Latest / United We Scan / Last of SAC and City Votes No!
Transcript
- 0:14Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
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- 0:47Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
- 0:50United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
- 0:55Episode one O 9. Yep.
- 0:59Last of SAC and City votes. No big headline today, but we'll
- 1:06get into that in a minute. Bill, how was your week off this
- 1:09week? Oh.
- 1:10God, it's another week of trials tribulations for Westchester.
- 1:16I'll discuss later on what's possibly going on at the SD and
- 1:21C and the reopening of the original Westchester facility,
- 1:25which is mind boggling. It, it, it's bad enough to try
- 1:30to balance the checkbook when you move these offices to SD and
- 1:34CS, but then to move other offices into our former office,
- 1:41I, I just, I, I can't, I can't put the numbers together.
- 1:44So yeah, we had a good, pretty good week.
- 1:47Like I said, I I found out I had bronchitis, so got the steroid
- 1:50and the albuterol inhaler and I just found out today I'm not
- 1:56supposed to be huffing on the inhaler like I do.
- 1:58But you know, I get carried away.
- 2:00I had the Grand One's grandson yesterday.
- 2:05We turn around and we went and looked at an investment property
- 2:08today and that turned into be a fiasco because it was an open
- 2:13house and, and people that, you know, because of where it is and
- 2:18how much acreage involved, people wanted to see its
- 2:20property. And it was like going to the
- 2:22circus on the on the first day of the the summer.
- 2:26Oh my God. But if the property didn't, you
- 2:29know, pan out. So we came home and, you know,
- 2:32found out another son's on the way up with the other grandson.
- 2:34So they came up, we fed them, and you know, here I am, bright
- 2:38eyed, bushy tailed in person, ready to start some shit.
- 2:42I bet you, James, how'd your week go?
- 2:45Well, it was after getting back from SAC, you know, it was, I
- 2:51took Tuesday off as well because I got back in at 1:30 in the
- 2:54morning Tuesday morning and drove straight through from
- 2:59Atlanta here, a little over 12 hours total with fuel stops and
- 3:03food stops and stuff like that and got in at 1:30 in the
- 3:08morning. And I'm glad I took Tuesday off
- 3:10to recover from the drive and catch up on the sleep a little
- 3:14bit. But it was nice to go back into
- 3:18work and see my customers again and deliver the mail.
- 3:23As much as people talk bad about, you know, how hard it is
- 3:26to do this job, I really do enjoy doing this job.
- 3:30You know, it's, it's it's hard. It's rough, it's hard on the
- 3:36body. But I love that every day is
- 3:41different, even though I'm doing the same thing every day.
- 3:45And it was pretty good until it started snowing and then it got
- 3:51fun. But yeah.
- 3:57And like, yeah, Rich just said that it would be great if it
- 3:59wasn't for management. But I do have good news on that
- 4:03as well. The manager that we had that had
- 4:10if he thoughts on how things should be run, moved on from our
- 4:16office. Yeah.
- 4:18So our office is a level 20 and he moved to a level 22 office,
- 4:23bid to a level 22 office. And so we ended up getting
- 4:27another temporary postmaster, which turned out to be the
- 4:31supervisor that became a postmaster at another office.
- 4:35So it's good to have somebody who understands the dynamics and
- 4:39was trained under our previous postmaster to come back and work
- 4:45with us. So it was a heck of a lot Homer,
- 4:48in our office this week than it was the previous few weeks.
- 4:52It's that other postmaster, so unfortunately they're still gun
- 4:59shy because of that, but I think it's a nice change to appreciate
- 5:05somebody who actually has your back again.
- 5:09So, you know, you're right, James.
- 5:13I mean, I'll guarantee you I, I spent probably a year and a half
- 5:18more than I wanted to in the post office because I love my
- 5:22customers. I mean, no matter what, you
- 5:24know, any day you had in the office, once you get out there
- 5:27and see one of your customers, man, it just brightens your
- 5:29whole day up, you know, dog coming up, you know, kids
- 5:32playing, you know, Hey, Mr. Bill, Mr. Bill, I mean, you
- 5:36know, that just makes up for all the crap you put up in the
- 5:38morning. And, you know, I, I miss my
- 5:41customers dearly. I really do.
- 5:43And I know they missed me because I still get texts.
- 5:48Oh. You know, so, but that was
- 5:54pretty much a standard week for me at the office.
- 5:59Oh, let's get into the nitty gritty here.
- 6:04I know everybody wants to hear us talk about the city contract
- 6:06vote first, but we have to do some housekeeping on last week's
- 6:10episode because unfortunately last week's episode came out
- 6:14while there was still a day of information left at SAC.
- 6:18And so I kind of want to get through that and unfortunately,
- 6:22keep Kristen in your thoughts. She is sick, so be sure you say
- 6:27a prayer for her and that she heals quickly from her sickness.
- 6:30And we'll be back next week. So to go over some things we had
- 6:37Monday, we had two people from the United States Postal Service
- 6:42management come into the and give us information.
- 6:48And the first one was Scott Raymond, an area vice president
- 6:53for USPS, and he was talking about North Carolina being the
- 7:01biggest rural route state and most significant growth in rural
- 7:06carriers and rural routes. Then he talked about the joy and
- 7:12how he loves talking with legislators.
- 7:18He keeps pushing the our agenda, our narrative.
- 7:22He says he's not reactionary, wants to get out front and he
- 7:31said there's going to be a lot of mistakes.
- 7:32When it doesn't work, we back up and try different things.
- 7:37So why are you continuing to push the SNDC's if they're not
- 7:42working so? Backing up.
- 7:46Since they're not working, why are you continuing to push them
- 7:49and create new ones? He said.
- 7:52We've always had someone that came up through the ranks
- 7:55talking about the postmaster general position.
- 7:58It's interesting to see a successful private sector person
- 8:03trying to run this company. Knowing our contractual unions,
- 8:06all 7 unions, you can't run this place like a private business.
- 8:12Pay attention there Mr. President, you can't run this
- 8:15place like a private business. Even even in your area.
- 8:20VP says you can't Workplace and instability always in a hiring
- 8:27mode. He talked about in 1992 it was
- 8:30hard to get in unless you are a veteran 5 or 10 point vet got
- 8:35moved to the top of the line. Now I don't know of a unit or
- 8:38plant that's not hiring. Struggling to deal with the new
- 8:43workforce. He talked about having a 27 year
- 8:46old daughter who has 3 or 4 W twos in a year.
- 8:49Constantly changing jobs. He's trying to teach her to have
- 8:54a career. Got to start worrying about
- 8:57being 65 and wanting to retire. Totally different mindset out
- 9:01there. I don't think it's a totally
- 9:03different mindset. I think it's we don't want to
- 9:07put up with your BS mindset. You're going to treat us like
- 9:12dirt. We're going to go somewhere
- 9:13else. You know, people like Bill and
- 9:16myself, we have the pride in the in the tasks we're doing to
- 9:21stick around and fight for what's right.
- 9:24And other individuals have that mindset of I don't like it here,
- 9:30I'm going to leave, you know, but he's talking about we need
- 9:37the biggest things are better quality of life, better job,
- 9:41better pay. As exit interview answers that
- 9:44they get quality of life. Yes, when you're working
- 9:5112141619 hours a day, 6-7 days a week, you don't have a quality
- 9:59of life. Better job.
- 10:03You can classify that as hostile management because people don't
- 10:08quit jobs, they quit management. Better pay.
