Latest / United We Scan / Grievance and Disputes, What happens next...

Transcript

Grievance and Disputes, What happens next... · United We Scan

0:17
Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
0:21
carriers. For rural carriers, the views
0:24
expressed in this podcast do not reflect the views or opinions of
0:29
the United States Postal Service or the National Rural Letter
0:32
Carriers Association. We ask that you please consult
0:35
your assigned union representative for guidance in
0:38
your local area. Make sure you like this podcast,
0:43
share with your fellow rural carriers, and subscribe to be
0:46
notified each time a new episode is uploaded.
0:50
Please rate this podcast five stars where applicable, and
0:53
leave a comment or question for us below.
0:56
Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
1:00
United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
1:05
Episode 51 Grievances and Disputes.
1:10
What happens next. Two guys, we are now officially
1:15
into the Christmas overtime season.
1:17
How was your last week prior to it starting, Josh?
1:23
Oh, loads of fun. Loads of fun parcels, parcels,
1:27
parcels. Still don't have my truck, which
1:33
has my little hand card in it, back yet, so Friday my wife told
1:40
me I could use hers. So I grabbed it, put it in my
1:43
car Saturday morning and then forgot to bring it home last
1:48
night. So I had to make a special trip
1:50
to the post office just to grab it this morning.
1:56
It was a pretty decent week. I suppose I'll find out tomorrow
2:02
night when my pay stub drops on light blue if my 8127 time that
2:07
they supposedly processed actually got processed or not,
2:15
because this will be the 2nd pay period after she supposedly
2:19
submitted it. So we'll see.
2:26
James, how was your week? Oh, it was the usual mean heavy
2:32
packages had. It got pretty interesting
2:37
because Monday I was missing 2 trays of DPS, Tuesday I was
2:41
missing one tray and then all three of them came in my DPS on
2:45
Friday. I had the most DPS in the office
2:49
on Friday, so that made for a long day.
2:52
But you can tell it's that time of year for the post office
2:57
because lots of parcels, lots of scanning got lucky.
3:01
We had both our clerks plus the supervisor, the OIC and ARCA
3:09
working parcels for scanning to get them out quick most of the
3:15
days. So they were working hard to get
3:17
everything out. So that way we can get out early
3:19
on the routes and things like that.
3:22
But Friday, not only was it heavy, DPSI even dropped a tray
3:27
of DPS, so I had to switch that up too.
3:32
I was like the last day of the work, last day of the work week
3:36
and I had to pay play 500 pickup.
3:41
Yeah, we've all been there. Yeah.
3:44
And then got to enjoy my weekend and worked on the model railroad
3:50
again. So that was a nice relaxation.
3:52
Get my mind off of postal things before I come on here and talk
3:57
postal things. So, but that's about how my week
4:00
usually goes now. And but Bill, how was your week?
4:05
Oh shitty. My earliest day was 8:33 PM
4:15
Monday. I I went out and left a hamper
4:18
and parcels at the office. There was no room for them, and
4:21
I got a text message on my scanner, which I didn't respond
4:24
to. I got a text message on my
4:27
phone, which I didn't respond to.
4:29
And then I got a phone call from the office, which I didn't
4:34
respond to. And then I got a phone call from
4:37
one of my friends at the office, and I responded to that and they
4:40
said they're in there freaking out.
4:43
You got a whole hamper, I says. Well, tough shit, I'll come back
4:45
and deliver it when I get back. And she goes, what time is that
4:49
going to be? I sold 929.
4:50
Thirty. Oh my God, Bill.
4:52
And so they decided to send the supervisor out in the metris
4:56
with the parcels and then had a sub meet up with them.
5:01
So when I got back to the office, they said, well, how
5:03
come you didn't respond to our texts or alerts?
5:06
And I says I'm not required to unless it's an emergency.
5:12
Well, that's what we have them for.
5:13
No, that's not what they're for. Read your manuals.
5:18
So Friday I came into work and there's four hampers in my area
5:23
between my area and Rd. one. And I look at Jason and I said,
5:27
hey, Jason, tell me two of those years, he is no one.
5:32
So again, here I am, you know, packing up the truck and then I
5:35
got everything in and I mean if I wanted to fart or change my
5:39
mind, I had to get out of out of the truck.
5:41
That's how tight it was. So I'm out delivering.
5:45
I'm out delivering. I'm out delivering.
5:46
About the 8:30. I start getting messages and all
5:48
that. I come back at 9:37 and the
5:53
supervisor is going, you have to contact the office.
5:56
I said no, I don't. I said you have a order standing
6:00
order on the floor that everything has to be delivered.
6:02
I delivered everything. You have a problem with that?
6:05
Go talk to the POOM. I says I'm following a direct
6:08
order from the POOM through our management team that everything
6:12
must go, everything went, Have a good night.
6:17
You know, I love it when they sit there and they have to pick
6:21
their jaw up off the floor because there's nothing left you
6:24
can say to me, especially me, OK?
6:31
And I, I, I, I, I clear out, I sign out and I go home and you
6:39
know, frankly, fuck you the very last day before the overtime
6:45
period and you know you're you're putting parcel help on
6:49
smaller routes in the office. One of our Subs actually did a
6:53
parcel run, came back and left at 10:00 in the morning.
6:57
Are you kidding me? Wow, what a management team we
7:01
have. So I had a good week.
7:07
I I I pissed them off at the beginning of the week and the
7:10
end of the week and I got paid for it.
7:14
Most of it. That would be on that one.
7:18
You know, it was tensions were high and heated in my office
7:22
this week, that's for sure. I'm not going to go into
7:24
details, but when you kind of throw out the full day of relief
7:31
entitled to three carriers and management shuts her mouth and
7:34
sits down and dismisses everybody.
7:38
Yeah, I I tend to get that that too because they'll go spurting
7:43
off or say something and I just kind of turn around and look at
7:46
him and I come back with contractual language and they
7:50
shut up and walk away. And and I I have to sit there
7:55
and wonder where are these They get these people for supervisors
7:59
and postmasters. I'm seeing so many posts that,
8:02
oh, we're not getting parcel help or, or it's a parcel
8:05
assistance, partial help, whatever you want to call it.
8:07
Oh, we don't deliver on Sundays, you know, even though they get
8:11
Amazon. Well, why wouldn't you?
8:15
I mean, if you have people available to work it, they don't
8:18
let Subs or regulars work on Amazon Sunday and I'm sitting
8:22
there going, you have to be out of your damn mind not to take
8:27
advantage of that because you know you're going to have
8:30
failures. Come Monday, somebody's going to
8:33
throw up their hands and say I've had enough today.
8:36
It's it's unsafe. I'm tired and they're going to
8:38
go home and you can't do nothing.
8:41
I mean, I I had that instance on Friday.
8:44
I was so tired. I mean, I was.
8:46
I had tickets to a concert at the machine shop for Thursday
8:49
night. I didn't get done in time to
8:51
make the 2 1/2 hour drive to go down to it.
8:53
So I had to eat, you know, the money, whatever.
8:56
And Friday, I was so tired when I walked in the door.
8:59
Friday, I felt like I had gone to the concert and got home at
9:02
1:00 in the morning. But you know, and I I left the
9:06
key sitting on the desk when I went to go load the LLV and I
9:09
stopped myself going. Well, that's not going to work
9:11
out. I don't have the keys on me.
9:14
You know, it just, yeah, it you just get tired.
9:18
And that's one of the reasons why I have yet to give up my one
9:22
and only day off on a Sunday to go in and run some packages.
9:27
Because. I didn't get out of bed.
