Latest / United We Scan / Candidate Q & A Part 2

Transcript

Candidate Q & A Part 2 · United We Scan

• 0:15
  Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
• 0:20
  carriers. For rural carriers, the views
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  Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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  United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
• 1:05
  Back to our normal Sunday night recording episode 66.
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  We're going to do our candidate Q&A Part 2 for you this evening.
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  We have a few questions that were left off the list that we
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  didn't get to before. We'll get those first and got a
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  few good listener questions coming in and we'll touch on
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  those. So other than that, it's just
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  going to be me, Bill and James this evening.
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  So how was your week, James? The.
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  Post office was normal for us. Everybody worrying and waiting
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  to figure out what their Rex score is going to be.
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  And then what are we going to dispute this time that they're
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  going to throw back in our face and say no contest and stuff
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  like that, no resolution or whatever they want to say on
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  that. No action required.
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  Yeah, no action required. And we don't want to do anything
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  with it. So here's here's your dispute
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  back with no result. But then come the weekend, final
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  weekend at the Model Railroad Museum, possibly forever.
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  So it was a somber closing that we did today.
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  Hopefully the results are going to be different and I'll open up
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  for the next season next fall and we'll see.
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  And but now we're here to do the Q&A and I'm excited to get this
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  going. So how was your week, Bill?
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  Oh, it was fair to Midland until Friday.
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  Normally Thursdays my Amazon driver has off.
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  So I'm I'm always, you know, excited to come in and find 2
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  hampers at my case. And Friday morning I came in and
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  I found two hampers at my case and approximately 14 feet of
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  that parcels on the floor. I was like, yeah, OK, what the
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  hell happened? I I did a bit of a Tetris on the
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  one side of my truck and filled it all the way up to the back of
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  the driver's compartment and had enough room to work my front
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  end, you know, on on the left side.
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  But between the tubs of spurs and the and the big ones, I was
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  like, OK. I got to go outside to change my
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  mind if I want to because it got tight in there.
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  Weather wise, it was pretty good that slipping back into late
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  spring weather again, cool and windy and everything.
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  But All in all, it was a good week.
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  How about you, Kristen? Yeah, it wasn't a bad week.
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  Monday was, you know, a Monday. It was the heaviest Monday we've
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  had in quite a while. Honestly, Tuesday was lighter
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  than dirt. And then I'd earned a little OT
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  by going and covering the aux route when I got done.
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  And yeah, I was done with both routes by 333 o'clock 3:00,
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  excuse me, 3:00. Yeah, it was light because I got
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  back to the office from my route at 12:58 PM, Wednesday normal.
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  Thursday normal. Friday normal.
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  Saturday I did go in on my K day as a DACA Y and did a ride along
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  with the with the one RCA that I didn't train when he started,
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  just as Christmas was starting up, just kind of see where he
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  was, where he was struggling with some pointers and help him
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  out and make any corrections needed.
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  And there was a few, but you know, just small tweaking
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  getting him, getting him on the right track.
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  So that all worked out. Other than that, that's pretty
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  much been my week. Do it all over again starting
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  tomorrow. So guys, go ahead James.
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  Like you're rubbing it in. It sounds like you're rubbing it
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  in, that you're getting off early all the time.
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  Not all the time. I mean, Friday was a 230 day.
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  See. She's rubbing it in.
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  Rubbing it in. Yeah.
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  Hello 20. OK, thank you very much.
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  Does. It help it was like 5:30 on
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  Monday 6. O'clock.
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  Does it help? Does it help when you get 23
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  certifieds in one day? No, no, I was over evaluation
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  Monday, just putting that out there.
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  I was over evaluation on Monday, but no the rest of the week.
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  Yeah, I even sat down and did two hours worth of mapping on my
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  getting my line of travel where it needed to be under the LTM
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  system one day and still clocked out at 4:00, but it's been light
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  this week. What can I say?
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  I'm sorry guys. And if you guys want to join in
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  on the chat and you're listening to this as it's been recorded,
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  you just have to join. Our Discord server link is
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  available on our Facebook group #shameless plug.
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  And then just put your hand up to be a speaker.
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  And during James, say the lady there in the pink sweater, we
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  all try to get it updated. PPO 63 done.
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  Yes. The issue there is management is
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  unwilling to update things and so when updates do come out they
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  usually come out as a notice from the union and or in the
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  contract that says this part no longer applies.
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  Things like that, but it hasn't been updated since 2011.
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  The M38 hasn't been updated in a long, long time.
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  The PO60PO6O3 it was brought to my attention that they are
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  updating the PO6O3 and therefore what I'm qualifying as a
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  unscanned parcel no longer fits in this, you know, requirement.
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  I said, do you have a finished version of the six O 3?
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  And they said no. I said do we have an agreed upon
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  version of the six O 3? No, I said therefore the only
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  thing that's still in effect is the old PO6O3.
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  Therefore we will go by those standards.
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  Nothing like having somebody just stand there and look at you
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  without a clue of what to say to you.
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  The old deer, you know, the old deer and headlife look.
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  Oh God, yes, yes, I I I love arguing with people who don't
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  know the contract, let alone any other resources, that they
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  should be a, you know, studying at home, putting in their time
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  and effort like we do. But you know.
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  You know I. You know.
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  I make a copy of the contract available to every carrier in my
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  office. I have a e-mail when I I had an
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  extra bound copy somebody asked me for.