- 10:13Yeah, I know a carrier told me about an RCA in their office
- 10:17that was paid earned $10,000 but paid $11,000 in vehicle repairs
- 10:25on a POV office. You know, 70% of post offices
- 10:34don't make the cost to run them. That one post office was a
- 10:39single business they close. So is that why you're closing
- 10:43all these post offices as you're considering them single
- 10:45businesses isolated from the entire entity?
- 10:49If that was the case, companies like McDonald's would be
- 10:51shutting a lot of restaurants down.
- 10:54There are restaurants at McDonald's, restaurants that
- 10:57they're the only food place in a town that's fast food and they
- 11:03don't, they don't actually cover their costs.
- 11:05They're a company owned, not a franchise, a company owned
- 11:07McDonald's that loses a little bit of money just so they have
- 11:11the market share in that little town.
- 11:16There's reasons why they're there and the biggest reason
- 11:19there is for the people, the people who vote, the people who
- 11:25care about the post office, the people who need things shipped
- 11:30to them and the only people that will deliver them is the post
- 11:33office. Not our fault that you turned
- 11:36around and gave these companies a cheap contract to deliver
- 11:39their freight for them. He said that some of these post
- 11:46offices only do 3-4 or five transactions a day.
- 11:50That would include stamp sales and parcels and things like
- 11:54that. But the thing about those
- 11:56offices is it's not an outgoing office, it's an incoming office.
- 12:02It's bringing things in from the city to the rural areas and
- 12:07delivering them out. But apparently these guys don't
- 12:10understand that concept that all the information comes out to
- 12:14rural from the cities, which is where everybody else operates.
- 12:20We're the only ones that are going way out in the boondocks
- 12:22to deliver. Yeah, but but then again, James,
- 12:28you know, in, in my area, we have Thornton Cheney and I I
- 12:35believe there's one other that gets serviced by the Glenn Mills
- 12:39Carrier Annex. And between the two of them, if
- 12:44they have 10 visitors a day, they're lucky because they're
- 12:48they're mostly there for PO Boxes.
- 12:50But as far as actually generating any sales or
- 12:52anything, they're not worth it. But yet yet they have a
- 12:57supervisor that overseas those two little RMPOS at 100 and some
- 13:03$1000 a year. Yeah, the biggest cost is
- 13:07management. Let let me think about that, you
- 13:11know, where's your cost at, Yeah.
- 13:14Exactly. I mean, I, I had to close them
- 13:18so fast that people be sitting there going, huh, what, Your key
- 13:21would have still been in the door when when I locked it up on
- 13:24you because, you know, like this, it's not worth it.
- 13:27And, and then Cheney is the one where Cheney University is,
- 13:31which gets their own mail directly.
- 13:34OK. So that there's, you know,
- 13:37there's no need for a carrier. There's no business there.
- 13:42These homes are out on four and five acres.
- 13:45You know, they're $1,000,000 plus homes.
- 13:47They don't go to the post office.
- 13:50And the people who do, you know, like I said, they only go in
- 13:52there for the PO Boxes if they, you know, and I know, I know the
- 13:57supervisor overlooking both of those offices.
- 13:59And they said, you know, it's a waste of money because the
- 14:02carrier's going out there to drop the mail off these PO Boxes
- 14:06and they can absorb all the PO Boxes at Glenn Mills, keep the
- 14:10carriers out in the street from something else instead of, you
- 14:12know, wasting their time there. But you know, we're going to do
- 14:16St. and CS, that's more profitable.
- 14:21Exactly. You know, and him talking about
- 14:26that, you know, it got me thinking, you know, if you're
- 14:30going to try and be like UPSDHL and FedEx, the only craft that's
- 14:36really going to get hurt by that is the royal craft as a whole.
- 14:41You know, Speaking of SNDCS, he was talking up Palmetto.
- 14:50He wants all, they want all the plants to look exactly the same,
- 14:53flow the same, operate the same. He was talking about how the
- 14:57machines in the offices in these sort of this distribution
- 15:01centers, when a machine would be taken out, they just plop
- 15:04another machine in that area, no matter what it was.
- 15:08And so you'd have mail going on across both sides of the planet
- 15:12going from one spot to this machine back to another spot to
- 15:16be sorted here, then over here for that machine and so on and
- 15:19so forth. If the UPS and DHL and FedEx,
- 15:34etcetera. And the reason why is because
- 15:37they wanted to do an increase of 9% and the total cost of a smart
- 15:45post parcel select whatever you want to call them and it was
- 15:52about two to $3.00 per parcel. And they're saying they can't
- 15:57afford that, companies can't afford that.
- 16:00So the Postal Service is looking to bring those people in that
- 16:05we're using that service into actual delivery through the
- 16:09Postal Service. 100% talk about, talked about Nike had how Nike
- 16:16had left us for UPS and they're in talks with Nike to get them
- 16:21back to the Postal Service trying to get all the returns.
- 16:26You know how we would pick up a return and it have a UPS barcode
- 16:31on it or something like that. They're going to try and go
- 16:34through that. Then he turned over to the
- 16:40Hurricanes. They still have 15 offices still
- 16:47severely damaged. 2 post offices.
- 16:51Mccabeville and Marshall were lost completely.
- 16:56One thousand 1911 deliveries effective affected 1000 to 1200
- 17:03businesses, the rest of them residential 25 Rd. closures.
- 17:09They said 8% of cell towers are still out of Commission and only
- 17:13one area, one pay paycheck, was interrupted because of it.
- 17:23Then, yeah, we had our regional manager, Derek Strissel, come
- 17:32in. Love this guy.
- 17:33He actually talks to us like we're human beings.
- 17:36Doesn't talk down to us, jokes with us, has a good time.
- 17:40That is how these managers should be when dealing with
- 17:45carriers, whether it's with any craft employee.
- 17:49This is this man should be the guy who teaches everybody how
- 17:52you deal with crafts. He talked about people switching
- 18:01positions and stuff like that. There's a new chief performance
- 18:06officer, a new chief retail and delivery person out of the
- 18:10Westchester, NY. Got you there, Bill.
- 18:15Westchester, NY area new delivery VP John Morgan out of
- 18:22the Arizona New Mexico district. 20% of the processing network
- 18:28has already changed. It went over a safety moment and
- 18:34they said there are 469 more RC as in SAC districts than there
- 18:40were before. And they say 40% of the
- 18:43workforce comes from word of mouth, which I can't argue with
- 18:48that when they're only posting the the route, the
- 18:52advertisements for for three days on the careers website.
- 18:56It's kind of hard to get people to apply in when they're only
- 18:58there for three days unless they're told that, hey, now you
- 19:01know. How many new RC?
- 19:05As you said, 400. 459 in the stack area.
- 19:13OK, and mostly by the word of mouth.
- 19:16Yes, 40%. There's a lot of, there's a lot
- 19:19of people that don't like other people recommending them.
- 19:26Yeah. Oh, get a job at the post
- 19:28office. Yeah.
- 19:31I mean, I did the horror stories and I've seen your response in
- 19:34regards to some of these people asking POV questions.
- 19:37I mean, it's like the horror stories where, oh, the
- 19:40supervisor says I have to have APOV in case I'm sent to another
- 19:45office. OK, Now I, I don't know about
- 19:50anybody else, but if I'm hired at an all government vehicle
- 19:53office and you have to tell you, tell me I have to go to APOV
- 19:57office. You know what I'm telling you?