9:28
I went to bed. You know, I was up a little bit
9:31
later last night, but I didn't get out of bed till 11:00 this
9:34
morning. I made breakfast and then I
9:37
pretty much took a nap for good half of the day on the couch.
9:41
It was my day today. I didn't do shit.
9:46
And although I'm not a steward anymore, I do have and have
9:50
talked to the Subs about the Elm 432.32 working over 12 hours,
9:56
and I have extra copies of the 1767 safety form so that you
10:01
know if they need to, I said I'll help you fill it out so
10:04
that you can protect yourself. Yep.
10:07
And they're like I worked 15 hours.
10:10
I said OK file. Yeah. 50 Now can you?
10:17
Protect yourself 2. They are.
10:22
They are cutting off our new Subs at 5:00 because somewhere
10:26
down the chain of command it's come out that our new RCAS
10:30
cannot work past 5:00 PM for the first. 10 the contract.
10:37
Not that I've ever seen. Yeah, well, the count.
10:39
The contract says that they can't work on any other route
10:43
other than their primary or parcel help for the first four
10:47
weeks. Yeah, you're right.
10:49
Yep. So, so yeah.
10:55
Yeah. It's it's been a heavy week for
10:58
me. Yeah, I know I've had, you know,
11:01
I did get partial help. We borrowed a couple people for
11:04
a couple different days. I got partial help one day this
11:07
week. They have a schedule for the
11:10
next couple weeks for the partial help.
11:12
I think my route's on it two times.
11:16
So yeah, I mean I have the 2nd heaviest route in the office and
11:21
I'm getting less help than another carrier who tends to
11:27
get. That's that's because you're a
11:29
super carrier. Don't you know that?
11:33
Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was.
11:36
Now she's just a regular. Yeah, now I'm just a regular.
11:40
I I'm not that super sub anymore.
11:42
I'm just a regular. And you know we've got our brand
11:46
new one that just finished his OJT and he's going to be on his
11:49
own Tuesday and Wednesday. So I will volunteer to help him
11:56
when I'm done with my route if needed.
11:58
If management denies me that help and management is out there
12:02
helping, I will then be filing the grievance because management
12:05
should not be doing rural craft duties when there are rural
12:10
craft members available and willing and willing to help.
12:17
So, yeah, that's. I have a pending grievance on
12:20
that already from previous week. So yeah, we are.
12:26
It's been interesting in my office to say the least.
12:29
You know, I try to get in there and get out.
12:31
I mean, I rolled in yesterday at 8:15.
12:34
I didn't care. I couldn't get out of bed.
12:37
I was just tired. I'm like, I'll get there when I
12:40
get there. And it didn't matter.
12:42
I walked in and went, oh, I didn't miss anything.
12:46
I still got all the I I still got out of the office is the
12:49
normal time I've been getting out lately.
12:51
So, you know, being that extra half hour, 15 minutes, thirty
12:55
minutes later than what I've been lately, who cares?
13:00
It's. James.
13:01
Wonderful time of the year. You know, I clocked in at 812.
13:06
I clocked out at 4:36. I am on a nine hour route.
13:10
I was still under evaluation. I don't care.
13:14
There you go. Hey James.
13:16
At least when you dropped your tray at DPS, it was in the
13:20
office so you could kind of clean it up.
13:24
Friend of mine, years. Friend of mine years ago found
13:28
out that there's a reason you don't roll the LLB window all
13:33
the way down when you're taking a sharp left turn it.
13:42
Shoots out the window. Yep.
13:45
That would be a right turn, not a left turn.
13:47
Yeah, I apologize. You correct a brief.
13:51
Turn. That's the fast way to deliver.
13:54
That's how these how these people get 4 hour routes done in
13:57
two hours. Don't you know it?
14:00
Oh, our highway, our highway contract route.
14:03
Let me tell you this, he won't. She has two vehicles because she
14:06
used to be a row carrier. In another office, she has two
14:10
vehicles with pedals installed and he won't let her drive them.
14:15
He has to. She has to use the vehicles that
14:17
he provides for his highway contract route.
14:21
And the one van, the sliding door didn't either want to stay
14:25
closed or it won't open. Whatever.
14:28
And she was going to make a turn at the stoplight right from the
14:32
cop shop. She goes to turn, the van door
14:36
flies open and all the packages spill out in the middle of the
14:38
road. Yeah.
14:46
Dylan, is that you delivering? So a lot of we put out for
14:53
everybody to give us topics to talk about, and the biggest ones
14:58
that we saw were talking about disputes, grievances, the safety
15:03
forms and things like that. But what a lot of people don't
15:07
know is what happens after the carrier's file those forms.
15:13
So today I wanted to talk about what's the next step in the
15:17
process? What is what carriers don't see
15:21
that happens? You know, we do have people that
15:24
have experience in those situations and what goes on
15:29
behind the scenes. So I wanted to talk about after
15:33
you file your grievance, after you file your dispute, after you
15:36
file the 1767 safety form, what does the union and management do
15:42
with them. So let's start out with the 1767
15:47
safety form. That is the most important one
15:49
and probably the one we're going to use a lot over this Christmas
15:52
period for unsafe work conditions.
15:55
Who knows what happens with that 1767 safety form?
16:02
In my office it gets resolved as soon as I bring it up.
16:07
I I do know they have 24 hours to respond.
16:10
I personally have not had to fill one out myself, so.
16:15
So they have. They have 24 hours to respond to
16:20
the safety form and if the issue is like working after eight or
16:29
working in unsafe conditions, usually that situation will be
16:33
fixed immediately. But if it if it's related to a
16:38
hazard in the office, then they have.
16:42
I believe it's two weeks to fix the issue and notify their
16:49
district manager that it's been fixed.
16:55
That's what I heard. Now I know if they don't respond
17:00
back to the person that submits the 1767 within 24 hours, that
17:06
is grievable. Yes.
17:12
So that's that's that's the one that a lot of people are going
17:15
to use this Christmas period. You know a lot of you are going
17:17
to be working out past dark, especially for our carriers in
17:21
Alaska who went in the dark a week and a half ago and won't
17:26
come out of the dark until next year, but.
17:31
Next February, early March. The next one a lot of us have
17:37
experience with and that is the grievance process.
17:42
So carrier files a grievance. Let's let's say it's an RCA
17:49
that's been over 12 hours every single day and they filed a
17:54
grievance on it because they talked with management.
17:57
Management would say, well, I still need you to do it.
17:59
I still need you to do it. That's a direct order.
18:01
And this RCA files a grievance on this.
18:05
What does the local steward, area steward, assistant district
18:11
representative, whoever is the local designated union
18:16
representative for that carrier, do with that grievance?
18:24
First, they're going to request from management any
18:29
documentation to support the grievance time cards.
18:38
Time cards and emails from their district manager that's telling
18:43
them to keep these RC as working past 12 hours, things like that.
18:48
Because, but most often you want the manager to prove it wasn't
18:53
their fault. A lot of them will fall on the
18:56
sword for the district manager, but some will give you an e-mail
19:01
that says no, these RCA need to keep working.
19:03
We need to get these packages out.
19:05
We need to do this. We need to do that.
19:08
So if the manager is not willing to fall on the sword for the
19:10
district manager, you may get some emails out of that right
19:14
bill. Correct.
19:17
But that's not, that's not the process I follow.
19:22
The process I follow is the first thing I do is I I get time
19:26
and I I interview the grievant and I get a statement from the
19:31
grievant and then I do an RFI for every green card, timesheet,
19:37
whatever, you know, local time keeping apparatus they have in
19:40
place in regards to including clock rings on their scanners in
19:44
regards to how many hours they've actually worked.