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  I gave them the extra copy, you know, anytime they want it and
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  you know, hey, yeah, I've got it in APDF on my phone, what's your
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  e-mail address? And I send it off to them.
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  I don't have a problem doing that, you know.
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  Then I know everybody in my office has a contract.
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  Whether or not they want to read it and and fight for themselves
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  is completely on them, but I make sure they have the
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  information. Well, not only that, but you
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  have a a ton of manuals uploaded on our site.
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  I have a ton of manuals uploaded on my phone with its own
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  homepage. Must just.
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  Get into your phone, but they couldn't get into, you know,
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  Discord and do the manuals there.
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  Yeah yeah I I just today uploaded the injury handbook to
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  our discord I. Saw that?
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  Which is something a lot of rural carriers don't know we
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  have. We actually have an injury
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  handbook and how to deal with on the job injuries in OWCP, so
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  it's been uploaded to our Discord server.
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  You can actually find it there. If you're not on our Discord
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  server, you can find the link in our Facebook group #shameless
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  plug. Hey, once in a while you got to
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  do that. But the key isn't.
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  Hashtag, get your T-shirts here. Oh, yeah, yeah.
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  We've. I was going to say I was going
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  to plug that to you. Read my mind, Bill.
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  Yeah, any any of the podcast T-shirts, candidate T-shirts and
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  other souvenirs on our web store.
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  I do have the link to that in the show notes as well as in the
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  groups, and a Discord server has its own merchandise channel with
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  that link as well. And of course anybody else that
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  asks, I have not a problem sending you a copy.
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  Now here here's a footnote for the the pictures I posted on
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  several of the sites. That young lady is her name is
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  Kristen White. She is no longer a union member.
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  She is a friend of mine. I trained her as an RCA.
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  She she was my sub of record for a while.
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  Now a regular for almost 10 years.
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  She is not a union member, but she wear she wore that shirt and
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  then she looked at the back and when she saw the back she goes,
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  Oh well, I don't endorse the union.
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  I says you don't have to you endorse me and she goes, oh
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  hell, I'll do that. There's a non union member.
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  You want to get the non union members involved.
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  There you go. People who believe in someone
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  like myself, she goes, but you, if you're present, I'll join,
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  she goes, But the rest of these people aren't worth shit.
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  And I'm like, no argument here, but she's a sweetheart and you
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  know, she modeled that shirt for me, you know, and said, you
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  know, I'll, I'll plug it for you.
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  That's there you go. So I'm going to go to the first
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  question that we had leftover from last time.
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  Actually we had a couple of them, so I'll go in here.
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  Being that the world craft is salary evaluated pay, would you
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  try and change the rules about clock in times such that people
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  currently working off the clock would be able to clock in when
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  they arrive to the unit that is opposed to all three?
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  I'm I'm going to argue against that.
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  My office, everybody reports at 8:30, even though we have
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  different size routes and evaluation should allow for, you
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  know, the larger routes to come in earlier.
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  But for simplicity's sake, management has us all come in at
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  8:30 so that we can have at least 80% of our mail available
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  to us. If you come in and you clock in
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  right away, how do you control whether or not the people are
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  taking all the mail out with them?
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  Because somebody might have a doctor's appointment at 2:00 and
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  might skip, you know, the the last minute pick up at the hot
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  case or the flats and all that. And we have that situation with
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  several carriers who are super fast leaving the office before
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  everything is attributed including miss sorted parcels
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  first. So is it easier to control off
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  the clock issues by having everybody there at the same
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  time? Yes, it's easier for management,
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  it's easier for other carriers to pay attention to the parity
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  of treatment going on in the office.
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  So no, I I I would vote against that unless you had attentive
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  management and I I haven't seen that in years.
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  So no, I would not go for my opinion.
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  Go. Ahead, I'm going to agree.
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  Agree with Bill on that. And there's several reasons why
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  The very first portion of this, as he said, the 80% of mail
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  should be up at your start time. There's a lot of offices that
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  even at your start time, 80% of the mail's not up.
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  Letting carriers come in even earlier and work off the clock
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  or clock in early only hampers them in that aspect too, because
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  they're sitting standing around waiting for mail when they're
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  working off the clock as it is. But you also have another caveat
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  in mail delivery and it's in the PO6O3 and it's in the M38 and
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  that is that you should arrive to your customers mailboxes
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  around the same time every day. So if you're coming in on a
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  Monday and starting at 7:00 because you know it's a heavy
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  day, then you may get to your customers mailboxes at the same
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  time you do Tuesday through Friday.
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  But management should be managing the office to ensure
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  that there is an even flow of mail across the entire week.
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  If management's not maintaining that even flow of mail, then
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  you're not gonna be at your customers mailboxes at the same
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  time every day. Course as we know, partial
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  volumes vary significantly from day-to-day, so there's too many
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  things that can go wrong in that situation.
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  But I do agree with allowing them to punch in five, maybe 10
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  minutes early if they arrive in the office and start working,
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  but not an hour 2 hours early like some people would suggest.
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  But giving us a grace period, especially with these crappy
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  scanners in the time it takes to log into them and so on and so
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  forth would be beneficial. We do have that in the Elm of
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  the five minute grace period for clock rings, but they're saying
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  it doesn't apply to rural because we're using scanners,
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  but it still applies to city and clerks even though they're now
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  clocking in on the scanners. So I would go for that
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  specifically instead of the let them clock in when they arrive
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  and hold management accountable to the carriers working off the
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  clock. My opinion.
