34here's the situation where this is where an office
- 28:38has to work together in regards to looking out for
- 28:42the subs. My sub had a funeral to
- 28:44attend and couldn't get off. And
- 28:48I made myself available to work my drop -dice that she
- 28:51get off. Then the following week turned
- 28:55around and they had a bit of a medical situation.
- 28:59Again, I was available. It
- 29:02was a day that I was scheduled to have a
- 29:04examination. It was done at eight o 'clock
- 29:08in the morning. So I explained to the
- 29:10supervisor, I'll be available after nine, nine
- 29:13a .m. if you need me to be. And
- 29:15nine, nine a .m. came and went nothing. And
- 29:18I started on my way home from the doctors and got a
- 29:21phone call and said, Oh, can you come in? Sure.
- 29:24I'll come in and what's done on my route? Nothing.
- 29:29We had nobody planned for it. But
- 29:32the thing of it was that the next day, I would have
- 29:35been in anyway. So if I didn't come in, I'd
- 29:38have been just screwing myself. But
- 29:40work with your subs in regards to getting them
- 29:43time off. Offer to come in if it's
- 29:47available to you on your top day. Help
- 29:50them out. I mean, they appreciate it.
- 29:55Good subs do. Some
- 29:57don't. But I like the air on the
- 29:59better side of my judgment and just say, If I can
- 30:03help you out, I'll help you out. Oh,
- 30:05yeah. I've told myself that many
- 30:07times, Hey, if you ever need a Saturday off, a
- 30:10weekend off or whatever, something going on,
- 30:13something come up, just let me know ahead of time.
- 30:16That way, if it's, you know,
- 30:17it's got something that going on that I don't have
- 30:19anything going on and you just really need a Saturday
- 30:22off or got something going on or something else came
- 30:26up, you know, let me know. I
- 30:28have no problems doing that, you know, it's it's
- 30:32when I the only issue I have is when, you know, a
- 30:35carrier doesn't have a sub that likes to take every
- 30:37weekend off throughout the entire summer is begging to
- 30:40have it off. And the supervisor tells you
- 30:42no, because nobody's willing to give up their J or K
- 30:46day. And then in fact, protects
- 30:49their K day with an X day previous to it. So
- 30:51they can't steal their sub. Um,
- 30:55might happen this weekend. You
- 30:58know, it you work with your subs, you know, I
- 31:00have no problems if my subs said, Hey, I want to
- 31:03have this Saturday off. I could, you know, my mom's
- 31:05coming up to visit or I got my kid or I'm going
- 31:09into this kickass concert or something like that. You
- 31:13know, buddy of mine wants me to go camping. All
- 31:15right, you know, I ain't got nothing going on this
- 31:17weekend. Sure. Why not bother me one bit?
- 31:20Yeah, work with your subs.
- 31:22They'll definitely have each other's
- 31:25backs. Yeah, I felt bad. My
- 31:27sub asked me one day if I could work that Saturday
- 31:29for him. And I'm like, I already have
- 31:31something planned that Saturday. I
- 31:34think it was the booster was planned that weekend.
- 31:38And he was like, my brother's
- 31:39coming up, I want to spend time with him. And
- 31:41I'm like, dude, I wish I could. You
- 31:43know, if it was last week, I would have done it. But
- 31:45this Saturday, I've got union stuff I've got to go
- 31:48to. So I'm sorry, man, but I
- 31:51can't cover it made me feel really bad because I
- 31:53love helping out my subs as best as I can. I
- 31:56try not to leave them stuff to deal with on
- 31:59Saturday. I tried to manage the fuel
- 32:02in the truck to try and get it so that way they
- 32:04don't have to fuel the truck on Saturday. It
- 32:06was a lot better when we had Amazon Sunday because
- 32:08they had to fuel the truck on Sunday. Anyway,
- 32:10that's how you take care of them. You
- 32:12know, you try to make sure that everything's set up
- 32:14the way that you would want it set up if you
- 32:17were a sub, you know, try to take care of them
- 32:20because I'll take care of you. I,
- 32:22you know, when I first started, I had an awesome
- 32:24regular who took care of me tremendously, got up to
- 32:28Linda. And, you know, and I did I
- 32:30learned a lot, you know, and I'm the same way with
- 32:32my sub, you know, if you need the time, let me know
- 32:34ahead of time. Ain't got nothing going on. No
- 32:36problem. I'll work it, whatever. Just
- 32:38remember, you may be working the following
- 32:40Monday. I'll have no problems. Dacca
- 32:42are in it, but just prepared it may not be the
- 32:45day that you want me to take off. But,
- 32:50you know, it's yeah, you got to take care of them.
- 32:54You really do. As
- 32:55being a sub who was both taken care of and ran
- 32:58ragged, it really it helps if you take care of your
- 33:01subs. It really does. Speaking
- 33:04of subs, ARCS, RCA's and Union membership. This
- 33:10one actually came up to me this past week. The
- 33:14protections of the contract for ARCS and RCA's. I
- 33:19wanted to get into this discussion because the two
- 33:22biggest caveats for ARCS and RCA's, especially ARCS,
- 33:26is the 90 -day or one -year provision for their
- 33:31probationary period. Both RCA's and ARCS fall under
- 33:36that 90 working days. It's not calendar days, it's
- 33:39working days, the days you've worked before
- 33:42management cannot terminate you without just cause.
- 33:49Now, the issue is ARCS usually
- 33:52only get Sundays, maybe Saturdays, unless they're
- 33:56running parcels all week. And
- 33:58holidays. And holidays. So,
- 34:01it's very hard for them to reach those 90 working
- 34:05days. So, they literally have to go
- 34:07a whole year before they actually, quote -unquote,
- 34:10fully protected by the Union. But
- 34:13the issue is, are they protected by the Union
- 34:17prior to that probationary period ending? Yes,
- 34:23they are, with the exception of termination
- 34:27during the probationary period. And
- 34:30any steward who tells an RCA or an ARC that they
- 34:34have no protection whatsoever in their
- 34:36probationary period is wrong. They
- 34:39are protected with the exception of termination.
- 34:44That is the only thing an RCA
- 34:46or an ARC cannot grieve in their probationary time is
- 34:51termination. Anything else, you definitely, and
- 34:55if you request a Union steward and management
- 34:58denies you, that is a no -no as well. I
- 35:02can't believe there are still stewards out there
- 35:06that want to believe that an RCA in their
- 35:09probationary time does not get Union protection at
- 35:13all. I'm going to correct you there,
- 35:15young lady. There are area stewards, part
- 35:19-time ADRs, full -time ADRs, and at least two DRs that
- 35:23I know of that don't understand that. Their
- 35:28blanket explanation is anybody under their 90
- 35:32working days probation is not entitled to Union
- 35:37representation. Which contractually is incorrect.
- 35:41I'm part of the National Labor
- 35:42Relations Board is incorrect. And
- 35:44I said, if you're paying dues, you're afforded
- 35:48protection. You're taking money out of their
- 35:50paychecks. They get protection. And
- 35:53I'm going to give you the argument that those stewards
- 35:58are trying to make in that instance is that, yeah, we
- 36:02can file a grievance out of a management that's just
- 36:03going to fire you for it. That's
- 36:05a threat, intimidation, toxic work environment,
- 36:09hostile work environment. Retaliation.
- 36:12Yes. Now, if you have a good steward
- 36:16to fight that grievance for you and then management
- 36:20fires you on behalf of that, they could get you
- 36:23your job back, even though you've been fired under
- 36:26your probationary period under the reason of
- 36:30retaliation, under the whistleblower act. It's
- 36:35not unheard of. But yeah, I mean, in that
- 36:38instance, though, as RCA's arcs in your probationary
- 36:43period, termination is the only thing that you don't
- 36:46have union backing on anything else. And
- 36:49if you're getting pulled in for an I &I, or anything
- 36:53like that, and you request union representation, you
- 36:56are supposed to get it right up through the
- 36:59disciplinary procedure. And if that disciplinary
- 37:01procedure was termination, unfortunately, contractually,
- 37:04you cannot grieve it within your probationary period.
- 37:07But anything else you can. And
- 37:09that is the biggest issue with the NSS right now is
- 37:13not all of the steward system is on point with
- 37:17that. After that, I also wanted to put
- 37:20in that I did put a resolution in that our
- 37:22stewards be able to file grievances on behalf of
- 37:25carriers like every other craft out there for this
- 37:28very reason. Because if the steward witnesses it
- 37:33and grieves on it, the steward is the one fighting
- 37:36for that, not the carrier. The
- 37:38carrier is not responsible. The
- 37:39carrier should not be retaliated against for it.