19:48
Then I request a signed documentation, a signed letter
19:53
stating that they are to work over 40 hours in direct
19:57
violation and with full knowledge of the Elm 432.32
20:01
stating otherwise, not to work over 12 hours including breaks
20:06
and lunch. Then that's when I start the
20:11
process of filing the actual settlement in arguments for the
20:16
grievance. Basically verifying the fact
20:20
that they are in full knowledge, that they're violating the ALM,
20:24
they're violating the contract, and that they are forcing these
20:28
carriers to work in unsafe condition.
20:31
I have a newbie in our office worried about it because he's
20:34
under 90 days and I said don't worry, I'll get you through that
20:37
too. And he goes, well, you know,
20:39
what about my? ADRI said, I'll put the language
20:42
together for you so you can give it to the ADR.
20:46
And the the thing of it is that you want to document everything
20:49
as much as possible. If there's e-mail saying that
20:52
you request that in e-mail you you address anything that's you
20:57
know coming up, you know, at the district level, at the local
21:00
level, it doesn't matter quest it.
21:03
A lot of times they'll deny they have anything like that.
21:07
And that gets tricky because for them to not supply it to you
21:12
while having it, it's hard for us to prove at the local level.
21:16
At the ADR and Dr. level, I I have no knowledge of, you know,
21:20
their ability to to get that information or not.
21:23
But at the local level they'll often deny that they even have
21:27
anything because like James said, they'll fall on the sword
21:30
instead of trying to, you know, dump on the DM because of the
21:33
fact that it'll come back and bite them in the ass.
21:38
But I get all the information up front, you know, so that you
21:42
know I have a a good strong case from the get go.
21:47
And if anybody has sat in an investigative interview with
21:50
management and listen to the 3040 questions that the manager
21:55
is asking you like do you do you understand Elm such as such,
22:01
such as such, and Elm such as such, such, such, such regarding
22:06
whatever issue you're in the investigative interview for?
22:11
And they go through this like it's a full on questionnaire for
22:16
your SA TS and they want you to fill in the blank for every
22:20
single question they have. So that way they can turn around
22:23
and prove you knowingly violated the rules that they have put
22:30
forth for you. So this is the exact same
22:33
process only on management. We're basically doing an
22:38
investigative interview of management by requesting this
22:43
information, requesting answers and so on and so forth.
22:48
One of the first questions I always like to ask James when
22:51
they they start this process with the management questioning
22:55
is, did you prepare the questions for this interview?
23:00
Yes, because most often they have not.
23:05
And I like when they pull up the the 563.11 loyalty to the post
23:10
office. Hold it, you Jack rabbit.
23:13
I just got done working 14 freaking hours in the freezing
23:16
rain and you're questioning my loyalty While you were at home.
23:21
While you were at home. Yep, Yep, exactly it.
23:26
Management's mentality, especially for investigative
23:30
interviews and things like that. If it benefits the post office,
23:34
they're not going to discipline from you for it.
23:36
But if it benefits you, damn right they're going to
23:40
discipline you for it. But that's just some management.
23:47
That is not all management. We know there are diamonds in
23:49
the rough out there, so the next.
23:54
Thing for for all of you who don't know technically when the
23:57
steward is in the office with you for Apdi or an I and I,
24:01
whatever you want to call them, they're not there to answer
24:04
questions, but I often violate that a lot.
24:08
A good a good steward will advise you what's going to
24:13
happen in that I and I before you go in there and advise you
24:18
as to exactly how much you should answer and the.
24:26
Yes, no. And I don't recall and just be
24:30
honest. Just be honest.
24:34
With your answers. And don't offer more information
24:39
than what is requested. It doesn't matter how long the I
24:43
I takes. You can sit there and ponder
24:47
that question for a minute before you answer it, because
24:52
you want to give a very very short answer if possible.
24:57
One word answers, but very short answer because everything you
25:01
say will be misconstrued, misinterpreted and misapplied to
25:06
be used against you. And that's part of the reason
25:10
you're Stewart or someone is in there with you to write down
25:14
verbatim what your answers are and what the questions are.
25:19
If they were not printed out prior to, well, they're.
25:26
Not printed out and given to your union representative.
25:29
The union representative ought to stop it before it starts,
25:32
until they get a copy. Yes, the union Rep is not.
25:36
The union Rep is not allowed to have the questions beforehand,
25:41
but as soon as it starts, management is to give them a
25:45
copy of the questions so they may take notes to the questions
25:49
that are asked by management. Oh, we had our ODDRS had to
25:56
train managers to bring out a copy of the questions for her
26:00
because she would write the questions down verbatim as they
26:04
were asked and would stop the manager or postmaster
26:08
supervisor. Multiple.
26:10
Times so she could catch up and or ask them to repeat part of
26:16
the question so she could write it down.
26:19
No. Nope.
26:21
Nope. So, and then so we when in a
26:26
grievance procedure, it's the same thing, The union's going to
26:30
have questions for management, management's going to have
26:32
questions for the union. They're going to be discussing
26:35
both sides of it. Because as you see on the
26:37
grievance form, the 8191 form, there is undisputed facts.
26:43
There is disputed facts, there's management contentions and union
26:49
contentions. So the undisputed facts are the
26:54
facts that the union and management agree on.
26:59
And requesting all that information from management
27:03
prior to sitting down and discussing the grievance is your
27:07
way of getting undisputed facts immediately, things that
27:12
management has no choice but to agree to.
27:16
Like for example on November 30th James worked 14 1/2 hours.
27:26
Their documentation that they entered into the system shows
27:29
that James worked for 14 1/2 hours.
27:32
So they can't dispute say no, no he didn't.
27:36
That's what they entered into rims As for his time card for
27:40
that day? Yeah, and then you back that up
27:45
with James's green card. James Green card shows 14 1/2
27:52
hours written on it in the carrier's handwriting.
27:58
And or 4240 that he worked Or 4240.
28:02
Yes. So those are undisputed facts.
28:08
Also, undisputed facts are the contractual provisions.
28:14
Contractuals provisions are undisputed.
28:18
They cannot be disputed by management.
28:20
Oh, that's not what the Elm says.
28:22
That's not what your contract says.
28:24
It's not what the Step 4 says. Those are undisputed facts.
28:28
Because they are in print, both sides have access to them and
28:32
can review them to make sure they're what they say they are.
28:37
But disputed facts could be, oh, the carrier took 2 1/2 hours of
28:47
a break, went off and and went to a doctor's appointment or
28:52
something like that. Management could say something
28:54
like that. So that would be a disputed
28:59
fact. Little things like that, little
29:01
small little niches that management's going to try and
29:04
pick it apart. So they can't, can't lose this
29:07
grievance. Or or I like the one where
29:11
you're waiting for a vehicle and you put down O time or 8127 time
29:19
and they turn around and say, well, no, you were in the swing
29:22
Room eating your lunch. Well, my my O time was an hour
29:28
and a half. I didn't eat lunch for an hour
29:31
and a half. You know, that's a contention
29:33
that they'll argue. Now my office management can eat
29:39
lunch for an hour and a half. But I digress.
29:47
So you go through this process, management turns around and says
29:54
I'm not signing this grievance, I'm not agreeing to settle this
29:59
grievance. So the next step would be for
30:04
that grievance to go up to Step 2.
30:08
Step 2 is where the grievance. Hold on, hold on.
30:12
They have to deny it and sign it.
30:15
Yes, they have to deny it. Design it.
30:18
As well as the local union representative.
30:21
The local union representative. And then it is the
30:24
responsibility of the local union representative, your
30:28
designated union Rep to then send the entire file to the
30:34
district Rep for your area and then it is on there.
