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PSHB and How do I make my grievance understood? · United We Scan

0:15
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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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
0:54
Episode 9 to 70. We're keep getting closer to
0:58
100. We had to come up with something
1:00
good for 100. So today we're going to go over
1:03
the postal health benefit, Postal Service health benefits,
1:07
the new no longer federal. Now it's postal.
1:11
And part of that is because open season starts tomorrow and I
1:16
think James has this really awesome little topic of how do I
1:19
make my grievance understood? Pretty sure he's going to go
1:23
with a dump on that and we will chime in as needed.
1:27
But other than that, how was your week, James?
1:29
Oh, after Monday and Tuesday, of course we're a bear some
1:35
address. I mean, quarter of the addresses
1:37
on my route got a minimum of 12 political Flyers each day up
1:43
through Tuesday. I still had quite a few of them
1:46
stragglers leftover on Wednesday after the election, but mail in
1:51
package volume dropped off right after the election.
1:56
There's almost as if the postal God said OK you've had enough
2:01
torture, here's a little break before Christmas kind of thing.
2:06
But the rest of the week was pretty good.
2:08
Did have one box holder this week.
2:11
I'm going to be on my postmaster to get my wait time.
2:15
He did not put it on this check so I had my official discussion
2:18
with him on Wednesday that it wasn't there so he's going to
2:22
put it on this next check or I'm filing agreements on it to get
2:26
it paid out. I don't appreciate them holding
2:28
my money like that, but I'm giving them the benefit of the
2:31
doubt since they're a temporary postmaster and he wasn't there
2:36
to enter payroll and the current 204 B, they have dozens.
2:39
So they use the supervisor who's currently subbing as a
2:43
postmaster in another office and put the payroll and it wasn't
2:46
put in. So we'll give them give them the
2:48
benefit of the doubt on that. Other than that, I've been
2:51
having a very relaxing weekend overall, just enjoying myself
2:56
for what's to come with Christmas and all that stuff.
3:00
How about you Bill? How was your not to do with we?
3:06
Oh, it was a another phenomenal week of doing nothing that I
3:10
didn't want to do, but doing things I had to do, which
3:14
included a hour, 40 minute long conversation with the carrier
3:20
who was driving my route because he's interested in taking the
3:23
route. Then I spent an even more
3:26
interesting 2 hours and 10 minutes on the phone with
3:29
Medicare and Social Security trying to figure out why they
3:33
can't get my paperwork right. And let's see.
3:38
And then, you know, had the had the grandson Friday night and
3:41
the Saturday, which is, you know, a special time for me.
3:43
Then today I went to a member of your, you know, luncheon for
3:48
Pennsylvania and Wild Bill McGinley, who, you know, almost
3:52
everybody knows, you know, he went through a retinue of
3:56
helping people and, and assisting people that which he
3:59
has done for over 30 years. And then gave me props at the
4:03
end of the his his speech saying.
4:05
And then you have people like Bill May who stand up, you know,
4:09
they're, they're targets that he takes the shots, but he speaks
4:12
the truth and he puts it out there for people to hear.
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And he says we need more people like him.
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So you all need to learn to step up like Bill.
4:19
You don't have to be like Bill, but you have to step up like
4:23
Bill. And he started laughing.
4:24
He said, I guess sorry I had to, you know, take that shot.
4:26
But you know, hey, I understand. I'm a grown ass man.
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I mean, you know, so you know, now you know, I'm going to start
4:35
another week of what not to do with looking at a house
4:39
tomorrow, but might not do that either.
4:41
So Kristen, how was your week? You know, Monday was Monday and
4:48
then actually starting Monday we had absolutely no political mail
4:53
Monday other than maybe a few pieces here and there.
4:56
There wasn't a lot. I could probably, I had less
4:59
than a dozen pieces of political total Monday, Tuesday.
5:03
Well, Amazon didn't show up till after 10:00 Tuesday.
5:06
So they told us you can go with what you have and if you want to
5:09
run a second trip when you get back, you can, but that's on
5:12
you. And so Tuesday I I got out of
5:18
the office in less than an hour. I had a total of 42 scans on
5:22
Tuesday. I had 143 Monday.
5:25
And then I was done. I clocked out, I got back to the
5:29
office at 1:40 and I did actually take a full 30 minute
5:33
lunch because Miss Ruby had her meet and greet with my
5:36
postmaster and other babysitters she couldn't get a hold of.
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So I said, well, I'll take a lunch break and I'll take little
5:42
man for you. So I took a 30 minute lunch
5:45
break and took care of little man.
5:48
My Mama did her paint and greet with the postmaster and then
5:52
when she got done with that I continued on my route and was
5:55
still done at. I said 140 when I got back to
5:58
the office. Then I got back go through my
6:01
Amazon, decided it was pretty much spread out through the
6:04
whole route and they could get their stuff Wednesday.
6:07
So Wednesday was double Amazon in newspapers, 142 scans.
6:13
Thursday was box holder because we have a furniture place in the
6:17
next town over that if there's a holiday on the weekend or the
6:20
Monday never fails he's got to have a furniture sale.
6:24
So I had that box holder on Thursday.
6:26
Friday was pretty normal Friday and we've been package heavy all
6:32
week with the exception of Tuesday only because Amazon
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didn't show up till later. My scans were one 4342, one
6:41
42122, 136, you know right in there about average little
6:46
bigger stuff. So it looked like it took up
6:48
more room. But other than that, that was
6:50
pretty much my week. I was supposed to go to a
6:52
concert tomorrow night, me and Ruby, but unfortunately one of
6:57
the bands had a family emergency and they had to cancel for the
7:01
next two weeks. So go concert tomorrow.
7:04
So I will enjoy the day I get to spend time with the grandson
7:08
while Mama goes to school. She's got a couple more units to
7:11
finish up that class so she can be able to get her diploma in
7:15
February. But other than that, it's been
7:18
pretty laid back weekend at home.
7:20
And yeah, getting ready to go play clean up on aisle 3 when I
7:24
get into the office Tuesday. But isn't that a decent week?
7:27
Yeah, there's been the tornado warnings and severe thunderstorm
7:30
warning of tornado possible in southeast Michigan right now.
7:34
Not too bad of a week overall for weather too for a.
7:36
No, not at all. And that storm system is kind of
7:40
like literally right between the two of us.
7:43
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
7:46
All right. We're getting our we're getting
7:48
our first rain in 42 days tonight.
7:51
Wow, it's been raining here most of the week.
7:54
Yeah, off and on. So the first thing that I wanted
7:58
to make sure we put out there is the Postal Service health
8:02
benefit plan. When they passed a law to help
8:05
benefit the Postal Service, another Reform Act of the Postal
8:09
Service, they decided to move the Postal Services health
8:14
benefits off the federal employee health benefit system
8:19
to the own its own individual Postal Service health benefit
8:23
plan. And up until yesterday I believe
8:26
it was the information was very sporadic on what was and was not
8:31
available. However, I have been informed
8:34
that the OPM site does have the Postal Service Health benefit
8:39
plan brochures on there for all the Postal Service health
8:43
benefit plans that are available to Postal Service employees.
8:48
So I highly recommend everybody head over to the opmsiteopm.gov
8:54
and go into the health healthcare insurance and look up
8:57
the Postal Service health benefit plans under that because
9:02
they're changing. So you want to make sure that
9:04
you actually are getting what you want out of your benefit
9:09
plan. Some plans will automatically
9:11
transfer over to the Postal Service health benefit plan
9:14
system, but you want to go on there and make sure you're
9:18
getting the best bang for your buck.
