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What's Happening around the Craft · United We Scan

• 0:14
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:18
  carriers for rural carriers. The views expressed in this
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  podcast are of the presenters and the presenters only and do
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  not represent the views, opinions, or strategies of the
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  United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
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  Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
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  Please leave a comment or question for us below.
• 0:47
  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
• 0:50
  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
• 0:55
  Episode 121, what's happening around the craft?
• 1:00
  We don't really have a set agenda tonight, so it's anything
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  goes to a point. How was your week?
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  Oh, we have it to a point now. I thought it was a free for all
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  on here. Yeah, it was a normal week for
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  me at work. Of course, not many mistakes
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  this week for myself, which means she's getting fatter, so I
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  give her kudos on that. Unfortunately, next Saturday I
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  will be working since I signed up on the relief day work list
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  and we don't have enough people to cover the route.
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  I will be working the designated holiday because everybody who's
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  designated holiday it is will be working.
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  So I'm first in line to to work that.
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  So will other release day work list carriers.
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  So it's going to be interesting working my first Saturday on the
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  release day work list. Saturday was the 90th slash 51st
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  anniversary for the Detroit Model Railroad Club, which is in
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  Holly, MI. The 90 years is how long the
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  club's been around. They've been around since 1935
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  and they've been in Holly for 51 years, so they were celebrating
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  both of those milestones at the same time Saturday.
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  Between that Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, I worked with the
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  president of the model railroad club.
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  I'm building an entire section of track, wiring it up and
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  getting it ready for our operation session slash
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  celebration on Saturday. And then today, Sunday, I went
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  to the ratification meeting with Mike Marola.
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  A lot of information there. I highly recommend if you guys
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  have a ratification meeting coming up that you attend.
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  It's very important and it's the only place you can ask questions
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  straightforward and get an answer right then and there.
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  Because with the Zoom meetings, you only get a video.
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  You don't get a chance to ask any questions.
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  You don't get to talk to anybody and they tell you to send your
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  questions in to National and there's a chance they may not
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  answer your question. So attend a ratification meeting
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  if you can, because it's important that you understand
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  what all they thought about this and why they did what they did.
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  And they do explain a lot of it, at least Mike Marola did.
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  But other than that, it was nice to have a good week, although we
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  did get severe weather and we are now up to 25 tornadoes for
• 3:51
  the year in the state of Michigan, including one that hit
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  Lansing, the capital city. So lots of severe weather going
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  on out there. I've been watching and keeping
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  track. I mean, this is this is just
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  unheard of the amount of tornadoes that have been
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  reported already this year. How was your week, Bill?
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  Oh, it was interesting. It was a little slow faced,
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  which I I liked, you know, because I can get to a number of
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  things that I put on the back burner.
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  You know, since being retired, I'd, I'd like to go fishing, but
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  unfortunately I don't have any of my car, so I can't even go
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  out fishing right now. It's lovely having children.
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  It's funny because I you sit there and said something about,
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  you know, the, the Zoom meetings, we had people attend
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  ATA meeting and they went in and they had this big screen there.
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  They showed the video and that was it.
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  And the person who was orchestrating the Zoom meeting
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  wasn't qualified to answer any of the questions.
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  And they said, well, what was the point of this?
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  We could, we could have just read this because that's what
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  they did on the Zoom meeting. And of course, the individual
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  sitting there going, I don't know, I'm just a sacrificial
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  lamb. So the people, people spent, you
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  know, up to an hour to drive to the, to the TA meeting just to
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  find out it was a video and they weren't happy about that.
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  Like I said, I, I am, you know, currently on schedule the
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  interview for an art position just so I can be a full blooded
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  member for the, the convention. And that'll be funny as hell
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  because, you know, somebody is standing up and say, are you
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  retiring? I'm going to say, no, I'm not.
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  I'm a heart. Oh God, you know, I, I, I envy
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  you people that you will never know the full blooded experience
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  of being a professional asshole. I, I wish I, I could grant you
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  that, but you know, it's reserved for professionals only.
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  So don't try it at home. With that, Kristen, how was your
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  week? Wow, pretty normal.
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  I was supposed to go to the eye doctor Wednesday and I get there
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  and they were experiencing a power outage so I had to
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  reschedule and then reschedule again.
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  And this point was, it was actually a reschedule from the
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  original 1. So yeah, hopefully June 5th I
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  actually get to go to the eye doctor.
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  All right, so anyways, Ruby. Was.
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  Ruby was working her route Wednesday and she when she got
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  to the halfway point where she's closest to the RMPO office there
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  she had to stop to use the facilities and she come out and
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  her car was given her issues with getting restarted.
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  So she calls me. I'd happened to leave a few
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  minutes early. Anyways, on my way up to the eye
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  doctor in the next town and I was like what's it doing?
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  I could hear it. I said OK and I said oh I'm
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  coming up on F30, I'll just head over, cut over and help you get
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  going. So I flew down there, took me
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  all of 5 minutes to get to her. At that point I said have your
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  hood pop for me. When I get there I pull up,
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  disconnected her battery, waited for a minute, reconnected it and
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  did it again. Tried again, disconnected,
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  waited a little bit longer, reconnected it, started right
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  up. So there you go kiddo, go finish
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  your route, I'll see you later. So other than that I worked my K
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  day yesterday. It's been a pretty regular week
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  otherwise my Amazon's gotten heavy again.
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  I unfortunately didn't didn't make the ratification meeting
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  today. I had every intention of going
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  until I got up this morning and plans changed so I unfortunately
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  missed it but I couple people have filled me in.
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  Other than that, it's been a normal.
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  Week. In regards to your car troubles,
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  Kristen, My, my, when I was down in North Carolina two weeks ago,
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  my sister has this thing called the Halo.
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  It's a small battery charger. A jumper is, you know, one like,
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  like one of the boxes, but it's small.
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  It's it's small enough to fit in to a normal woman's purse, which
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  we know can have. Yeah.
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  Yeah, this is. I can't.
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  I can't believe how well they work.
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  Yeah, I've got one. I've got a, a vector is what
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  mine is. OK.
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  But no, what her issue is is her electronic throttle control is
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  acting up and you know. That's a reset.
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  Yes. So that's about the only way you
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  can reset it. And yeah, you know she's a broke
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  RCA to try and get that fixed anytime soon.
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  Yeah. Oh, oh, oh, and her graduation
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  is Thursday. And Gregory's graduation's
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  Friday, Yeah. She graduates from high school
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  Thursday. He gets his what?
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  What does he get? He gets his associate medical
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  degree in the University of Delaware.
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  Yeah. And four months later, he'll be
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  in Puerto Rico. Jesus, I'm freaking hating that.
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  That's. I'm telling you.
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  That's another. It's a discussion we can have
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  after a show. Kill a little shit.
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  All right, so the very first thing I want to talk about today
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  is the severe weather that is ongoing across this nation.
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  Unprecedented amounts of tornadoes and severe weather
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  damage have occurred across the country and rural carriers are
• 10:22
  affected too. Big thing, Places like Saint
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  Louis, Lansing, MI, Colorado, Missouri, all over this country
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  are getting hit by severe weather and carriers that are
• 10:38
  affected by this need help. And one of the biggest things
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  that's out there is the postal employee Relief Fund.
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  It doesn't get talked about a lot, but it can help a carrier
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  in a time of need and you can donate to it.
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  Carriers, customers, everybody is affected by the severe
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  weather and people can blame whoever they want or what's
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  going on with with the current administration and things like
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  that. That doesn't matter.
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  What matters is we come together and we help our fellow carriers
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  because they're our brothers and sisters of this craft, and Perf
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  is one way you can do that. So if you have it in your heart
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  and can help them out, donate to Perf please.
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  On on that note, James, I'd also like to see finally it pass the
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  resolution to allow carriers to give away voluntarily give other
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  carriers sick leave hours. We're currently only allowed to
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  give annual leave hours and you can only give up to 10 days.
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  Years ago we had a gentleman in our office, we called him Sky
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  'cause he was 6-7 and you know, he touched the sky and you know,
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  came down with cancer and I gave, I gave him 10 days.
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  That's all I could give him. And you know, other carriers in
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  office. Oh, I would too, if I can give
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  sick leave. Well, you know, this is your one
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  of your Co workers and some of you were actually friendly with
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  him and didn't donate one day of annual leave.
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  I mean, if you give somebody 2 days of annual leave, that helps
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  them cover their medical for a pay period.
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  When I met his wife at, at at his funeral, you know, and, and
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  she, she was missus guy 'cause she was like 6-3 and she just
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  hugged me up and goes, Oh my God, she goes, you're the big A.