30:41
Or Step 2 designate and it is up to that Step 2 designee to then
30:48
take it on to the Step 2 process at district to fight the
30:54
grievance in the same procedure. Then if it fails there, it moves
31:02
up to the Step 3, which is the same process just with the Step
31:08
3 designee. Then it moves up to Step 4 or
31:14
and that's the national office. That is your director of Labor
31:19
relations or designee going with National Management's Labour's
31:25
representative and discussing this grievance.
31:30
They stepped for it and then they could turn around and if
31:33
they cannot resolve it at step four, then it moves on to
31:37
arbitration. And then in arbitration, you
31:40
could have a pre arbitration settlement, which is a Step 4
31:44
settlement basically or they can actually take it into an
31:48
arbitrator and have an arbitrator make a ruling on it.
31:54
And pre arbitration settlement could be after they sit down
32:03
with the arbitrator but before his he makes his decision and
32:09
sends it back to the parties, yeah.
32:12
Yes. So they can still be after they
32:16
arbitrate it, they sit down and spend 3-4 hours in the room with
32:21
the arbitrator or more. They could turn around and
32:24
afterwards sit down at a table, discuss and go, well, we really
32:30
feel like we screwed up. Management says we really feel
32:32
like we screwed up and we know the arbitrator is going to rule
32:35
in your favor. So we're going to agree to
32:38
settle at this level or the other way.
32:41
The union says, well, we we can settle this right now for this
32:46
or we can wait for the arbitrator to rule in our favor.
32:51
It can happen anytime. But once that arbitrator rules
32:56
on it and sends his his ruling out to the parties, that is a
33:00
legally binding document for the post office and and the union to
33:05
stand by. And a lot of people are scared
33:09
of arbitration. It is a costly endeavor, but a
33:14
lot of times arbitration is the only way to get the situation
33:19
resolved. You can't let a few bad
33:24
arbitrators ruin it for the rest of them.
33:27
There have been some really good arbitration rulings in the
33:30
union's favor over the years. As they say, you win some, you
33:36
lose some, but you should never be afraid to fight them.
33:40
If you're afraid to file a grievance all the way up to
33:42
arbitration, you're afraid to fight a grievance because you
33:46
think you'll lose, then you might as well not fight the
33:49
fight. Any grievance at all.
33:56
And the other thing, if it is that at step one, it could be
33:59
settled in your favor, management could agree to it.
34:03
And that's where you know you're looking for, you know, your your
34:07
compensation in regards to the union settlement.
34:10
What they're they're always settling.
34:12
And by habit, I always settle for that money.
34:16
I never settled for language. Language is you might as well,
34:20
just, you know, shot yourself in the head because you're wasting
34:23
your time settling for language. They don't honor that.
34:27
And I always go for double what I want because I shoot high and
34:32
I'll settle in the middle. Yeah, if you settle for language
34:38
on something that's already written, like he said, the Elm
34:42
or the contract itself, something that's already printed
34:45
in paper, you're basically giving them a slap on the wrist
34:51
saying don't do it again. Well, they already did it once.
34:54
What's to stop them from doing it again?
34:57
And if they've done it once, they've done it before, you
35:02
know, not with you, but with somebody else in another office.
35:06
It's it happens all, all across the country.
35:09
Yeah, and you've got to remember we can we can file grievances on
35:14
management until the cows come home and nothing will happen to
35:17
them. There are offices that have
35:19
85102 hundred grievances on one manager and nothing's happened
35:24
to them. But management files 5
35:26
grievances on us, and we're terminated.
35:30
And I call discipline A grievance by management because
35:37
then that makes the correlation easier for us to understand.
35:40
If we violate the contract, if we violate the rules and
35:44
regulations of the post office, we're disciplined for that.
35:48
And there's five steps to the discipline.
35:52
But management can violate, violate, violate, violate, and
35:55
they never get disciplined for it.
36:02
Kristen's been pretty silent on this.
36:04
I'd love to hear her opinion on this.
36:08
Sorry, I was muting myself because my allergies are acting
36:12
up. I didn't want to interrupt you
36:16
guys sniffling and sneezing there.
36:19
So you know and honestly in my my term as a steward, I'd only
36:28
handled 2 grievances and that was in my old office.
36:32
I can't take that back. I did have one in my current
36:36
office shortly after I was elected steward in there, which
36:40
ended up going to Step 2 because she failed to agree to an
36:45
extension due to the circumstances of when the
36:48
grievance was filed and everything else.
36:51
So it automatically went to Step 2 and then was dismissed at Step
36:54
2 because the employee was no longer a employee of the Postal
36:59
Service when it went to Step 2. So, but no.
37:04
Yeah, that's. A.
37:05
That's a convenient out, isn't it?
37:08
Well, I had. I known that this person was
37:11
going to take a highway contract route in another office prior to
37:15
initiating the grievance. We probably wouldn't have done
37:18
it to begin with, but I was unaware of it until after the
37:24
fact. So you know, you still got to go
37:27
through with it. And because of when they filed,
37:30
I was actually at National Commission convention when they
37:34
initiated the grievance. And when I got back that cut my
37:39
time to time slot way down from the time that they initiated it
37:44
to me having that step one, that timetable And I'd asked for an
37:48
extension and she denied my extension.
37:51
So that automatically sent it up to Step 2.
37:54
And by that time it went, you know, they moved on to the other
37:58
office. So and then I had the two other
38:02
ones that I had were were actually matrix violations,
38:06
which were actually quite easy to fix and get the carriers
38:12
their compensation for those matrix violations.
38:19
Well that's funny because our matrix violations ended up with
38:22
language saying, oh, the union will work with the the post
38:26
office to make sure they they abide by the matrix.
38:30
And I just went what? What?
38:33
What the fuck was that? Ours was, you know, to make it
38:38
whole because they were skipped on the Matrix when they should
38:43
not have been. And so they were made whole at
38:46
the end. Yeah, that's really all that I
38:49
had dealt with. OK.
38:53
And the reason why we wanted to discuss this whole process is a
38:57
lot of people don't understand or want to understand what it
39:02
takes to be a steward, what it takes to deal with management on
39:07
this level. And you have to remember anybody
39:12
who steps up to be a local steward, you're stepping into an
39:17
arena of specialty. And you always have to remember
39:24
when you're dealing in the grievance process, it is about
39:27
business. It is a business decision.
39:31
It's a business message you're sending.
39:34
You're telling management they have to keep their business in
39:38
line so that we can keep our business in line.
39:42
You can be friends with your post pastor outside of work.
39:46
You can be friendly with them at work.
39:48
But when it comes to the grievance process, you have to
39:52
know that you're doing what is right not only for yourself or
39:59
the carrier that you're grieving for, but also for the Postal
40:04
Service as a whole. Because if management.
40:08
Is following the contract and doing the right thing.
40:12
It's less of a cost on the Postal Service then management
40:17
continuously violating the contract.
40:21
Unless, of course, you only settle for language.
40:25
And and one of the things that a lot of people do not understand
40:29
is that the local steward is the the the foot soldier of the
40:34
grievance. If you look at a grievance
40:37
packet, there are 15 to 16 pages that you can fill out with every
40:43
grievance that you get. And it's a lot of paperwork, a
40:48
lot of time invested before you even get to the process of
40:51
sitting down with management. Yep.
40:55
And once it gets past step one and two, that's all they're
41:02
going to rely on is that packet from that local or designated
41:07
union representative. All that information is what
41:10
they're going to rely on. And as long as that information
41:13
stays the same all the way throughout, you know, listening
41:16
to from aid arbitration, Corey talks about when he's gone to
41:21
arbitration and management has tried to circumvent the system
41:25
and insert new paperwork into the system at the arbitration
41:29
level. And that's not allowed.