- 37:42Protect the protect the craft as
- 37:45the steward. And I do agree with you to a
- 37:49point. If you have an instance to
- 37:52where, you know, they want to file grievance, but
- 37:55they're afraid of the retaliation. And
- 37:57that's why they do not do it. But
- 38:00if they want a grievance filed on their behalf, yes,
- 38:04a steward should be able to file on behalf of that
- 38:07carrier, if that's what they want. If
- 38:09that carrier does not want a grievance filed, then the
- 38:12steward needs to back down. See
- 38:14it and but with that aspect, the carrier wants
- 38:18the grievance filed, the management would still know
- 38:20that the carrier was the one that filed the
- 38:22grievance, even if the steward stepped up and
- 38:24filed the grievance on behalf of the carrier. I
- 38:27mean, I can see your point, though, if it's a
- 38:29blatant contractual disregard by management against a
- 38:35carrier against multiple carriers in the office or
- 38:38whatever it is, and it is witnessed by a steward,
- 38:41yes, I do believe the steward should should be
- 38:43able to file a grievance right then and there. You
- 38:47know, as a witness to that blatant disregard and
- 38:52breaking of the contract. I completely agree with that.
- 38:55But I think when it comes to
- 38:56individual stuff, if if somebody does not want to,
- 39:01then that steward should not file that grievance on
- 39:04their behalf, if that's not what the carrier wanted.
- 39:07Yes. Now, let's play this
- 39:08scenario out. Okay. An RCA under 90 days runs
- 39:13into a situation in the office, steward witnesses
- 39:16it, and under the pretext of conditions that James
- 39:20sets forth, the steward files the grievance on
- 39:23behalf of the of the RCA. Now,
- 39:26management comes back and caliates against the RCA.
- 39:29Well, you have dual protection
- 39:31there because the RCA did not file that grievance.
- 39:34The steward did. So
- 39:36that's an obvious retaliatory attack on that
- 39:40individual, knowing full well that the steward was
- 39:43responsible for filing it as they witness the
- 39:47violation. It's cut dry. I'm
- 39:51the steward I filed on behalf of this individual
- 39:53because I saw the violation. They
- 39:56didn't ask me to they didn't they didn't ask me
- 39:58not to. But because it is a contractual
- 40:01violation that I observed, I'm filing it. Therefore,
- 40:05any type of action taken against that carrier has to
- 40:08be seen as blatantly retaliatory because of the
- 40:11fact that you can't go after the steward. I
- 40:14do see your point there. Yes.
- 40:15I think if you witness blatant, you know, a
- 40:18violation of the contract, you witness it, eyes, ears,
- 40:22you're standing right there when it happens. I,
- 40:25you know, there are many times where I've seen that
- 40:27where I wish I just could have filed for people or
- 40:29just filed in general for the office plenty of times.
- 40:32But, you know, it just you just
- 40:34kind of have to turn around and go back to what
- 40:36you're doing. Well, in my case, I usually shut
- 40:39the manager down and told her, well, this will lead
- 40:41to a grievance. And her whole thing, well, you
- 40:43can grieve anything. Yeah, but you won't win this
- 40:45one. Not usually shut her up. But
- 40:47I would threaten it. I just, you know, obviously I
- 40:51couldn't do it. Now, since we're talking about
- 40:55grievances, let me bring you up a past occurrence
- 40:58this week. Two carriers in my office who
- 41:01are now regulators, while RCA's were instructed to
- 41:06delivery parcel on the city route. At
- 41:08the time I filed a class action on behalf of four
- 41:10of them, two of left the post office. These
- 41:13two just got a letter of settlement from our new DR
- 41:17in regards to what they were settling. They
- 41:20were settling for half the money because technically it
- 41:22was untimely. The grievance was from four
- 41:25years ago. That's what the past ADR and DR
- 41:30have been sitting on grievances from four years
- 41:33ago that have been sitting at step two. And
- 41:37that's why we need a new director of steward
- 41:40operations to take charge, put some teeth into these
- 41:44people and make sure they're out there doing
- 41:47their damn jobs every day. Right,
- 41:49James? James has plugged. I
- 41:51agree with that completely. We
- 41:53need somebody who's going to sit there and get these
- 41:56DRs and ADRs the help they need to get this stuff
- 42:01done. We need somebody to get on
- 42:04management to get it done. We
- 42:07need somebody who can help with getting our carriers
- 42:12taken care of, getting the face of the union fighting
- 42:16force, our steward system, in front of carriers who've
- 42:20probably never met their steward before. And
- 42:23on top of that, we need a full training regimen
- 42:27through the academy systems and through our on -the -job
- 42:32training people to help educate the carriers on the
- 42:36contract and REX and all that stuff through the vice
- 42:40president's position, hashtag shameless plug, Kristen. I
- 42:45have to agree with you on that one, but yeah, no,
- 42:47yeah. And I do as I'm training as
- 42:49an on -the -job trainer. I really do kind of
- 42:52incorporate, you know, the REX stuff as we're doing
- 42:55it, why we're doing it. And,
- 42:58you know, when it comes to contractual stuff, if they
- 43:01have questions on what they can or can't do, I am
- 43:04more than happy to answer it for them. But
- 43:06I agree. We should have something more,
- 43:10oh, what's the word I'm looking for, guys?
- 43:14Substantive? Yeah, substantive, you know,
- 43:17and across the board for everybody. You
- 43:19know, I, you know, yes, everybody gets a P603 or
- 43:23there should be one at every case and every, you
- 43:25know, but why can't everybody get a copy of
- 43:28the contract as well? Why can't, you know, the little
- 43:32things of, hey, you know, I understand it's a lot of
- 43:36reading, but here these sections highlight out your
- 43:40position as an RCA. You know, please read them,
- 43:43please understand your rights, responsibilities, and
- 43:47any questions, please, you know, ask, you know, or
- 43:51even an outline guide of, all right, in the contract,
- 43:54these are the ones that, you know, specifically are
- 43:57outlined for RCA's or ARCs or PTFs, whatever the
- 44:02position may be. And then we need a president
- 44:04to put management in line following the contract.
- 44:09Shameless plug, Bill. No
- 44:11shame, shame here. I'll be glad to bite off a
- 44:14couple heads, you know. I, I, I, I, ladies and
- 44:20gentlemen, I am so sick and tired of all the
- 44:23social media posts that I read, some of the things
- 44:28that I hear in my own office, but, you know,
- 44:30that's germane to the situation because of the
- 44:33individual, but it's relevant because it's across
- 44:38the country in regards to the environment that we
- 44:41work in, to, in regards to the inexperienced management
- 44:46who are in fear of their own jobs from their
- 44:49postmasters and from their district managers, their
- 44:52prooms, and, and whoever else, you know, tells them
- 44:56what to do. We have a district
- 44:58representative in our office right now with a USPS
- 45:02government vehicle, comes to our office every day, and
- 45:06she's in charge of, you know, edit books. Okay.
- 45:10What else do you do? That's
- 45:12it. Well, you're just plugging bodies
- 45:15in there to make them, you know, loyalty in for
- 45:18support at the district level, but she doesn't know
- 45:21anything better, any more or better than our current
- 45:24supervisor. And everybody in the other
- 45:27positions of our management at Westchester, all our
- 45:32city carrier oriented supervisors who were
- 45:36previously clerks with no delivery experience, but
- 45:40they're going to sit there and they're going to use
- 45:41their calculator of how many addresses you can do
- 45:45based on volume of flats and letters and parcels on
- 45:48the city routes because most of our city routes
- 45:51aren't eight hour routes. We
- 45:53have an average of 14 vacant routes a day that
- 45:56are used to fill in for the hours needed to get
- 45:59the city carriers eight hours. And
- 46:01these people over calculate, calculate, and I turn
- 46:06around and say, hold it, you gave me a four hour
- 46:08piece, and I have a seven hour route, the
- 46:11inadequacies, the inexperience, the blatant
- 46:14impidity that is displayed every day in my office,
- 46:19I'm sure compounded across the country. And
- 46:23that's one of the things we have to do. We
- 46:24have to get the post office on board in line
- 46:28and tell in the contract every damn day in every
- 46:32office across the country. If
- 46:35you want to help support these candidates, we need
- 46:38your help. Not only do we have the
- 46:41shameless plug merch store with our t -shirts and
- 46:46other supplies for the podcast on it, but we need
- 46:50your help too. We need you to get the voice
- 46:52out there. We need you to get the
- 46:53podcast out there. We'll need your help at National
- 46:57Convention. We're setting up for all of us
- 47:00to be at National Convention in August and
- 47:03Reno. And if you're going to be at
- 47:05Reno, we're going to look for you to help us. We
- 47:09need people to walk with us at caucus. We
- 47:12need people to help show us everybody who we are.