9:20
Prices are going up. Some more than others.
9:24
Some more than others. So if you're in a higher priced
9:27
plan, but you check other plans that give you quite almost the
9:31
same benefits, especially the road carrier benefit plan, it's
9:34
a possibility you could save some dollars by switching over
9:37
to a different plan that has the same types of coverage that you
9:40
want. So definitely take the time to
9:43
go through it and figure it out. Open enrollment opens up.
9:46
Well, by the time this was posted, it's already open.
9:49
So make sure that you check those out and take care of
9:53
yourself and your family. As a public service
9:56
announcement, when you check out your plans, do not look just for
10:00
the cheapest plan, look for your deductibles also as well as you
10:04
know your yearly liability because some of those plans they
10:09
go up up to you know 4 figures in regards to what your family's
10:14
you know has to pay out. 1020 forty $1000 on some of them.
10:19
Yeah, yeah, one of the guys at work got caught and his was, I
10:25
believe it was $11,400. And he was just like, taken
10:29
aback by the fact that he'd have to pay that out of pocket for
10:33
his family. Exactly.
10:35
Yeah, I mean, you got definitely look at what you're going to be
10:38
dealing with, whether it's yourself, your family, your
10:42
kids. I mean, if cancer's an issue or
10:45
somebody's going to be possibly having a baby, I'm definitely
10:48
looking at a real care benefit plan.
10:50
I mean, I, you know, I purposely when I set up my FSA account,
10:54
put $1000 in there because I wasn't sure.
10:58
I knew I was going with a real care benefit plan.
11:01
But that was prior to surprise. I'm pregnant mom, and so I
11:06
wasn't sure exactly. I didn't look at it close
11:08
enough. I did not pay out of pocket for
11:12
a single thing except for the pathologist because he was out
11:17
of network and that was $136. Everything else was 100%
11:22
coverage. No co-pays.
11:24
Even when she was going for several months twice a week it
11:28
was all 100% covered. So, and I know they do that with
11:33
cancer as well. They have 100% coverage.
11:36
So I'm, that's just, you know, me, I'm going to stick with,
11:40
with the royal carrier benefit plan because it's been great for
11:42
me. Thus this year of carrying it.
11:45
So, but I do know I, I had carrier in a carrier in my
11:48
office who has the Blue Cross that's going up a lot and he was
11:52
asking questions about royal carrier benefit plan.
11:54
So I sent him, he texted him the link to the site so he could
11:59
check it out if you wanted to. But yeah, definitely guys, if
12:03
it's something that you're going to look into changing,
12:05
definitely look into that. I do also know a lot of them are
12:12
automatically going to transfer over automatic enrollment, that
12:18
those are listed there as well. So I've got the site up right
12:22
now on the computer. So I'm looking at that and yeah,
12:25
it's got everything listed that's automatically enrolling
12:28
and all the other ones to look, plus all their brochures and
12:32
stuff. So open season starts Monday,
12:36
August, August, I say August on the break, November 11th, and I
12:40
do believe it goes to December 7th.
12:43
Am I correct on that? I believe it is, but also don't
12:47
forget about the fast feds being eliminated this year.
12:50
So you have to use that money up this year.
12:53
There is no carryover at all. Now there is no carryover and
12:57
that was the thing, like I said, I had put $1000 into mine and
13:00
when I looked I still had $656 left in there and I'm like
13:05
great, what am I? I know if I, I got to go to the
13:08
eye doctor, but I know that's not going to take up.
13:10
And I again, being a newer regular and unfamiliar, I went
13:14
through all the see all the stuff that I could claim on it
13:16
because I had somebody say so maybe diapers.
13:18
Diapers you cannot but mileage to and from your appointments.
13:24
2000 miles for all of Ruby's OB appointments and delivery.
13:30
That's 420 four, $120.00. The mileage rate right now is
13:34
$0.21 plus our two dentist appointments that are 105 miles
13:40
away. So I submitted that claim in
13:43
last night. I had three pages of the mileage
13:46
worksheet filled out and I'll know in a couple days if it's
13:51
approved. Well, there is $508 out of the
13:53
646 I had sitting there. There you go, and.
13:56
Then don't. Yeah, don't.
13:58
Don't forget your over the counter medications that they
14:00
allow too. Yep.
14:02
Yep, Tylenol. Tylenol your anti bacterial
14:08
ointment, your neosporins feminine hygiene products
14:12
ladies. Antacids.
14:15
Antacids. I got a lot of Narcon so I I can
14:20
sell it to people who overdose. There is a lot plus your
14:25
co-pays, you pay your co-pays, you can claim those your mileage
14:29
to your appointments, even going to the pharmacy if need be.
14:33
That type of stuff, you know yeah, there there was so many.
14:37
And so we'll no longer be part of the FSA feds.
14:40
It's not going to be a new program and from my
14:44
understanding they are going to have the debit cards to go with
14:48
it. So that is all available.
14:51
I know if you can log in under light blue, some of those
14:54
updates are on there and they're also on the NRLCA web page as
14:59
well under the. And for those of you who are
15:03
just couples, just husband and wife, look at both the self plus
15:08
one and the family plan. Because sometimes the family
15:12
plan being self plus one is cheaper than the Phillip plus
15:17
one plan. Yes, and that is for certain.
15:20
With a lot of times, yeah. Yeah, the rural carrier benefit
15:23
plan, I do know for sure with that one.
15:24
So initially it was just going to be a me and Ruby, but I
15:27
figured well, it's a family plan, I might as well double
15:29
insure Sophia as well. So yeah, it's that one for sure
15:35
is definitely more cost effective to have the family
15:38
plan. So like we said, do your due
15:42
diligence and research. We always talk about always
15:45
knowing what you need to know, when you need to know it.
15:48
And this is something you definitely need to know before
15:52
you need it. OK, I want to correct myself.
15:56
Open season runs from Monday, November 11th to Monday,
15:59
December 9th. You were close.
16:01
You were two days early. I was, yes.
16:04
So Monday, December 9th. There's also the information on.
16:12
And if I may, if I may get on a soapbox here a little bit, This
16:16
is why we need to fight for a higher wage setting than what
16:22
the current city letter carrier contract is arguing for, because
16:26
the raises that they're getting would not cover the new Postal
16:29
Service health benefit plan as it stands today.
16:33
So we're fighting for a higher wage just as much as anybody
16:37
else, but we want to make sure things like this are going to
16:40
keep going up. So we need to fight to ensure
16:43
that things like this are covered in the wages that we
16:46
get, otherwise we're going backwards.
16:49
OK, off my foot box. That's all right.
16:54
So. Let let let me throw in the
16:57
addendum. There was brought up at this
17:01
Member of the Year luncheonette about Brian Renfro's inability
17:06
to do math and come up with an 18% increase for his carriers by
17:11
including the backpack. And you want to talk about a
17:16
laugh about somebody, you know, trying to figure out how
17:20
governments, you know, calculate debt, net your national debt and
17:23
everything I said, this is this is how it happens.
17:26
People get in charge and they think they know what's going on.
17:30
And I says, and they're full of shit and, and, and you know,
17:34
several people were going. Well, he makes it sound so
17:37
simple. And I said it is if you don't
17:39
look at it. I mean, basically, yeah, you can
17:42
take all the numbers he's added in there and come with an 18%
17:46
pay raise. But in reality, most of that
17:49
money is back pay. It's not added to your base
17:53
salary. It's back pay for your 1.3%
17:57
raise. And then then you get all those
18:00
dumb looks with the mouths open like Oh my God, who would
18:03
believe that? Yeah.