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  Next question, do you have opinion, Kristen?
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  I said all three. Do you have opinion?
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  I kind of have to agree with the guys.
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  I mean I can understand I would definitely like to see a five,
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  maybe 10 minute leeway. I mean that could be weather
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  conditions that could be you know anything.
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  It's the ones that are blatantly coming in 1/2 hour 45 minutes
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  early working off the clock that definitely hurt the craft as a
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  whole in one way that my office kind of fix that a little bit is
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  they have this our our start times are on Mondays and Day
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  after holidays are 7:30 and it's 8:00 the rest of the week.
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  Our 42 forties and in the system they have the start time at 7:30
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  throughout the whole week. So if we come in on Wednesday,
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  Thursday, Tuesday, Friday at 7:45, it's not a big deal.
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  But again that's, you know, management did that for those
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  select handful of carriers that normally come in on a regular
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  1520 minutes early. But yeah, like I said, if you're
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  there working, you should be on the clock and management
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  shouldn't be allowing the off the clock, but there definitely
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  should be a leeway in writing outside of the Elm in agreement.
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  All right, Ready for next one? Yep, Always.
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  All right, if the situation presented itself in the course
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  of contract negotiations, would any of you be in favor of
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  establishing a list of regular rule carriers that wanted to
• 17:19
  work on Sundays and other routes?
• 17:22
  I am cognizant of the fact that this would be done so as not to
• 17:27
  mandate any regular rule carry to work additional hours.
• 17:31
  I also have another question in roughly the same vein.
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  Would it be possible to push for a system that would allow
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  regular rule carriers to transfer across state lines
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  similar like city carriers have, whereas if a route is open in
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  office, they can just go to that office rather than having to go
• 17:46
  through the mutual transfer process?
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  All right, two-part question. We'll go back to the contract
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  negotiation parts about having a list for basically to me it
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  would be equivalent to the city's overtime desired list.
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  I think we've talked about this in the past and other episodes
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  as well and I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to answer
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  now since I'm talking and no I would not be in favor of
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  establishing a regular rule carriers overtime desired list
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  that's for the fact that you know that just opens those
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  floodgates to mandate those regulars all the time every time
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  and takes away the volunteer thing like I said with the
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  current things were at sounding of them impeding on the Article
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  8 which covers the Sundays and the Article 30 on you're only
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  being responsible for your one route they're already looking at
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  something that what it is we don't know but no I am not for
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  an overtime desired list equivalent for the rural side
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  bill. Well, there's there's already a
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  a list for Sunday that you can sign up for.
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  So you know I'm not against that in regards to the overtime
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  desired list like the city carriers also again no, it's a
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  opportunity for disparity according to people that this
• 19:11
  the management likes. It's one of those situations
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  where you're going to get into a conundrum because now if you do
• 19:20
  that 20 to 2080 and 2240 situation pops up at the end of
• 19:25
  the calendar year and we've already seen where people are
• 19:28
  getting letters of demand for that due to management's failure
• 19:32
  to hire and retain Rcas. I'm definitely against that
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  because the next step would would be, as we've discussed
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  previously, that some form of that language would be worked
• 19:43
  into the contract and regulars would be forced to work another
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  route. I agree with any contract
• 19:51
  negotiation. When you're sitting down and
• 19:54
  you're discussing things with the postal management, the one
• 19:58
  thing that needs to be on your mind in every single point that
• 20:03
  you make. And every single argument that
• 20:05
  management makes is how will this affect the craft in the
• 20:10
  next three contracts because you have to think down the road, how
• 20:16
  is management going to try and work this to their advantage?
• 20:21
  How is management going to try and change this in the next
• 20:24
  contract to affect the rural carriers?
• 20:28
  How is management going to abuse carriers with this?
• 20:31
  We already see it with the current MOU.
• 20:35
  We have carriers contacting us all the time telling us that
• 20:38
  management is forcing them to cover other routes.
• 20:42
  They're having them cover other routes on their scheduled day
• 20:45
  off when it says in the MOU that they cannot be forced to cover
• 20:49
  other routes on their scheduled day off.
• 20:51
  So management got a niche, it is already taking that mile without
• 20:57
  even having our current leadership try to to shoehorn it
• 21:01
  into our current con coming up contract.
• 21:04
  So no, we are not going to become like city carriers with
• 21:09
  an overtime desirability list. The carriers working extra
• 21:12
  overtime hours. Our contract should include
• 21:15
  enough pay for the carriers to live comfortably in a middle
• 21:19
  class lifestyle matching that of current private sector
• 21:24
  industries like the federal law says they have to.
• 21:29
  And adding these things into our contract will just turn around
• 21:33
  and be abused and abused and abused by management.
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  And we cannot stand for management abusing and harassing
• 21:41
  our carriers anymore. Are we ready for the next one,
• 21:44
  gentlemen? Of course.
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  Always. I would like to hear your
• 21:51
  proposition for the process of converting an RCA to APTF within
• 21:55
  two years. I am curious since that our
• 21:59
  rules on this craft dictate that a regular carrier is assigned to
• 22:03
  a specific route. How would you assign an RCA that
• 22:06
  has converted to career status if no route is open in the
• 22:10
  office? Within the 50 mile rule still
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  apply when the set employee on call receive any pay for being
• 22:18
  on call. OK, I'll take this one first.