- 47:16We can't do this alone. I
- 47:17tried that last year. I got 124 votes in a three
- 47:21day campaign, which was really good for somebody
- 47:23who didn't know anything about how he was doing it.
- 47:27I had help in the form of
- 47:30everybody here on the podcast. And
- 47:32I'm asking for the entire podcast audience for their
- 47:36help this year to help us help the craft. And
- 47:41if you want to help this craft and help us message
- 47:46us, all of us are available. Not
- 47:49only do we take your questions, but we'll take
- 47:51your help too. And the other thing of the
- 47:54situation is that we're not going for these positions
- 47:58to help ourselves. These are positions of
- 48:02responsibility that we take seriously in regards to
- 48:05elevating our craft and protecting and educating our
- 48:09fellow brothers and sisters. And
- 48:11we're not going to be a panel of nine like the
- 48:15current National Board. We're
- 48:16going to be a panel of 100 ,000 plus because every
- 48:20one of you need to contribute to us things
- 48:25that have to be addressed every day across the
- 48:28country. We can't do it alone. You're
- 48:31your eyes and ears on the ground. And
- 48:34when you bring up a situation, we'll get it
- 48:37addressed. We won't sit there and say,
- 48:39oh, you have to go through this next. We'll
- 48:41put the people in place to address the situation that
- 48:45is, you know, bothering you. That
- 48:47is a contractual violation that you feel threatened
- 48:49by. We will react to what your
- 48:53needs are because guess what? The
- 48:55only reason for the National Board to exist
- 48:58outside of contract negotiation is to represent
- 49:02the craft, the entire craft, every single person
- 49:06in the union and even the non -union ones when it
- 49:10comes to disciplinary issues or contractual issues. We're
- 49:14there for everybody. We are there for everybody on
- 49:17that now. Go ahead, James. What's
- 49:22the second? All right. Second
- 49:24trips. This has come up also. This
- 49:28is dealing with clerks who obviously don't know how to
- 49:31operate the pass machine to put packages they scan in
- 49:35the afternoon on the next day or express mail or
- 49:41packages that were missorted that management didn't
- 49:44bother to figure out a way to get it delivered and
- 49:47they say you have to go back out and deliver it.
- 49:50Would you like to go over second
- 49:52trip language for carriers there, Kristen? Yes.
- 49:57There is a spot in the F21 time in attendance
- 50:01manual. There is also, and I'll get to
- 50:03that in just a moment, there is also a step four
- 50:07from 2005. And I'm going to read this
- 50:10real quick because this kind of the second pair or
- 50:13the first paragraph kind of covers a lot of things
- 50:16that we've been seeing. There's
- 50:18a party's recently met in pre -arbitration discussion
- 50:20regarding the above reference case. The
- 50:23issue in this case concerns the compensation to rural
- 50:26carriers when being required to make deliveries after
- 50:30returning from the standard street duties, including but
- 50:34not limited to express mail, priority mail, or
- 50:39missorted mail available for delivery after the carrier
- 50:43originally left for the street. The
- 50:45parties agree that regular rural carriers and leave
- 50:48replacements, when a leave replacement is compensated
- 50:51based on the evaluation of the regular or auxiliary
- 50:53route served and when actual work hours do not
- 50:56exceed 40 hours per week, will be compensated and
- 51:04this is the final result of the process. The
- 51:06final result is a new mail for each mile involved in
- 51:07the additional trip and for actual loading time, which
- 51:10again has changed since 2005. It's
- 51:12now done under the start load and load under REX.
- 51:15At the carrier's straight time
- 51:17rate, which is Article 8 .3 .A, when being instructed to
- 51:22make additional deliveries after returning to the
- 51:25office because of mail received after the carrier
- 51:28originally left for the streets. In
- 51:30addition, if the carrier is using his or her personal
- 51:33vehicle, the carrier will receive EMA allowance for
- 51:37each mile over 40 miles for the day that the
- 51:40carrier is required to drive to complete his or
- 51:43her route, including the additional trip. An
- 51:46additional trip performed by a regular carrier or
- 51:49substitute rural carrier designation 72, which I
- 51:52think we only have a handful of those left,
- 51:54during the Christmas period will not be compensable,
- 51:58but the carrier will receive additional EMAs
- 52:01described above. However, a regular rural carrier or
- 52:03substitute carrier may be entitled to Christmas
- 52:06overtime in the accordance with Article 9 .2 .K of the
- 52:10National Agreement, with the exception of the substitute
- 52:13rural carrier leave replacements when
- 52:15compensation is based on the evaluation of the
- 52:17regular auxiliary route served and when actual work
- 52:20hours do not exceed 40 hours per week, will be
- 52:23compensated for performing an additional trip during
- 52:25Christmas period is prescribed above. The
- 52:28big thing is lately has been the missorted parcels,
- 52:33some instances of express, and the ones that the
- 52:38clerks forget to change the date on, and so now
- 52:41they're out for delivery the same day. That's
- 52:44included in that management has every right to say
- 52:47they want you to take out and deliver that. As
- 52:51a second trip, they are supposed to then compensate
- 52:55you at the three minutes per mile and the additional
- 53:00EMA if you're over 40 miles for the day, which
- 53:04it does include your normal route mileage. So
- 53:06if your route obviously is 60 -90 miles, you're
- 53:10automatically going to get the additional EMA. But
- 53:12yes, it is a management's call on second trips. When
- 53:16management authorizes or requires a carrier, and
- 53:18this is from the F21 563 .3 second trip rate, an
- 53:25additional trip is when management authorizes or
- 53:28requires a carrier to make deliveries after returning
- 53:31from their standard street duties. So
- 53:34yeah, it's management is requiring you to go out
- 53:37there, then they got to pay you the second trip
- 53:39rate for doing it. It's not a oops they messed up,
- 53:43we would you know would you please go do this,
- 53:45it's you're coming back in and they're saying yeah the
- 53:48clerks messed up you have to do this. It's
- 53:51on manage it second trips are completely management's
- 53:53call from start to finish regardless if it's something
- 53:57that you can't fit into your vehicle or it's stuff
- 53:59that was misthrown or came in late or the clerks
- 54:03sorted it under the wrong dispatch date. They
- 54:06require you to go then they got to pay you for
- 54:09it. Now under carrier discretion
- 54:11article 2 .1 .b f if management requires you to
- 54:17go out on second trips and with the present MOU in
- 54:23operation in regards to assisting other routes, you
- 54:27can make a deal to take anything for a adjacent
- 54:32route out with you and be paid at time and a half
- 54:35for assisting on that route while delivering your
- 54:40parcel. Carried discretion though. Yeah
- 54:43in the end game though with a lot of the
- 54:45questions is management has that call on those second
- 54:48trips regardless. So if you get back in and
- 54:51they say well they messed up these need to be
- 54:54delivered and they're requiring you to do it,
- 54:56that's completely a management's call to require
- 54:58you to deliver it and they must compensate you at the
- 55:01second trip rate unless you are delivering and assisting
- 55:04with another route then that obviously is your time
- 55:07and a half rate for a route that is not yours
- 55:09and if you are in RCA and you're out delivering for
- 55:14an adjacent route that is green card time. Great
- 55:16time unless you're over the 40 hours. You
- 55:19mean if I'm a regular I can't throw the keys to
- 55:21them and say here's the line of travel? I
- 55:24mean that's completely a carrier discretion and you
- 55:30may want to contact your designated union rep after
- 55:34that in case of any discipline that comes out
- 55:37of that but I'm going to leave that one completely
- 55:44up to carrier discretion and please contact your
- 55:47union rep if you do that and they may tell you yeah
- 55:49you should not have done that. Oh
- 55:53it was Bill don't worry about it. So
- 55:57yes management can require you to go back out after
- 56:02you're done because the clerk's messed up. Fine
- 56:05and simple. Alright. Speaking of bad management
- 56:09you know we talked about this in the winter time
- 56:13but it seems to be coming up again in the summertime
- 56:17and that is weather related issues. Now
- 56:22I've been reached out to by somebody who's had to
- 56:26call off because they had issues at their house due
- 56:30to weather and management was telling them you either
- 56:34show up or you're getting written up when they're
- 56:37trying to deal with an emergency at home. So
- 56:41I wanted to go over what is the carrier's
- 56:45responsibility, what is management's responsibility
- 56:47under act of God, stuff like that and what is a
- 56:51carrier's plan in severe weather because we're coming
- 56:55into severe weather season. We've
- 56:56had tornadoes, we've had lots of large hail, we've
- 57:00had flooding, we've had rivers flowing in opposite
- 57:03directions due to the winds. Well
- 57:05you know even management can't control an active gun
- 57:08and if you're going to come into a situation where
- 57:13your personal property is damaged you have to call
- 57:16out. I would photograph everything
- 57:19you know not only for the insurance company but for
- 57:21the post office and if they want to turn around
- 57:25and give you a PDI and INI whatever you know
- 57:28people are calling it nowadays make sure that you
- 57:30have union representation and that comes under an
- 57:34act of God. Nobody can control that. I
- 57:36mean the post office has a system in place for for
- 57:41severe weather and we've had that in regards to
- 57:45snow storms, flooding, hurricanes on the eastern
- 57:49seaboard that the post office does cancel it. So
- 57:52if they have the ability to do that on their own
- 57:56then they have to accept the responsibility of taking
- 57:59our word with you know evidence of course that we
- 58:03have an act of God that has affected us. You're
- 58:06talking about the rain and the winds and everything.