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  And I said, yeah, she goes, you don't know how much that meant
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  that, you know, we could carry medical for five extra weeks.
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  She goes, you know, and and I don't believe you're an asshole,
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  you know, and I said, well, you're wrong, I am.
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  But you know, I have a heart. And I said I'd have given more
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  if I could have, you know, And that that's something, you know,
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  you don't have to know the person to help them out.
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  Like James says, you know, we're, we're all brothers and
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  sisters in this fight. We're, we're all in this
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  together. And if we could find a way to
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  get the post office to bend on that, I'm sure people wouldn't
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  mind giving sick leave away. Yeah.
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  They're just too tight to give away annual leave.
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  It's just and a lot of you got annual leave you'll never use
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  anyway. You have to under the current
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  situation with no Subs. Yeah, or you got some of us who
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  just take way too much leave and just don't have it available.
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  But yeah, that's, you know, definitely annual leave donation
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  if you can, and donate to PERF if you can.
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  And if you are in need of assistance, reach out to PERF.
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  I know a lot of that severe weather hit down by my parents'
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  house. When I had talked to my mom, was
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  it Friday? It was that storm that came
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  through. Was that Thursday night, James?
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  I believe. I believe so.
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  Thursday, Friday. Let me check.
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  I think it was Thursday night, yeah.
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  Yeah, Thursday night. Yeah, yeah, 'cause I talked to
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  my mom Friday and they didn't have power.
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  Yeah, it was Thursday night, 'cause my son had Ava
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  appointment in Battle Creek on Friday and the only way he could
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  get to Battle Creek was a date 69 down to 94.
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  He couldn't get in on any of the other back, on side roads, back
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  roads, M66, None of it cause of all the downed trees and debris
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  and stuff. And when I talked to my mom
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  Friday, they were anticipating power to be back on Friday
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  evening. And no, their power came back on
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  this morning when she called me and it was on for a little bit.
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  Then it went out again and it's been out, in and out.
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  That was when I talked to her at about 3:00 this afternoon.
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  Now, James, do I have to be a member of the union to qualify
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  for PERF? No.
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  No, this postal employees, it's, it's completely separate from
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  the union. There you go.
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  I was, I was setting you up, you know.
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  And it's for all employees, regardless of the craft.
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  Yes, it is. And sure, you can argue, well, I
• 16:04
  don't want to give that money to management.
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  Well, they're employees too. They get affected just like we
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  do. They're human just like we do,
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  even if a lot of times we don't like them.
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  I. Thought they were just parasitic
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  symbiotes. They have a job to do, too, and
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  unfortunately, a lot of times the job they have to do is one
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  that they're told to do by somebody who doesn't know any
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  better. Pretty much, yeah.
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  It helps, and as somebody said in chat, it helps with
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  wildfires, hurricanes, floods. Natural disaster.
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  Yep. Natural.
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  Disaster, I think a Gaylord with the ice storms up there, you
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  know, so you're helping. You're they're still cleaning
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  up. They are.
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  They are. When I was over there before I
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  went down to mid states, yeah, that was they were, we were
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  still passing clean up crews and National Guard out there
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  cleaning up because I took the back roads in and they still
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  haven't got confirmation on when they're going to get out of
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  school because they have used 29 snow days this year.
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  So yeah. It's a mess, it is.
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  Speaking of taking action, you know a lot of people are talking
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  about how our national board has been pushing for people to take
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  action over the legislative proposal for drastic cuts to the
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  retirement benefits of postal employees.
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  This effects everybody. It doesn't matter if you're
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  table one, Table 2, if you're paying the .8% or you're paying
• 18:01
  the 4.4%. It affects you because there's
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  more to it than just raising the amount that people contribute to
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  it. It also affects your interim
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  retirement fund if you retire early.
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  Your supplement. And things like that, Your
• 18:21
  supplemental retirement, things like that, your annuity
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  calculation, high 3 to high 5 instead, you know, so it affects
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  everybody. And this is very important that
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  even every single carrier out there calls their representative
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  and their senator because especially in Republican areas,
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  the big thing you have to think about is most areas have people
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  who are employed by the federal government, whether it be in the
• 19:00
  rural craft, the city craft, or in other government services
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  like the National Weather Service.
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  National. Forestry, they're all affect
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  National Forestry Service. Yeah, they're all, all those
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  employees are affected by this. So they have to know that all
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  the people they're affecting with this vote, the people who
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  vote for them are the ones that should be contacting them and
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  telling them that this is a mistake.
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  This is something they shouldn't be doing.
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  Because if you can get enough people to say, hey, enough
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  people call them, the number of people that call them are more
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  than the number of people that they won the election by.
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  That puts their chance of being re elected at risk.
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  They don't want to do that. They want to keep their cushy
• 19:50
  job where they can make become a multi millionaire off of
• 19:54
  lobbyists. So getting people to step up and
• 19:58
  get involved and call, write, e-mail everything to these
• 20:03
  people and don't just call them and not follow up on it.
• 20:08
  Call them back and ask them what what they're doing about that.
• 20:12
  You know, I called you a week ago and asked you about this.
• 20:14
  What's what's the representative stance now on this?
• 20:19
  Follow up because if you continue to pressure them on
• 20:24
  that, it's more likely they'll actually do something just to
• 20:29
  get you to stop calling them. And you know, this is not a
• 20:38
  modest, you know, increase to your, your cost for retirement.
• 20:43
  This is dramatic. This this is, you know, over
• 20:47
  five times the amount. And it's like, you know, hold
• 20:51
  on. Am I missing something?
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  Why are they doing this? Yeah, well, cost cutting on our
• 20:57
  backs again. And, you know, it's not just the
• 21:01
  post office. I mean, you know, you got the
• 21:03
  FAA, you got the National Transportation Board, you got
• 21:07
  the the railroad workers, forestry, you have everybody
• 21:11
  involved this there's not, you know, A1 in 10 chance that
• 21:15
  somebody that you know, doesn't work for the federal government,
• 21:19
  some capacity ICE, you know, let me tell you that one.
• 21:26
  But the fact that, yeah, US Marshall, all of them,
• 21:29
  TSAFBISNSACIA and a couple of them you don't know about.
• 21:38
  Yeah, it's going to affect a lot of people.
• 21:42
  Now you're, you're you're talking well over, was it 3.8
• 21:47
  million people in the immediate federal government?
• 21:52
  Immediate. And let's not forget our service
• 21:58
  people too. Yeah, you're right about that
• 22:05
  frequency not to reach tough congressional retirees.
• 22:13
  Now let's get into now let's get into the nitty gritty because
• 22:18
  we've been having, we've been having the ratification meetings
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  and I've been seeing rumblings all over social media, vote yes,
• 22:27
  vote no, this, that and the other thing.
• 22:31
  And a lot of people talking about our past arbitration
• 22:36
  decisions and a lot of them saying are voting no on these
• 22:42
  tentative agreements. Is the reason why we've gone to
• 22:45
  arbitration all these times, Bill, is that a true statement
• 22:50
  that every time we voted no and gone to arbitration, the reason
• 22:53
  is the reason why we've gone to arbitration?
• 22:55
  No. Well, technically, yes, the.
• 23:03
  Last one. We're talking about, we're
• 23:05
  talking about the crap as a whole.
• 23:08
  The Craft rejected A tentative agreement, so we had to go to
• 23:12
  arbitration. Yeah, no, no, it's not.
• 23:16
  Yeah, people will say. People will say technically if
• 23:19
  you voted no, then they have no recourse but to go to
• 23:22
  arbitration. But yes, they do.
• 23:24
  They still have a time period in there to renegotiate before
• 23:29
  they're forced to go to arbitration.
• 23:32
  Yeah, but, and, and you have to think about what arbitration
• 23:40
  really is. And that is where somebody gets
• 23:43
  old, what's going on, and they make an educated guess as to
• 23:49
  what would be beneficial for the most part for both sides to be
• 23:55
  equal. They're trying to split, split
• 23:58
  the baby, as you would say, and being afraid of them splitting
• 24:05
  the baby doesn't get you anywhere other than voting for
• 24:08
  garbage contracts. Or you can go the way that city
• 24:13
  carriers didn't have a president who just decides that, oh, I
• 24:16
  like the tentative agreement I wrote.
• 24:18
  So that's what we're going to get for our arbitration
• 24:20
  decision. If you don't believe that, then
• 24:25
  ask ask yourself why it took the arbitrator a whole 48 hours to
• 24:29
  decide that. Because every single arbitration
• 24:37
  we've had, it took the arbitrator at least a month to
• 24:42
  write the decision for the rural carriers.