• 22:21
  Since I put that resolution forward and got it passed the
• 22:24
  National Convention this past year I put through a resolution
• 22:29
  that Rcas will become career Rcas and the reason why I wanted
• 22:36
  them to be Rcas and not become APTF is twofold #1.
• 22:43
  The fact is is APTF right now in our contract is required to have
• 22:47
  a minimum of two routes and there are some offices where the
• 22:51
  RCA only has one route, but they do go out and work other offices
• 22:56
  to do it. So they would still be an RCA
• 23:00
  working under the same RCA rules and regulations.
• 23:04
  Just having the career portion added to their bottom line, they
• 23:09
  would start earning retirement, start doing TSP and all that
• 23:14
  other stuff just like the the PTFS do now.
• 23:18
  And on top of that, unlike our PTFS who have to pay full dues
• 23:25
  to the union like a regular carrier that works five days a
• 23:29
  week, even though five or six days a week, even though they
• 23:35
  only work a minimum of two days a week.
• 23:39
  A career RCA would continue to have the RCA rate of dues paid
• 23:45
  to the union, allowing them to at least take home a little bit
• 23:49
  more but still be involved in the union.
• 23:52
  Because I believe our RCA, they're definitely not paid
• 23:55
  enough, don't take home enough to be able to support themselves
• 24:00
  to be stuck as an RCA for longer than two years or three years or
• 24:06
  17 years, like one of them in my office, they can't afford to do
• 24:10
  that anymore. So we need to find a way to turn
• 24:15
  around and build up our Rcas and give them some kind of benefits
• 24:21
  that help them because you have Rcas that are working 10-15
• 24:27
  years before becoming regular and then they have to work
• 24:30
  another 20 years on top of that in order to earn a stable
• 24:34
  retirement. And it's unfortunately causing
• 24:38
  them to work until they're 70 years old, and people shouldn't
• 24:42
  have to work until they're 7075 years old just to be able to
• 24:46
  earn enough retirement to retire somewhat comfortably.
• 24:50
  I want a career RCA, not APTF promotion because you've earned
• 24:56
  either 2080 hours or two years, but just an RCA position that
• 25:02
  gets career benefits. Your thoughts, Bill?
• 25:06
  Well, I I I really liked your idea of the 2080 hour formula in
• 25:12
  regards to attaining the RCA career position.
• 25:18
  I did did say PTF and you know yes your your point is exactly
• 25:24
  on in regards to Due's allocation for the career
• 25:28
  position and the RC AS wouldn't be earning that much.
• 25:32
  So I I don't say I'm staying corrected, but I am saying that
• 25:36
  that's a better idea. I also would turn around and
• 25:40
  negotiate on the contract to get it down to a 25 mile radius
• 25:45
  because of the fact that they're using as the crow flies.
• 25:48
  And if you're driving 50 miles within 50 mile radius to cover
• 25:52
  another office that that could actually end up being 70 some
• 25:56
  miles. So you're spending an hour and a
• 25:58
  half on the road trying to get to another office that you
• 26:01
  normally would be spending 15 minutes to attend your Home
• 26:04
  Office. In regards to the the
• 26:08
  qualifications, the 2080 I think is a good idea.
• 26:14
  I but I also think that anybody who has gotten past their
• 26:18
  probationary period and I'm talking 90 days calendar days,
• 26:24
  not 90 work days. But anybody who's gotten past 90
• 26:27
  calendar days has proven worthwhile as an RCA should be
• 26:33
  allowed to bid for a career position whether they want to go
• 26:38
  to the the PTF or a vacant route in in their office or another
• 26:42
  office after it goes district wide.
• 26:45
  That way we would be able to fill these routes.
• 26:47
  We have 15 PTF positions in my district that were posted the
• 26:52
  other week and after being up there they filled seven.
• 26:58
  Well how sad is that, that somebody doesn't want a $5.00 an
• 27:01
  hour raise to take that position.
• 27:04
  And as as Josh had pointed out, there's a lot of offices that
• 27:08
  don't have you know all the J routes and they've they've
• 27:10
  changed the language in that Josh, I'm not sure, I I don't
• 27:13
  recall reading that. But you know, if that is true,
• 27:17
  that would be nice that you know you only need 1K route, but even
• 27:21
  then it's not enough hours for an individual as APTF regardless
• 27:26
  of the rate of pay. Especially paying full dues.
• 27:30
  Yes. And I want to point out the
• 27:32
  comment that one of our listeners in the live stages put
• 27:35
  out, she said. I like the career RCA as I am an
• 27:38
  aux carrier and if I would have to convert to a PTFI would lose
• 27:43
  my aux route. So no, I, you know, especially I
• 27:47
  I like that idea for the career RCA and going on, I would have
• 27:51
  what I was talking to myself talking about, especially those
• 27:54
  carriers that have those nice aux routes, not talking the baby
• 27:58
  routes like my 2 1/2 hour route in my office, but those nice 25
• 28:03
  to 35 hour ox routes that you know is substantial enough for
• 28:08
  somebody that just looking to do that and that's all they do, Six
• 28:12
  days a week is just that nice little ox route.
• 28:15
  What's wrong with them having benefits for it?
• 28:17
  I could totally see that as a career RCA because like they
• 28:22
  stated, you know as APTF, you're going to lose that ox route.
• 28:26
  So you know, and there's plenty of RCA that have those nice,
• 28:29
  those nice, those nice aux routes that don't want to do
• 28:33
  anything else, may not want a full time route, aren't
• 28:35
  necessary. Looking to go career on a full
• 28:38
  time route. They like what they have.