- 58:09How many trees have gone down?
- 58:11How many trees have taken power
- 58:13lines down? I mean these are all things
- 58:16beyond our control. These are all acts of God and
- 58:20anytime you know we had a situation in Westchester and
- 58:24this one guy lives at the end of the cul -de -sac at
- 58:27the bottom of the hill at the end of the cul -de -sac
- 58:30every time there's more than an inch of rain his
- 58:33basement floods and it falls under an act of God
- 58:36and every time he gets the allocated time to take off
- 58:40because of the fact that he's proven it time and
- 58:43time again. So if you can prove that you
- 58:47should be able to get off. If
- 58:49you don't then let them go through the process because
- 58:53they have no ability, they have no grounds to
- 58:56discipline you for something outside of your control.
- 58:59Yeah and we heard all the
- 59:01stories in the winter time you know Buffalo where they
- 59:04sent carriers out when it was a blizzard and it was
- 59:07getting deep snow out there and people died in the
- 59:10snowstorm. People are gonna possibly die in
- 59:14tornadoes or floods and stuff like that. Don't
- 59:18ever risk your life for the mail. For
- 59:22management you're just a number. They'll
- 59:24have your position advertised within the week
- 59:28after you're gone. You're important to your family,
- 59:32your property is important to you. Make
- 59:34sure you take care of yourself first because if
- 59:37you don't take care of yourself how can you take
- 59:39care of the job? The job is less important than
- 59:42your family, your life and your property. The
- 59:46job provides you with the property but. And
- 59:49the thing of it is James is that you know how well
- 59:52do you operate you know driving along a rural route
- 59:55knowing you got to go home and you put a tarp over
- 59:58the corner of the roof because you know shingles
- 1:00:00blew off, siding peeled off or you know the basements
- 1:00:04flooded. I mean you know that puts
- 1:00:06the extra stress on people to the point where that's
- 1:00:09when they make mistakes and have access. Take
- 1:00:11care of yourself first period. I
- 1:00:14don't give a rat's ass about the post office when
- 1:00:18it comes to my family and providing shelter for them
- 1:00:22and food and everything else. My
- 1:00:24family comes first and if they don't like it okay
- 1:00:27they can kiss my Irish ass. Amen
- 1:00:30to that. Amen to that definitely. No
- 1:00:33my family definitely comes first and you know even if
- 1:00:37things were changed right up to the beginning of
- 1:00:40national convention and my daughter then changes their
- 1:00:43mind and says no mom I want you home. You
- 1:00:46know what guys I'm going to be home for my
- 1:00:48daughter. Yes but you know what my
- 1:00:51family comes first and so yeah definitely you can't
- 1:00:56you can't do your job if you're sidetracked mentally
- 1:01:01by the stuff that's going on at home. You're
- 1:01:05not going to safely work and safely be delivering on
- 1:01:09the side of the road delivering mail if you have
- 1:01:12150 other items that you got to take care of as
- 1:01:16soon as you get home and those things are crossing
- 1:01:17your mind constantly. Your safety is number one, your
- 1:01:22family is number one and so you know management has
- 1:01:28to they have taken the humanity out of it
- 1:01:31completely at this point in time and it's that's why
- 1:01:36we have carriers leaving. That's
- 1:01:38why regular carriers you know that's why our CAs
- 1:01:41aren't sticking around is because management has to
- 1:01:44completely take in the humanity out of out of the
- 1:01:47post office. Amen to that. I
- 1:01:51agree it is. Yeah go ahead. It's
- 1:01:55the fact that all they're doing is looking at
- 1:01:58computers and a computer is a machine and they're
- 1:02:02looking at numbers like a machine. They're
- 1:02:05no longer coming out and asking you how your
- 1:02:08family's doing, how you're dealing with the stuff on
- 1:02:12the route, how your customers are treating you.
- 1:02:15You know when I was a kid I
- 1:02:18actually went to the post office with the neighbor
- 1:02:21across the street from my parents who's now retired
- 1:02:24rural carrier and actually got to see how the post
- 1:02:29office worked when I was a kid. I
- 1:02:32was amazed by it. The fact that they have all
- 1:02:36these slots to put the letters in now I'm doing
- 1:02:38it for real in my career but the postmaster actually
- 1:02:43came around and had a conversation with me as a
- 1:02:47kid about the post office and talked with my neighbor
- 1:02:52across the street while she was doing the the mail and
- 1:02:56they had a conversation about that. It
- 1:02:58was awesome to see management actually caring
- 1:03:02about their carriers. My postmaster does come around
- 1:03:06and checks on us, talks with us, takes care of us
- 1:03:08and I know that I have a unicorn of a postmaster in
- 1:03:12that aspect and I know a lot of offices don't have
- 1:03:16that and they say don't bring your work home with
- 1:03:20you. Well unfortunately us here on
- 1:03:24the podcast we do bring our work home. We
- 1:03:27do try to research this stuff. We
- 1:03:30do try to learn everything we can about this job away
- 1:03:33from the job and yes it does sometimes affect our
- 1:03:36family lives. We take the time away from
- 1:03:41our family to do this podcast. We
- 1:03:43take time away to answer questions from people but
- 1:03:47that's also part of being a union. That's
- 1:03:50part of being a craft of brother and sisters is you
- 1:03:52take care of each other as a family. You
- 1:03:55guys are our family. We care about you just like
- 1:03:58we care about our family. I
- 1:04:00want to read an email that we got earlier this week.
- 1:04:04This email almost brought me to
- 1:04:06tears and it just it tore at my heartstrings so bad.
- 1:04:12It was titled defeated and it
- 1:04:15says when I was very young I was in an abusive
- 1:04:19relationship. I was degraded, bullied, low
- 1:04:23self -esteem and all the things that goes along with
- 1:04:25being abused today. Excuse me all the things with all
- 1:04:29the things that goes along with being abused. Today
- 1:04:3340 years later I find myself feeling the exact
- 1:04:37same way but this time is from the Postal Service. I
- 1:04:42have been in the Postal Service for 24 years. 17
- 1:04:46years is a regular and I am so defeated. I
- 1:04:49was hoping to retire at 65 three more years but I
- 1:04:52realized I need to get out of this abusive relationship
- 1:04:55so I'll be retiring in the fall at 62. I
- 1:04:59really hope that you can make changes to the system
- 1:05:01that is so broken. Good luck and stay strong
- 1:05:05because I no longer have the fight in me. I
- 1:05:07am done. Thank you for your time and
- 1:05:09effort. That's what we don't want to hear
- 1:05:12is that people want to get out because they're abused
- 1:05:16so hard by management, by the leadership of the
- 1:05:22union, by the way the leadership runs the steward
- 1:05:26system that they have no option but to leave to get
- 1:05:32out of the abusive relationship that they're in
- 1:05:35and the fact that the abusers don't even
- 1:05:41acknowledge that they are abusive almost in a
- 1:05:46narcissistic type of way that it hurts us to hear
- 1:05:53somebody say I've lost the fight here. When
- 1:05:57you can relate your career to an abusive personal
- 1:06:03relationship that you may have experienced you know
- 1:06:07decades ago and now you're feeling the exact same way
- 1:06:11that you did with your career that you've been at
- 1:06:15for almost half your life. I
- 1:06:19mean you know when you have these carriers out
- 1:06:23there now that are just up and walking away because
- 1:06:28they just they can't do it anymore and you know this
- 1:06:31is why and this is why we're here and this is why
- 1:06:35we're running for office because this has to stop.