18:06
Yep, many people got some farmland in Siberia for you.
18:12
What's it grow? Oh, frozen foods.
18:15
Right. Yeah, yeah, I played that in
18:19
Siberia. Farmland.
18:20
Yes. What can I say?
18:26
I'm an asshole. You.
18:27
Know that, but you're a lovable asshole so it's all good.
18:31
Yeah, I'm your favorite asshole. My second favorite, but yes.
18:35
Oh, whoa. I get trouble.
18:38
If you were my favorite, I got a little tell.
18:41
Me. Get over it.
18:42
Yeah, tell me. Get over it.
18:48
At that point, he probably like, yeah, OK.
18:51
He doesn't have a street sign named after him, so.
18:57
No, he doesn't. I have one, it says the big a
19:00
lane all. Right.
19:01
So anything else on the postal benefits stuff you wanna talk?
19:08
Do your homework. Do your homework, ladies and
19:10
gentlemen. Yes, do your homework,
19:13
definitely. It's like, it's like knowing
19:15
your contract, the six O 3, the Elm, the M38.
19:19
Knowledge is power, and this and this knowledge will save you
19:22
money. Yeah.
19:25
So the main focus of this week's episode is we had the local
19:32
steward enhancement training this past Thursday.
19:37
And the topic of that training, as you see on the NRLC website
19:43
was that is not what I grieved, making sure we understand the
19:47
grievance issue. And so my first thought was if
19:53
they're trying to teach the stewards on figuring out what
19:57
the carriers want out of their grievance as well as what
20:01
they're saying in their grievance, that we as members of
20:06
this craft could help instruct our carriers, our fellow
20:10
brothers and sisters, on what it takes to put in a grievance that
20:15
a steward can take to the bank. They understand exactly what the
20:19
carrier wants and what is actually, actually happening.
20:24
You know, we did talk about grievances before in a previous
20:27
episode, but I really wanted to get more in depth into it.
20:32
So that way, even if it's a quote UN quote gripe, as some
20:38
people still put it, I want to make sure that every gripe can
20:43
still become a grievance as it did when they did the training
20:46
on is it a grievance or a gripe? Because apparently there are
20:50
still some in the steward system that think that carriers just
20:55
gripe for no reason. But we, the podcast presenters
21:00
here as well as many other people understand that if a
21:03
carrier is upset about something, most likely there is
21:07
a grievance that can be attached to it.
21:09
Would you guys agree? Yeah, it may take a little.
21:12
Drinking. But you know, if you can get
21:14
down to what the actual root of the problem is, because you
21:17
know, a lot of times when people gripe, they go around in circles
21:20
about the actual what is the actual problem.
21:24
So once you could figure out what the actual problem is,
21:27
yeah, more than likely it might be something that is grievable 9
21:30
times out of 10. And as a personal pet peeve, OK,
21:34
and I'm going to put this out there.
21:36
This might upset some people. If you have a gripe, do a little
21:41
homework for yourself before you try to make it a grievance.
21:45
See if there's any substance to your gripe, if there's any
21:49
foundation. I mean, you can go in and look
21:52
at the steward reference on our national website and find out if
21:57
there are liked articles that have been grieved.
22:00
Do some homework folks that don't, don't go in there.
22:03
And oh, they, they gave them help on this route and they
22:07
didn't help me and I had twice as much.
22:09
And go do some research. Please just keep in mind.
22:15
I mean, that's. The.
22:16
Biggest thing is educating yourself, but yeah, if you don't
22:20
know where to look, ask somebody where to look.
22:23
You know that just what doesn't matter who you reach out for.
22:27
I mean, it's a lot of those things are can be found right
22:31
under the Steward Reference Guide, which everybody has
22:33
access to that is a union member and gets under the NRLC website.
22:38
And if you're not a union member, you can find a lot of
22:40
that information on ruralinfo.net.
22:44
There are a lot of resources out there.
22:46
You can also do a Google search on your issue and see if there's
22:49
anything that pops up on there 'cause sometimes it's Reddit
22:53
that has it, or other social media websites that may have the
22:58
answer. And of course, reaching out to
23:00
other individuals in the craft could also help you with that as
23:04
well. Yeah.
23:05
And that's, that's where, you know, you get the, the, the
23:09
viability of attending local unions, you know, meetings, your
23:13
chapters, you know, going going to state conventions or
23:16
boosters. This is where you can glean this
23:18
information and become a more informed carrier.
23:21
Absolutely. Just sit at home wringing your
23:23
hands about, you know, treatment that you think is unfair.
23:27
It's not going to settle anything and it's not going to,
23:29
you know, up your claws either. You have to be proactive to a
23:32
certain extent. Yeah.
23:35
And being that we are a contracted employee, so to
23:41
speak, as a union member, we have a contract that describes
23:47
our employment. We have settlements that the
23:50
union has made with management to help us understand more on
23:56
the positions of our jobs. We have manuals, we have
24:00
procedures, policies, MO us, things like that.
24:03
There's a lot of things that go into the information of what our
24:07
job is. And I will tell you 95% of
24:12
management doesn't even know half of the stuff in our
24:17
documents for our job, 100% of them don't know 100% of it.
24:22
Or even their documents and manuals for our job.
24:27
Yeah. Yeah, like like the M38.
24:32
Which is severely outdated, but yes.
24:34
So or the OR the R Cam your supervisor says?
24:38
What's that? Yeah, you have management
24:42
changing over so many places, so many times.
24:47
People shifting here, shifting their new people coming in, old
24:50
people moving up into positions they probably shouldn't have
24:53
been moved up into in the 1st place.
24:55
That nobody really knows what's going on.
24:58
The left hand doesn't talk to the right.
25:00
You have some pooms that like to rule with an iron fist.
25:03
Other pooms that like to just suggest things under the table
25:07
through a telecom. You have some of them that
25:09
aren't scared of of the union at all and will send it out in an
25:12
e-mail, put it in writing literally because they don't
25:15
care. So your first step as a rural
25:20
carrier is to research this information, figure out if there
25:25
is a possible grievance you could file and have a step one
25:29
discussion with management that is going to the manager and
25:32
saying, hey, I believe this is wrong.
25:35
We need to talk about this and figure out what to do about it.
25:39
A lot of people are scared to do that is one of the scariest
25:43
things anyone can do is to sit down across from a authority
25:49
figure and have a step one discussion trying to tell them
25:53
that they're in the wrong and whether they're in the wrong or
25:56
not, that's the mindset you're going in there is they're wrong.
26:01
Well, you can't go in there with that mindset.
26:03
You have to go in with the mindset of there may be more to
26:07
this than just what's wrong. There may be higher level
26:12
authorities that are telling them to do these things and
26:16
they're protecting themselves and their position.
26:19
So they're doing what they're being told to do.
26:22
So you need to have the mindset that you are the union.
26:27
We all are the union. When we sit down with these
26:30
managers and it's scary. You know, anybody who sits down
26:35
with a manager is going to be scared.
26:38
And anybody who tells you, oh, I'm not scared of management has
26:41
either sat down with them way too many times to count or they
26:46
really don't care about their job or anything like that.
26:49
And they have No Fear in their life, Bill.
26:55
Let's see, I qualify on both of those.
26:59
That's why I said you, but that's that's why why we're
27:02
talking about this, because not everybody's a bill, not
27:06
everybody's a game, not everybody's a Christian.