• 28:39
  It works with their schedule. There's no reason why after a
• 28:42
  certain amount of time, they shouldn't be able to have career
• 28:45
  benefits and still be an RCA. We did talk to an R we we did
• 28:50
  talk to an RCA who is on an an AUX route and is the only route
• 28:54
  in the office. Imagine if that carrier was
• 28:58
  career during the entire time he's in the on that route.
• 29:02
  He could actually retire from that route as an RCA with career
• 29:07
  benefits. Because if that route never goes
• 29:10
  up to a full route, and he's the only person working that route,
• 29:14
  wouldn't he deserve career benefits for working that route
• 29:18
  for 2025 thirty years? And then then they go back to
• 29:21
  your second part there Kristen about transferring offices again
• 29:26
  if you go through the the normal in office and district wide
• 29:29
  posting and nobody accepts you know the the bid on that
• 29:33
  particular route, somebody from across the country should be
• 29:37
  able to bid on to that route. Yes.
• 29:39
  And I I I had a resolution that went to national and passed it
• 29:44
  national just for that. And I even had the timelines
• 29:47
  listed out. You know, the bidding process, I
• 29:50
  don't have it right in front of me for the exact amount of time
• 29:53
  that I put in there. But you know, the normal bidding
• 29:55
  process is 10 days. So why don't we extend it to, I
• 29:58
  think it was like 15 or 20 days giving you know, people across
• 30:01
  the country a chance it would fit in between the after the
• 30:05
  district posting, returning back to office and then prior to it
• 30:08
  getting listed to the street is when the national bidding part
• 30:11
  would come up and then each of the dates were extended.
• 30:15
  But however it did stay, you know where we're normally be
• 30:18
  placed within 2021 days of the route.
• 30:22
  I think it was like 45 that give them a chance to get moved,
• 30:26
  relocated, get some things set up that they need to get set up.
• 30:29
  However, moving expenses for something like that national
• 30:32
  bidding would be on the carrier. But yeah, I did have a
• 30:35
  resolution that did pass at National this past year just
• 30:39
  precisely for that. Yeah, the follow up question in
• 30:42
  the chat. I don't have that up.
• 30:44
  I got the spreadsheet up when I look.
• 30:46
  It says. Posted everywhere.
• 30:48
  Well, it would go up on the E bidding, but yeah, it would be
• 30:51
  the same thing like how many times I've seen district
• 30:54
  postings go up. They may got pinned to the
• 30:57
  bulletin board, but they are never announced in the office.
• 30:59
  I mean again that's going to come down to it's part of the
• 31:03
  bidding process. It needs to be announced in all
• 31:05
  the offices and put on the bulletin board.
• 31:07
  Wow. You know, like the National
• 31:09
  Labor or National Rule Letter Carrier Association could put it
• 31:12
  on Facebook or something like that too.
• 31:14
  Yeah, I was going to say National could put it out, Yeah.
• 31:18
  You know, hey, national biddings for these routes even on the
• 31:22
  website or we got, I know enough carriers with the 80 was it in
• 31:26
  Wisconsin, they had 80 PTF positions go up this past week.
• 31:29
  You know, something like that. It wouldn't be difficult to put
• 31:33
  it out there saying hey we've got some national bidding
• 31:35
  listings up go go check your E job bidding if you're
• 31:39
  interested, stuff like that. I mean it wouldn't be too
• 31:42
  difficult to do and then if it for some reason still didn't
• 31:45
  fill then yeah then go to the outside hiring.
• 31:47
  It would just be that one extra step between between the second
• 31:50
  time it went back to the office prior to going to the street for
• 31:53
  hiring. I definitely, you know, that
• 31:55
  would definitely be for that because everybody, anybody I
• 31:59
  know that's try to get a mutual transfer if they're lucky to get
• 32:02
  one, it's a 234 way transfer if they're lucky to find one.
• 32:06
  That brings a question to mind for me.
• 32:08
  I have 26 years in. I want to move to Charlotte, NC
• 32:14
  Oh no, that's too close to Josh. I want to move to Raleigh, NC
• 32:18
  and then I accept the position down there.
• 32:21
  Why should I lose my seniority when I move down there?
• 32:23
  No, that would be that would be a good one.
• 32:25
  I agree with that too. I think your your seniority
• 32:28
  should carry with you. I mean I get for the Rcas when
• 32:31
  you transfer offices, you still keep your time service in.
• 32:35
  So if you're lucky enough to transfer into an office that
• 32:37
  doesn't have Rcas with the year end, you can leapfrog over them
• 32:41
  if something comes up forbid. But yeah, I think with and you
• 32:44
  should be able to keep your seniority.
• 32:46
  That's how I feel on that. If you're a regular carrier and
• 32:50
  you did a national bid, got a warder, it moved down there, you
• 32:53
  should be able to keep your seniority.
• 32:54
  You would keep your years, but just like when you do a district
• 32:59
  bid, the office you go into, you'd become the low man on the
• 33:02
  totem pole, unfortunately. For district, but not for the
• 33:05
  local office. But not for local office
• 33:07
  district. You go to the lowest seniority,
• 33:09
  lowest seniority in the office, but you'd still have your same
• 33:13
  years in as a regular. Yeah, there was the other
• 33:16
  question that somebody asked. What are the three items is that
• 33:20
  you would fight tooth and nail for in the contract James?