- 20:01Irregardless of whether I was getting ready to retire or not.
- 20:04Yeah. And that's that's the hardest
- 20:06part about all this is when I hired in, they told me I didn't
- 20:10have to have a POV, but if I had one to deliver parcels in, I
- 20:16could make some extra money during the Christmas season and
- 20:20tell me I had to have a POV to actually deliver mail.
- 20:24And there are a lot of lot of Rcas that got hired in that
- 20:27exact same way. Oh, you're going to it all
- 20:29government vehicle office, you don't need, don't worry about
- 20:32that provision in the contract. You won't need a vehicle.
- 20:36You know, and I can understand both sides of it.
- 20:41You know, I talk with POV carriers all the time, ones that
- 20:45prefer to have their POV on the route, some that got forced into
- 20:49a government vehicle and literally tell management, you
- 20:53either let me deliver in my POV or I won't make it in that piece
- 20:56of trash, garbage can that you're putting me in.
- 21:00You know, especially in states where you get a lot of snow and
- 21:05you need 4 wheel drive to get down some of these roads.
- 21:08You know, should you be going down them if you have to be in
- 21:10four wheel drive, maybe not. But they're, they're action for
- 21:18the for the their customers outweighs the I got to do it in
- 21:23a postal vehicle and they want to get it out to their
- 21:27customers, especially, you know, because we deliver the
- 21:29medications, we deliver all the documents that they need and
- 21:33stuff like that. Important We still deliver
- 21:35checks. And checks, yeah, especially I I
- 21:39still see Social Security checks in my DPS all the time, you
- 21:44know? Yeah, we, we've got regulars at
- 21:47our offices still get paid for paychecks.
- 21:50I I I don't understand that. Yeah, you know, so, but anyway,
- 21:57then after that we had our because of the size of the the
- 22:02where the states are for SAT, we actually had to have the
- 22:09executive committee men for all the states in those areas.
- 22:13Like we had Kirby Ricketts, we had Mike Marola and Bethany
- 22:17Small, all there to answer or bring up things and answer
- 22:22questions because they have states that are in their regions
- 22:27in SAC. And so the biggest, biggest ones
- 22:35I want to talk about are some comments that they made.
- 22:40Kirby Rick has said most issues are interpretive issues.
- 22:44Wait, you mean they're not black and white that we have to
- 22:50actually interpret what it actually means?
- 22:54And then he says stewards are going to face adversity and not
- 22:58get their way, and we want to train for that.
- 23:02Yeah, you're going to have those managers that dig their heels in
- 23:05and think that their interpretation is the right way
- 23:07and your way is the highway. He said currently management
- 23:16doesn't have time to run discipline.
- 23:19Ed IS and IIS are going up, but management isn't following
- 23:23through with discipline. So management is overburdened
- 23:27with work so they can't do their job.
- 23:33Wow, grievance cases. Sorry, sorry, didn't mean to do
- 23:40that to you, Bill. You can't throw that out like
- 23:43that, I mean. I had to win.
- 23:48I had to you were right there. You I knew you would you would
- 23:52totally choke on that one would laugh too hard.
- 23:55But he said because of that grievance cases are going down.
- 24:05He said that we definitely need a confirmation with rail rod
- 24:08optimization, DPM and LTM updates.
- 24:12Can't argue with that. You know, I'm sitting there and
- 24:16I have somebody who reached out and said they've never mapped to
- 24:20this day, and another person say they mapped back over a year ago
- 24:27at the last time they mapped, and it hasn't been updated since
- 24:32then. Management hasn't even been
- 24:34falsifying it. So I'll give that manager credit
- 24:37for not falsifying the mapping. I'll give him credit for that,
- 24:42but it still needs to be done monthly.
- 24:46And then another thing he said. Local management's total
- 24:50disregard for our national agreement.
- 24:55I almost stood up and said, yeah, you know that's all
- 24:58y'all's fault, right? Y'all aren't putting people up
- 25:04to fight the contract or telling them to settle at the lowest
- 25:08level for the weakest language possible.
- 25:17The MOU for regular. Wait me, call me, call me, call
- 25:23me. Yes, Bill.
- 25:25Oh, oh, you saw me. Well, I don't have the camera
- 25:29off when I'm on the other page. I apologize.
- 25:32Oh, OK, but so anyway. Yeah, just say something.
- 25:35Just speak over the top of me. Well, I was trying to be, you
- 25:38know, a little humorous there too.
- 25:43You're talking about mapping. OK, here's a funny one for you.
- 25:47We have an OIC running all carrier Annex.
- 25:52Calls me up and says, are they supposed to do the mapping in
- 25:56the morning or in the afternoon after PM casing?
- 26:03After I got up off the floor, I said, excuse me?
- 26:06I said you're supposed to do it after you return the DODU before
- 26:11PM casing. No, no, no, no, they got to do
- 26:14it after PM case. No, no, no.
- 26:16It it's part of the day's activities.
- 26:18But what about doing it in the morning?
- 26:22I says, well, you know, some people have gotten around the
- 26:25afternoon by doing it with, you know, extraneous load times.
- 26:29Problem of it is then you're flagged for your load times
- 26:31because it'll take more than 45 minutes between loading and
- 26:35trying to do your DPM in the LTM.
- 26:38So put it where it should be and do it in the afternoon after you
- 26:42return to the DU before you hit PM.
- 26:44Casey, Are you sure? I'm positive.
- 26:49Mind you, this is a person who used to be a rural carrier for
- 26:5322 years. Mind you that this person used
- 26:56to be an ad hoc trainer. Now they're in management and
- 27:02they're asking questions like that.
- 27:07When do you do your your DPM and LTM?
- 27:134 mini mail surveys in and people are still asking
- 27:17questions about mapping. Yeah.
- 27:23You can't make the shit up. No, you can't.
- 27:27And that's that's the biggest problem.
- 27:30People don't care to do the mapping when they get into the
- 27:35office, when they get back to the office because they want to
- 27:39go home. They already worked their butts
- 27:41off. They already got all the mail
- 27:43out, all the packages out to the surprise of management doing it
- 27:47in a decent time frame because they're pushing themselves to
- 27:51their limits. And even though it is the
- 27:56biggest thing to fund the carrier, they would rather just
- 28:03get out of there. Now there's an office near me
- 28:06that I know the carriers don't even want to sit down with
- 28:09management and do the mapping, don't want to do all that stuff.
- 28:16And the manager, I personally, I wouldn't want to map with her
- 28:20either, you know, but that's, that's the biggest key is your
- 28:28mapping is the most important part of the day.
- 28:32Yeah, he might as well hand your paycheck to management.
- 28:36Yeah, but that too, you know, I have AI know of a carrier who
- 28:40doesn't do the inputs because they're planning on retiring.
- 28:43And so they don't do any of the inputs.
- 28:44So the carrier that takes it over is going to have to take
- 28:47the time to put in all the inputs for over a year, 52 / 52
- 28:53weeks. You get a proper evaluation on
- 28:56that route because that route's now AJ route and it used to be
- 28:59AK route and it has more mail and more packages than my route
- 29:02that is AK route. So but anyway, getting back into
- 29:10this, they had AQ and a panel after that and answered a lot of
- 29:16questions. Editing of scans by local
- 29:21management is another one and they're still trying to push
- 29:28that and the board is fighting back from that.