- 1:06:40This degrading and bullying by
- 1:06:44management needs to stop when you have national
- 1:06:49officers that don't do anything to stop the
- 1:06:53hostile work environments in the majority of the offices
- 1:06:59across the country. This is why we are losing
- 1:07:03employees and cannot retain employees. This
- 1:07:07is why newer our CAs come in and start them. I
- 1:07:10got them working for the post office within two,
- 1:07:13three, four, five, six months they're gone. They're
- 1:07:15out, they're gone. They're like I'm not dealing with
- 1:07:17that bullshit anymore. Screw that. When
- 1:07:20you've got carriers that have been around for 10,
- 1:07:2320, 30 years that are just that have loved their jobs,
- 1:07:27loved their customers and they just cannot take the
- 1:07:32bullshit anymore and they're leaving. This
- 1:07:35right here is why. I mean this is why we're
- 1:07:39here because we see it, we've gone through it, we
- 1:07:44are going through it in many cases and we don't
- 1:07:49want it to continue anymore. It
- 1:07:52needs to stop. And then you can turn around
- 1:07:55and compound that with the fact that you have a
- 1:07:59national board that sits there and makes comments
- 1:08:01such as you've had it too good for too long. Oh,
- 1:08:06if you apply the bell curve to 66 % of the
- 1:08:09people who lost during the first mini mail survey,
- 1:08:12it's not that bad. Oh, really? Oh,
- 1:08:17we lost 240 union members but that's okay because we
- 1:08:22gain more than that in new hires. Well,
- 1:08:25how long do you think it's going to take for the new
- 1:08:26hires to bail on you? This cavalier attitude that they
- 1:08:32have towards the craft who is paying them for their
- 1:08:36protection, education and promotion of our craft,
- 1:08:42it's ludicrous that they have this cavalier attitude
- 1:08:46in regards to representing the craft. There's
- 1:08:49only one reason for them to be there. Us,
- 1:08:54the craft. That's the only reason. Otherwise,
- 1:08:58we can put a turd or rock and assess pull up there
- 1:09:04and get the same shit from them that we do from you.
- 1:09:08We don't need the same banter
- 1:09:10from our own national board that we're getting from
- 1:09:13management. Or when you have a national
- 1:09:16board member who flat out says, well, anyone can do
- 1:09:21deliver the mail, not everyone can do this job
- 1:09:24in response to when I ran against them as an RCA.
- 1:09:29Again, that person at the time
- 1:09:31was vice president. They are now president. The
- 1:09:34degrading needs to stop. It's,
- 1:09:38you know, yeah, maybe some carrier, some routes did
- 1:09:42have it good for a while, but I could tell you a
- 1:09:45majority of them out there have not. There
- 1:09:48are offices that have not. That
- 1:09:51definitely outweighs the ones that, you know, maybe
- 1:09:54their routes did drop, but then they were, you know,
- 1:09:58higher up on evaluation and now they're lower, but
- 1:10:03they've lost that much more. You
- 1:10:05know, maybe some of their true ones, yeah, maybe they
- 1:10:07did lose a few hours and rightfully so did lose a
- 1:10:11few hours. But what about these routes
- 1:10:13that were so under -evaluated? I
- 1:10:17mean, I know my route was a 42 prior and it's now a
- 1:10:2146. You're right, you know, I'm not
- 1:10:24overburdened status, but that's up four hours
- 1:10:27difference is huge. And then you've got people with
- 1:10:31routes like bills and then we've got the ones that we
- 1:10:34said, you know, 90 standard hours. Yeah.
- 1:10:37I mean, come on now. You know, what about the relief
- 1:10:41for these, but what about, and then we're going to
- 1:10:43cut some of these routes that were 48, that just
- 1:10:46went to a 48K after they've gone to the SMDCs,
- 1:10:50which are still nowhere near technically being
- 1:10:53overburdened, but because they're a 48K, even though
- 1:10:56the carrier's done by 233 o 'clock on most days, but
- 1:11:00because of the added mileage, it now puts them
- 1:11:02in an overburden status. So we're going to whack them
- 1:11:05apart, but these carriers that have 60, 70 hour
- 1:11:10routes, they're still pleading for help. And
- 1:11:13let's not forget that since 2018 count with the
- 1:11:17introduction of Amazon, that we've turned around and
- 1:11:22been delivering over and above our evaluation for
- 1:11:25years with no extra compensation. Yeah.
- 1:11:28You know, my office, like I said, my route was a
- 1:11:3042. And that was because of the
- 1:11:32last mail count in 2018. And
- 1:11:35that whole thing with the pill bottle packs and
- 1:11:38whether they got counted as flats or parcels, depending
- 1:11:40on if they would fit into the separation, we had a
- 1:11:43manager who was instructed that they're all flat. So
- 1:11:46all of our routes got caught. And
- 1:11:48then Amazon came in two weeks later. Or
- 1:11:51you have somebody on the union side that sees 240
- 1:11:57people pull their dues that have been dues payers for
- 1:12:01five, 10, 15 years. And instead of sending the
- 1:12:06steward system out to find out why they've decided to
- 1:12:10pull their dues, they just turn around and call them
- 1:12:13freeloaders and scabs. Even though scabs are people who
- 1:12:17cross picket lines, but we'll not get into that.
- 1:12:20We talked about that on a
- 1:12:21previous episode. But the fact that you have
- 1:12:24people who have paid dues for years pulling their
- 1:12:28dues out of the system should be a red flag to
- 1:12:33anybody in a leadership position. But
- 1:12:36instead, they're more than content with that because
- 1:12:39the people that will continue to pay dues are
- 1:12:41either the ones who want to fight for change or the
- 1:12:45ones who are content with the way things are and how
- 1:12:49we're being treated by management. And
- 1:12:51those 240 people were knowledgeable people with
- 1:12:55experience that pulled their dues. They
- 1:12:58weren't newbies that just signed a form at training
- 1:13:01to have their dues withheld. These
- 1:13:04were experienced carriers from four different states.
- 1:13:09And they said, enough is
- 1:13:10enough. Just like the Boston Tea Party,
- 1:13:13no taxation without representation, no union
- 1:13:17dues without representation. And
- 1:13:19they felt like they had none. All
- 1:13:21right, guys, before we wrap it up here, I have one of
- 1:13:25our Spotify listeners had posted a question this
- 1:13:28week. And I really think we need to
- 1:13:30touch on this one for her real quick. So
- 1:13:32we're going to change tune. Maternity
- 1:13:35leave, how it works. My supervisor told me I have
- 1:13:38to use sick leave and annual leave before I can
- 1:13:41use LWAP. Also, not sure how FMLA works or
- 1:13:44if it's worth it, please help. Yes,
- 1:13:47FMLA is definitely worth it. It
- 1:13:49protects your job under the Family Medical Leave Act,
- 1:13:54as long as you have at least 12 months in and
- 1:13:57have worked 1250 hours within those last 12
- 1:14:02months, you can file apply for FMLA, your doctors will
- 1:14:08fill out the paperwork for you and send it in. Once
- 1:14:12you get it. Yes, in order to use the LWAP,
- 1:14:16in this case, you would have to use your sick and
- 1:14:19annual before. But under FMLA, you can LWAP
- 1:14:24under FMLA. FMLA is good for 12 weeks. I
- 1:14:29definitely recommend it. I got FMLA for my daughter's
- 1:14:34pregnancy because I'm her main transportation. So
- 1:14:37anytime that I take off for dependent care to take
- 1:14:41her to her doctor's appointments, it's under
- 1:14:43FMLA. That way I'm covered, especially
- 1:14:46if something happens and I need to be off for longer
- 1:14:49than just one appointment or two appointments or a
- 1:14:51couple days, you know, FMLA protects your job and you
- 1:14:55can LWAP under FMLA. Without
- 1:14:58FMLA, yes, you would have to use all of your leave
- 1:15:01that is available to you first before you could
- 1:15:04LWAP. Yeah, and I would reach out to
- 1:15:07Ron Speakman. I'd reach out to Ron Speakman
- 1:15:11from FedUp. He knows the FMLA procedures
- 1:15:14and things like that a lot better than any other
- 1:15:18person that I have dealt with throughout the system.