• 24:46
  A month. Now, the last arbitration we
• 24:56
  went to, though, was due to an impasse.
• 24:59
  It never even went out to vote. In fact, I don't.
• 25:06
  I think we've only voted no one other time.
• 25:10
  Is that is that correct, If I'm not mistaken, Well.
• 25:17
  If if you are mistaken, somebody will let you know, James.
• 25:20
  Oh, I'm sure they will. I'm sure it will come out
• 25:22
  somewhere. You're not allowed to, Yeah.
• 25:26
  You're not allowed to have an opinion unless you're 100%
• 25:29
  right. I'm appreciate, I'm actually
• 25:32
  appreciative of them doing that because that helps me learn even
• 25:35
  more and it gives me more of an idea of what our craft is
• 25:38
  thinking as a whole because I actually listened to the craft.
• 25:45
  What was that? I wasn't listening to you,
• 25:47
  James. But the ratification meeting
• 25:58
  that I went, that I just came from today, you know, they went
• 26:02
  over this stuff and I will give Mike Morella a lot of credit.
• 26:06
  He did discuss a lot of the more intricate details of how they
• 26:14
  came to this decision in this ratification meeting and going
• 26:22
  through that and then answering questions from everybody in the
• 26:25
  audience. And he waited until all
• 26:28
  questions were answered before it was over.
• 26:32
  That is the sign of a leader right there willing to sit there
• 26:36
  and listen to questions and answer questions from the
• 26:39
  audience until everybody was satisfied.
• 26:43
  That is what you're supposed to do well.
• 26:51
  What were the pertinent questions there today, James?
• 26:57
  So basically it was just getting explanations of details of it.
• 27:04
  It wasn't really anything major. I did ask him, you know, why
• 27:08
  should I vote yes for this when I calculated out that I'd be
• 27:11
  losing $4.00 a paycheck on the very first paycheck I would get
• 27:15
  after this was passed and the raises were put into it.
• 27:19
  And actually got into a discussion with another member
• 27:25
  of our craft with a, he actually created a calculator for the
• 27:30
  tentative agreement and figured out exactly what it's going to
• 27:36
  cost. And he figured out by the end of
• 27:38
  this contract about how much somebody would have gained in
• 27:42
  their in their paycheck. And for instance, somebody at
• 27:48
  step one on Table 2 will gain almost $7000 with this tentative
• 27:55
  agreement in their paycheck. Supposedly I have to check the
• 28:00
  math. I'm going to get them to send me
• 28:02
  their calculator. It's a It's a spreadsheet that
• 28:08
  they created I. Heard about it?
• 28:11
  So, yeah, so that's that's what I'm going to do.
• 28:14
  And I'm going to check the numbers, I'm going to check the
• 28:16
  calculations and all that stuff on it and see if I can expand on
• 28:20
  it as well, make my own. Yeah, because I, I, I'd be
• 28:24
  curious to see that also because of the fact that if that was
• 28:28
  even remotely viable, OK, I think somebody at the national
• 28:33
  level would be touting that. Therefore, I think the numbers
• 28:37
  that are, you know, being manipulated are being done on a
• 28:42
  a very wide curve. Yeah.
• 28:46
  I'm, I'm, I'm just, I'm. I'm going to my mind right now
• 28:49
  looking at Table 2 and I don't see $7000 / 3 years, especially
• 28:58
  since one year's already gone. If you include, the step
• 29:01
  increases too. Well, yeah, you're going to get
• 29:04
  the step increases and it would be 3 years if this, if it does
• 29:10
  get rejected and doesn't get to 5250 weeks versus 52.
• 29:14
  But you got to remember again, you're at 15 steps, which only
• 29:18
  knocks off barely over a half a year, which means you're getting
• 29:22
  2 1/2 years still above and beyond a table one employee.
• 29:28
  So just on that alone that that doesn't qualify for $7000 / 3
• 29:35
  years. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 29:42
  You need to get a hold of that calculator because that, that
• 29:45
  seems oddly, you know, high in regards to something that they
• 29:50
  would turn around and tout as being a real, real life gain
• 29:54
  over the life of this contract. I mean, if I was the president
• 29:58
  of the union, then I I'd be shouting to them.
• 30:02
  Yeah, if we could have a calculator like that on the on
• 30:06
  the union website that actually breaks it down by step, that you
• 30:11
  can input your step and stuff like that would would be like
• 30:15
  astronomical in getting somebody to actually vote yes on this if
• 30:19
  they really wanted to do that. So yeah, I, I, I smell hooey.
• 30:27
  The. Same.
• 30:32
  All right. And you have anything to add to
• 30:36
  that, Kristen? No, I'm good.
• 30:42
  See. See Rich?
• 30:44
  Rich Here's an antagonist you know he's still waiting to see
• 30:48
  numbers on Rex. Yeah, they both probably come at
• 30:55
  the same time on the union website.
• 30:58
  That'll happen the day Donka's work at Sonora, CA.
• 31:08
  Speaking of working, wow, we segue really well into this.
• 31:17
  FedEx inks deal with Amazon to fill delivery gaps left by UPS.
• 31:24
  So I got some skinnies on this and according to sources that I
• 31:30
  have Google, it says the agreement covers residential
• 31:36
  delivery of select large packages to Amazon customers.
• 31:42
  So the articles that I found really talk about like
• 31:47
  delivering furniture and things like that to, to residential
• 31:53
  addresses. Now, whether this is true or
• 31:56
  not, you know, that's up to up to us to see how it affects our
• 32:00
  package volume. But if they take the dog food
• 32:04
  and furniture and stuff, hey, more power to them.
• 32:06
  We'll take a little stuff and deliver it.
• 32:10
  But this may affect especially rural outlying post offices that
• 32:16
  get the really big Amazon delivery and things like that.
• 32:20
  So this is something, yeah, where you don't have FedEx
• 32:24
  running around in your area? Oh no, no, me and FedEx were
• 32:28
  emptying our trucks at the same house one day, only he had the
• 32:32
  even bigger stuff because when I rolled when when I rolled open
• 32:36
  my back gate there, he's like, damn, you pack you fill up that
• 32:41
  like that too. I'm like, yeah, dude, and half
• 32:44
  of this truck is going on their front porch, but yeah.
• 32:51
  Yeah. Is that a?
• 32:52
  Is that a FedEx contractor servicing that Kristen?
• 32:55
  Yes. OK.
• 32:57
  Yes, but. Most FedEx drivers are
• 32:59
  contractors. Yeah, well, they they do have
• 33:02
  some of their own, but, you know, mostly.
• 33:05
  Stress on freight, but yeah. Yeah, I, I don't, I don't see
• 33:09
  them doing the outlying rural areas ever.
• 33:14
  Yeah, well, FedEx. According to Fox Business, FedEx
• 33:20
  expects the deal to be financially lucrative with
• 33:24
  yields and weights above system average in the US ground market.
• 33:31
  And yet Amazon sees cost advantages with the deal as
• 33:35
  well. So makes you wonder, are they
• 33:38
  charging more for shipping through Amazon or how are they
• 33:41
  making this actually viable for them?
• 33:44
  Or is it going to be FedEx picks up the package from Amazon,
• 33:47
  takes it, delivers it to the Postal Service and says, all
• 33:50
  right, you guys deliver it? I mean, that's what FedEx did a
• 33:55
  lot of times with Amazon that they had Lisa Meyer.
• 34:01
  So we'll have to see how this turns out.
• 34:03
  It may turn out, you know, eventually just like everything
• 34:06
  else that'll eventually come back to the post office because
• 34:09
  we actually are the most lucrative contract for any
• 34:13
  agency out there because we have the lowest rate.
• 34:17
  And that's how FedEx and UPS keep their rates low is because
• 34:22
  of the Postal Service. Otherwise they wouldn't be able
• 34:24
  to compete with us. A.
• 34:33
  Little sidebar for relic there and guidance of keeping FedEx
• 34:36
  from placing packages in the mailbox.
• 34:38
  First of all, it's against the law.
• 34:40
  I believe it's the A-125 or 139 which is the specific letter
• 34:46
  from the United States Postal Service in Washington DC.
• 34:49
  It's not from a district manager or a poo.
• 34:52
  That illustrates that you're supposed to bring that package
• 34:54
  back to the post office. The carrier company is supposed
• 34:57
  to pick it up. You are not required to take it
• 35:00
  to the door or postage due. That is against the law 'cause
• 35:04
  they're getting charged double. And there are several articles
• 35:09
  in the DMM in the 800 section in regards to placing objects in
• 35:15
  mailboxes without adequate postage and that they're
• 35:20
  supposed to be brought back. And it's a $5000 fine per event,
• 35:24
  which we don't enforce. Imagine if we did, how much
• 35:28
  money we could make if we actually enforce the laws on the
• 35:33
  books. And some people say, oh, you
• 35:38
  just take it and you throw it on the ground.