- 29:38So it's still in the discussion stage with them, but they're
- 29:45there is they did turn around and throw people under the bus
- 29:50saying that they're still inputting too many box holders
- 29:56and things like that. Postal Service wanted at least
- 30:0217 days to be able to edit scans. 14 days plus plus three
- 30:06more to edit and nothing's finalized.
- 30:13But they would be opposed to to allowing them to edit the scans.
- 30:21Territorial route adjustment, MOU, a lot of bad information
- 30:25from management and other sources and freezing them at
- 30:30standard hours but has nothing to do with normal growth.
- 30:34If you have growth then it will be added to your route.
- 30:38Those who are questioning it on it etcetera is total bullshit.
- 30:42Quote from Mast and total bullshit.
- 30:45The normal processes will be in place.
- 30:52Yeah, he turned around and threw UPS under the bus by talking
- 30:56about the cutting of the UPS parcels and how Teamsters put
- 31:00out that that all that work was for their craft, but it was the
- 31:04Postal Service. They gave it to him.
- 31:10Then this is, let's throw this out there because this was the
- 31:14very next thing he did. Somebody asked the question
- 31:18about the MOU for voluntary assistance being renewed and he
- 31:25literally asked the entire audience in the room whether or
- 31:30not they should renew the MOU. Not a single hand came up and
- 31:40then he turned around and said it's different in every area.
- 31:44In Westpac with shortage of leave replacements you will lose
- 31:48it or will carriers want the OT. It's a very difficult decision
- 31:53for the board to make. The board hasn't discussed it
- 31:55yet. It's a very hard decision for
- 31:58the southern area. Atlantic and Central you have
- 32:01more leave replacements. There are routes right now.
- 32:04Hold off this because there's nobody to take it.
- 32:07If the regular didn't take it, it wouldn't go for weeks at a
- 32:10time. That's exactly how he said it.
- 32:14I made sure to type as fast as he was talking.
- 32:17And so, Bill, you and I have to go out to Western States because
- 32:25this question needs to be asked at Western States of whether
- 32:28they wanted it renewed or not like they did in SAC.
- 32:33I can see I'm having a problem with this because, you know,
- 32:37maybe in some of those states, California, especially Oregon,
- 32:41you know, Washington, the cost of living may be a bit higher.
- 32:46OK. And I don't know why I got the
- 32:47little squares of death on my video, but I do.
- 32:53But if you were paying a living wage, then you wouldn't have to
- 32:56work so much, would you? You wouldn't have to worry about
- 33:01having a second or third job or, or helping out on all the other
- 33:05routes because, you know, you, you can't make this month's rent
- 33:08or you have to fix your POV. If you were making a decent
- 33:13living wage, especially in those states, particularly.
- 33:18I mean, the thing, the thing about being a rural carrier is
- 33:21most of us don't live in the high cost areas, the urban areas
- 33:28where we're more rural, hence the name.
- 33:32And therefore we are, we're, you know, we're making a decent
- 33:35salary. The Table 2 isn't, you know, no
- 33:39matter what part of the country you're in.
- 33:42So if you're in California and you're trying to live out there
- 33:45and your gas is over $4.00 a gallon every day and they just
- 33:50drop the EMA and well, guess what?
- 33:53It's $6. I don't know California.
- 33:56I'm not going to quote you on that, Mister Trump, but I'm just
- 34:02saying the fact that the fact is that, you know, those areas that
- 34:07are being serviced. So, you know, it costs a lot to
- 34:10live. You know, there's there's parts
- 34:13of Washington, Oregon, yeah, and and maybe even Northern
- 34:16California. But you know, not many areas out
- 34:19there is a cheap to live it at all.
- 34:22I was just, I was just talking with somebody about here my
- 34:26state, you know, it's, it's the amount that I am paying for my
- 34:31house right now monthly is lower than rent in all the surrounding
- 34:38counties to me, including my accounting.
- 34:41I'm paying less monthly for my house payment, which is actually
- 34:46lower than what a house payment for this house would be on
- 34:48today's market value. But the fact is, including the
- 34:55interest rate insurance and all that other stuff, insurance gone
- 34:58up too for homeowners insurance and stuff, you know, but people
- 35:04can't afford to live on scrap wages.
- 35:09And you can, you can say, yeah, you're making more than somebody
- 35:13that works at McDonald's, barely.
- 35:15You're making more than somebody on minimum wage.
- 35:18Yes, but minimum wage is poverty wages.
- 35:23And we're close to poverty in in the Postal Service because
- 35:26especially for rural carriers who have to upkeep a car, Table
- 35:302 and Table 4, this doesn't cut it.
- 35:34No one barely cuts it for a lot of people.
- 35:39We don't want to just live paycheck to paycheck to
- 35:42paycheck. We want to have some more money
- 35:48so that way we can afford to do things like being able to afford
- 35:52vacations to areas where they depend on tourists fund their
- 35:59lives, places, you know, going to amusement parks in the
- 36:04summer. They can afford to pay the
- 36:06people that work there going out and buying fancy clothes, buying
- 36:13new car replacement car for your POV, buying food.
- 36:20You know how can and on top of that afford kids And then yeah,
- 36:30I'm I'm getting there, I'm getting there rich.
- 36:33And then you also have the fact that because we don't have the
- 36:37hey to attract people to work here, to work as a sub, to cover
- 36:43routes, we don't have people that can go to conferences and
- 36:48conventions. There have been people who have
- 36:51reached out that said I was elected a delegate, but I can't
- 36:56get the day off because there are no Subs.
- 37:02And they can't get the day off because there's nobody to work
- 37:05the route because their supervisors working her out,
- 37:08their postmasters working her out because there aren't enough
- 37:11Subs. And that is the biggest crime
- 37:17owl of all with any of this is that we are not attracting
- 37:21people so people can do their union duty.
- 37:27And yet on the back end of that, the people who are already in
- 37:32the state offices and established are in the NSS or
- 37:38those retirees, they can all afford to get the time off and
- 37:44they also have the financial wherewithal.
- 37:48Aren't you a retiree now? Yes, I am and and and and.
- 37:56Have I ever picked up more than my share going these
- 37:58conferences? No, not at all.
- 38:03No. Yeah, yeah.
- 38:06But that that's, that's who I am.
- 38:08I mean, you know, you know, you're not seeing any other
- 38:11retirees helping out, do you? I'm going to say, you know,
- 38:14there are, there are a lot of retirees that do care and do
- 38:18listen and do want to help the craft.
- 38:22I'm not discrediting anybody that wants to make this craft
- 38:26better, but they have they have to think about how do we make
- 38:34this better so that the current RCA, new RCA and become retired
- 38:43regular carrier. We have to start thinking like
- 38:46that. We have to start thinking how do
- 38:48we get people to become retired rural letter carriers.
- 38:53Let's keep going. Somebody asked if there's going
- 38:57to be a publication with guidelines for Rex or something
- 39:02similar to the PO6O3. First response never.
- 39:08And then he went on to say the PO6O3 may be updated after they
- 39:14create a new Rex manual. Obviously the PO6O3 is never
- 39:19going to be updated either. Asking about shadow day and this
- 39:24was actually answered by Derek Strissel, the postal manager.
- 39:28He said there is no fix to make the mattresses a training
- 39:34vehicle. Management needs to do their due
- 39:37diligence to get a training vehicle with jump seats in them.
- 39:41Most of the time management is not prepared and this came from
- 39:44a manager need to work with BOMA to get it.