- 1:15:23I've asked him questions myself
- 1:15:25on it, so he'd be a great resource to reach out to
- 1:15:28if you need more information on filling out
- 1:15:31the FMLA and things like that. But
- 1:15:33we do have our OWCP rep at the NRLCA if you feel
- 1:15:39like reaching out to him. But
- 1:15:41under the Family Medical Leave Act, definitely, you
- 1:15:44can go either call the 800 number, you can go under
- 1:15:49the ELA, you can even when you submit a leave slip
- 1:15:52for a doctor's appointment, you go on the backside,
- 1:15:55you check the FMLA that will once when management
- 1:15:58enters that in, they'll automatically mail you the
- 1:16:01paperwork, you take the paperwork that needs to be
- 1:16:03filled out to the doctors with you. I
- 1:16:05do believe it's supposed to be returned within 15 days
- 1:16:08from the date you receive it does come with tracking.
- 1:16:11And then that gets submitted
- 1:16:14once the doctors fill it out, usually they'll mail
- 1:16:18it right off for you, that gets sent in, you'll get
- 1:16:21your FMLA approval, denial, whatever it is, your case
- 1:16:24number, all that stuff, and then you include your FMLA
- 1:16:28for those appointments or any other additional time.
- 1:16:30I highly suggest it,
- 1:16:32especially with maternity leave with taking off, this
- 1:16:35will allow you to kind of stag your sick leave and
- 1:16:38your annual leave as well with LWAP, that is the one
- 1:16:42exception with LWAP is with the FMLA. So
- 1:16:45yeah, I highly suggest getting the FMLA for
- 1:16:48maternity leave. I have another one this week
- 1:16:52real quick question, which this is I've seen this one
- 1:16:55pop up in various areas, especially with the route
- 1:16:58cuts coming up. So as we have an auxilia
- 1:17:01route over five years that management kept seeing
- 1:17:03overburden routes will be cut and placed to it,
- 1:17:07place it to the auxiliary but nothing has been done
- 1:17:10so far as their way it can file a grievance. If
- 1:17:12they've been saying it for five years, then with the
- 1:17:15recs in the last two years though, it's kind of late
- 1:17:18on that end. But with these new cuts coming
- 1:17:20up, keep your eye out. If they have routes that
- 1:17:23they're going to cut and they don't place it with
- 1:17:25the auxiliary route. I really guys, I don't know,
- 1:17:29is there a grievance on that one or not? So
- 1:17:31back then, back five years ago when they were talking
- 1:17:35about cutting the overburden routes and putting them on
- 1:17:37those routes, it should have happened probably prior
- 1:17:41to the mini -mail survey and I would have filed the
- 1:17:44grievance back then. But once the first mini -mail
- 1:17:47survey came out and they decided that we were going
- 1:17:50to use the new cut system to adjust routes, that's
- 1:17:54when you come into the caveat of we don't have a
- 1:17:56system to cut routes right now, we don't have a way
- 1:17:59to do this, we don't have a system in place to do
- 1:18:01that. I have been highly arguing
- 1:18:06that they should be using the old system to cut
- 1:18:08routes if they can't cut them with the new system.
- 1:18:11But with the cuts coming now,
- 1:18:15it should be a lot more automated in the cuts and
- 1:18:19it should be supposedly more accurate on the cuts
- 1:18:24if they use the system correctly. I
- 1:18:27don't trust management to use the system correctly,
- 1:18:30but if you have overburden routes in your office,
- 1:18:33they're going to be coming to adjust those in the
- 1:18:35next few weeks. They're training the people, they
- 1:18:38should be almost done with the training. I
- 1:18:40believe this past Friday was the last day for the
- 1:18:44first rounds of training, so some offices should be
- 1:18:47getting cuts this coming pay period. They
- 1:18:51have to start it at the beginning of a pay period
- 1:18:54and it has to be completed by the end of that pay
- 1:18:57period. So hopefully we'll see the
- 1:19:01results of those here in the coming next two pay
- 1:19:04periods and it should, after all things are said
- 1:19:07and done, increase that off -route and if it doesn't,
- 1:19:11you could file agreements on that, but I doubt that
- 1:19:16the grievance would be valid in a lot of ways
- 1:19:19for that with the way that they're going to do these
- 1:19:21cuts. All right, got another one real
- 1:19:23quick. This kind of goes back to the
- 1:19:24Amazon Sundays. It says in Texas, I was told
- 1:19:29that the late time for Amazon Sunday at 10 due to
- 1:19:34keeping carriers at four to five hours of delivery only
- 1:19:38does not seem like they'll have time to carry anything
- 1:19:40by Amazon or not all of it. That's
- 1:19:43just a quick comment on that. Again,
- 1:19:46what the true reason for switching to 10 o 'clock we
- 1:19:49honestly don't know. So I heard a rumor on that.
- 1:19:53I heard a rumor on that and
- 1:19:55the rumor was that we're getting paid a $1 .50 of
- 1:20:00parcel to deliver Amazon and we're costing them $2
- 1:20:03.50 to deliver a parcel for Amazon. So
- 1:20:07they're trying to shorten up the delivery points
- 1:20:09between each parcel that we have to deliver on Amazon
- 1:20:14Sunday to try and lower the cost per parcel of
- 1:20:18delivery. And this is their one way of
- 1:20:21doing that. It's trying to force carriers to
- 1:20:23go faster and do even more work for less money. I
- 1:20:30got a good one. Just like we have to do more
- 1:20:32letters for more letters per minute than we used to
- 1:20:36also. All right, this question has
- 1:20:38been asked on numerous platforms geared towards the
- 1:20:40three of us. And I'm going to put it out
- 1:20:42here now that way everybody can hear us even though we
- 1:20:45have mentioned it many times over the course of
- 1:20:48time. Since I have a question about
- 1:20:50social media presence for the candidates, if or when
- 1:20:53you are appointed to a national board position,
- 1:20:56would you consider an NRLCA podcast to help with
- 1:20:59transparency to members? Absolutely.
- 1:21:03Absolutely. I believe that coming out
- 1:21:05here and speaking weekly on issues that carriers are
- 1:21:09having is a benefit to the craft. I
- 1:21:14believe getting out there and speaking publicly about
- 1:21:17issues that carriers are facing is a benefit to the
- 1:21:20craft. Social media has been a huge
- 1:21:24benefit to this craft. The fact that we are getting
- 1:21:28out there and having carriers getting information,
- 1:21:32getting help, getting answers, figuring things
- 1:21:35out, pointing them in the right direction, even if
- 1:21:38it's not giving them an answer but pointing them to
- 1:21:40where they can find it, is a benefit to the craft.
- 1:21:44And I know that according to
- 1:21:47the National Labor Relations Board in social media
- 1:21:50policy, as long as you are working to unite in a
- 1:21:54concerted effort discussing wages, benefits, and work
- 1:21:59conditions, it is First Amendment protected speech.
- 1:22:03And anybody who says otherwise
- 1:22:05is misinformed. Yeah. Now, we've already said
- 1:22:08many times that we would continue this on. You
- 1:22:11know, it's been, I think there needs to be more
- 1:22:15transparency. I think social media can be
- 1:22:17a great tool when used properly. Well,
- 1:22:20and I think the fact that matters is that if the
- 1:22:23NRLCA has a Facebook page that's accessible to all
- 1:22:29members, whether they be do thing or not, will offer
- 1:22:35us the opportunity to be able to address issues in
- 1:22:39a quicker timetable because of the fact that some of
- 1:22:43the non -union members don't feel like, you know, they
- 1:22:46get the representation or they have the ear of the
- 1:22:49union. And we do have to represent
- 1:22:52them. But just because they're non
- 1:22:54-union members doesn't mean it doesn't affect everybody.