41:31
It has to be brought in at the lowest level through the
41:35
process, so keeping track of what's what and getting all the
41:41
information you can get at step one is the best way to win any
41:46
grievance for any steward out there.
41:53
I'm putting my wife up for wife of the year.
41:56
Just brought me some hot apple crisp with vanilla ice cream.
42:01
Oh, I'm Jelly. I'm Jelly me.
42:06
Too. Oh my.
42:07
God. So this also leads into how the
42:13
dispute process works for the mini Mail Survey.
42:18
It's basically a mini grievance, Mini Mail Survey, Mini
42:24
Grievance, and instead of it being settled at the local
42:30
level, local management really doesn't have the ability to
42:33
change this stuff. So it automatically goes up to
42:37
district level and the district manager or their designee.
42:43
A lot of them using the AD Rs for this because of so many
42:46
disputes end up sitting down with district management to
42:51
discuss these disputes. And we've all seen them.
42:56
We've all seen the different types of disease that come back.
42:59
Some people get them back as settled and they actually got
43:02
the increase on their routes and got back pay for it as well.
43:07
Some people didn't get the back pay that they were supposed to,
43:11
but some were were dismissed. Some some were resolved that
43:19
management will do the whatever. Some were returned as rejected
43:28
by district manager because of lack of information or whatever
43:32
reason they wanted to put on it. And that pisses me off.
43:39
Come back as an impasse, yeah. That's all one today, yes.
43:44
The impasse 1 means that it's supposed to go up to National.
43:49
The impasse 1 means that our Director of Labor relations is
43:52
to go out or her designee is to go out and discuss this with
43:57
National Labor management. They're.
44:03
Now yeah, if it goes, I think it goes district level, then area
44:09
level. Regional.
44:12
Yeah, it goes through Step 3. Right.
44:18
And then after that, it'll go to the National.
44:21
So if it's impasse at district level, then it'll go up to the
44:26
area or region. And then after that, if they
44:32
still impasse it, that's when National gets them.
44:37
Yep, and it's basically the same process as a grievance.
44:41
It just skips the local level through the process, but still
44:46
the same people discussing, the same people doing the things.
44:49
The issue with the disputes is we don't have a lot of
44:54
information to put in with our disputes.
44:57
As I've said before, if if you really did the dispute right and
45:01
you had all the information, you'd be putting 250 to 500
45:05
pages of paper in with the dispute in order to prove your
45:12
position. If we actually had transparency
45:14
in the Rex program, but we don't.
45:17
So we can't put all the information forward that we
45:21
should put in be putting forward for the dispute process.
45:26
But that's the whole process in a nutshell.
45:30
Is is. It's just basically like a
45:32
grievance, but just on the mini mail survey stuff.
45:38
Now, James, if I have a dispute that it's dismissed, can I file
45:42
a grievance? If it's the issue, there is the
45:46
ones that I've seen for dismissed had writing on it from
45:51
the district manager. That said, Rex information has
45:54
been on the union website since April of 2022, things like that,
45:59
where the union said, oh, we provided the information even
46:03
though it's a contractual violation that management did
46:06
not train us on this. The union rolled over and said
46:10
well we had the information available and if you weren't
46:13
using it, it's your fault. But yet non dues paying members
46:18
can't access it. Union stewards, especially area
46:26
AD Rs and D Rs, were not going out to these offices and talking
46:30
with carriers about it and warning them in person that this
46:35
was happening And they could turn around and say, Oh yeah, we
46:38
had meetings about it, we had this, we had that for it.
46:42
Unless you're getting in those offices, seeing those carriers
46:45
and saying, hey, this is coming down the pipeline, it's going to
46:48
be important to your paycheck and you need to understand this
46:51
stuff. There's a problem.
46:56
There are unions not stepping up and taking care of of its
47:03
carriers. Whether they're dues paying or
47:05
non dues paying, it doesn't matter.
47:06
It affects all rural carriers and you can sit there and you
47:12
can turn around and you can say that well we shouldn't be
47:15
supporting the non dues paying carriers because they aren't
47:18
paying dues into the union. Have you figured out why they're
47:22
non dues paying? Perhaps it's the lack of
47:25
dissemination of information through the pipeline.
47:31
Perhaps it's a lack of representation?
47:34
There's so many different reasons I know of.
47:39
I know of a carrier who, if they were paying union dues with
47:46
their standard expenses, would be losing $6 every pay period
47:54
out of their savings if they were paying dues.
48:00
But they're holding out hope to become a regular carrier and be
48:05
full time and get a get a 42K route or a 41 page route or
48:11
something that actually pays them more than what they're
48:15
making now. I know, I know, an RCA going to
48:20
regular usually loses a little bit of money, but the other
48:26
expenses would be taken off with having the benefits there as
48:29
well. So I mean there's there's lots
48:33
of reasons people are non dues paying members, but we can get
48:39
people to be dues paying members if we just showed them the union
48:44
cared and not turned around and said that we've had it too good
48:48
for too long. Yep, I completely agree.
48:56
I mean, that is for many. That is, their voice of change
49:01
is to withdraw their dues. Yeah.
49:05
And I, you know, I I'm not going to fault him on it.
49:09
I mean, yeah. You know, I mean, sit there.
49:16
You sit there and you listen to the stories of all these
49:19
carriers out there, including ones of people that I've heard
49:23
on a new podcast out there called Fed Up.
49:27
That guy talks with other carriers, not just rural
49:31
carriers but city carriers. He's had a member of management
49:37
who was harassed by other members of management on there.
49:41
So it's not just the rural craft that's being harassed.
49:45
There's even management that's being harassed by management.
49:51
There are a lot of people who are fed up with what's going on
49:55
not only in the Postal Service, but in the union itself.
50:00
They need to step up and say something, and they feel like
50:05
their voices are being heard. Well, maybe you'll hear it when
50:09
my money's pulled out of my dues, but one day we'll get
50:16
everybody back into the union and paying dues again because
50:20
they actually care about the craft and care about the people.
50:24
The people that are voted in by the delegates are people that
50:30
actually care about the craft instead of following up the
50:34
chain of systems. Instead of one that were one
50:40
time a carrier back in the day, who are now politicians and are
50:46
so out of touch on what is going on within the craft in the
50:50
system nowadays. To even have an idea of what
50:55
we're dealing with on a daily basis to honestly we, you know,
51:01
we need, we need people in those offices that have had boots on
51:04
the ground within the last three to five years.
51:07
We need, we need people who are willing to step down out of the
51:13
office, acting like management, sitting in front of a computer
51:18
all day long, staring at spreadsheets instead of that.
51:22
Stepping down onto the workroom floor and actually seeing how
51:25
these carriers are being treated, seeing how these
51:28
carriers are dealing with this stuff.
51:31
Talking with the carriers themselves, not just in the
51:34
offices that you know people at. Not just talking to people you
51:39
know or people who have supported your political
51:41
campaign, but actually talking to boots on the ground.
51:45
People that have never seen a union Rep, never talked to a
51:50
union Rep There are offices out there that have not seen a union
51:58
Rep in decades, not heard from a union Rep in decades.
52:05
How sad is that? I agree.
52:10
So, well, that's all the topics I had for today.
52:13
Well, do you guys have anything else you want to add?
52:18
I want to give a shout out to Linda because she's listening.
52:21
Happy retirement for those that were at National and met my my
52:25
first regular. Her retirement was official as
52:28
of 4:00 PM November 28th. Woo Hoo.
52:33
Well, I guess I'm not taking her to any bars with fluted columns.
52:39
I'll be happy for her to come again.
52:45
Oh, yeah. You can tell me this again.
52:47
I'm sure we can fight a hot cat in Reno.
52:49
Just. Saying, just saying.