- 39:49So the postmaster has to work with BOMA to get a jump seat
- 39:53truck. Somebody asked about the 52
- 40:00weeks, 12 months or 18 months and John Adams stated after 52
- 40:05weeks the next opportunity. So if you were cut, as we had
- 40:10said before, after the September mini mail survey.
- 40:15You will not get the actual Rex evaluation until April drops.
- 40:23You'll do the February March mini mail survey and it'll drop
- 40:26in April, but other than that you still have the interim
- 40:31adjustments for changes to your route.
- 40:40WHS credits. People were asking because it
- 40:44was initially part of the training.
- 40:45The initial programming was to use the WSS scan for WSH and
- 40:53they said some evidence suggests it's included, some evidence
- 40:56suggests it doesn't. They're still looking into it,
- 40:58trying to find the truth. They still need to improve some
- 41:02transparency in in that summit. Shut up, shut up.
- 41:11You know, I I can't believe 44 mini mail surveys 12 years in
- 41:16the making, we're we're still discussing the fact that
- 41:19transparency mandated by the engineers.
- 41:25And the arbiter. Topic.
- 41:26Yes, it is still a topic, and yet neither our union or the
- 41:35city union has been able to gain any transparency from the Postal
- 41:39Service. Exactly.
- 41:43We're waiting on transparency from the Postal Service and
- 41:46we're waiting on transparency from our national board.
- 41:52But OK, you know, those those retirees that we we talk about
- 41:58and, you know, some good, some bad.
- 41:59Same way we got the same people on the state boards, OK, and the
- 42:03same people in the NSS, some good, some bad.
- 42:06I mean, you look, you hear you. Just like our management, you
- 42:10hear horror stories left and right about the NSS, OK, we know
- 42:15enough about the national board. But the fact of the matter is,
- 42:19until we weed these people out, it's not going to get any
- 42:23better. We just lost another ADR for
- 42:25failure to perform another one that makes in one year.
- 42:36We're getting there. We're getting there.
- 42:40You know, we've got to find these bad eggs and they have to
- 42:43go. You know, if they're if they're
- 42:46choosing ease over righteousness, and I hate to put
- 42:52it that way because it sounds like I'm being religious here
- 42:55about our union, But if they're not willing to fight for this
- 43:01craft, I need to go back to their route because this craft
- 43:08should be the first and only thing they fight for as a
- 43:11representative of this union. And if they don't fight for this
- 43:15craft, they might as well go back to just working the route.
- 43:19There are some that are actually have enough time in they can
- 43:21just retire and I'd be perfectly happy with that as well.
- 43:24But they need to take care of the craft first and foremost.
- 43:28The craft is the only thing that matters to them.
- 43:32Shouldn't be about. Oh well, we'll just, we'll just
- 43:35sign this and have it go away. You know it should be for the
- 43:41benefit of the craft, but I still have a few more notes to
- 43:46go through. Well, let let me put this PSA
- 43:49out there for all the people listening for the national board
- 43:53or the national board members or the NSS members, doesn't matter.
- 43:58I don't care. You can't touch me.
- 43:59Yeah, yeah. The only reason you should
- 44:03accept the position in the NSS or on the national board or even
- 44:08your state boards, OK, is to be of service to others.
- 44:13Not for yourself, not to get your ass off of a route because
- 44:16you're too old, too fat, too lazy, or you don't want to carry
- 44:20mail anymore. People don't want to carry more
- 44:22mail anymore, but by economics, they they have to.
- 44:28If you can't put the service into the individuals in your
- 44:31craft, get the hell out of your way.
- 44:34So somebody who will put the effort in is can step up.
- 44:38OK, period. There are people that that we,
- 44:43even after we got decertified, have become stewards because of
- 44:47this podcast, because of our efforts.
- 44:51If the national board put in half that effort, you know we'd
- 44:54have stewards in every damn office.
- 44:57But the fact of the matter is you are not going to get any
- 45:00glory. It's long hours, it's
- 45:02unforgiving and and sometimes you get the carriers holding as
- 45:07much as the management, you know.
- 45:09It's hair pulling. Yes.
- 45:12And, and the thing and the thing of it is, is that it's an
- 45:14ungrateful job. But is, well, ungrateful as
- 45:18what? It gave me a great deal of
- 45:20satisfaction every time I walked back with a signed grievance and
- 45:23a check in the hand. You know what I mean?
- 45:26Yeah, I loved it. But if you're not going to put
- 45:29the time and the effort in there, if you're not going to
- 45:31defend the guy you hate as much as the guy that you like, then
- 45:35don't bother doing it. And the mini rant.
- 45:44Yeah, so Speaking of me talking about POV routes on my page,
- 45:52shameless plug, James Brennan for NRLCA President.
- 45:56One of the things they talked about was getting more
- 45:59mattresses manufactured and put on routes.
- 46:03And again, that was the. Hold on, James, what was that?
- 46:06What was that paid? James what?
- 46:10James Brennan for NRLCA president.
- 46:13Oh, shameless plug. OK, go.
- 46:16Ahead so this was asked about getting more mattresses or
- 46:21vehicles for on the routes and so ODNGDV has been plagued with
- 46:28problems in manufacturing and getting them to the Postal
- 46:31Service. It's only one of the vehicles
- 46:34that they're looking at including getting more
- 46:36mattresses. They also have a canoe ANOO that
- 46:42they are testing. They also have the Olson at the
- 46:46Canadian Postal Service purchased that they're testing
- 46:50and several other manufacturers that they are working with for
- 46:53commercial off the shelf systems and things like that that they
- 46:58can put on them. And they even emphasize that
- 47:01they are looking to put government vehicles on all rural
- 47:06routes. There are some routes I don't
- 47:09think they should be putting a government vehicle on and the
- 47:12carriers would agree with me with that.
- 47:14But it would be nice to be able to say like we when I was in RCA
- 47:21and told that I don't need a vehicle that hey, we're going to
- 47:24have these vehicles for these RCA's to go do parcel runs and
- 47:28run a row routes and stuff like that where they don't have to do
- 47:32all the repairs to the vehicles and pay for the gas and stuff
- 47:35like that with a minimal EMA that we get.
- 47:40Yeah, I believe that when they have a cows flying, yeah, I mean
- 47:46they look at the LL VS and the FFVS right now, they can't,
- 47:49can't keep up with the repairs on them.
- 47:53Yeah. And offices that have 100%
- 47:56government vehicles have retained more RC AS.
- 48:02Like my office with good management.
- 48:05We have about half complement of RC As and it works for them
- 48:13because they don't have vehicles that can deliver the mail.
- 48:16Hell most most people buy a car nowadays.
- 48:18They all have center consoles. You can't have a bench seat in
- 48:23the front and stretch your leg over to drive left a left hand
- 48:25drive from the right seat anymore.
- 48:28But. Minivan.
- 48:32Yeah, Minivan, I mean, and then you got managers who are telling
- 48:37them that they have to have a vehicle to carry the adequate
- 48:40amount of parcels that they get on their route.
- 48:44And some of these routes I've seen, you are going to get those
- 48:48in a minivan, a full size van, you're going to need a cargo
- 48:52truck. Yeah, 131 cubic feet is an LLV.
- 48:57So if your vehicle has over 131 cubic feet of cargo capacity,
- 49:02you could argue that if you had a government vehicle, you would
- 49:07be doing second trips as well. Yeah.