- 1:22:58So I like the idea of
- 1:23:00continuing on with the social media platform. And
- 1:23:04people said, yeah, would you continue this podcast
- 1:23:07if you're president? Hell yes. You
- 1:23:10know, that, you know, and every other social media
- 1:23:13platform is available to us. The
- 1:23:15better our message, the bigger our message, the
- 1:23:20more platforms we're on, the more we're going to be
- 1:23:23able to accomplish. And we can't accomplish that
- 1:23:26without you. So yes, the social media
- 1:23:28platform is pretty national board. I
- 1:23:31think it would be more united too. I
- 1:23:33mean, you're going to bring, you're going to get
- 1:23:34more people together than, I mean, we're all members
- 1:23:40of all the groups and you see the bickering and you
- 1:23:43see the cattiness. And, you know, anymore I just
- 1:23:48scroll through a lot of that. I
- 1:23:49just, I can't even stomach the cattiness. I
- 1:23:53really can't. But I think to get more people
- 1:23:56united and bring people together for a concerted
- 1:24:00effort, I mean, definitely social media when used
- 1:24:03properly in any platform is definitely helpful, can be
- 1:24:07helpful. Yeah. And if you look at the
- 1:24:10current NRLCA social media, all of them, they have no
- 1:24:15comments available. You cannot comment on their
- 1:24:19social media. Now, being somebody who has ran
- 1:24:23a Facebook page and we currently run a Facebook
- 1:24:27page, as well as groups and things like that, the
- 1:24:31issue for that is in order to get seen, even by the
- 1:24:35people who follow you, you have to have activity on
- 1:24:39your posts. You can't just have likes and
- 1:24:42reactions to them. You got to have comments
- 1:24:44because the more people react to it, the more
- 1:24:47people it reaches because Facebook's algorithm is if
- 1:24:51one person comments on it, it reaches four more
- 1:24:54people. If two people comment, it
- 1:24:57reaches eight people and so on and so forth. There's
- 1:25:00a very small number of people they actually really
- 1:25:03presented it from. They move it up on the wall in
- 1:25:06Facebook. They make it more recommended on
- 1:25:10YouTube, things like that, when there's actual activity
- 1:25:13on it. And the fact that our union
- 1:25:15wants you to follow their social media, but won't
- 1:25:18allow the things that boost the posts to the people
- 1:25:22that follow them, proves that they are out of
- 1:25:25touch, not only with our craft, but with current
- 1:25:28technology. And interacting back. The
- 1:25:31more that you interact back, the more it's going
- 1:25:34to get seen. Not just the comments, but the
- 1:25:37interaction back and forth as well. Even
- 1:25:40messaging the pages is a benefit too. Yes
- 1:25:44it is. There's trackers on Facebook that
- 1:25:47tell you, you take you an hour, two hours, three
- 1:25:49hours to reply to people, stuff like that. You
- 1:25:54could benefit the craft. Oh yeah. And
- 1:25:57you know, you get those so and so still writing for a
- 1:26:01reply. We finished the conversation,
- 1:26:03but okay. Thank you. You
- 1:26:06know, you get that stuff. And
- 1:26:10like I said, if it's used properly, I could definitely
- 1:26:12see it as being a great tool. I
- 1:26:14understand that when new leadership takes over and
- 1:26:18they do decide to open the comments up, that we're
- 1:26:21going to get the floodgates open of people who are
- 1:26:24going to want to complain about everything that's
- 1:26:27going on in the union. And that's okay. That
- 1:26:30is your right. Your right to complain to your
- 1:26:33leadership about what's going on. Leadership
- 1:26:36should be listening to your complaints and fixing those
- 1:26:39complaints if they can do it. Or
- 1:26:42coming up with some mutually agreed solution to
- 1:26:45your problem. It shouldn't just write them
- 1:26:48off that, oh it's just a gripe. People
- 1:26:51have grievances. They want to air. Let
- 1:26:55them air it. You know, yes, there's a social
- 1:26:57media person in that office. But
- 1:26:59you know what, I think if somebody was to comment
- 1:27:01with a really good, you know, with something that
- 1:27:04needs to be brought attention, then you know,
- 1:27:07if I'm, then they need to be spread out amongst all
- 1:27:09the officers. All right, we've got this going
- 1:27:11on. You know, who can, okay, this
- 1:27:14is a good question for this officer to handle.
- 1:27:16This is good. Please
- 1:27:17reach out to the please get back to them, you
- 1:27:20know, or something, you know, to show that the
- 1:27:25officers are working for the craft as they were
- 1:27:27elected to do. These are elected officials to
- 1:27:32work for you. And you know, when you shut
- 1:27:36off the commenting and the reaching out, you know, it
- 1:27:40doesn't look like you're working much for us. I
- 1:27:44mean, yes, there is a lot of work in the office.
- 1:27:46Don't get me wrong. I
- 1:27:47mean, it could be drowned in work. We
- 1:27:48all will be, would be. It's
- 1:27:51just a matter of, you know, delegation and all
- 1:27:55right, you take that, you take a few extra moments
- 1:27:57to reach out to this person that's in dire need
- 1:28:00of assistance somewhere. And what do you do? Okay,
- 1:28:03so I've got somebody who, who's, you know, that's
- 1:28:06when you go and find who's in charge of that area,
- 1:28:08who's that a DR, ADR area steward, that we can get
- 1:28:12in touch with them to get this taken care of. Or
- 1:28:15is this something that's a beyond them? That
- 1:28:17is something that we need to go to headquarters for
- 1:28:19and say, look, this needs to get taken care of in
- 1:28:22this area now, you know, stuff like that to show
- 1:28:25that, you know, these elected officials are
- 1:28:27actually working for the craft as they were elected
- 1:28:30to do. All right, guys, you can reach
- 1:28:32out, you can reach out to your politicians. The
- 1:28:36politicians you can reach out to their social medias
- 1:28:38are open for discussion and stuff like that, because
- 1:28:42they're elected by you to their positions. They
- 1:28:45need to be able to speak to their constituents in
- 1:28:48order to be elected again. And
- 1:28:51our leadership doesn't have that fear of losing their
- 1:28:54position, because they aren't listening to the
- 1:28:56craft, because of how entrenched they are through
- 1:28:59the system. It's time that the system steps
- 1:29:02up and boots out those that think that they're
- 1:29:04untouchable anymore. You know, I, Vice President,
- 1:29:09I'd be open to, you know, you guys got new ideas of
- 1:29:12new places that are big enough to hold national
- 1:29:15convention at. You know, throw me an idea.
- 1:29:17I'll be more than happy to look
- 1:29:18into it. You know, the vice president
- 1:29:21also books the future national conventions and
- 1:29:23handles all that. I'd be more than happy to see
- 1:29:26if there's some other new places to go to other than
- 1:29:30repeating the same ones over and over again that
- 1:29:32we have for a while. I mean, we used to do other
- 1:29:35places. I get it. You
- 1:29:36know, you've got to have a place that'll house 2000
- 1:29:38people. And that can get tough. I
- 1:29:41completely understand that. You
- 1:29:42know, I've got 15 years at hotels and resorts people.
- 1:29:45I understand the back end of
- 1:29:46it. So I also know how sometimes
- 1:29:53it can be a an affordability issue too for
- 1:29:57many. Yeah. And, you know, in knowing
- 1:30:01how contracts work on the other end of things, to be
- 1:30:05able to put that into perspective and to be able
- 1:30:08to and understand that when moving forward with booking
- 1:30:11future places and rates and whatnot. I
- 1:30:18mean, I do. I understand all of that. So
- 1:30:20I, you know, I've been looking, I mean, my locals
- 1:30:23hosting a state convention and, you know, our state
- 1:30:26board found one location and I've been trying to
- 1:30:28find others within the area that's big enough. And
- 1:30:31unfortunately, I haven't been able to because we
- 1:30:34just don't have the facilities for it. So,
- 1:30:38you know, I, you know, I get it. I
- 1:30:39really do. It is, you know, definitely,
- 1:30:42at least I do understand that whole part of it as
- 1:30:44well. All right. All
- 1:30:46right. You got anything else to add,
- 1:30:49Bill? We're going to wind it down
- 1:30:50since we're after nine o 'clock already. Well,
- 1:30:53yeah, I do, but I'll save it for the post show.
- 1:31:00Again, if you're not on our
- 1:31:01Discord server and at this time, iPhone users, I feel
- 1:31:05sorry for you for this, but you don't get to hear
- 1:31:08the pre -show and the post -show that we do on our
- 1:31:11Discord server, but you can find the links on our
- 1:31:13Facebook groups, our Facebook page and places
- 1:31:15like that, where we actually post links that
- 1:31:19you can join our Discord and join us for our
- 1:31:22recordings. And if we have even our
- 1:31:24special episodes during the week, you can hear those
- 1:31:28as well. So, join us on our Discord.
- 1:31:32You know, we have a listener
- 1:31:33chat on the Discord. If you play Monopoly Go, we
- 1:31:36have a, we have a channel for that too. You
- 1:31:40know, we've got questions, we've got manuals, MOUs,
- 1:31:45you know, if you want to come up and hang out with
- 1:31:48us one night on the microphone, we've got a
- 1:31:51channel just to vet people on there as well. You
- 1:31:55know, we've got a bunch of different things going on
- 1:31:58on our Discord more than just recording on Sunday
- 1:32:01nights and when we do our mid -week stuff. So,
- 1:32:04definitely, you know, we're usually out there all the
- 1:32:07time. It's one of the few things I
- 1:32:08actually do get notifications for. Again,
- 1:32:10I turn those back on so we can do that. When
- 1:32:16a new RCA comes in, where are they placed? Used
- 1:32:19to be, what's the next in line? How
- 1:32:22is it now? It should be filled from the
- 1:32:25one that has, unless somebody's put a 120 -day
- 1:32:28letter in, that will jump them to the front of the
- 1:32:30line. It should be the route that
- 1:32:34has gone the longest without an RCA. Technically,
- 1:32:37it should be. They are supposed to be filled
- 1:32:40as they become vacant. So, if you've got, you know,
- 1:32:44one route that hasn't had a sub in three months, one
- 1:32:47that hasn't had a sub in two months, and one that
- 1:32:49just lost a sub, that one with the three months
- 1:32:51should be getting theirs first and so on, so forth.