• 35:40
  If you do that and they see you do that and somebody comes by
• 35:44
  and steals it or the wind blows it away or whatever happens to
• 35:47
  the parcel, then you can be held responsible.
• 35:50
  And you have to realize everybody in the world, world
• 35:52
  almost has a ring camera on their damn doors and can see
• 35:55
  their mailboxes suffering. Truly rural America.
• 35:59
  So don't do that. Take the package out.
• 36:01
  Return to the post office and what I would always do because
• 36:05
  the clerks would inadvertently throw it back into the damn
• 36:08
  hamper the next day for me, I would black out the address and
• 36:11
  write return to sender, no postage.
• 36:16
  They would have no recourse except to send it back, you
• 36:20
  know, to FedEx. And we had the gaylords in the
• 36:24
  back from FedEx, Amazon, UPS laser ship, and we had a small U
• 36:31
  card for Target, which has gotten into the business of
• 36:34
  having people drive around and put it in mailboxes too.
• 36:41
  Now I have AI have a customer who put them on their mailbox.
• 36:45
  Yeah, I had AI have a customer who put a mail a camera on their
• 36:48
  mailbox because their neighbor was messing with their mailbox.
• 36:52
  And finally the neighbor actually drove over the mailbox
• 36:57
  and ended up in court over it. So the customer got a hold of my
• 37:05
  postmaster and asked if there was any way we could move the
• 37:09
  mailbox basically across the street onto their property.
• 37:14
  And they asked me and I said, well I go back the other way on
• 37:17
  that road anyway and don't service any boxes.
• 37:20
  Just put the box right there where just before where I turn.
• 37:23
  It'll still be on their property, just be a little bit
• 37:25
  further from their driveway than most mailboxes, but it'll allow
• 37:28
  me to service it and they can have their box on their property
• 37:32
  and they still have a camera on it just in case.
• 37:36
  Yeah. It's in within your line of
• 37:37
  travel still, so yeah. Exactly.
• 37:44
  I live on a street here, Davis Court, and as I drive down to my
• 37:51
  townhouse, there's a mailbox with a Lang lawn service baggy
• 37:56
  hanging on the mailbox. Every day I I want to stop and
• 37:59
  take it off of there, but I'm on the wrong side of the vehicle
• 38:03
  since I'm driving. So I, I, I, I would do that.
• 38:06
  I, I had a record day of 43 of those once pulling them off the
• 38:11
  mailboxes and throwing them, you know, into the trash when I got
• 38:14
  back to the office. I love stuff like that.
• 38:26
  You know, and, and I don't know about you guys because you, you
• 38:29
  know where you're at. You know, for in in regards to
• 38:31
  winters, do your oil people leave their bills on the
• 38:34
  mailboxes or in the mailboxes too?
• 38:37
  No, they leave them on the no. Yeah, 'cause they would do that
• 38:42
  down here and I'd take them too. Nope, all the ones I've ever
• 38:51
  seen have been looked on the door.
• 38:55
  No, I just get advertisements and then those become rural
• 38:59
  reaches. I usually reach through the car
• 39:05
  window and grab them and go, what the Hell's wrong with you?
• 39:09
  You're breaking the law. You're a felon.
• 39:15
  Then the lady looks up at me and said, son, I'm just trying to
• 39:18
  drum up business. My mother, she's a, she's a law
• 39:23
  breaker, I swear to God. So that's all I have.
• 39:33
  You know I'm that's. All I have for information.
• 39:35
  OK, I'm going to talk a little bit about the stuff that really
• 39:39
  disappoints me that I've seen on social media.
• 39:42
  The number one thing this week that I have.
• 39:46
  Seen. Hold on, hold on.
• 39:47
  I want to go get a car battery and hook it up to my laptop so I
• 39:50
  have enough juice. OK.
• 39:54
  No, the one thing, the one main thing this week that I have seen
• 39:59
  that has just make face palm every freaking time I got this
• 40:05
  ballot in the mail. What's it for?
• 40:08
  No. I'm sorry, there are some
• 40:21
  carriers that live under a rock. We, we can't escape that.
• 40:25
  You know, they don't, they don't have their union Rep showing up
• 40:28
  in their office to talk with them about what's going on in
• 40:31
  the craft. So they're, they're isolated
• 40:33
  from what's going on. That's the problem.
• 40:37
  We don't have people going out and talking with these carriers
• 40:41
  and saying, hey, here's this information, here's how to get a
• 40:44
  hold of your union, Stewart, here's what's going on in the
• 40:48
  craft. Here's where you can go to
• 40:49
  meetings. I understand some people don't
• 40:52
  want to go out and quote UN quote, hold people's hands.
• 40:57
  But if you reach out like we do on this podcast, even just a
• 41:02
  little bit, you're going to get more engagement from carriers
• 41:08
  and they're going to be less questions asked when things hit
• 41:11
  the fan, like the ballots coming out or Rex.
• 41:18
  How many people didn't even know what Rex was the day Rex
• 41:22
  started? Oh, I know.
• 41:25
  James, can you send me a grievance form because Kristen
• 41:30
  made me spit a mouthful of Crown Royal on my deck.
• 41:36
  You'll just have to charge her double at a national for it.
• 41:39
  Oh my God, yeah. Like when she said that, I, I, I
• 41:43
  knew she was going down there. And I'm like, no, don't say it.
• 41:47
  And, and you're right. I'm sitting, I'm sitting there
• 41:51
  going, you know, I've had people in the office call me and ask me
• 41:55
  what the ballot for. And I'm like, what does it say
• 42:02
  it's for? It's for voting for this new
• 42:05
  tentative agreement. OK, well, I don't know all the
• 42:11
  details of the tentative agreement.
• 42:12
  Are there any details with the letter?
• 42:16
  Well, they got some highlights. OK, like, all right.
• 42:23
  But what else do you want me to tell you?
• 42:27
  You're right. Some people have to be handheld.
• 42:31
  Those are the people my office don't have to be handheld, but a
• 42:35
  few of them do. With as much as this has been
• 42:39
  going around since it was announced and then the hard
• 42:44
  copies go out, which honestly, I have delivered ballots to my
• 42:48
  fellow postal brothers and sisters that are also customers.
• 42:55
  I, you know, have delivered ballots before.
• 42:58
  I delivered the TA. But as as as much as it's been
• 43:05
  going around and people have been talking about it,
• 43:09
  especially on the social webs, to still have somebody come and
• 43:13
  go. What's this for?
• 43:17
  Yeah. I I mean there's no words, so
• 43:20
  you just you you face palm and keep scrolling.
• 43:24
  Yeah, it's, it's, you can't make this shit up.
• 43:28
  You can't, I mean. Or you go and pop the popcorn to
• 43:31
  read the comments. Oh God.
• 43:37
  But I, I, I still go back to the adage that it's, you know, it's
• 43:43
  something that should have been talked about in the office with
• 43:49
  the carriers. And I understand that there are
• 43:52
  a lot of people in the system that are overworked and
• 43:56
  definitely underpaid for the work that they do.
• 43:59
  But we've got to do something to reach every rural carrier in
• 44:04
  this craft besides a podcast, besides social media, we have to
• 44:11
  have a way to get this information to all these
• 44:15
  carriers. And I know you can say, oh,
• 44:16
  well, we send out a magazine. Oh, well, there's the website,
• 44:21
  but there are carriers that need that face to face interaction
• 44:25
  for things to stick in their minds.
• 44:28
  There are carriers that need to have that person to reach out
• 44:33
  to, that they trust to answer those questions because.
• 44:39
  And This is why in person meetings are still important.
• 44:51
  And finding out that point where you can actually have the
• 44:56
  meetings where the maximum number of people can attend is
• 45:01
  important. But I still believe that having
• 45:03
  somebody going to these offices and say, hey, here's some
• 45:07
  information for you, here's how to reach out, here's where you
• 45:10
  can go for this stuff is so tantamount in this because there
• 45:15
  are isolated offices out there that may not be able to drive
• 45:19
  2-3 hours to a local meeting. Well, you still have areas and I
• 45:27
  know carriers that live in areas where they still don't have high
• 45:31
  speed Internet or if they do it's satellite and it comes down
• 45:34
  and packets. So it's really difficult to
• 45:37
  stream a video or join a Zoom or something like that as well.
• 45:44
  Yes, You know, and as much as people have disdain for
• 45:54
  technology, that's a tool we can use.