- 49:11And the problem with the the POV requirements is it still states
- 49:16that you have to be able to hold the mail as says nothing about
- 49:20the parcels in there yet they haven't changed their language.
- 49:24And on top of that, in several other documents that I included
- 49:29in my POV post on my page is one that is specifically says
- 49:34oversized parcels. And so I'm sitting there
- 49:37thinking about it and this is my opinion, my opinion only.
- 49:41It does not reflect the views, opinions, or strategies of the
- 49:43United States Postal Service, the National Carriers
- 49:45Association, or anybody else on this podcast.
- 49:49Is that if I could fit 100 standard parcels that could fit
- 49:54in the mailbox in that vehicle, but I can't fit the 10 boxes of
- 49:59Amazon dog food, Do I really need to get a bigger vehicle?
- 50:03If I could fit 203 hundred parcels into this car without
- 50:07the giant boxes from Amazon, would I really need a bigger
- 50:11vehicle? Oh, you just need a bigger back
- 50:15end. Need a Cadillac truck and.
- 50:21Your truck too. Yeah, need a need a Cadillac
- 50:24with the trunk that could fit 3 dead bodies.
- 50:27Oh yeah, or that postal hearse. That postal hearse, yes.
- 50:32Yes, I love that he he only delivers dead mail.
- 50:40Yeah, they did talk about getting another regional Rep
- 50:49because we still only have three in the union.
- 50:54The Pars label I did get confirmation it is all ours
- 51:00labels. Whatever is printed by
- 51:02management, every single one of those should be counted for your
- 51:05Par's credit for 52 weeks. And why do we have to fight over
- 51:12that? Because management couldn't get
- 51:17the technology of the PAR system to talk to the REC system until
- 51:22just now. At least that's what he said.
- 51:32Stewards can be mapping facilitators.
- 51:37Yes. That was a question that came
- 51:40up. Yes, stewards can be mapping
- 51:44facilitators. I know of several that are, but
- 51:47apparently it had to be clarified that stewards can be
- 51:49mapping facilitators. And another thing that came up
- 51:59is there was a comment made that Academy instructors are pushing
- 52:06people to city clerk, janitorial, etcetera.
- 52:10And they said instructors should be proud to be rural, they
- 52:15should show positive towards Postal Service in the rural
- 52:18craft and if they aren't, the Dr. could be notified.
- 52:24So that was the last question that I had that they took.
- 52:30Let's see here. Yeah.
- 52:40So yeah, they're probably missing data from the last 51
- 52:45weeks. All right, let's let's go into a
- 52:50big topic now, Bill, since we're already almost an hour into
- 52:54this. So it has come to the attention
- 53:00of this podcast as well as everybody else on social media
- 53:04that follows this stuff that the city carrier union, and I say
- 53:09the union itself overwhelmingly Oded down the tentative
- 53:17agreement that was negotiated between Brian Renfro and the
- 53:21United States Postal Service. The number that they voted it
- 53:28down was approximately 70 to 30. And the number of people that
- 53:38vote did was almost 100,080 letter carriers out of 230,000
- 53:51city letter carriers total. That includes dues paying and
- 53:56none. And so if you really think about
- 54:00it, approximately 50% or more of the voting craft voted down
- 54:10their contract, their tentative agreement.
- 54:14The last vote that they had two years ago for their elections
- 54:20had a 15% return rate of the voting public.
- 54:25Of the voting membership, 15% voted for their officers where
- 54:32over 50% voted down this contract.
- 54:35Now, I'm only saying that, but you have to remember it could be
- 54:40a possibility that some did not get their ballots and some of
- 54:44the ballots did not make it to the PO Box they had to go to.
- 54:48But just remember, yes, active members, the people that can
- 54:53vote are only full. Who's paying members in good
- 54:58standing. It can't be associates, people
- 55:07that just are members to have their insurance.
- 55:10Retirees can't vote on it, things like that.
- 55:15Ceased carriers can't vote on it.
- 55:18The ceased carriers can't vote on it, retired carriers can't
- 55:21vote on it, and people who are not active city letter carriers
- 55:26cannot vote on it. Because remember, just like
- 55:30ours, we have our, we have an associate level that people can
- 55:34pay into so that they can get the royal carrier benefit plan.
- 55:38The city carriers have the same thing on theirs.
- 55:41And no, retired carriers cannot vote on our our tentative
- 55:45agreements. They can only vote at our
- 55:47National Convention. Now that, that speaks volumes,
- 55:52James, that you had such a large turn out to vote on a tentative
- 55:58agreement versus who you're electing to represent you, I
- 56:04guess. I guess those numbers will turn
- 56:07around with the next election for the NLAC, won't they?
- 56:11Yeah, you know, and, and hopefully this, this, this is an
- 56:16eye opener for Brian Renfro. No, for Brian Renfro first.
- 56:22Well. It'll be an eye opener for our
- 56:24craft too, in what regards that our body can actually
- 56:29accomplish. What?
- 56:31Anybody. Can accomplish.
- 56:33Yes, and you know, you got to think now they have 15 days to
- 56:39come up with a new tentative agreement or go to arbitration.
- 56:44Now we do know about the Tulino letter and the Tulino letter
- 56:50saying that they are hopeful to go to arbitration because the
- 56:58National Board of the City Letter Carriers is going to work
- 57:01with them. Now, you have to remember these
- 57:04Tulino letters, whether they call them fake or not, most
- 57:10often are accurate. We had the Teleno letter back
- 57:15when they implemented Rex, and then he came out with yeah, City
- 57:29said. City said the letter was fake.
- 57:31But you have to think, every Teleno letter that's come out,
- 57:35they've either called fake or said it was premature.
- 57:39You know, when our contract came out, our union said that he was
- 57:42premature so. At that problem.
- 57:53You got that problem. I said I've had that problem.
- 57:57Yeah, get it, Get it. Joke, joke, joke.
- 58:01Joke, joke, joke, joke. It's a little slow.
- 58:04There, this is one that is for the record books.
- 58:13This is only the second time, this 1970 that the city craft
- 58:20has actually voted down a contract.
- 58:27Yes. And there was the leak about the
- 58:28city contract before it became ATA, and Brian Renfro called
- 58:32that a fake too. Yeah.
- 58:37And so here's here's what Mastin Renfro, if anybody else in these
- 58:46contract negotiations need to understand, the working people
- 58:52of this country are tired of being treated like garbage.
- 58:57To be walked on by any manager in any company, whether it is
- 59:04the city carriers, whether it's UPS, whether it is FedEx,
- 59:09whether it is Costco, McDonald's, Starbucks, any of
- 59:13those people are tired and want to be treated with dignity,
- 59:18fairness and respect. And if they're not treated with
- 59:21that and they're going to go somewhere else and they have
- 59:25been going somewhere else, you know, I do not condone a strike.
- 59:32But when you don't have enough people to do the job because
- 59:37they're constantly quitting and you have people who have been in
- 59:40this job for 2730 years who are quitting this job or labor
- 59:49elsewhere because they're tired of dealing with you.
- 59:53They're tired of dealing with the garbage that you put out.
- 59:56They're tired of dealing with the disrespect that happens in
- 1:00:00these offices. And this contract being voted
- 1:00:04down by the city carriers is a statement to every single union
- 1:00:13official across this organization.
- 1:00:18Fight for your craft, fight for your people.