52:55
I know. But now if yeah, I'm happy
52:57
retirement, Linda, I'm happy for you.
52:59
Congratulations, you made it with all the scratches, skid
53:05
Marks and paper cuts. Now you have to, and now you're
53:08
going to have to act like a normal person.
53:12
Oh man, but. Postal withdrawal.
53:20
Yeah, that'll be me. Someday I'll have withdrawal
53:23
from all of it. It'll be like, man, what do I do
53:25
with myself now? Just a minute.
53:31
She's going to be laying in bed one night and she's going to
53:34
just start throwing letters in the air, just like she's casing
53:38
mail. She says it's it's, She says
53:41
it's been a rough week. So.
53:51
Was like the only thing I wanted to touch on was I've seen a
53:57
couple different posts in the last couple days about the
54:03
making you run parcels in the morning.
54:08
No. That's.
54:09
Not your RCA, so early morning Early AM parcel runs should be
54:20
only RCAS, ETFs or Arcs. That's it.
54:27
It should not be regular carriers running parcels as a
54:30
quote UN quote second trip. What should be happening is if
54:36
they have these arcs, Rcas or PTFS running parcels in the
54:40
early AM number one, they should be on green card time and #2
54:47
they should be picking parcels out from routes using option 6
54:52
on the scanner to change their route to the route that they
54:56
took the parcels from and scanning those parcels under
55:00
that route. The the issue here is management
55:06
will choose to allow regular carriers to do it or tell
55:13
regular carriers to do that because they think they're
55:16
saving the post office money and regular carriers.
55:21
There has been nothing from the union saying that AM second
55:25
trips are second trips. The union says that you should
55:30
be grieving it. They have a step four that's
55:33
been in there since 2019. You can actually look this up on
55:36
the union website. They have a Step 4 from 2019 on
55:40
AM parcel runs that still hasn't been resolved.
55:45
The question is, is why hasn't our union resolved this?
55:49
But I digress. Well, regardless of whether or
55:57
not a regular should be or shouldn't be and who should and
56:01
shouldn't be, if management says come in at 6:00 tomorrow morning
56:07
and run parcels between 6:00 and let's say 8:00 is my start time
56:16
at 6:00. When I get there, I'm going to
56:18
clock in, I'm going to go to start load vehicle.
56:26
I'm going to load my vehicle up. I'm going to end load vehicle
56:32
when I have everything that I'm taking in the vehicle and get
56:35
the conveyance back inside to where I got it from because
56:40
there's obviously going to be a lot more parcels being thrown
56:43
into it. I'm going to leave, deliver
56:50
those parcels, come back and start casing my mail.
56:57
Once I am finished casing and pulled down and I'm ready to
57:02
roll out to load my vehicle for the regular day, I'm going to
57:06
start and end my load again and then I will depart to route.
57:13
Yep and when I get back I will return to DU.
57:21
If you're at POV, keep keep an eye on the mileage if you're in
57:28
your POV because you will get the EMA if it's I believe over
57:33
40 miles for the day because EMA is paid at a minimum trip of 40
57:39
miles. So if the route was the second
57:43
trip, you know, plus the extra trips.
57:46
So yeah, I'm careful on my wording there because you can't
57:50
have a second trip if you didn't make a first one.
57:55
So if all the times you you know all the mileage total is over 40
58:01
miles, that additional EMA will be paid out because you're
58:07
automatically getting 40 to begin with.
58:11
And if your route is over 40 miles to start with, you
58:14
automatically get the additional EMA.
58:18
I don't see how many. Routes.
58:20
I would personally argue that the EMA for the extra trip in
58:23
the morning should be paid in anyway.
58:26
Period. Whether or not period.
58:28
Yeah, right. But I know that at one point
58:33
they were discussing that those morning runs should be actual
58:38
time, but that was before the Rex program started and actually
58:44
counted. Yeah, So there's there's a lot
58:47
of fluidity to this. There's a lot of different
58:50
answers out there that people are going to give, but until the
58:53
union actually steps up, gets the Step 4 settled, and actually
58:57
gives us contractual step four language as to what's supposed
59:02
to happen, I'm talking to you, Director of Labor Relations,
59:08
till the Step 4 is settled, anybody's guess right now, but
59:13
you can also grieve it. It'll be held at Step 2 until
59:16
that Step 4 is resolved. But I do have a question that
59:23
somebody posed on our discord and they said I would love to be
59:28
a union steward, but I can't support people I know are in the
59:32
wrong. So here's the thing about that
59:39
They may be in the wrong, but the argument you're having is
59:44
not that they're right or wrong. The argument you're having is
59:48
whether management did it right or wrong.
59:52
That's why you see people who probably deserve to be fired
59:58
stay on the job through a disciplined grievance because
1:00:02
management didn't do it right. It's just like a defense
1:00:07
attorney who's got a guy who's a murderer dead to rights.
1:00:14
The guy did it. He admitted it to his attorney
1:00:17
that he did it. That attorney's job is to make
1:00:21
sure that the prosecutor did their job right.
1:00:26
It's about following the contract, following the rules
1:00:30
and doing it the right way. If management did it right, that
1:00:33
person wouldn't have the job. Do you guys agree?
1:00:38
Yep. And and one of the things is
1:00:40
that you don't have to like the person or in the case of a
1:00:44
murderer, what they do. That's not your job.
1:00:48
Your job is defend them to the best of your ability without any
1:00:54
bias. And I know how hard that is
1:00:55
because I quit being a steward because of a several carriers in
1:00:59
my office and and I wish I hadn't, but I was a little bit
1:01:04
of a hot head. You bill you you have you're
1:01:10
you're kidding me. I.
1:01:12
Know. Really.
1:01:13
I I I've never knew of such a thing.
1:01:16
I I know it it, it surprises a lot of people but but after
1:01:23
medication and many EAP sessions, I've settled down.
1:01:29
But the thing of it is, is that you you like, James said.
1:01:32
You have to make sure that they follow the letter of the law, in
1:01:35
this case the letter of the contract, because that's what
1:01:38
we're defending. We're not defending the
1:01:40
individual per SE, we're prosecuting management and
1:01:44
that's how you have to look at it.
1:01:50
Yeah, we're just like. On that one.
1:01:53
Just like the grievances, you cannot file a grievance against
1:01:56
another carrier, but you can file a grievance against
1:02:00
management making that carrier follow the contract.
1:02:06
Yep. Or.
1:02:07
Allowing that carrier to do the. Wrongdoing.
1:02:11
Yep. For instance, working off the
1:02:15
clock. Yes, that's the new one.
1:02:18
Carriers that work off the clock and you can file file against
1:02:25
management for allowing them to work off the clock.
1:02:29
Because it's it's illegal. Not not only in the contract,
1:02:32
it's illegal for anybody to work without compensation
1:02:35
compensation. Yeah, that's federal crime.
1:02:39
Yeah, that's federal crime. And and if they get hurt while
1:02:42
off the clock, guess what? It doesn't get covered by OWCP.
1:02:47
No, it does not. And that is always my biggest
1:02:51
thing that I tell carriers when I see them working off the clock
1:02:56
is, you know, if you were to trip over that tub of mail right
1:02:59
now and you got hurt, you wouldn't be covered.
1:03:04
No, and and you're stealing from the route that they're supposed
1:03:07
to be getting proper credit for all the time allocated to that
1:03:11
route. And This is why our standards go
1:03:13
down as well. Yep, That's why.
1:03:16
That's why we have. The point I make.
1:03:18
That that's why our standards went from 1.8 and two minutes to
1:03:23
1.2 minutes across the board per box.
1:03:26
That's why we're now at 86 pieces per minute for DPS,
1:03:30
because people are working off the.