• 46:00
  We're using it here on the podcast to reach out to
• 46:02
  carriers, and with that have actually gotten carriers to be
• 46:07
  involved in the union with it, have gotten carriers to look
• 46:11
  things up and fight for this crap, all just by carriers
• 46:16
  talking to each other like sitting at a round table.
• 46:24
  We got to figure this out. We got to figure this out.
• 46:28
  We've got to find a way to get an engagement across the entire
• 46:32
  nation. Now I realize that that that
• 46:38
  would be the the perfect scenario.
• 46:41
  You have to realize that there are some people that don't give
• 46:44
  a rat's ass, OK, They don't care about the union.
• 46:48
  They don't. They don't care about the
• 46:49
  contract. They don't care about anything
• 46:51
  that's there for getting their job done, going home and getting
• 46:54
  paid every week. Their only concern is
• 46:57
  themselves. It's human nature.
• 47:02
  Saying that, it doesn't mean you still can't try.
• 47:06
  You cannot say I'll settle for 95%.
• 47:09
  You know, hell if we get 95% this union would be dangerous to
• 47:13
  the post office. Hell, if we if we could get 50%.
• 47:18
  Yeah, you ain't lying. But the fact of the matter is
• 47:23
  that there is distrust of the national board, there's disrust
• 47:27
  of the national steward system. I'm getting backlash from some
• 47:31
  people in regards to the comment I put in a Facebook platform
• 47:36
  about getting the national steward system back to the
• 47:38
  states, decentralizing all that power and authority.
• 47:43
  You know, all the nepotism and and favoritism in regards to the
• 47:46
  politics of the national board and let the states pay them
• 47:50
  'cause I'll guarantee you the states are not going to pay a
• 47:53
  carrier to be an an area steward, a part time ADR, full
• 47:59
  time ADR. They're not paying them K48
• 48:02
  money when they're AJ 42 route. They'll get their mileage,
• 48:07
  they'll get a per diem, but they'll get their daily rate.
• 48:12
  But the fact of the matter is that a lot of people since the
• 48:17
  coming of Don Madsen, the ADR and DRS have been eliminated.
• 48:23
  Some have been justly eliminated, some have been
• 48:26
  unjustly. One lady responded to me today
• 48:29
  in regards to the fact that she was removed because of an EEO
• 48:33
  filed against her by a carrier which the union failed to
• 48:37
  investigate and she lost her position as a part time ADR.
• 48:42
  Again, this is what's wrong with the national board.
• 48:45
  They're only worried about the contentious situations of which
• 48:49
  may look bad on them, may cause them some financial strife in
• 48:54
  the in the future. They didn't bother investigating
• 48:56
  their own AD Rs claims. Then you have on top of that the
• 49:02
  NR OS. The NR OS are supposed to be
• 49:04
  overseeing these DRS. Well how did my NRO miss the
• 49:08
  fact that ADR hadn't processed all their damn grievances in a 2
• 49:14
  1/2 year period? The amount of oversight is
• 49:22
  ridiculous. Because nobody's doing their
• 49:25
  jobs. Why do you think so much of
• 49:27
  these step fours are still sitting out there?
• 49:31
  You know people are still sitting there waiting for
• 49:34
  results for their disputes from the first mini male survey done
• 49:39
  5 surveys ago. And John Adams has been working
• 49:57
  on those, though. Well, John Adams isn't the only
• 50:01
  one. They, you know, the thing of it
• 50:02
  is they have to go through the NRO before they get to him.
• 50:07
  And who's overseeing the NR OS? That would be Nikki Phillips.
• 50:15
  OK, there we go. Somebody hit the bingo button.
• 50:23
  You know, but the the key isn't that we're starting to stride
• 50:28
  that way. We're taking baby steps, but we
• 50:32
  are getting there. We're getting things resolved.
• 50:35
  In many situations, people are starting to pay attention.
• 50:40
  People are starting to do what they're supposed to do because
• 50:45
  there's been a spotlight showing up.
• 50:50
  Names are getting thrown around and it's causing action to
• 50:55
  actually happen. And that right there is the most
• 50:59
  important thing. That action is starting to
• 51:03
  happen because it needs to happen.
• 51:09
  Sure, you're going to have people that dig their heels in
• 51:11
  and, and this is how we've always done things and you're
• 51:15
  going to have people that no matter what you do, it's never
• 51:18
  good enough for them. But the overall concept is our
• 51:26
  craft needs to have representation available at any
• 51:31
  given time. A carrier needs it.
• 51:36
  And the thing about it to me is it doesn't matter if this is how
• 51:46
  we did things. It doesn't matter if it's a new
• 51:50
  way to do things. What we need to do is find the
• 51:56
  top best way to do things and have backup ways to do things.
• 52:05
  We have to have a plan of action to get as many people involved
• 52:11
  as top possible because the only way this union survives and or
• 52:19
  grows is through participation. You can't decertify a union to
• 52:29
  get it to do what you want it to do.
• 52:34
  You can't turn around and bust a union to get it to do what you
• 52:38
  wanted to do. You have to work within the
• 52:43
  union to get the union to work because guess what?
• 52:48
  Your work is working for the union because you are the union.
• 52:55
  You're the most important part of this union.
• 52:58
  Without each and every rural letter carrier down on the floor
• 53:02
  doing their job and protecting the national agreement and all
• 53:07
  the other union documents and postal documents that have come
• 53:12
  out, there is no union. You are not defending this
• 53:19
  national agreement and our rights to wages, work conditions
• 53:26
  and benefits to a tee as much as possible.
• 53:32
  You're saying the union doesn't matter?
• 53:46
  And then it got quiet. I don't.
• 53:54
  I don't think anybody out there that listens to this podcast
• 53:59
  thinks that they can just get by without doing anything to better
• 54:07
  this union and better this crap. Everybody that listens to this
• 54:12
  knows they have to fight to keep what they deserve and if you're
• 54:20
  a first time listener, you're going to want to fight to keep
• 54:25
  what we deserve because that's what unions do.
• 54:31
  We can work with management when they adhere to everything they
• 54:41
  agreed to. I have absolutely no problem
• 54:47
  working with management when they do what they're supposed to
• 54:51
  do. It's when they make us put on
• 54:55
  our union hat and fight for what we already agreed upon.
• 55:03
  That's when the gloves come off. It's business, not personal.
• 55:11
  Business is keeping what we have right now and fighting for what
• 55:16
  we need for the future, not just with one tentative agreement,
• 55:22
  but thinking forward to the next two and three tentative
• 55:28
  agreements we're going to be making with the Postal Service.
• 55:31
  You can't just start negotiating your next contract right after
• 55:35
  you finish the first one. You got to be thinking long term
• 55:39
  because management is. Anybody else?
• 55:52
  No, I'm good. I, I, I was going to throw one
• 56:00
  in there, but since I'm a retiree, I'll just keep that to
• 56:02
  myself. I'll throw it in there, Bill.
• 56:05
  Go ahead. All right, OK, And I know this
• 56:10
  is contentious as hell, but I'm going to say it anyway.
• 56:16
  I believe, OK, but this is my personal belief.
• 56:20
  This is not something I would subject everybody to, but I'm of
• 56:26
  the opinion that Table 1 carriers, in light of the fact
• 56:33
  that Table 2 has not been dissolved, has not been
• 56:36
  incorporated into table one, I'd rather see Table 2 carriers get
• 56:42
  a higher raise in Table 1. So I'll be, oh, oh, I worked
• 56:47
  here, I got, I got 30 years in. I, I'm entitled.
• 56:50
  Yes, you're entitled to something.
• 56:53
  But for our craft to go forward, we need everybody to be able to
• 57:02
  afford a lifestyle on a single paycheck.
• 57:08
  Most carriers on Table 2 are table one.
• 57:13
  Are 12 years into table one OK? Correct.
• 57:19
  You got 1212, OK. Not all, not all.
• 57:22
  Not all, not all, but most games, but most.
• 57:27
  OK. And if they're not, they're real
• 57:30
  damn close to being at the top of their tables.
• 57:34
  Because Table 2 came in at 2012, correct?
• 57:38
  Yes. Therefore, they should be real
• 57:42
  close to the top of their tables, which is significantly
• 57:46
  higher than Table 2. Therefore, I would not be averse
• 57:52
  to having Table 2 get higher raises than Table 1.
• 58:00
  That's my personal opinion. I, I know I've talked with
• 58:06
  multiple Table 1 carriers that support your position, Bill and
• 58:11
  I've talked to some that don't support your position.
• 58:14
  So and I agree with you on that. And table one does get
• 58:18
  contractual raises and COLA still.