27:09
There are a lot of people that are scared to go in front of
27:13
management and talk with them about the issue that they're
27:16
facing. Now, in that instance, if you
27:19
are scared to sit down and have that stuff, one discussion, talk
27:22
with your union steward because your union steward can go sit in
27:28
with you on a step one discussion.
27:30
You guys want to add to this? Yeah, 100% even on the bill
27:34
comment. So when you have your step one
27:41
discussion, of course you're going to be calm and respectful
27:45
to management. You can't just go in there and
27:47
start screaming your head off because most often what happens
27:51
when that happens is they immediately put you on an
27:53
emergency place and kick you out of the building and tell you
27:55
they'll contact you when they want to have the investigative
27:58
interview on you being hostile at work.
28:01
So you want to be calm, Bill? Yeah, be calm, collected, have
28:07
your paperwork with you. If you have resources like the
28:12
contract, you can print out the page of the contract that
28:16
matches what you're talking about.
28:18
Have it highlighted so you can set it in front of management.
28:21
That even helps your steward out if you have it already for them.
28:24
But have that discussion with management.
28:26
That is the first requirement in any type of the grievance
28:31
process is to have that discussion with management
28:34
before you file the grievance. It's a big way to save
28:38
paperwork, but if that doesn't work, you sit down with
28:42
management. Let's say they were benchmarking
28:45
you on the number of authorized dismounts.
28:49
You have your entire route of CB US.
28:52
That's all you have and they're groups of CB US 910 units at a
28:56
time that you have to carry a bunch of mail over for.
29:00
And it doesn't matter if you put it in a spatula or if you put it
29:04
in the tub or however you do it. You're just constantly having to
29:07
go back to the truck for more mail to keep filling up these CD
29:11
US. Well, that's something that's
29:13
agreeable management and not benchmark our inputs into the
29:19
scanner because we are required to input accurately what we do
29:26
on out there on the route. They can come observe you and
29:29
see if you're putting in too many, but they can't just do it
29:32
from behind the computer. So you sit down and you have
29:35
this discussion with your manager.
29:37
They're sitting there and they're telling you, well,
29:40
you're just doing too many of them and you're going to have to
29:42
cut back on the number of them. You know, you you should do it
29:45
with tubs. I'm already doing it with tubs.
29:47
Well, we're going to give you a satchel.
29:49
You're going to give me reload time for that satchel every time
29:51
I'm at a new CBU, stuff like that.
29:54
If they will not stop and tell you that you have to lower that
29:58
number so they get off of their district managers list, now is
30:02
the time to file a grievance with your union steward.
30:06
So how do we file a grievance? We ask for APS Form 8191.
30:12
What are the things that we fill out on the grievance form,
30:17
Kristen? Lines 1.
30:19
Through four, one through 4. So lines.
30:22
Line 1 deals with the carrier, the grievant.
30:28
It asks your name, your EIN, your title, designation code,
30:32
route number, your telephone number, and your mailing
30:37
address. Now, the reason why it asks for
30:39
each of these things is because that grievance is tied to you
30:42
specifically and putting your EIN number on there.
30:46
If there were to be a monetary remedy with this grievance, they
30:51
would use your EIN to pay you your title, definition, code,
30:55
and round Number. Of course, what's your
30:57
assignment with the postal server?
30:59
Your phone number so they can contact you about the grievance
31:03
and your mailing address so they can send you documents.
31:06
Like when I file a grievance with my ADR, when they settle
31:10
the grievance they mail me a copy.
31:12
Line 2 is the post office you work at could be for instance
31:19
Detroit for instance. And then they you have a branch
31:23
or station in there, one of the Detroit branches or stations for
31:26
Detroit and then the phone number for the post office.
31:30
Now for me personally, I don't give them the main phone number
31:35
that the public calls to. I give them the number they want
31:39
carriers to call to that they'll answer after hours because you
31:43
want them to answer if the steward is calling them.
31:46
So next step, you would be on line three.
31:49
Line 3 is the date of incident data, step one discussion.
31:53
And was the grievance timely. So say for instance, I had a
31:57
griev, a manager come to me and say you need to stop doing so
32:02
many authorizing dismounts. I'm getting a red flag from
32:06
district about you always doing so many authorized does not fit
32:09
your CBU. So you need to cut that number
32:11
down. And that's the date of incident,
32:17
the date the manager came and provided an order that was a
32:21
violation. The date of step one discussion
32:25
would be that Saturday. So that Saturday I went in and
32:30
after hours on my industry of duties, I went and had the step
32:34
one discussion with management. Hey, benchmarking is not
32:38
allowed. Having as many discounts as I do
32:42
because of the CBU volume that I have, because my route is an
32:45
entire CBU and we have these big sections of CBU.
32:49
I can't carry all that mail over there.
32:52
And the manager goes, well, you're going to have to put it
32:54
in the tubs or give you a satchel and we'll have you
32:57
deliver it that way. And you turn around and say,
33:00
I've already been tubing the mail to go to these things and I
33:03
have 345 tubs per CBU to deliver to all of these CB us.
33:09
That is the step one discussion then #3 was the grievance
33:14
timely? So we're using this current past
33:18
week for this. I would have the discussion on
33:22
Tuesday because Monday's a holiday, which would be the
33:25
12th. Wasn't the grievance timely?
33:28
If you file the grievance on the 12th and you advise your steward
33:32
you're filing the grievance on the 12th, it'll be a timely
33:36
grievance because that steward will have a time to research and
33:39
get scheduled with a meeting with management to actually go
33:42
over this discussion. The next most important part of
33:49
the grievance is number 4 #4 is your issue, your complaint.
33:58
Well, the problem is, and this has to be phrased in the form of
34:04
a question, it's almost like jeopardy.
34:06
You know, the answer is some section in the, in the manual,
34:11
postal, postal manuals or in the national agreement, things like
34:16
that. But you have to do it like
34:18
you're answering the Jeopardy answer with the form of a
34:22
question. So if they're getting me with
34:26
too many benchmarking, you can turn around and say, has
34:30
management violated the national agreement or other postal
34:35
documents by instructing and requiring managers to target and
34:42
correct count totals of authorized dismounts which
34:49
exceeds certain national average benchmark target threshold
34:53
standard unilaterally established by management.
34:59
With that right there, you have not only put in what's wrong,
35:05
but you've also said that there's also more of a violation
35:10
than beyond the benchmark. By using the word unilaterally
35:15
in there, you invoke Article 5 of the contract at minimum plus
35:22
the other postal documents and things like that.
35:25
So putting in a longer, more detailed question is a lot
35:31
better than just saying, is benchmarking allowed question
35:35
mark. You want to make sure that the
35:39
just on the grievance paper alone, they have an idea that
35:42
you know more than just something wrong, more than just
35:47
a quote UN quote, right, right though.
35:49
Or anybody. Yeah, No, you're right.
35:53
You're going to, you know, you need something direct, not just
36:01
this benchmarking bad or in management screw up my paycheck.
36:06
You know you got to have the details.
36:09
And there's more to that as well.
36:11
You also have to write a carrier statement for the union Rep.
36:17
Management is not allowed to see the carrier's statement in the
36:22
grievance process. The carrier statement is your
36:26
statement of fact to the union steward.
36:31
So this is where you want to write out.