- 1:00:22And if you're not willing to step down and let somebody in,
- 1:00:26who will? Amen and personally James, I'd
- 1:00:33have gone another two years until my wife hit 62 if it
- 1:00:37wasn't for, you know, the toxic atmosphere at the SDNC.
- 1:00:43And the driving full day full days pay every week for your to
- 1:00:47your routing back. Yeah.
- 1:00:49I mean, you know, the you know, the fact of the matter is that I
- 1:00:53love my job, but I knew that, you know, I was at my limit
- 1:00:58dealing with those individuals in regards a how they treated
- 1:01:03our craft. And, you know, it got in my face
- 1:01:05one too many times. And you know, I knew the next
- 1:01:09time it happened, I was going to go off.
- 1:01:10And I do you know, that wasn't the best way to, you know, end
- 1:01:13my career at the post office is that it had been been in, you
- 1:01:17know, you know, solitary lockdown or in the middle of
- 1:01:20hospital. But the, the fact of the matter
- 1:01:23is that, you know, I didn't want to put, I didn't need to put
- 1:01:28myself through that, that that's the, the end game of it.
- 1:01:32I didn't have to put myself through, I didn't need the
- 1:01:34money. You know, I, I, I have more than
- 1:01:37enough money. I didn't need time or anything.
- 1:01:39And yet I felt like I betrayed my customers when I left.
- 1:01:45That's the worst feeling in the world, that you feel like you
- 1:01:47betrayed your customers by leaving.
- 1:01:48Yeah. I mean, you know, I know
- 1:01:52whatever carriers taking over my route was not going to treat my
- 1:01:55customers the way they should be treated.
- 1:01:57You know, one of them got, you know, a little extra treatment,
- 1:02:01but you know, she, she was homebound and, and had, you
- 1:02:04know, 24 hour care. I miss all the kids.
- 1:02:07I miss the dogs. I, I, I, I miss, you know, the
- 1:02:11people would sit there and argue that word.
- 1:02:13We can't say because of the Hatch Act.
- 1:02:17But the the, the fact of the matter is, you know, I love
- 1:02:19being out on my route and, and despite me being the asshole
- 1:02:24that I am, most of my customers love me.
- 1:02:29Yeah, you know, and that's The thing is we are a customer
- 1:02:33service agency. We are here to take care of the
- 1:02:39American people. Every single American in this
- 1:02:44country is our consumer. Every single person in this
- 1:02:49country is our customer. And every single person in this
- 1:02:53country, we are the face of the Postal Service, rural and city.
- 1:03:00And it's time for management to recognize again, which is in
- 1:03:06their manuals, that the letter carriers are the most important
- 1:03:11people in the Postal Service. It says it right in the M38.
- 1:03:17It says it right in the POM. It says it in the M39 and the
- 1:03:21M41. The carriers are the most
- 1:03:26important people because we are the people who interact with the
- 1:03:31general public. The clerks interact with them at
- 1:03:35the counter. We interact with them at their
- 1:03:38own home. We know where they live.
- 1:03:44Yes, we do you know you're taking the bill may line there,
- 1:03:48but. Yeah, I'll let you.
- 1:03:52But it is one of those things that management needs to
- 1:03:56recognize that if they want this organization to continue, they
- 1:04:01don't need to beef up 150,000 new managers.
- 1:04:05They need to beef up 150,000 more carriers.
- 1:04:10They need to get more people delivering the mail, not just
- 1:04:16cutting people off by putting them into S&D CS and cutting the
- 1:04:19workforce by moving everybody into these centralized
- 1:04:22locations, which is the main reason they're doing that.
- 1:04:24They're cutting out clerk hours at the offices.
- 1:04:28That's the biggest thing they're doing is cutting clerk hours.
- 1:04:30And guess what? The clerks go back and become a
- 1:04:32mail handler or something like that or take an early retirement
- 1:04:35because they're drawing them all into these SMD CS.
- 1:04:37And when they finally realize that it's a problem, they won't
- 1:04:40have any clerks in these offices to do the the sorting of mail
- 1:04:44anymore because they'll all have moved on to other things.
- 1:04:48So, and sometimes, yes, we are the only ones that see what's
- 1:04:50going on. We know when somebody's not
- 1:04:53picked up their mail in a couple of days.
- 1:04:56Yeah. We know when people haven't,
- 1:04:58when people aren't. We're on vacation and somebody
- 1:05:02is breaking into their home. We see it.
- 1:05:06Yeah. We help our customers if they
- 1:05:08fall down on the ice out here in the winter time, we help them
- 1:05:13back to their feet. But this city contract vote, I,
- 1:05:23I applaud them. That took a lot of gut because
- 1:05:28there was both sides fighting over it, both sides arguing one
- 1:05:32way and the other. A lot of people just wanting
- 1:05:35that big payday of the back paycheck, stuff like that.
- 1:05:43But I'm glad they held all and voted the way they thought and.
- 1:05:48I thought it was funny the way Renfro turned around and held
- 1:05:51that money plus the cost of living and correlated that into
- 1:05:56an 18% raise. Cost of living is not a raise.
- 1:06:02But talk about postal math. I mean, Jesus.
- 1:06:08And getting back to your comment about the SD and CS, I'm going
- 1:06:11to bring out everybody up to speed in my situation for
- 1:06:15Westchester, which was moved to the Wayne SD and C.
- 1:06:19Now they took eighteen rule routes and they took 68 city
- 1:06:23routes and moved it up to the STC.
- 1:06:25After fire, they had the rule carrier sign a letter of
- 1:06:30retreat, which means that if they reopen the Westchester
- 1:06:33facility, the rule craft has the right to retreat back to that
- 1:06:37office. They did not give that same
- 1:06:40letter to 68 city carriers. Now this is this is where it
- 1:06:45gets fun. There is a Exton, Malvern and
- 1:06:50Downingtown post offices which are all been advised they may be
- 1:06:56moved to the Westchester office once it's reopened.
- 1:07:02And I'm sitting there going, OK, he's going to take 18 roll
- 1:07:08routes back to the SDC and then back to Westchester, the SDC,
- 1:07:14and leave 68 city routes up there who still have to drive
- 1:07:17back to Westchester. So are you saving more money or
- 1:07:22less money by moving the rural routes?
- 1:07:24Well, that's an easy one. Now you're going to take three
- 1:07:27other post offices, move them to Westchester, make them drive all
- 1:07:32the way back to their respective routes.
- 1:07:36And that's saving money. Where?
- 1:07:41Where? Yeah, and.
- 1:07:47It's the SNDC bug that got into management.
- 1:07:50You know, and James, you said that they would they would stop
- 1:07:53and back up if they saw it wasn't working.
- 1:07:56Ladies and gentlemen, this shit isn't working.
- 1:08:00They turned around and not only did they figure out it wasn't
- 1:08:04working, they turned around, took the gas can and went
- 1:08:06pouring all over it. Just.
- 1:08:08Put some gas on top of that. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:08:11Make it burn hotter, you know? I I mean.
- 1:08:14Like you said, it's like the Titanic.