• 33:23
  Well, one of the things I would fight for is maintaining the one
• 33:26
  route per regular carrier because our current leadership
• 33:30
  has said that's probably one of the things they're looking at
• 33:33
  taking off the table, taking out of the contract.
• 33:36
  And I know a lot of carriers that if that were to come out of
• 33:39
  the contract, probably quit their jobs because they love
• 33:42
  their route, they loved their customers, they love doing the
• 33:45
  route that they do because they know it inside and out.
• 33:48
  Our system for row carriers knowing their routes is so
• 33:53
  tantamount to the service that we provide to those customers
• 33:56
  that that is one thing I will never, ever give up in our
• 33:59
  contract. The next thing I would fight
• 34:03
  tooth and nail for is the route evaluations.
• 34:06
  The route evaluations need to be fixed.
• 34:10
  The fact that we're sitting there and we have to verify more
• 34:14
  letters than a DPS machine at the plant per minute, 16 letters
• 34:18
  per minute more than a DPS machine.
• 34:20
  I would be fighting tooth and nail to try and find every way
• 34:23
  to get every single second I can out of every value of the REC
• 34:28
  system. And then the third thing I would
• 34:31
  be fighting for is for the benefits of the carriers.
• 34:34
  The benefits are the biggest draw to this company, to this
• 34:38
  organization, to this service. The benefits that we have right
• 34:42
  now are small. We don't have competitive pay
• 34:46
  right now. Our benefits are starting to
• 34:48
  lack, especially with the lack of Rcas management treating us
• 34:51
  like dirt. There are there are a lot of
• 34:53
  benefits in the contract right now, but we can always increase
• 34:58
  the benefits that the carriers get.
• 35:00
  And so I'd be fighting for the best things for carriers that I
• 35:03
  could ever getting a contract. How about you, Bill?
• 35:07
  Oh, the first thing I do is go after table two and table four.
• 35:10
  That is a real sharp stick in my side.
• 35:14
  I, me and my wife went shopping today.
• 35:16
  We go to the local junk food store.
• 35:18
  We bought one item that was expensive.
• 35:22
  It was a $49.00 piece of meat, which I cut.
• 35:24
  It cut into, you know, four fixed labs of state.
• 35:27
  So basically it comes down to about 12:50 a slice and that'll
• 35:33
  give us, you know, two meals out of it.
• 35:35
  And that was it's the most expensive vitamin that we bought
• 35:37
  but we spent over $190.00. We're making good money and and
• 35:42
  and I struggle to understand how other people are making it on
• 35:45
  Table 2 because our gas just jumped $0.30 a gallon.
• 35:49
  Again, Why? I don't know the the the oil
• 35:52
  companies will tell you they're switching from winter fuel
• 35:54
  production over to summer gasoline product or some some
• 35:57
  such nonsense. But how are people doing it on
• 36:00
  table two? They've got to be struggling and
• 36:02
  it's not right unless you said by federal law we are supposed
• 36:07
  to be competitive with other industries of our nature and
• 36:12
  we're not. And I I just, I I find it
• 36:14
  appalling. So the tables have to go to echo
• 36:18
  James thoughts in regards to wreck.
• 36:20
  Wreck has to be changed and not change the way the post office
• 36:23
  because every time I turn around, every single change I
• 36:26
  see is in their favor. Especially when you get to the
• 36:29
  disputes and you get everything back saying bill, action
• 36:32
  required or you don't get the disputes back.
• 36:34
  The third thing I would change is the National Steward System,
• 36:38
  of course, with the help of the new Director of Stewart
• 36:40
  Operations, James Brennan, in regards to reacting to
• 36:45
  situations that are affecting our carriers, our brothers and
• 36:49
  sisters out there. Because this is out of hand with
• 36:51
  the hostile work environment, constant contract breaking,
• 36:54
  intimidation, people walking off the job knowing, you know,
• 36:58
  they've got bills to pay and they they just can't take it.
• 37:01
  Are you kidding me? That this is asinine?
• 37:04
  It's absurd to be in this day and age where the federal
• 37:08
  government lays down the law about how you treat employees,
• 37:12
  how you create a atmosphere at work with rules against that.
• 37:19
  And they violated more than anybody.
• 37:22
  They they are the biggest violators of human rights that I
• 37:25
  know of. And it appalls me.
• 37:29
  And and this, This is why we're running for office.
• 37:34
  Is is this going to be fun for us?
• 37:37
  No. But it's what we want to do.
• 37:39
  It's it's in our blood to fight for you.
• 37:42
  Nobody else is stepping up the fight for you.
• 37:45
  If you look at the national conventions, the only people
• 37:48
  running for the national offices are the same people you've seen
• 37:53
  for the last 10 years. Every once in a while you get a
• 37:56
  new person up there. That's only because one of the
• 37:59
  old timers retired, got forced out, whatever.
• 38:04
  But again, those people are hand picked by the national board to
• 38:09
  ascend to those positions and it's time put an end to it.
• 38:13
  OK, what? About you, what three things
• 38:18
  would you fight tooth and nail for?
• 38:20
  I'm going to jump on that bag wagon, of course of table two
• 38:24
  and table four. They absolutely need to go as
• 38:28
  being a recent Table 4 RCA and now a table two regular carrier.
• 38:35
  Yes, you do take a a net pay cut.