36:33
So continuing with my grievance on benchmarking, on November
36:38
8th, postmaster or supervisor so and so came up to me at my case
36:46
and had a discussion with me about how many authorized
36:50
dismounts I am having. At the time I was not on end of
36:54
shift duties to have this discussion so I told him that we
36:58
would talk about this later. On November 9th, I approached
37:03
the postmaster on end of shift duties and I said we have a
37:07
discussion about the benchmarking and we went over
37:10
the number that we had for the benchmarking as well as why they
37:15
said benchmarking is occurring and so on, the details of that
37:19
discussion with management. So I sat down, he told me that I
37:23
had 68 authorized dismounts on this day, 70 on this day, 58 on
37:29
this day, etcetera. And you just write a detailed,
37:34
as detailed report as you can to the steward about not only the
37:39
issue when it occurred, the discussion that you had, so that
37:43
when this union steward reads this statement, they can go,
37:49
wow, that's some stuff I can work with.
37:52
That's some things I can look up and see if there's even more in
37:56
there. You know, maybe not just Article
37:58
5, but Article 9/15/19, MOU 2, the PO6O3 Rex activity scan
38:08
handout, etcetera. Because the more documentation
38:12
you can put into there for the steward, the more they can put
38:17
into the grievance and increase the chances of that grievance
38:21
either being settled in your favor or moved up to arbitration
38:26
and arbitration. They need all this documentation
38:30
before it gets to arbitration. It has to be in there from the
38:34
beginning. Guys want to add anything I.
38:37
Think you covered it pretty good.
38:40
I think we lost Bill though. He's disappeared.
38:43
I'm, I'm, I'm here, I'm here on on the articles that you want to
38:48
put in there, you also want to list including, but not limited
38:54
to that gives the opportunity for your local steward, area
38:58
steward or ADR to add additional items for contention.
39:03
Yeah, you don't. You don't put those on the
39:07
grievance form, but you put it into your written statement to
39:11
the steward. I believe it violates this,
39:14
this, this, this, and this, but it's not limited to those
39:18
because you want to show them you actually know what you're
39:21
talking about too. That helps a lot.
39:25
But mostly everything below 4 is to be filled out by your union
39:33
steward because if you put something in there that's wrong,
39:37
they can throw that whole grievance out.
39:38
It's the same on management side.
39:40
If they put in something wrong on a discipline, the whole
39:44
discipline can be thrown out. That happens more than once.
39:48
Happens all the time. The best The best mistake that
39:52
management makes for a rural steward is to put in provisions
39:58
from the City side. The M39 or the M41, those are
40:04
the best ones. Because it's immediately thrown
40:06
out, because this is a discipline for a city carrier or
40:10
rural. Yeah, Yep.
40:13
Yep, Yep, Yep. That'll that'll make you smile.
40:15
Yeah, there are some. There are some that would take
40:19
talking to the manager about it at your case as the step one
40:22
discussion and that is true. You can stand there on the floor
40:26
and actually have the discussion with the manager, or you can
40:29
take the time to step aside on 8127 times, have the step one
40:34
discussion in their office about it, and then get your grievance
40:39
paperwork and still while still on 8127 time, fill out the
40:43
paperwork or green card time. If you're in RCA now, Kristen,
40:48
do you have maybe have another example of agreements that we
40:52
could use that may be a little bit tougher for a steward to
40:57
understand? Let's put you on the spot.
41:01
I. Had to answer that now.
41:06
Yeah. One that might be tougher.
41:11
Let's see. I think somebody, I saw
41:14
something in there, you know, when we were talking about
41:17
gripes and whatnot not getting called in when it mean bypass
41:23
being called in as a regular, as a regular.
41:28
Let's throw that one. All right, Kristen, let's say
41:32
I'm the steward and you're the grievant.
41:35
You have the discussion with management.
41:37
What would you put in Step 4? Not as the knowledge you have,
41:42
but if you were a state carrier that had no knowledge of all
41:45
this stuff and was just filling out a grievant.
41:48
Did management violate whatever they violated by not calling me
41:55
in to work my relief day and I had a city carrier on it?
42:01
OK. And did you write me a
42:03
statement? No, I didn't because I've been
42:06
cleaning up the mess since the city.
42:07
Carrier ran it all right. That's a good reason not to
42:12
write a statement kind of. But at the same time, it's very
42:17
important that you do write a statement.
42:19
And the most important thing is if you're doing the grievance
42:23
process, that is an end of shift duty, yes.
42:27
So it's even writing your statement for the grievance is
42:31
part of the end of shift duty and it will benefit your
42:35
evaluation. So let's just go on what you
42:39
said. So we'll say you didn't put the
42:42
city carrier on there. You said was I just bypassed not
42:47
to work my route, not called in or anything like that.
42:51
The steward is going to look at that and go, I don't have much
42:54
information now a good steward would do more, but a bad steward
43:00
would look at that and go, well, how is this agreement?
43:03
You're a regular carrier and you're not working your
43:05
scheduled day off. Why is this a problem?
43:08
You didn't. The things that you shouldn't
43:11
have been including were things like what the overtime or the
43:17
release day work list. What are the order of
43:21
consideration, the things that most people in this crash should
43:28
know about if, especially if they're people that want to work
43:31
their relief day, they want to work the release day, they
43:34
should know the order of consideration.
43:36
They should know who should be going in.
43:40
In fact, they shouldn't even know who's last worked the
43:45
release day because the release day work list is supposed to
43:48
rotate. So with that, the steward, if
43:53
they were a good steward, we go to that carrier and, and tell
43:57
the manager, hey, I need to have the union time with them to
44:01
discuss this grievance and pull that carrier aside and the duty
44:06
and the shift duties to talk about it.
44:09
Because that carrier, that steward needs to know why you
44:13
want that grievance filed. And I understand a lot of people
44:17
are scared to even talk to their stewards.
44:19
They're scared to see the repercussions of grievances and
44:23
things like that. But the steward needs to know as
44:26
much information as possible. I'm going to ask you, are you on
44:29
the release date work list? Are you, were you scheduled at
44:34
all in the past 3 or 4 rotations?
44:38
And they had other carriers working.
44:40
Oh, they had a city carrier road route.
44:41
That's even more information. I need all those little.
44:45
Are you, are you in 2080 problems?
44:48
You know, are you a 2240 problem?
44:51
Are you the junior regular so they could force you in?
44:55
Yeah, there are a lot of questions that Stewart would
44:58
have to ask that if you had written a statement including
45:02
all that information that you had learned and studied when you
45:05
decided to sign up for the early of day work with or studied when
45:10
you were having this issue, you could have settle aside from
45:15
that. Sure, Stewart, even if you write
45:17
the most detailed statement possible is still going to come
45:21
and ask you questions. But don't be afraid to talk with
45:24
your stewards. They're there to help.
45:29
They're paid. Other than local steward, every
45:32
other steward in the system is paid by your union dues.
45:39
So make sure you take your time to go through what you're trying
45:45
to figure out the answer to. First, make sure you have a
45:49
grievance because you're going to have to have that step one
45:53
discussion. And most importantly, most
45:57
importantly, you have to do your part in this.
46:03
You know, we see it all the time on Facebook, people complaining,
46:06
the union is not working, union is not doing this.
46:10
The union is not doing that. The very first letter in union
46:15
is you. We all are the union.
46:21
We all are the world letter carriers.
46:25
We all are part of the National World Letter Carriers
46:28
Association. You have to do your part.
46:32
We are all. The dues paying members are all
46:35
the governing body, but many people misinterpret as the union
46:42
being the national board and the NSS.
46:46
Your national board are elected to represent you, the union
46:52
member, the governing body. They were elected to work for
46:57
you and appointed the NSS able to work for you.