- 1:08:16You have the iceberg hit the thing and then now you now after
- 1:08:19the icebergs hit it, you got a guy going down there cutting a
- 1:08:21larger hole. I mean, yeah, I when when I
- 1:08:26heard this and and and I heard this from the city carrier in
- 1:08:29Malvern and, you know, they were revised of this, you know,
- 1:08:32situation and they were just looking at us like, well, hold
- 1:08:37it. The Paoli mail comes into
- 1:08:39Malvern, it's sorted. And then they had to take a two
- 1:08:43ton truck up to Paoli. Well, what are you going to do
- 1:08:48now? Because there's not going to be
- 1:08:51a Malvern to take the mail to Paoli and you can't put up a
- 1:08:54tractor trailer in the Paoli. You can barely get a straight
- 1:08:57truck in there. That's why they're using the two
- 1:08:59ton. What the fuck's wrong with you,
- 1:09:06that is? Something that is something that
- 1:09:09needs to be put out in the public, that needs to be put out
- 1:09:13to the legislators, that needs to be put out to the postal
- 1:09:16Board of Governors, because the only people that can stop this
- 1:09:19from happening is the Postal Board of Governors.
- 1:09:24The legislators can turn around and say, no, you have these
- 1:09:27buildings, you need to use them for their purpose because the
- 1:09:31legislature is the only people who can put in post offices and
- 1:09:38close post offices. Why do you think the Postmaster
- 1:09:44general can't sell property? Because it's an act of Congress
- 1:09:51to sell that property. Literally.
- 1:09:56And Nancy Pelosi's husband holds the only contract to sell postal
- 1:10:02property. Yeah, We don't own a lot of
- 1:10:07them. We lease them.
- 1:10:09That's the only way we get around that.
- 1:10:11And a lot of those are just, some of them are just
- 1:10:13storefronts too. You know, over here in
- 1:10:16Waterford, they have a storefront and then they have
- 1:10:19the Waterford Annex that has Waterford and White Lake inside
- 1:10:23of it. But the storefronts like three,
- 1:10:273 1/2 miles away from the annex, there's no post office close by
- 1:10:32to where the mail carriers come out of.
- 1:10:33So a mail carrier has to go from the annex to that facility to
- 1:10:37drop off the mail, and then at night go there, pick up the
- 1:10:40outgoing mail and bring it back to the annex.
- 1:10:44Unless it's the outside of 50 miles, then they don't have to
- 1:10:47do it. Only three miles.
- 1:10:50It's not from the SDC. Waterford is right next to
- 1:10:54Pontiac, where the SNDC would be.
- 1:10:57OK, Just, you know, for a vacation, you know, if it's
- 1:11:01outside 50 miles, it ain't getting it.
- 1:11:03Yeah, my, well in my area alone we are close enough to all the
- 1:11:09all the facilities to be within 50 miles.
- 1:11:11But Kristen, if they don't have an SNDC by Kristen, yeah, her
- 1:11:15mail would probably be shut down for the for the night run, you
- 1:11:19know, and that's another that's that's a topic for a whole
- 1:11:22another episode. But I think this episode's
- 1:11:27getting kind of long anyway. So what are your final thoughts,
- 1:11:32Bill? Well, kudos to the city carriers
- 1:11:37for, you know, participating in their contract votes and
- 1:11:40rejecting it. You know, I, I guess the amount
- 1:11:45of information between Corey and fed up, I mean, you know, that
- 1:11:49they, they've all been out there pounding, pounding the streets
- 1:11:52with this information and, you know, basically blowing up the
- 1:11:55misinformation that, you know, Renfro has presented.
- 1:11:59But, you know, hats off to them. And this, this is also a lesson
- 1:12:02for us to know that this is exactly what we're going to get
- 1:12:06when it comes to us. We're going to get the same damn
- 1:12:09crap contract offered to us and we're going to go through the
- 1:12:12same damn process. So not me, I because I can't
- 1:12:17vote on the contract, But the fact of the matter is that it's
- 1:12:20going to fall in your laps. And God knows, you know, we, we
- 1:12:24have no idea when, when the, the TA may be offered to us.
- 1:12:29And that that's just, you know, one of those things where who
- 1:12:34cares about the back pay, you know, get rid of Table 2, get
- 1:12:38rid of Table 4, get rid of the hostile, you know, work
- 1:12:41environment and, and provide real transparency that that's
- 1:12:45all I want. Am I asking for too much?
- 1:12:49Oh, you're totally asking for the world.
- 1:12:52You know, shoot, you know, shoot for the stars and you know, you
- 1:12:55know, settle for the moon. But you know, the fact of the
- 1:12:57matter is that what is that what we're entitled to?
- 1:13:00That's what we deserve. You still have you still have
- 1:13:04winter here, folks. You know, we got some weather
- 1:13:07moving in here right now with some sleet and snow.
- 1:13:10So, you know, be mindful out there on the roads tomorrow.
- 1:13:13Be safe, be careful. Your job with the way you know
- 1:13:17how to do it, do it safely, professionally, effectively.
- 1:13:21And I always tell you, you're the most important delivery of
- 1:13:24the day. Get home to your loved ones
- 1:13:27because they they matter. When it comes to the post office
- 1:13:31you don't, but to your family you matter.
- 1:13:33OK, God bless James Last words. I agree with you.
- 1:13:38You know, the city carriers told management and their national
- 1:13:42board, well, I should say Brian Renfro because he was the only
- 1:13:45one negotiating, according to the national board of the NALC,
- 1:13:48that we're worth more than what you think we're worth.
- 1:13:54We're worth more than just numbers on a spreadsheet.
- 1:13:58We're people and they showed management and the union that
- 1:14:06we're all in this together and that's what we need to do too.
- 1:14:12If you are not receiving a national magazine, your address
- 1:14:17may be wrong with the national board.
- 1:14:21If you want to be able to vote on this contract, first you have
- 1:14:24to be a dues paying member of the union, but then you also
- 1:14:28have to have an accurate address for them to send you the ballot.
- 1:14:32So make sure your address is correct.
- 1:14:35If you're not getting your national magazine, contact your
- 1:14:39state secretary. Your state secretary is your
- 1:14:42point of contact for changing your address or any other
- 1:14:45pertinent information for the union.
- 1:14:48So make sure you get your correct information in there.
- 1:14:52We want carriers first, whether it's the city carriers, whether
- 1:14:56it's the rural carriers we want, we want the rural carriers first
- 1:15:00in our contract. We want carriers first, nothing
- 1:15:05second. Take care of your craft and your
- 1:15:09craft will take care of you. Don't take care of your craft.
- 1:15:13You might as well start packing your bags because the craft is
- 1:15:16coming for you. And I will say that with the
- 1:15:21resounding turn out of this vote for this tentative agreement,
- 1:15:26Brian Renfro's on his last leg as president of the NALC, he has
- 1:15:32an uphill battle to win re election the next time it comes
- 1:15:38out because these people recognize exactly what he's
- 1:15:41doing. And this is the message to our
- 1:15:45president, Don Mastin. Pay attention because the people
- 1:15:51here are speaking. The city carriers have already
- 1:15:55shown you the same mindset your rural craft has.
- 1:16:00And if you don't get us a tentative agreement that puts
- 1:16:04carriers first, takes care of us, puts more protections to
- 1:16:09give carriers treatment from dignity, fairness and respect,
- 1:16:14and you put out some garbage like Renfro did.
- 1:16:18You're on your last legs too. We're coming for you because
- 1:16:23we're all in this together. Thank you, everybody for tuning
- 1:16:29in and listening to us. Hopefully Kristen will be back
- 1:16:31next week. Have a good it will.
- 1:16:36Yeah, get well. Kristen, we're we're behind you
- 1:16:39on this. Keep us updated and everybody
- 1:16:43have a good week and we'll see you next week.