- 1:32:56Unless the newest one put a 120
- 1:32:58-day letter in, then that's going to jump them to the
- 1:33:01front of the line. But that's not always the case,
- 1:33:03always, because in our district, for some reason,
- 1:33:08HR just randomly assigns them a route that doesn't
- 1:33:13have a sub of record as a primary. So,
- 1:33:17they don't take any of that consideration in our
- 1:33:21area. And management can have a say
- 1:33:23in that too, but yeah, most of the time they
- 1:33:25don't even, yeah, we have an issue with that in my
- 1:33:28office as well, but I'm not going to get into that
- 1:33:30right now. So, anyways. For
- 1:33:33those of you wondering, that was a question from
- 1:33:36our live -stage chat from one of our listeners who's
- 1:33:39listening to us live. Record
- 1:33:40this. Not only can you come in and
- 1:33:43ask questions in the live -stage, and we may answer
- 1:33:45it on the air live, but during the week, if we're
- 1:33:50not talking, you can always reach out to us also
- 1:33:53through Discord, because some of us will respond to
- 1:33:56messages on Discord as well, so you can reach out
- 1:33:59to us there as well. All right, guys. Go
- 1:34:01ahead. Other of us will respond after
- 1:34:03James prompts me to respond. I
- 1:34:09just wish I'd get my Discord notifications on my
- 1:34:12watch. That would be nice, but
- 1:34:13unfortunately, that would definitely be nice, but
- 1:34:17unfortunately, I don't. So, I think I'm editing
- 1:34:27tonight. So, James, your final words of
- 1:34:30wisdom for this evening. Well,
- 1:34:32we went through a lot of different topics today and
- 1:34:34discussed a lot of things going on, but the biggest
- 1:34:37thing that we are worried about most of all is our
- 1:34:41fellow brothers and sisters of the craft. You
- 1:34:44know, we talk about unity in the craft as the
- 1:34:47biggest thing that can happen right now, not only
- 1:34:50for getting new leadership put into place, but just
- 1:34:55to get the craft back out from underneath managerial
- 1:35:00harassment and managerial mistreatment. Getting
- 1:35:05us all working towards the same goal of a united
- 1:35:09union and craft is the biggest thing that we can
- 1:35:14do right now. Taking care of our fellow brothers
- 1:35:17and sisters, poking our head out if management is
- 1:35:21causing another carrier problems, stepping up and
- 1:35:24saying that's not right can be a big help to that
- 1:35:28carrier, especially if that carrier is conflict -evoided
- 1:35:32and doesn't want to stand up against management,
- 1:35:36because at the end of the day, we're all in this
- 1:35:39together. Bill? Well, I'd like to close
- 1:35:42out by thanking everybody who listens, whether they're
- 1:35:46live or whether they get it through the week from
- 1:35:49the podcast, and remind you that the only way we're
- 1:35:53going to change this union is by changing the
- 1:35:55leadership, and for that, we need delegates to go to
- 1:35:58the national convention and vote accordingly. I,
- 1:36:02for one, gladly step aside as a presidential candidate
- 1:36:07if we had a better opportunity, individual, step
- 1:36:12up and challenge for the national president.
- 1:36:16Unfortunately, nobody has, because they
- 1:36:18don't want to fight the system. I
- 1:36:20believe that everybody in the National World Letter
- 1:36:24Carries Association and the non -members are worth
- 1:36:28fighting for. Otherwise, I wouldn't put my time and
- 1:36:31effort into this podcast and everything else I do
- 1:36:34through the course of the week to try to help the
- 1:36:37members of our crowd. We can't do it alone. We
- 1:36:40need your help. We need your support. The
- 1:36:43thing of it is, we're not here for ourselves. We're
- 1:36:47here for you. We answer questions as they
- 1:36:50pop up on our live stage. We
- 1:36:52answer questions through the course of the week. We
- 1:36:55answer them from multiple platforms, social media. We
- 1:36:59answer emails and texts directed towards us. It
- 1:37:03doesn't matter. We're here for you. This
- 1:37:06is not something that we're selecting to do because,
- 1:37:09oh, we don't want to carry our routes. I
- 1:37:12gladly carry my route versus being an elected
- 1:37:17officer if I had faith in the officers that represent
- 1:37:20us. I have no faith in them and
- 1:37:23I have not had faith in them for years. Remember,
- 1:37:28what we're doing here is for your benefit. It'll
- 1:37:32be for our benefit also, but it's for 100 ,000 plus
- 1:37:35people, not the nine that are up on the national
- 1:37:39board. Keep that in mind when you're
- 1:37:42selecting your delegates. Keep
- 1:37:44in mind that we do care. Like
- 1:37:46I always say at the end of every podcast, you are
- 1:37:50the most important delivery and you are. You
- 1:37:54need to get home to your family, to your loved ones
- 1:37:56because they're the most important aspect of your
- 1:37:59life. They're the reason why you're going
- 1:38:02through all the turmoil and the bullshit goes on in
- 1:38:08these offices across the country every day. I
- 1:38:12pray we don't get any more letters that say, I'm
- 1:38:16defeated. I don't know that word. I
- 1:38:20don't stop fighting and I won't stop fighting because
- 1:38:25I believe this situation that we are in has to
- 1:38:30change if this union is vive. God
- 1:38:33bless you all. Be safe. Do
- 1:38:36your job professionally, efficiently, the best of
- 1:38:39your abilities. Get home to your loved ones
- 1:38:41because you are the most important delivery of the
- 1:38:44day. Kristen? Thank you gentlemen. I
- 1:38:47have to agree guys. Us running for national
- 1:38:52officers isn't about us. It's
- 1:38:55about the entire craft. As Bill said, I am happy on
- 1:39:01my route. I love my customers to death.
- 1:39:04I have more customers that
- 1:39:06will ask me on a daily basis how my daughter is
- 1:39:09doing than management. I love my job. I
- 1:39:16love my customers. I'm doing this for the craft.
- 1:39:19I do this for every single
- 1:39:21one of you guys out there. I
- 1:39:24think people need to realize that things aren't
- 1:39:28going to get better if there isn't any change and
- 1:39:32there needs to be change. Whether
- 1:39:34it's one of us or all three of us or somebody
- 1:39:38else better stepping up, there has to be change and
- 1:39:43we can't make the change if we don't have the
- 1:39:47delegates that are there to vote for the change that's
- 1:39:51needed. But yes, as Bill and James,
- 1:39:54we're all in this together and you guys stay safe out
- 1:39:58there. It's springtime. The
- 1:40:01weather's getting wacky with the rain and whatnot. Thank
- 1:40:04goodness the other mighty S word is I done for the
- 1:40:07year, I hope. Fingers crossed. I
- 1:40:09just come across a Facebook memory from six years ago
- 1:40:13where I got dumped with 18 inches of snow overnight
- 1:40:16six years ago today. It happens, especially in my
- 1:40:20neck of the woods. Guys, you are the most important
- 1:40:25delivery day getting home to your loved ones. This
- 1:40:28job is of our careers. This
- 1:40:30is what affords us to have the roof over our heads,
- 1:40:33to feed our families, to clothe our kids, to get
- 1:40:37what we need for our grandchildren that are going
- 1:40:41to be on their way later this year. This
- 1:40:43is our livelihoods and we want to do it to the best
- 1:40:47of our ability, but at the same time I want to make
- 1:40:49sure that we have that career that we all so much
- 1:40:53love that can still have that love without having to
- 1:40:57walk away feeling defeated, without having to walk away
- 1:40:59feeling we've been in an abusive relationship. Nobody
- 1:41:02wants that in their lives. I
- 1:41:04don't, I know guys don't, none of you do. We
- 1:41:08don't want it and we know we can help make it
- 1:41:11better. And on that note guys, stay
- 1:41:14safe this week and we will be back next week.
- 1:41:30Wait, wait for 10 minutes, make
- 1:41:32sure it's folding golf.