47:03
You are we are. The dues bang members are the
47:06
main voice, the governing body. They are elected
47:11
representatives. They are not the union in a
47:15
hole. Everybody I've been.
47:18
Wanting to say that for a while. Yeah, everybody on that board
47:23
and the national board is a rural letter carrier.
47:29
When you get down to it, they are still assigned to rural
47:34
carrier routes. They will if they are elected
47:39
out of the office. If they lose the election, they
47:42
have to make the choice to either go back to their route
47:46
and work their route as a rural letter carrier or retire.
47:51
Those are the choices they have when they are when they are
47:54
voted out of office or they retire out of office and decide
47:59
to either go back to the route or retire from the Postal
48:02
Service as well. So even though we sometimes feel
48:08
as in the craft feels that the national board doesn't have our
48:13
best interests in mind, it also start at the bottom.
48:18
You, me and y'all all are involved in this.
48:22
At the bottom to the top. We all have to be together.
48:26
I always say that we're all in this together.
48:29
All world carriers have to be together on this.
48:33
And when you say the union isn't working, you need to find a way
48:39
to make the union work. Grievances have to be filed.
48:44
We have to stand up for the contract.
48:48
We have to stand up for the MO use.
48:51
We have to stand up for our postal manuals, the M38, the
48:56
PO6O3. We have to enforce them because
49:01
a contract that is not enforced is no contract at all.
49:07
And what many believe is, you know, with the world craft
49:10
specifically, you can gripe and complain to your steward all you
49:16
want, but until you yourself initiate that grievance, there's
49:21
nothing the steward can do to help you other than listen to
49:24
you gripe and complain. You have to initiate that
49:27
grievance yourself. Now, if there's more than one of
49:31
you, if there's two or more carriers that want to grieve the
49:34
same thing, then yes, the steward can initiate a class
49:38
action grievance, but not an individual 1.
49:42
So just whining and complaining to the steward the whole time
49:46
because it's not going to get you anywhere.
49:48
Yeah. The only time a grievance the
49:50
steward can file an individual grievance is when that grievance
49:56
affects the steward. Otherwise, they're just there to
50:01
guide you in what you need to do.
50:03
They also cannot turn around and go, hey, you might want to file
50:08
a grievance on that because that is technically considered
50:11
soliciting a grievance. They cannot say, hey, you should
50:15
file a grievance. But if you ask them a question
50:19
and say, hey, can I file a grievance on that, they can turn
50:23
around and say, yes, you absolutely can.
50:25
Also yes, if a carrier is incapacitated that it would be
50:30
outside of a class action, the only thing a store could
50:32
initiate. Yes, that is true when the
50:36
carrier's incapacitated. I forgot about Stafford vision
50:40
for a minute there. But you got to remember, most of
50:46
all, this union does not exist without dues paying carriers,
50:54
without rural letter carriers, without people enforcing the
50:58
contract. If we sat there and we signed
51:02
the world's best contract for rural carriers, that contract is
51:06
still useless if nobody enforces it.
51:10
You have to protect what we fight for.
51:14
You have to protect your brothers and sisters too because
51:19
when you file grievances for things, you may be the only one
51:24
in your district that files a grievance for one issue.
51:27
But if there are several grievances across the nation
51:31
that are filed for this national can step in with a step four
51:37
class action with those multiple grievances across the country.
51:43
So you never know how your grievance is going to be act
51:48
treated through the system, but there's a good chance that
51:52
somebody else is probably dealing with the exact same
51:54
thing you are. This makes me question why there
51:57
isn't a Step 4 for benchmarking because it is so commonplace
52:03
across the country. That would probably be a
52:06
question for National, why they haven't stepped up to stop the
52:11
benchmarking that is going on across the nation and the
52:14
enforcement of managers just sitting behind a computer and
52:19
randomly assigning discipline to carriers for things they're
52:22
doing instead of actually going out there and seeing what's
52:26
going on and verifying that something's actually being done
52:30
correctly. Yeah, but carriers, the more
52:34
carriers that file on it, the greater the chance it goes to
52:39
National. That's the biggest thing.
52:43
It is up to us. And I know there are a lot of
52:47
carriers that are scared. There are a lot of carriers that
52:50
are afraid of retaliation. There are a lot of carriers that
52:53
are afraid that it's going to just rock the boat in the
52:57
office. You know, everything's going
52:59
good in the office. I have that grievance.
53:01
It's going to disrupt everything.
53:03
It's going to change the whole atmosphere and profit.
53:05
And yes, it will. But I will tell you this in
53:09
offices where grievances start being filed and followed through
53:14
on and the steward follow through on them and they fight
53:18
for the carriers and they get the ferry carrier, whatever it
53:21
is that makes them whole for the loss that they had to file the
53:25
grievance on. Eventually that manager turns
53:29
around and actually starts respecting carriers that stand
53:33
up and say, hey, that's not right.
53:35
You start saying. You say that's not right.
53:38
Enough with grievances. Eventually management's going to
53:41
say, OK, tell me why this isn't right and you won't even have to
53:46
file agreement. You'll have that step one
53:47
discussion and management will say you're right, we'll fix this
53:52
change. Always start right there with
53:56
the carrier boots on the ground. And eventually you'll get your
54:00
office turned around to the point where my postmaster
54:03
required me to file a grievance so that he had paperwork to back
54:06
up settling it. And I would file the grievance
54:10
and the settlement at the same time.
54:11
And he would sign off on it because of the fact that if I
54:14
took it to the grievance level, he knew he was going to lose
54:18
from the get go. Exactly.
54:20
And that that's the respect you get and and you earn from filing
54:25
grievances and filing correctly formatted pre grievances with
54:29
all the information that's you know required in making sure
54:33
that you have a sound grievance that can be prosecuted.
54:39
Did the fools extend and win? And I will tell you this, there
54:43
are a lot of stewards out there that if you want to file a
54:47
grievance and you sit down and talk with them, they will walk
54:51
you through step by step how to write your grievance out,
54:55
including the question and #4 they will help you word it
55:00
properly for the grievance process.
55:03
And if you're afraid of that, you don't want to talk with your
55:05
steward about or your steward not getting back with you,
55:08
contact us, contact me, contact Bill, contact Kristen.
55:12
We'll help you. Other carriers will help you.
55:15
Carriers you've seen file agreements is talk with them,
55:18
talk with your state board, talk at your local meetings, get with
55:24
other world carriers that have done this process and know how
55:27
this process. Works if you're steward help.
55:31
What? State board can't give out
55:33
steward help. But they could help you with
55:36
wording agreement. No, no, they can't help you Word
55:42
or go write a question for agreement.
55:45
That's considered steward assistance.
55:48
Wow. On my state.
55:51
My state it would I'm. Kidding.
55:56
But wait a minute, are most of the board members in our state
55:58
steward as it is? Yes, but they're not assigned to
56:01
those offices. That's why, but for those who
56:07
need help, need assistance, reach out to people that you
56:11
know and if they can't give you assistance like that, they'll
56:15
tell you, like our state board won't be able to help you.
56:19
So they'll tell you, hey, we can't help you with that, but
56:22
we'll direct you to the person who can.
56:24
Yes. And if you're, if your local
56:26
store is not talking to you, contact your ADR or Dr. If
56:30
they're not talking to you, go up the chain, go up to your NRO,
56:35
talk with whoever's covering your region.
56:38
For Michigan, it's Kirby Ricketts, for North Carolina,
56:43
it's Bethany Small, etcetera. You contact those people.