1:03:32
Clock. It was, what, 23?
1:03:34
No, it went to 40. Yeah, then it went.
1:03:38
To before that it was, before that it was like 2122 or 23.
1:03:44
No, it was 33. It was 30 I I thought it was in
1:03:48
the 20s. No, it was 33.
1:03:52
OK. And think about this.
1:03:54
Because of people working off the clock, our standard for
1:03:59
processing letters is 16 letters a minute faster than the DPS
1:04:09
sorting machine at the plant. The DPS sorting machine has is
1:04:15
processing 70 letters a minute versus are 86.
1:04:25
And when you're your your DPS processing is as messed up as
1:04:31
ours is all the time, and you're going 1204.
1:04:36
Here's four pieces for another. And you're trying to get through
1:04:38
that DPS, but you're tossing stuff away because it goes to
1:04:42
every other town but yours till you finally get to the next
1:04:45
piece of mail for that address you're sitting at.
1:04:48
Yeah, that's, yeah, exactly. You know the the Union ought to
1:04:53
have a form of some sorts the the dressing problems.
1:04:58
Yeah. It's called a resolution form.
1:05:04
You write a resolution, a non binding resolution, and you
1:05:09
actually file it at your local level, whatever your local
1:05:13
lowest level of union meetings is, and then it gets approved at
1:05:20
that meeting. It moves on to your state
1:05:23
convention where if it gets approved there and moves on to
1:05:27
National Convention where if it gets approved there it gets put
1:05:30
into a file to be discussed as a possibility in contract
1:05:35
negotiations. Now, whether leadership decides
1:05:40
to actually input that into the contract or not is completely up
1:05:45
to them. And of course you won't know
1:05:47
anything until they turn around and say we have a tentative
1:05:51
agreement for you to vote on because there's no transparency.
1:05:57
Exactly. Now there's another thing on the
1:06:00
DPSI want to bring up and I've seen this one on the social webs
1:06:04
this past week about DPS reviews and I have not seen any language
1:06:12
that says with Rex that you cannot request Adps review.
1:06:18
You can still ask for Adps review and I know there was a
1:06:23
lot of people saying no, no no no no.
1:06:25
There is nothing has changed on wanting and requesting Adps
1:06:29
review. Yes.
1:06:32
The only thing that changed with the Mini Mail survey system is
1:06:37
that our contract stated specifically to remove all
1:06:41
mentions of mail Count. There was nothing about removing
1:06:45
DPS Reviews. DPS Reviews is not listed under
1:06:49
the mail count section of the PO6O3 or any other documents.
1:06:54
So you can still get ADPS review which occurs at the plant.
1:07:00
Yep. Of course, whether the plant
1:07:04
will actually do it or not is up to question.
1:07:08
You know, the plant is its own other microcosm world over there
1:07:12
that management runs it how they want to run it and doesn't care
1:07:16
what our management says I. Agree, I know my DPS has been
1:07:25
horrid the last few weeks. Just absolutely.
1:07:30
I mean when I come in and they have half tray stacked up above
1:07:34
the throwback case for your miss sorts miss since it's been that
1:07:37
ugly because we've been filling up the slots.
1:07:42
So, yeah, of. Course, of course, if you drop
1:07:44
your own tray of DPS, it doesn't count.
1:07:47
No, no that doesn't count. I I I had a half a tray because
1:07:53
I condensed my 5 trays down to 2 1/2 the other day and I had the
1:07:58
two and then I had the half on top of the one and I went to
1:08:02
scoot something, remove it and my half tray flipped over.
1:08:06
And of course my supervisor's like what happened because she
1:08:09
heard my exclamation sentence enhancer out there and I said I
1:08:15
just dumped 1/2 tray of DPS. Luckily it just flipped over
1:08:18
sideways. So with her help we scooted the
1:08:21
two ends together and with the two of us were able to flip it
1:08:24
back up without having anything out of order.
1:08:27
So that helped but. Lucky.
1:08:30
Lucky. Hey I've got what I used to pull
1:08:33
down into tubs. I went out to load a vehicle and
1:08:36
I dropped a whole tub of pull down before that was not fun.
1:08:42
That had to come back in and be re cased.
1:08:44
I I've done it. It's happened.
1:08:48
Pull down DPS. Oh yeah it happens.
1:08:51
We had, we had one of the borrowed Rcas one day last week
1:08:56
that dumped dropped a tray, DPS loading it into the truck.
1:09:02
So we just handed in the handful.
1:09:04
We didn't, couldn't figure out where it went and said, yeah,
1:09:06
just take this for a ride and bring it back with you.
1:09:12
What else can you do at that point, you know?
1:09:18
Yeah. We're ready to wind this one
1:09:20
down for tonight, guys. Yeah, I got one sidebar though.
1:09:25
Go ahead, go for it. You know, since I I finally got
1:09:28
my copy of the national magazine, it has the ballots in
1:09:33
there for delegates to the National Convention.
1:09:36
And I want to remind everybody that, you know, they should put
1:09:40
their name in there and start campaigning in their offices,
1:09:43
the surrounding areas, you know, at your local meetings to become
1:09:48
a national delegate and social media and social media also.
1:09:54
Then you know come time when So what 5-6 months that people
1:09:59
start actually mailing in their state ballot, you know their
1:10:02
state nominations that you carefully consider who you sent.
1:10:07
And as in Pennsylvania, we got an average anywhere to 45 to 47
1:10:12
that we can send to national and we get 80 individuals nominating
1:10:17
themselves to be delegates. Vote for the people that you
1:10:22
know represent your views. Don't vote people who are AD Rs
1:10:27
or D Rs or state officials just because they're in that
1:10:30
position. They're the ones that are
1:10:33
basically keeping us in this situation.
1:10:38
They they are. It's a stranglehold.
1:10:41
And yeah, they they tell people to get involved in the union,
1:10:45
Get involved. Well, if you keep suppressing
1:10:47
the people who want to get involved, there's not going to
1:10:50
be any change, folks. So the the change starts now.
1:10:55
Nominate yourself, and then when your your ballots come out, you
1:10:58
know for voting for delegates in National Convention.
1:11:01
Vote for people who represent you, not for the names that you
1:11:04
recognize. I love those names you recognize
1:11:10
do represent you. But but yeah, don't just because
1:11:15
you've seen them on the ballot for and vote.
1:11:18
Don't just because you get that ballot in the mail and you don't
1:11:20
recognize any names. Throw it away, you know, ask a
1:11:24
Co worker. Ask you know go to a local
1:11:27
meeting and ask around and see who these people are and and
1:11:32
vote. That's the number one thing that
1:11:35
you know the hardest thing to when you have so many people in
1:11:40
the membership and only 10 to 20% are actually voting on
1:11:44
anything when it comes to delegates in contract
1:11:47
ratification. Man, that, that, that, that hits
1:11:50
hard when you're only allowing it.
1:11:53
It not voting is the same as a yes vote on a contract.
1:11:56
Gratification in my eyes, you know.
1:11:59
And when you're not voting for those delegates, you're going to
1:12:02
allow those same people over and over and over.
1:12:05
And many of them have been retired for five 10/15/20 plus
1:12:10
years to represent you on the floor and they have no clue
1:12:13
what's going on. None whatsoever.
1:12:20
Quite a few of them haven't even held a scanner, scanned A
1:12:23
parcel, or even dealt with Amazon that have been up there,
1:12:29
or even DPS or FSS. Some of them have don't even
1:12:34
know what FSS is. Or was should say.
1:12:37
Or was, you know, they never were around for that stuff.
1:12:41
So we need people to be involved that have been on the ground
1:12:48
dealing with the things we've been dealing with.