• 58:23
  So they're still getting something and we've already seen
• 58:30
  them do that with one table here with this tentative agreement,
• 58:35
  and that is the table for our CAS where they added the dollar
• 58:40
  for after three years with this tentative agreement.
• 58:44
  Why can't they do that with the Table 2 carriers?
• 58:48
  You know, add a little bit of extra cash into the table to
• 58:53
  bring them up a little closer to Table 1?
• 58:56
  Yeah. And I'm not saying that Table 1
• 58:59
  does not get the COLA and not get a contractual raise, but at
• 59:03
  a different rate, they can get the full cola and and I think
• 59:07
  everybody ought to get the full cola, everybody.
• 59:12
  Yes. But they, they, they can do with
• 59:16
  a, a 1% raise, you know, and turn around and give of 1.6 to
• 59:20
  the to the table, 21.7 to Table 2, whatever.
• 59:25
  But the the fact of the matter is that you're, you're already
• 59:29
  up that to $94,000 and these people are down there at 4750
• 59:37
  two $54,000. How the hell are you supporting
• 59:42
  your household and APOV on that salary?
• 59:50
  Yeah, only if you live in your POV.
• 59:53
  Yeah, exactly. And that and that reminds me
• 59:56
  another question I saw today about somebody making a second
• 1:00:00
  and third trip on the POV's. And, and you know, I seem to
• 1:00:04
  remember the stipulation that they don't get any extra
• 1:00:07
  increase of the EMA unless it's over 40 miles.
• 1:00:11
  Now I'm sitting there going, well, hold, hold, hold on.
• 1:00:13
  What do you, what do you mean they have to go?
• 1:00:15
  So if you have a 28 mile POV route and you go out and drive
• 1:00:20
  another 11 miles, you're not getting anything extra, extra 12
• 1:00:26
  miles, you're not getting any. You should be getting paid for
• 1:00:29
  every stinking mile you use your vehicle on, period.
• 1:00:33
  Who came up with that? Oh, the post office.
• 1:00:37
  Sorry. Management.
• 1:00:41
  Yeah. Yeah, Mike Marola is Table 2.
• 1:00:47
  Somebody asked all the board members being table one.
• 1:00:50
  No, we have a Table 2 on the national board and that is Mike
• 1:00:54
  Marola. He actually did admit to that at
• 1:00:56
  the ratification meeting. Yeah, but he's, he's a table.
• 1:01:01
  He's at Table 2 at $108,000. I'm sorry, did I bring that up?
• 1:01:07
  I said slipped. You know, I actually, I actually
• 1:01:13
  felt a little bad for him because he had, the way they set
• 1:01:17
  him up to do this ratification meeting here in Michigan was he
• 1:01:22
  had to fly into Grand Rapids, get a rental car, drive down to
• 1:01:27
  Columbus, OH for their ratification meeting for
• 1:01:29
  Saturday, and then drive back to East Lansing to do the
• 1:01:33
  ratification meeting for Michigan and then drive back to
• 1:01:38
  Grand Rapids to drop the rental car off to fly back home.
• 1:01:45
  Why not just You can't make this.
• 1:01:46
  Columbus. Apparently it was cheaper to
• 1:01:50
  rent the car and return it to Grand Rapids than it was to fly
• 1:01:53
  into Columbus than fly into Lansing, although.
• 1:01:56
  Or even just rent a car up to Lansing and then fly out of
• 1:02:00
  Lansing. But yeah.
• 1:02:02
  Yeah. I don't know.
• 1:02:05
  I don't book that stuff for anybody but myself, so.
• 1:02:10
  No, no. In fact, I believe it's.
• 1:02:17
  It's in the in the Article 9, it's a subsection B talks about
• 1:02:26
  the the percentage that carriers get on COLA for Table 2.
• 1:02:35
  And it's basically you take your Table 2 step pay and divide it
• 1:02:41
  by the table or step 15 pay and that's the percentage you get of
• 1:02:46
  COLA at each step. That is why.
• 1:02:50
  That is why step one is getting way wider than step A on table
• 1:02:56
  one than step 7 or step 13 is because of the percentages and
• 1:03:07
  step one on Table 2 is almost half cola.
• 1:03:14
  AKA the nominator, the nickname diet Cola.
• 1:03:20
  Yeah. So.
• 1:03:29
  Yeah. By the time all this is resolved
• 1:03:32
  with this votes through and we get any back pay by then, I'll
• 1:03:34
  be Table 3, Step 3. Excuse me?
• 1:03:43
  We already have a Table 3. Yeah, yeah, I wish.
• 1:03:46
  I still ain't making that. Well, that that'll be.
• 1:03:48
  That'll become Table 5 and then Table 6 will be the table 4
• 1:03:53
  carriers that got the dollar raised.
• 1:03:55
  Table Table 7 will be the Table 3 carriers that are in the in
• 1:03:59
  between period as table 8 will be the step table 4 carriers
• 1:04:04
  without the dollar increase. Oh, throw all the tables at the
• 1:04:10
  wall, I agree. Language, young lady.
• 1:04:14
  Young language. Geez.
• 1:04:15
  No, I meant to say Step 3 is for.
• 1:04:18
  You know I'm talking about meow. Oh, I know.
• 1:04:24
  But that's all I had for the night.
• 1:04:27
  You got anything else guys? No, I'm good.
• 1:04:34
  I, I'm just, you know, like Kristen said when she made me
• 1:04:37
  choke like Crown Royal onto the deck here.
• 1:04:41
  I'm just surprised at how many people are just ignorant of
• 1:04:47
  what's going on in, in their jobs and their careers.
• 1:04:51
  And it, it's just, God, we, we've been fighting this fight
• 1:04:55
  for over 2 years and you know, previously another year before
• 1:04:58
  that. And it's like, I, I mean, I, I
• 1:05:02
  know what is the, the explanation of insanity is
• 1:05:06
  sometimes I feel like we're insane people.
• 1:05:10
  There's, there's got to be some, yeah, there's something wrong
• 1:05:14
  with us, you know, in regards to trying to, you know, to, to get
• 1:05:18
  this craft to lift itself up. And sometimes it's very
• 1:05:24
  disappointing and and very, you know, disheartening.
• 1:05:27
  But the fact of the matter is that if we can help one person,
• 1:05:31
  if we can help a carrier who turned around was going to quit
• 1:05:34
  and become a local steward, and then we're accomplishing
• 1:05:38
  something in a positive fashion. If we get you to, you know, send
• 1:05:43
  in your ballots for your state delegates to the National
• 1:05:46
  Convention because you want to change the face of the national
• 1:05:49
  board with new people, then we've accomplished our mission.
• 1:05:53
  If you attend your first state convention or booster and find
• 1:05:57
  out how the system works and, and, and how all the procedurals
• 1:06:02
  are, you know, laid out in regards to getting things
• 1:06:05
  accomplished in this crap, then we've accomplished something
• 1:06:11
  that and you know, copious amounts of Crown Royal keep me
• 1:06:14
  going. Speaking of that Bill, two
• 1:06:20
  months ago I got a carrier decided to step up and become
• 1:06:23
  their local steward. And I'm proud to say that 2 days
• 1:06:27
  ago I just had another one tell me that because of my
• 1:06:29
  assistance, they've decided to step up as a local steward in
• 1:06:33
  their office. Hey, Joe.
• 1:06:38
  That's what happens when you just give them a little taste of
• 1:06:45
  what this union's about. You show them that somebody's
• 1:06:49
  willing to fight for them. And I said this at their
• 1:06:52
  conferences. You show them you're willing to
• 1:06:53
  fight for them. They're willing to step up and
• 1:06:56
  fight for others. That's what we've got to do.
• 1:07:02
  Educate, protect and fight for every carrier in this craft, no
• 1:07:09
  matter who it is, and we will get people to step up and make a
• 1:07:14
  difference too. All right, I have something to
• 1:07:25
  say and I have been debating whether to say it tonight or
• 1:07:29
  not, but. Go for it.
• 1:07:35
  This is going to be my last regular episode.
• 1:07:43
  I have to step away from the microphone.
• 1:07:47
  Oh no. Yeah, don't worry guys.
• 1:07:54
  I am actually in the process of getting that edit book
• 1:07:58
  presentation done and that will come out this week.
• 1:08:00
  I promise I will have that. I am not going to let people
• 1:08:04
  down on that one, but this man, my, my fight has to go in a
• 1:08:16
  different direction, which is going to be requiring me to have
• 1:08:19
  to step away. Well, I for one, I, I understand
• 1:08:29
  why you are and I completely support you 100% in that
• 1:08:37
  direction because I know what you're doing and I know what
• 1:08:40
  it's for. And I believe you are going to
• 1:08:43
  do amazing things in the direction you're going.