56:48
If they aren't answering you, then you go up above them to
56:52
Nikki Phillips, the director of Stewart Operations.
56:55
He won't answer. You go up to John Adams,
56:58
director of Labor relations. If he won't answer, you, contact
57:03
the president because at that point you've gone up the entire
57:06
chain. But somebody's going to help you
57:12
along the line. Oh, Mike Morello's North
57:14
Carolina. I apologize for that.
57:16
I know Bethany Small was down in Florida helping with the
57:20
recovery down there. No, that's why.
57:23
OK. Atlantic versus Stack.
57:27
Southeastern, yeah. OK my bad, my bad on that.
57:31
I get it. They changed them around too.
57:33
They moved on move. Who's aware all the time, for me
57:37
at least it looks like. But just remember there are
57:40
people that can help you throughout the union.
57:44
There are people on social media who will help.
57:48
And there are those that. Can.
57:49
Help you, but yes. There are a lot that will not
57:52
help you. I will tell you that there are a
57:54
lot that will not help you. Or they give out bad
57:57
information. Or bad information.
57:59
So take everything they give you and research it.
58:03
Trust but verify. Even us.
58:07
Trust but verify your steward. Trust but verify.
58:12
Even the national board. Trust but verify.
58:16
Question everything until you are satisfied with the answer.
58:22
All right, anything else guys? Oh, and for those that are
58:25
wondering, because I did have this question asked me this past
58:28
week, what an NRO stands for. It's your non resident officers
58:34
the the executive committee men of the national board.
58:37
I call them national regional officers because they cover
58:39
regions of the country for the national office.
58:45
That works too. I'm.
58:46
Not, I'm not. I'm not telling you what I call
58:48
them. That's OK, Bill.
58:51
That would be one last thing I'd have to edit out.
58:54
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'm trying to consider it.
59:00
I am. Yeah, I actually have a piece of
59:03
paper now where I start writing down the time stamp so I can go
59:06
directly to it. There's only one on there, so
59:12
you're doing pretty good. Oh, thank you.
59:18
I'm slipping. I I think that covers a lot of
59:26
what I wanted to discuss. Do you guys have anything else
59:28
you want to add about filing grievances?
59:30
I'm more than open to that, but I just wanted to get a bigger
59:35
basics chunk out of it. Thank.
59:37
You. It's come up several times this
59:41
week for me and this still a pet peeve for me with people, you
59:46
know, grading the the seriousness of working off the
59:50
clock. And you know, I, I cannot stress
59:54
how important it is for people not to do that, you know, not
59:58
only for their own route evaluation and their Subs pay,
1:00:02
but for the fact of the matter that, you know, we have
1:00:04
struggled to get paid. What we paid for, what we do.
1:00:09
And every time you turn around and you give 5 seconds, one
1:00:12
minute, 2 minutes to the post office, that is time that, you
1:00:16
know, you should be getting paid for.
1:00:18
We fought for it, and now you're giving it back to them like, you
1:00:22
know. Oh, well, it doesn't.
1:00:24
It won't make any difference. You know, it's my evaluation.
1:00:27
Yes, it will. And if you're working off the
1:00:29
clock, OK, and you get injured, Yes, Sir.
1:00:32
That falls on do because the manager is not going to stick
1:00:36
their neck out and tell you that, you know, oh, it'll be
1:00:39
covered under OWCP. They'll be sitting there and
1:00:42
saying, well he wasn't clocked in yet and if you have
1:00:46
permission to come in then you better be signing that timesheet
1:00:50
at the time stamp that you started working again.
1:00:55
Don't work. Off the clock.
1:00:58
And clocking in on the scanner so.
1:01:02
I mean, yeah, this, this stuff is just getting so old that, you
1:01:05
know, it's driving me Batty that you can't see the value of not
1:01:10
working off the clock. So, Bill?
1:01:13
Yeah, and people have funny the excuses.
1:01:15
Oh, I have a doctor's appointment.
1:01:17
I need to come in earlier today, you know, or I have this right.
1:01:20
You know what your schedule is. You know when to schedule your
1:01:23
damn doctor's appointments? Don't.
1:01:25
Don't give me that, OK? You can't get off.
1:01:30
Guess what? It's a sick day.
1:01:31
So Bill, I got a question for you then.
1:01:33
If you're as you're talking about this is it is the policy
1:01:39
and critically the right thing to do to not grieve against
1:01:44
another carrier. So how would you write #4 in the
1:01:50
grievance form for your steward to understand why you're
1:01:55
grieving it, Who, what, when, where, why you're grieving it?
1:01:58
And what statement would you make to give to your steward on
1:02:03
the people starting early, working off the clock?
1:02:06
What would, what would your grievance look like?
1:02:09
We'll go with that. My first question would be and
1:02:12
#4 did the management violate the national agreement by
1:02:17
allowing carriers to work off the clock, which is illegal
1:02:22
because they're not getting paid for their duties?
1:02:26
And then I would follow that up with did not, did the management
1:02:31
have disparity of treatment in regards to allowing carriers to
1:02:35
work off the clock for personal reasons?
1:02:40
As far as the statement's concerned, I would, I would say
1:02:43
that our written like you know, for my office I would say OK,
1:02:46
our scheduled start time is 8:30, which I disagree with, but
1:02:50
you know, that's another subject.
1:02:52
But the fact of the matter is our start time's 830 carriers
1:02:55
were observed at their cases 15 minutes before the official
1:03:00
start time. Carriers already had flats and
1:03:04
letters worked into their case before the official start time.
1:03:08
And I would name the carriers because that is, you know proof
1:03:13
positive of who was there and who was doing it.
1:03:16
And then I would say I brought this to the supervisors
1:03:19
attention at the time that it occurred and the supervisor, you
1:03:25
know, failed to do something or went and talked to him.
1:03:28
But this has been a repeated offence in this office and
1:03:31
nothing has been resolved. Therefore, I would finally be
1:03:35
filing it against management, never against the carrier
1:03:39
because this management is the one allowing them to work off
1:03:41
the clock, which is illegal and unsafe.
1:03:46
So that's how I, you know, give that statement and I think I
1:03:50
think it covers it, don't you probably a couple more articles,
1:03:53
but. But I would, I would actually
1:03:56
with your question that you posed, I would expand on it a
1:04:00
little bit. Did management violate the
1:04:03
national agreement, other postal documents and or federal law
1:04:09
when allowing rural carriers to work off the clock?
1:04:14
Because it is a violation of federal law to have employees
1:04:19
working off the clock. We are a fair pay for Fair Work
1:04:25
organization and working off the clock affects the fair pay.
1:04:31
Because management when we go into contract negotiations is
1:04:36
going to pull out every single carriers, 40 to 40 that has
1:04:42
worked off the clock and presented as well.
1:04:45
These carriers are getting it done super fast.
1:04:48
You know, this carrier is, is metric for 9.2 hours of work and
1:04:54
they're working six hours a day. In fact, our national board has
1:05:01
used those very numbers to say carriers are still being paid
1:05:08
more for the work they're doing then the hours they're working.
1:05:13
They're still evaluated above what their value, what their
1:05:17
actual working hours are. That is our national.
1:05:21
Board has said that James. Yes, they've set it at regional
1:05:26
meetings. They've set it at the National
1:05:29
Convention, they've set it at state convention.
1:05:33
They've used the very same numbers that the Postal Service
1:05:37
beats us over the head with to get us lower time standards like
1:05:43
we got in recs for things like mail.