• 38:38
  I I understood that from going on, but it's not anywhere near
• 38:45
  what I need to get by. If I wasn't in a 2 income
• 38:48
  household, I would not be able to get by with kids as a single
• 38:52
  mom. Not not today.
• 38:55
  Maybe 10 years ago, making what I make right now.
• 38:58
  Yeah, I probably could have done it without a problem, but not
• 39:01
  now. There's no way.
• 39:02
  Not at all. Oh yeah, definitely Table 2.
• 39:05
  Table four would be #1 for me. And it it isn't funny that our
• 39:10
  president says, well, this allows people want to make more
• 39:13
  money. It's not a matter of wanting to
• 39:16
  make more money. It's the need to make more
• 39:18
  money, Don. That's exactly what it.
• 39:21
  Is everybody wants to make more, more money so they don't have to
• 39:24
  work the overtime, but when they have to work the overtime or
• 39:28
  assist on other routes, it's because they need to.
• 39:31
  There's a different Don. It's survival.
• 39:36
  It is. If it was just me and my kids, I
• 39:39
  would be working all the overtime I could get.
• 39:43
  You know, I did volunteer and got overtime one day, the last
• 39:47
  two on this last pay period, one day each week.
• 39:50
  But that wasn't because I needed to, it was because I wanted to
• 39:53
  help out those RC as that needed the help those days, you know?
• 39:57
  Or I didn't have a problem not knowing that they didn't contact
• 40:00
  the RC as first, but. I didn't have a problem on a
• 40:03
  light day picking up the Ox route.
• 40:06
  So yeah, you know there's a difference.
• 40:08
  But if I, like I said, if I was completely on my own, yeah, I'd
• 40:11
  be taking it wherever I could get it because the only way I'd
• 40:15
  be able to survive, Barely. So yeah, Table 2, Table four and
• 40:21
  the Article 30 protection that needs to stay right where it is.
• 40:27
  It doesn't need to change. And the same with the Article 8
• 40:30
  for Sunday work. You know that let's not take get
• 40:34
  rid of those for something that's going to make management
• 40:38
  think they can twist it around for something that it isn't.
• 40:41
  So that's two. And then the third one would
• 40:45
  probably be, it would definitely be more transparency in racks
• 40:49
  and a way for carriers to actually on the regular confirm
• 40:54
  their totals and their daily numbers.
• 40:56
  Where's the transparency we're always supposed to get?
• 40:59
  Well, I want that in writing in the contract about the
• 41:01
  transparency and I want that transparency available to every
• 41:05
  carrier. Those would be my three top
• 41:08
  things. And that kind of leads us into
• 41:12
  the next question right here regarding the REC system.
• 41:17
  Assuming that the that is here to stay until perpetuity excuse
• 41:22
  me for not pronouncing stuff correctly.
• 41:25
  How do you 3 propose that we can train and inspire our fellow
• 41:29
  carriers in this craft to firstly take the system
• 41:33
  seriously and secondly to train new hires in addition to the
• 41:37
  training that they receive an Academy.
• 41:40
  I'm also curious if by some miracle the REC system could be
• 41:43
  abolished in a new more equitable system being
• 41:47
  negotiated. Well, I'm going to take.
• 41:50
  Go ahead. Otherwise I was.
• 41:51
  Basically, the rec system is here to stay and it is basically
• 41:58
  fundamentally supposed to be a sound system where we get paid
• 42:01
  for everything we do. Again, like the old system, we
• 42:04
  are not, but you have to fight for it.
• 42:07
  We are now coming up on the third set of results from a mini
• 42:10
  mail survey. If the first set of results of
• 42:14
  the mini mail survey performed last year with 66% of the
• 42:18
  carriers losing pay. Didn't get your attention,
• 42:22
  ladies and gentlemen. I don't know what will.
• 42:25
  Surprisingly, with the second mini mail survey in September,
• 42:29
  the union didn't bother posting the result.
• 42:32
  And I wonder why. I still haven't heard anything
• 42:37
  outside of my office and several local offices in regards to the
• 42:41
  actual results. And it basically seems that, you
• 42:44
  know, things have settled down. Some went up, some went down
• 42:48
  depending on, you know the WSHWSS controversy, the
• 42:53
  eliminations of half the time that you got credit for on the
• 42:57
  FSS flat which will disappear completely on this mini mail
• 43:01
  survey. But I believe in the system if
• 43:06
  we have a strong enough leadership to provide us with
• 43:10
  the details, the transparency that we are entitled to that we
• 43:15
  are supposed to get, but the our leadership is not enforcing
• 43:20
  that. And the post office, they've
• 43:22
  hired enough people that are inept, enough that they don't
• 43:27
  even know how to get radar reports or PT, Rs or anything
• 43:31
  else done for you. I believe the REC system works
• 43:36
  to a certain point, but until it's enforced and transparent,
• 43:41
  100% transparent to every office across the country, I I can't
• 43:46
  endorse it. And and it is here basically
• 43:49
  forever because they've sunk too much time and money into it,
• 43:54
  pull away from it now they just have to keep fine tuning it
• 43:57
  until they get it right. And we're not going to get it
• 43:59
  fine-tuned to our satisfaction until we have the proper
• 44:03
  leadership at the National Board.
• 44:05
  Go ahead, Kristen, you had something you wanted to say.