• 1:08:47
  Thank you. And just like everybody else
• 1:08:53
  here on this podcast and on our social media pages, I know that
• 1:08:58
  they're going to support you in that decision as well because
• 1:09:01
  you have made a difference for being here so much that this,
• 1:09:07
  this podcast, wouldn't be what it is without you leading the
• 1:09:12
  charge to make it happen. And you have built this into
• 1:09:17
  what it is. And no matter where you go from
• 1:09:23
  from here, the legacy you have drawn here will continue to grow
• 1:09:27
  and expand, and it'll be yours. Just don't do me wrong.
• 1:09:40
  No plug anytime. You are you already set the bar
• 1:09:45
  extremely high on what is expected on this on this
• 1:09:48
  platform and anybody that comes after that will have huge use to
• 1:09:56
  fill. And I, I know that that's the
• 1:09:58
  change for the audience members is going to be extreme, but at
• 1:10:03
  the same time, it's important to understand we are involved in
• 1:10:10
  multiple things outside of this podcast, like me running for the
• 1:10:15
  president's office and bill retiring.
• 1:10:19
  Change happened. I'm coming back.
• 1:10:24
  As an art. But still, it's still important
• 1:10:29
  to understand she's still going to be there for you guys.
• 1:10:33
  They'll still talk to you guys, so I don't think she's walking
• 1:10:38
  away and and never going to be talking to any of you again.
• 1:10:42
  She's still going to be there. I know.
• 1:10:43
  I know what she's doing. So it's it's important to
• 1:10:45
  understand that she's still going to be a good friend to all
• 1:10:51
  of us here. Come on, Bill, get stop Iana.
• 1:11:01
  Well, you know, I, I was going to try to be magnanimous about
• 1:11:05
  this whole situation, but oh, that's not my fucking nature.
• 1:11:12
  Yes, we understand why and we understand the background and
• 1:11:20
  you know, we applaud you for that.
• 1:11:23
  Doesn't mean that we're not going to miss you.
• 1:11:25
  Doesn't mean we're not going to talk about you.
• 1:11:28
  Whatever you got to. Do that doesn't mean Ruby may
• 1:11:32
  not decide to come down here and pop on.
• 1:11:34
  I don't know. But you know, like James says,
• 1:11:40
  we had we all have our different paths, you know, that the travel
• 1:11:44
  to to effect change and we had another individual, you know,
• 1:11:50
  also the several individuals have to bail out because of
• 1:11:53
  their associations with other activities, shall we say, in
• 1:11:59
  regards to their path. So, you know, whereas we will
• 1:12:03
  respectfully, you know, honor the path that you're taking, it
• 1:12:09
  doesn't mean we have to like it. And it's going to hurt us.
• 1:12:12
  You know, you know, somebody calls your Mama bear.
• 1:12:15
  Well, yeah, somewhat because of the fact that, you know, I'm an
• 1:12:19
  asshole And and and James is a protagonist with information at
• 1:12:25
  his fingertips that he likes to throw out at people and smash
• 1:12:28
  him and, you know, beat him in the ground with.
• 1:12:31
  But the fact of the matter is that, you know, you were the the
• 1:12:34
  hand that steadied the ship. So it'll be interesting to see
• 1:12:39
  how well this ship travels without the the captain at the
• 1:12:44
  wheel. So you're going to be missed.
• 1:12:48
  And you know, we where everybody here should, you know, greatly
• 1:12:53
  appreciate your contribution, especially in getting this
• 1:12:56
  podcast up and running when you did.
• 1:12:59
  And keeping it running. Yeah, well, yeah, keeping it
• 1:13:02
  running, but the fact. Yeah, with a lot of pushback,
• 1:13:08
  yeah, but. The fact of the matter is, yeah,
• 1:13:12
  but the fact of the matter is we wouldn't be here if it wasn't
• 1:13:14
  for you in the first place. True, and I know there's a lot
• 1:13:19
  of people out there that wouldn't have stepped up or
• 1:13:23
  wouldn't have joined or rejoined or put themselves out there to
• 1:13:27
  be a delegate. And and when his first timers to
• 1:13:30
  to National Convention as delegates because of us who
• 1:13:36
  people who because of us had given them that that piece of
• 1:13:43
  confidence. They didn't know they had to
• 1:13:45
  stand up for themselves or others in their offices as well.
• 1:13:50
  I mean, and that's what this was truly about.
• 1:13:53
  Regardless if many of you think that we were dividing.
• 1:13:58
  I, I mean, I can see where you're coming from on that.
• 1:14:01
  That was never the goal. The, the, the true underlying
• 1:14:06
  message was for people to be active, to go to their meetings,
• 1:14:11
  to vote, to step up and stand up for themselves and others in
• 1:14:19
  their offices to you know, that was actually the more underlying
• 1:14:26
  message when I first started. I know things went One Direction
• 1:14:30
  one time, another direction this time.
• 1:14:32
  It was all over the place when all three of us were running
• 1:14:34
  last year. But the main goal, you know,
• 1:14:38
  education and bringing the craft together and, and really wanting
• 1:14:45
  people to step up and even if it's educating others in their
• 1:14:49
  office so that we can all fight this fight together and do the
• 1:14:54
  job the way it's supposed to be done.
• 1:14:56
  And management can kiss our asses.
• 1:15:03
  You know, Kristen, it was about unifying, uniting and going that
• 1:15:08
  even when differences of opinion happen, we could still unite
• 1:15:15
  together for a common cause. And that was to provide a
• 1:15:22
  outreach for carriers, an outlet for carriers that gave them
• 1:15:27
  hope, gave them inspiration, gave them the tools they needed
• 1:15:33
  to do what had to be done. And it all started with you.
• 1:15:39
  It started with you getting everybody together and inviting
• 1:15:43
  people to come join on this podcast and advertising it and
• 1:15:48
  putting together the socials and putting together all the pieces
• 1:15:52
  that come together this Discord server, let alone everything
• 1:15:55
  else. I don't think people realize how
• 1:15:57
  much I do behind the scenes. Not to mention all the answering
• 1:16:02
  of the questions on on the podcast page, the the podcast
• 1:16:07
  group monitoring that taking care of that adding.
• 1:16:11
  People from all monitoring, e-mail, recording, editing.
• 1:16:18
  Yeah. You know, when you didn't have
• 1:16:21
  help doing that, you were doing it all on your own.
• 1:16:24
  You know, and a lot of the a lot of this, what we have now is all
• 1:16:31
  because of the foundation that you laid for this podcast and
• 1:16:38
  the expectation you had for this podcast.
• 1:16:43
  You set the rules and told everybody you either play with
• 1:16:47
  in them or get out. And those rules are still in
• 1:16:51
  effect, guys. I'm not going to let chick get
• 1:16:57
  away with it going all Willy wonky crazy on me, OK?
• 1:17:03
  Want to bet? Oh, wait, you're, you're saying
• 1:17:05
  you, you're not going to let Bill do what he normally does
• 1:17:08
  anymore. Yeah, I'm sitting here going.
• 1:17:12
  I can go full Bill, you know, January 6th.
• 1:17:19
  I'm going to make that look like a freaking on Sunday.
• 1:17:24
  Oh boy. No, I yeah, no, I've mellowed
• 1:17:33
  out. No, you have.
• 1:17:35
  I've put a lot of work into you in the last few years.
• 1:17:38
  Wait. Wait till I become an ARC, then
• 1:17:42
  you're all in trouble. But but.
• 1:17:46
  Think about listen, listen that about how how parcels are on
• 1:17:50
  Sundays. Oh, just wait until they start
• 1:17:53
  making you work as an RCA as an ARC.
• 1:17:56
  No, no, no, no, no. No, hey, you're, you're already
• 1:17:59
  trained. You're already trained as a
• 1:18:01
  carrier so they could, and you haven't got off a job for more
• 1:18:05
  than a year. And you know what?
• 1:18:07
  I'll tell them then. Take this job and show it.
• 1:18:12
  I'm working here no more. Oh, I mean we can go down memory
• 1:18:22
  lane. I mean, I remember walking
• 1:18:25
  caucus with you and anytime you could feel my stare through the
• 1:18:28
  back ears. Yeah, that's true.
• 1:18:34
  I I had to get, I had to get the back of several suit jackets
• 1:18:37
  fixed because of the laser stare.
• 1:18:42
  For the side eye, I'd side eye you too.
• 1:18:45
  And it's like, you know, OK, what are we doing wrong?
• 1:18:49
  Because I feel presence. Oh, I got to turn it down.