1:05:48
Because I had a discussion with my postmaster who has an office
1:05:53
that is high package, low volume office and their carriers are
1:05:58
higher evaluated than my office which has a higher volume, lower
1:06:04
package, set up parcels and make the most money for Rex for US
1:06:11
versus the male. And therefore, guess what?
1:06:15
Your evaluation is affected by you working off the clock
1:06:19
because as we've seen, Rex is not written in stone and they do
1:06:23
change time standards as well as benchmarking which affects your
1:06:27
time standards. So protect yourself, protect
1:06:32
yourself, protect your fellow carriers.
1:06:36
Make sure nobody in your office is working off the clock, and if
1:06:39
they are, file the grievance. Get there a little early.
1:06:42
You don't, you're not going to work.
1:06:44
You just walk in there. Just chill, chill, hang out by
1:06:47
the scanners until you're close to your start time, within 5
1:06:50
minutes of your start coming. And then you can clock in within
1:06:54
5 minutes of your start time because digital inputs for clock
1:07:00
rings, including on the scanner, has a 5 minute leeway.
1:07:05
And man, you're going to argue that rural carriers don't have
1:07:07
that 5 minute leeway. But the Elm, the employee labor
1:07:12
manual says it's a 5 minute leeway on clock rings.
1:07:17
Doesn't specify any craft. It's all craft.
1:07:22
It's all crafts. Whether it's city clerk, BMF,
1:07:27
janitorial. Rural clock rings have a 5
1:07:30
minute leeway on both sides of the start time.
1:07:34
OK, I'm off my shelf box again. All right, guys.
1:07:39
Anything else? I'm good, Bill, You good.
1:07:43
Bill, I'm Bill. You're Bill.
1:07:46
Wait, wait, Bill. I'm working on my not To Do List
1:07:50
for tomorrow. And you know what?
1:07:53
I'm not doing the list right now either.
1:07:56
Nice, I thought. That was on your not To Do List
1:07:59
today. Yeah, well, it's one more thing
1:08:02
I don't have to do there. You go.
1:08:04
I'm a genius. I can be a politician.
1:08:10
Oh, that'd be kind of scary entertaining at the same time.
1:08:15
Oh my God. All right, we all get a little
1:08:24
too crazy in here again. Again, not to say we did it.
1:08:31
All right, I. Guess James fell off his soapbox
1:08:33
and hit his head. Forgot where he was there, you
1:08:35
know. I guess so.
1:08:39
Stumbled off the podium. Yeah, he miss.
1:08:43
He misses his miniature train tracks.
1:08:45
That's what he misses, yeah. Yeah.
1:08:47
Yeah, the most. Yeah, the training.
1:08:49
I miss the training. In more ways.
1:08:52
You guys are. Ready.
1:08:56
Ready. All right, just remember folks,
1:09:00
you are the most important step in any part of the rural carrier
1:09:06
union, whether it is from just doing your job to the best of
1:09:11
your abilities and following the the rules and regulations or the
1:09:16
contract and postal manuals etcetera, to filing that
1:09:21
grievance. Because you are the first step
1:09:25
in enforcing the contract. You are the person that can
1:09:30
ensure that not only you but your fellow brothers and sisters
1:09:36
are protected by this contract. The more times we allow
1:09:41
management to tread on this contract, to step on it, to push
1:09:47
it down, to push it to the side, the more management gets baldy
1:09:53
and treating us like garbage. Get ballsy on giving us a crappy
1:09:59
next contract. You are the person responsible
1:10:05
for taking care to ensure this contract is enforced.
1:10:11
I understand it's super scary for a lot of people.
1:10:14
I understand there are a lot of people that are conflict
1:10:17
avoidant. But the only way that we as a
1:10:21
world craft can survive is if we fight for the contract that we
1:10:27
deserve, the contract that management agreed to follow in
1:10:35
the 1st place. They signed it saying we will
1:10:39
adhere to this piece of paper, and then they turn around and
1:10:42
violate it. It is our responsibility to say,
1:10:46
hey, you violated it. We're enforcing it just like
1:10:50
they have absolutely no qualms in enforcing it on us.
1:10:55
We should have absolutely no problem in forcing it on them.
1:10:59
Yes, it feels like we're pushing back, but in all reality, we're
1:11:04
just holding the line. So stand up with your fellow
1:11:07
brothers and sisters and show them we're all in this together,
1:11:12
Bill. Amen to that.
1:11:14
A united front is a strong front.
1:11:17
And you know, ladies and gentlemen, that I mean, that's,
1:11:22
that's the long and short of it. You know, if you stand up as a
1:11:26
group, management backs down. If you educate yourselves and
1:11:32
you file grievances that are substantive in what they, you
1:11:37
know, represent as far as infractions in the office, they
1:11:41
will back off. That's, that's one thing I I've
1:11:45
learned over the years. As soon as you challenge them to
1:11:48
get defensive and as soon as you prove them wrong, they sit there
1:11:52
and, and say, well, I didn't know.
1:11:55
Well, it's it's your job to know what the hell the contract is.
1:12:00
So, you know, please, you know, be involved and, and, and help
1:12:06
each other out too. I mean, you know, there's people
1:12:10
out there that, that our bills James or Christians, you know,
1:12:14
or, or maybe even yourself. But the fact of the matter is,
1:12:17
you know, if we stand together and we help each other for a
1:12:21
stronger union, we can put better representatives out there
1:12:25
in the, in the, our state boards, our national board, our
1:12:29
NR OS and we can get more accomplished together than we
1:12:33
can fighting with ourselves. And, and that's just it there.
1:12:37
There's too much infighting, just like the politics, there's
1:12:41
too much fighting there. OK, everything's settled in the
1:12:44
political front. Let's start working together.
1:12:46
Same things with the union. Whether you're a carrier,
1:12:49
whether you're a steward at ADRDR, whatever you are, we need
1:12:53
to work together because there's only one common goal.
1:12:57
Protect and promote the craft. That's what we need to do.
1:13:01
We need to get, you know, our heads together and work as a
1:13:05
unit, A cohesive unit. We only have one enemy and that
1:13:09
is management. And God, yes, I would love the
1:13:12
day to say, you know, we could work with management.
1:13:16
But I have not seen that happen in 26 years.
1:13:20
And what I keep hearing from, you know, officers across the
1:13:23
country, it's not going to happen because they're so
1:13:26
micromanaged, data-driven, robotic pieces of shit.
1:13:32
They don't care about you. They're worried about their own
1:13:34
damn jobs. So work with your fellow
1:13:37
carriers, work with your stewards, work with the national
1:13:40
board and, and let's get this union back on track of its its
1:13:45
main goal to educate, promote and protect the crafts.
1:13:49
Everybody, you got that tomorrow off, Enjoy it.
1:13:52
There's plenty of people out there.
1:13:54
Sacrifice for your freedom to have tomorrow off.
1:13:57
And remember to be safe, be professional, do your job as
1:14:02
efficiently as possible and get home safe to your loved ones
1:14:05
because you are the most important delivery of the day.
1:14:08
Kristen. Thank you, gentlemen.
1:14:11
I think you both covered that very, very well.
1:14:15
And just as a reminder, open season starts tomorrow, Monday,
1:14:20
November 11th through Monday, December 9th.
1:14:24
RCAS, you get one choice for health insurance, still the
1:14:28
same. And yeah, on that note, guys, we
1:14:33
will. We'll be back next week.
1:14:35
So everybody stays safe out there and see you next time.
1:14:53
Could you imagine me and Donald Trump working together?
1:14:56
Do do boom boom.