1:12:50
A lot of them don't even know what Rex is.
1:12:52
They know what the conversations are at meetings and things like
1:12:55
that or boosters or regional conventions that have talked
1:13:00
about it, but they haven't actually sat there and input any
1:13:04
Rex inputs. So you have to think about that
1:13:07
as well. So do your do your due
1:13:13
diligence, get involved if you want to actually be involved as
1:13:18
a delegate, National Convention does reimburse for your expenses
1:13:26
at the standard rate, so it's not a big expense on you to go
1:13:34
to these events. And each state handles that
1:13:38
differently on how they do that too.
1:13:40
But at the same time, you know, yeah, voting is definitely
1:13:45
important. I mean, even if you can't make
1:13:48
it yourself, make sure you're voting the delegates that are
1:13:51
best going to represent you. And I'm just going to say this,
1:14:02
I'm going to be on the delegate ballot this year.
1:14:05
And if you feel, and if you feel like I'm going to support the
1:14:10
row carrier, you can vote for me.
1:14:12
If you feel I'm not going to support the row carrier, you
1:14:15
don't have to vote for me. I'm not harmed by people not
1:14:21
voting for me. I would rather you vote with
1:14:24
your heart and vote what you believe.
1:14:28
Then vote for somebody you don't believe in, because this is your
1:14:35
craft, this is your union. It is your voice.
1:14:42
You should vote. You should vote your heart in
1:14:47
this situation. And just remember, when you get
1:14:53
that ballot, you can vote for as few or as many up to what your
1:15:05
state allows for delegates. So North Carolina is around 60
1:15:14
delegates, so I could vote for one 260 people.
1:15:24
So if I wanted to just mark myself and leave it at that, I
1:15:28
could. Absolutely.
1:15:33
If you want to mark five, you can mark 5 or if you want to
1:15:36
mark 66, do 60. But you should vote it.
1:15:40
It's like people like us what you know, where we put in our
1:15:43
time and effort for free to do this podcast and answer
1:15:46
questions from the listeners. You know, we want you to be the
1:15:51
most informed carrier that you can be to protect yourself and
1:15:54
and your career. OK?
1:15:56
Meanwhile, we have a national board that's making $180,000
1:16:01
plus and they're doing Jack shit.
1:16:05
You know, I hate to be as blunt as that, but folks, we haven't
1:16:09
had true representation in in over a decade.
1:16:12
I agree 100% with that, Bill. Yep.
1:16:16
All right, guys, we're going to wind this one down for tonight.
1:16:21
Yeah. Go ahead, Josh, your final
1:16:22
commentary for the night. We already know it's that time
1:16:25
of year. Some places are starting to get
1:16:29
cold and that got awful white wet stuff.
1:16:34
Be safe out there. Take care of yourself.
1:16:38
Do not get overwhelmed. If you do, take a step back,
1:16:42
take a deep breath and step back in, James.
1:16:50
Well, I appreciate you not saying the worst 4 letter word
1:16:53
in the dictionary for a Michigander.
1:16:58
The worst 4 letter word in the dictionary starts with W.
1:17:06
No, no that that. No the the S word that's 4
1:17:11
letters that Michiganders hate the most is the worst in the
1:17:15
dictionary. Unless of course you enjoy
1:17:18
things like skiing and snowmobiling and stuff like
1:17:21
that, but. I'm from Philly.
1:17:25
I I know how horrible and got awful it can be.
1:17:29
OK then, so but remember, this is all the things that the union
1:17:39
doesn't want to talk about to you.
1:17:41
They'll leave that information on the union website for you to
1:17:44
access. But we want you to know the
1:17:49
deeper processes, the deeper thinking that goes on and stuff
1:17:55
like that. Because an informed craft is the
1:18:00
bane of management no matter what.
1:18:04
And if every rural carrier in the United States is completely
1:18:09
educated on their craft, management would have no choice
1:18:15
but to follow the rules and regulations.
1:18:21
Having a union that backs that up, leadership that backs that
1:18:28
up is the most important thing that we can have for this craft.
1:18:35
So if you want to be a delegate, run to be a delegate.
1:18:39
But if you don't want to be a delegate, at least vote for
1:18:42
them. And remember, no matter what, at
1:18:47
the end of the day, we're all in this together, Bill.
1:18:57
Yes. Your final thoughts.
1:19:02
You don't want to know those. Well, we we may not, but the
1:19:09
audience does. Well, OK, we're in the overtime
1:19:14
period now. You're going to get paid for
1:19:16
what you actually do. And this is the only part of the
1:19:19
year that you ever get paid for what you actually do versus Rex
1:19:25
trying to rectify the old mail count system.
1:19:29
I I know, I I've gotten overwhelmed all week long and
1:19:34
you know, one carrier asked me. He says, well how do you keep
1:19:36
doing it? And I says it's for my
1:19:38
customers. Like, you know, I I signed on to
1:19:40
do the job. I do it to the best of my
1:19:42
ability and I'll do it until it's completion.
1:19:45
Then, you know, when at the end of the day, you know, I leave
1:19:47
everything on, you know, on the table and say I did the best I
1:19:52
could, you know, and I'm always satisfied with my effort.
1:19:55
And yeah, my customers deserve that, OK?
1:19:59
And whether or not you agree with the Post office or not,
1:20:03
have integrity on your end, OK? Regardless of the fact that we
1:20:07
know they don't. Everybody be safe out there.
1:20:11
The winter conditions are setting in.
1:20:13
You know, watch out for the black ice.
1:20:16
You know, the wet leaves are just as bad.
1:20:18
And you know, snow will be coming soon.
1:20:21
I'm sorry, but you know, be safe out there if it's unsafe.
1:20:27
Feel unsafe at any time you start to doubt yourself or your
1:20:29
driving abilities or even your vision in regards to, you know,
1:20:33
the whiteout conditions and everything.
1:20:35
That's when you stop and go back to the office and fill out a
1:20:37
1767 and say it's unsafe out there.
1:20:41
You know if if you hurt, they'll they'll find another body to
1:20:45
plug in there. If you die, they'll find another
1:20:48
body to plug in there. All they're worried about is
1:20:50
making sure they get their scans done and their reports, you
1:20:53
know, completed. You need to take care of
1:20:55
yourself because you know you have a responsibility to your
1:20:58
loved ones to get home every day.
1:21:00
And like I always tell you, you're the most important
1:21:04
delivery day, and I honestly mean that.
1:21:06
You know, I don't ever want to hear about anybody getting
1:21:09
injured or killed on this job breaks my heart.
1:21:13
And whether it be union or the post office, you know that
1:21:17
they'll just step over the body and and move on to the next one.
1:21:20
So take care of yourselves, OK? Be safe out there.
1:21:25
Thank you, guys. Yes, Christmas overtime period
1:21:29
is upon us. This is my first one as a
1:21:32
regular carrier. So it's a little different for
1:21:35
me coming off of being an RCA for the last 7-8 Christmases.
1:21:40
So I am kind of I'm, I'm learning as I go as well.
1:21:46
But yeah, definitely stay safe out there.
1:21:48
I know it's been, we had snow, it got warm, we had some snow,
1:21:53
we had rain all day today. It's going to freeze at night
1:21:58
and it'll be icy in the morning. So yeah, definitely stay safe
1:22:02
out there. Remember your safety is your
1:22:03
call. That 1767 form is your friend
1:22:07
when making that safety call. But everybody stay safe this
1:22:12
week. And remember, just do what you
1:22:16
got to do and get home to your loved ones and we'll be back
1:22:21
next week. Just because there's no crying
1:22:35
in baseball doesn't mean you can't do it at the post office.