• 1:18:54
  OK this. This like Twilight Zone, you
• 1:18:57
  know? Oh yeah, no, I'll see everybody
• 1:19:04
  at National, though. I'm definitely me and Ruby and
• 1:19:07
  Little man, and we'll be there. What?
• 1:19:17
  Are you guys, this is my first fucking day.
• 1:19:19
  Yeah, that's. Right, I'm a new ARC, what do
• 1:19:24
  you expect? How do you sign in on the
• 1:19:29
  scanner? Wait, we're supposed to scan the
• 1:19:37
  packages when we deliver them? You know, hey, they're not
• 1:19:42
  getting credit anyway, who the hell gives a shit what route I'm
• 1:19:45
  on? Wait, I'm supposed to enter the
• 1:19:50
  vehicle number? Let's see.
• 1:19:52
  Hey, James Springfield. What are you doing in
• 1:19:55
  Springfield, PA? Oh, no.
• 1:19:56
  Springfield, MA. He's got to use a POV.
• 1:20:04
  Oh my gosh, we've got to use a POVABNR.
• 1:20:11
  I I could see him. In A at least he'd have air
• 1:20:15
  conditioning. Oh yeah, yeah.
• 1:20:20
  I've got full down seats in myself though, so yeah, I'd be
• 1:20:23
  good. I got a roof rack.
• 1:20:30
  All right, guys, Now that we brightened up, the somber
• 1:20:34
  moment, last word so we can ramp up tonight.
• 1:20:41
  Hey, a retiree can be a steward. How about that?
• 1:20:44
  Yes, they can. We we have a recently new
• 1:20:49
  retiree in our state who is an area steward still.
• 1:20:52
  So yes, James, your final thoughts for this evening?
• 1:20:59
  That's local steward. Well, Kristen, like I said, I
• 1:21:04
  wish you the best of luck on this and I'll be here to help
• 1:21:08
  you out if you need anything. As always, just a reminder to
• 1:21:14
  everybody, Postal Employee Relief Fund, It doesn't get a
• 1:21:18
  lot of donations, but it can be a life saving thing for a
• 1:21:24
  carrier that's affected by the severe weather.
• 1:21:26
  I know we've already, at the time of recording this episode,
• 1:21:29
  we've got 27 deaths from tornadoes from this past week.
• 1:21:35
  So help your fellow carriers out.
• 1:21:38
  Support perf. Donate things like mailbox
• 1:21:42
  angels that puts mailboxes back in front of houses so carriers
• 1:21:46
  don't get as bad of a hit to their wrecks because of this
• 1:21:50
  stuff. There's a lot of ways you can
• 1:21:53
  help your fellow carriers out there.
• 1:21:55
  Donating weave is another one. Take care of each other out
• 1:21:59
  there because we're all that we got in this job.
• 1:22:03
  Management won't help us put the Postal National won't help us,
• 1:22:10
  and the government won't help us.
• 1:22:13
  We got to take care of each other.
• 1:22:16
  So make sure that you're looking out for your fellow brothers and
• 1:22:20
  sisters of this crap, because I mean it when I say it.
• 1:22:26
  We're all in this together, Bill.
• 1:22:31
  Well, like I said earlier, I'd like to be magnanimous like,
• 1:22:34
  well, Jane, like James in regards to Christian's departure
• 1:22:37
  from this podcast. And I, I would definitely never
• 1:22:41
  want to say anything that, you know, she's being a selfish
• 1:22:44
  bitch in her own self-interest. But the fact of the matter is,
• 1:22:48
  is that she's going a course that she has to take and, and we
• 1:22:53
  respect that and we love her for it because of the fact that
• 1:22:56
  she's not giving up the fight. She's just attacking from
• 1:22:59
  another direction. And we wish her the best of
• 1:23:03
  luck. We support her.
• 1:23:05
  And like I said, we love her because of the fact that, you
• 1:23:08
  know, she has contributed so much of her own time and money
• 1:23:13
  in this podcast, the equipment and everything else that, you
• 1:23:16
  know, she maintains that we can get the message out to
• 1:23:20
  everybody. This is something that hurts me
• 1:23:26
  because of the fact that, you know, we're losing voice of
• 1:23:29
  reason. And the the fact of the matter
• 1:23:32
  is that she is, like I said, the captain of our ship.
• 1:23:36
  You know, she keeps me and James, you know, on course, you
• 1:23:39
  know, sometimes with difficulty. But that's the Mama bear effect.
• 1:23:44
  And you know, unfortunately, the podcast is going to lose one of
• 1:23:51
  its best assets. And I hope you all realize and
• 1:23:56
  support Kristen and her future endeavors because of the fact
• 1:23:59
  that she's earned that in regards to all the sacrifices
• 1:24:04
  she has made over the years for the craft for for for the craft,
• 1:24:08
  not just the union, but for the craft period.
• 1:24:11
  And we're gonna gonna miss her. And like I said, I, I'm gonna,
• 1:24:19
  I'm going to rejoin the post office as an ark and get back
• 1:24:25
  into the system so that, you know, possibly I can become an
• 1:24:28
  ADR. I'd just like to have that, an
• 1:24:31
  arc and become an ADR. That would be so funny.
• 1:24:38
  But I, I, I, I, I look forward to the opportunity because of,
• 1:24:43
  you know, the avenues it opens for me.
• 1:24:47
  My wife just sit there and shakes her head, but she
• 1:24:49
  understands. I just want everybody, you know,
• 1:24:55
  in light of the weather we've had out there, Lansing, you
• 1:24:58
  know, the rain that we've had here in eastern PA, up and down
• 1:25:02
  the coast. But let me tell you something
• 1:25:07
  folks, be safe out there. The the ground's, you know,
• 1:25:10
  saturated. The winds have been 35 to 40
• 1:25:13
  miles an hour here in Philadelphia area and you know,
• 1:25:18
  just watch out for them trees and the branches.
• 1:25:21
  I've I've seen more than my share, you know, coming down
• 1:25:24
  days after weather situations pass through.
• 1:25:29
  As I always say, be safe, be professional, be efficient and
• 1:25:34
  you know, make sure you get home to your loved ones because you
• 1:25:36
  are the most important delivery of the day.
• 1:25:39
  Kristen, for your sign off, let's.
• 1:25:42
  Hear your final sign off. Kristen, thank you for the
• 1:25:45
  praise. You kind of really raised my ego
• 1:25:47
  there a bit. But no, I have made a lot of
• 1:25:51
  sacrifices for the craft from the very beginning, from the get
• 1:25:55
  go. And you know, and having to step
• 1:26:00
  away. This definitely wasn't easy, but
• 1:26:06
  it's what has to be done right now.
• 1:26:08
  So, but I do, like I said, I thank you guys for for all the
• 1:26:15
  words of praise. It does mean a lot.
• 1:26:19
  I want everybody to stay safe out there.
• 1:26:21
  I, you know, weather is crazy. I mean, it was Friday was 82°
• 1:26:27
  and Saturday was 60 and then today in the 50s and it's
• 1:26:31
  supposed to be in the low fifties the rest of this week
• 1:26:35
  and gloomy. So that's going to be my week,
• 1:26:38
  but you know, those that know me, I'll see y'all at state
• 1:26:42
  conventions, I'll see everybody at National Convention that'll
• 1:26:45
  be there. So I look forward to all that
• 1:26:48
  and stay safe, guys. Stay hydrated.
• 1:26:53
  You know, the areas are getting hot and somewhere's around the
• 1:26:57
  corner in the areas where it's not so hot yet.
• 1:27:00
  But I will bet everybody adieu and the guys will be back next
• 1:27:10
  weekend. I think it's holiday weekend.
• 1:27:13
  You guys going to be back on next weekend?
• 1:27:17
  What's on working? To be Yeah, exactly.
• 1:27:21
  Bill might be working late after, you know, learning how to
• 1:27:24
  become an arc. You know, since he had art all
• 1:27:26
  over, all that training and stuff he has to go through to
• 1:27:30
  become an arc. What's this load?
• 1:27:33
  What's this load truck feature? What's that?
• 1:27:37
  OK, well, you know, I and like I said guys, I will do still have
• 1:27:42
  that edit book presentation done.
• 1:27:46
  I've been working on it. I just want it to be just right.
• 1:27:49
  But that will be coming out I'm hoping by the end of the week.
• 1:27:54
  Ruby graduates Thursday, so I know it won't be then.
• 1:27:57
  But that is my project this week to make sure like it's done for
• 1:28:00
  everybody as I promised you. So I'm not going to go back on
• 1:28:03
  my word. But on that note, everybody stay
• 1:28:07
  safe and hopefully the guys are back next weekend.