• 44:08
  Yeah, I did. My, my thing is far more on the
• 44:14
  the training of the new hires. In addition, and I mean that
• 44:18
  falls on the carriers, that falls on if your office has an
• 44:20
  OJI, that falls on the regular, if they're training and when you
• 44:25
  have those regulars that aren't taking it seriously, they're
• 44:28
  obviously not going to be training their new RCA
• 44:32
  seriously. I do.
• 44:34
  And that was one of the reasons why I rode along Saturday with
• 44:37
  the other one. And there was Rex scans in there
• 44:39
  that I was, you know, returned to unit was a big one, you know,
• 44:43
  on when to do that one. And you know, some of the other
• 44:46
  ones that he had never knew about in the past that I
• 44:49
  reminded him. Well, you made two trips to the
• 44:51
  door of those packages. Yeah.
• 44:52
  Did you put those in your scanner?
• 44:54
  Oh, I didn't know about that. You know, I didn't train this
• 44:58
  RCA initially. When I go out and train, I do.
• 45:03
  I train them on all the scans. You know, if we have a, A, a
• 45:07
  postage due that day, I do that. A carrier pickup, we do it that
• 45:11
  way. So we got, you know I train them
• 45:13
  on all those scans as we're doing them out on the route as
• 45:18
  long as you know and they also get an activity scan guide and
• 45:21
  and and whatnot when they come into the office.
• 45:25
  But I mean the training really does fall on the OJI and and or
• 45:30
  the regular carrier and unfortunately trying to get some
• 45:35
  of these regular carriers who still don't take it seriously on
• 45:39
  board, that's really the hardest part is how can we make sure
• 45:44
  that we've got everybody on the same page.
• 45:48
  I mean that comes down to training.
• 45:50
  Yes, management's responsible for training and yes the union
• 45:54
  says we had all the information on the website but that's still,
• 45:59
  I'm not going to say that's still not enough because
• 46:01
  management didn't train. I There's still offices across
• 46:05
  the board where management just here's your scan sheet and that
• 46:08
  was it. That's not training because
• 46:11
  management wasn't trained properly on how to do it, or
• 46:13
  they didn't pay attention during their training because they
• 46:17
  didn't care. Can I interject real quick?
• 46:19
  Go ahead. You're you're right.
• 46:22
  Management didn't do any proper training, especially in my
• 46:26
  office. And thank God I was a test
• 46:29
  office from, you know, the get go.
• 46:31
  But I took it upon myself to train everybody because of the
• 46:34
  fact that I knew what was coming down the Pike and without
• 46:38
  management being forced to train and even if you tried to force
• 46:42
  them to, they couldn't do it. They they they lacked the
• 46:47
  knowledge and the ability to train us correctly and for the
• 46:51
  union to put it back on us by saying well all that information
• 46:55
  is available through the website.
• 46:58
  That that's just that's failure on their part.
• 47:01
  I'll, I'll say it that way that they they failed us as much as
• 47:05
  management has failed us. And I'll say if and like I've.
• 47:09
  Said go ahead, go ahead. Oh, OK, both both sides have
• 47:13
  have dropped the ball in this situation.
• 47:16
  I agree, and like I said in the past, I it shouldn't matter if
• 47:20
  you're a dues paying member or not.
• 47:22
  If it's something that directly affects your wages, then you
• 47:27
  should be Privy to all that information at every other that
• 47:31
  every dues paying member is is Privy to you know Any
• 47:36
  information that is put out there that affects your wages
• 47:39
  should be available to all of the craft is how I feel on that
• 47:44
  personally. My opinion is Rex can be a good
• 47:49
  thing, but the problem is there is so much stuff in there that
• 47:54
  takes away from carrier routes. The biggest ones of them is the
• 48:02
  coverage factor and the speed matrix.
• 48:06
  Those two things are the biggest killer of evaluations in the
• 48:11
  whole system. And if anything I would argue
• 48:14
  about is I would take the coverage factors out of the
• 48:19
  equation, I would replace that with a higher box value number.
• 48:26
  Because the fact of the matter is, no matter if you have mail
• 48:31
  for that box that day or not, you still go to that box every
• 48:36
  day. It doesn't matter if there is a
• 48:40
  mail in it, if the flag is up or if there's no mail.
• 48:42
  You drive 100% of your route every day.
• 48:47
  You open your CB, US every day, you go to every stop on your
• 48:52
  route every day. And coverage factor is just
• 48:58
  management's way of saying, well, you didn't have mail for
• 49:00
  them, so you're not getting paid for delivering to them today.
• 49:04
  And that to me is a big slap in the face.
• 49:08
  And they can say, oh, bread crumbs are matching bread
• 49:11
  crumbs. Bread crumbs will help your
• 49:13
  coverage factor. Well, bread crumbs don't help
• 49:15
  when you have a 15 box CBU. Bread crumbs don't help when
• 49:21
  your scanner doesn't have GPS signal.
• 49:24
  Bread crumbs don't help when carriers are stopping at every
• 49:27
  single mailbox and not getting 100% coverage every single day.
• 49:32
  Bread crumbs aren't mattering. So why is it listed that it's
• 49:35
  part of your coverage factor? So remove the coverage factor,
• 49:39
  replace it with a higher box value.
• 49:42
  Adjust the speed matrix. You have people out there in
• 49:45
  LOVS who can't even get above 35 miles an hour with the truck
• 49:50
  shaking like it's going to fall apart.
• 49:53
  You have carriers out there who are driving personal vehicles
• 49:56
  down dirt roads that haven't been maintained in 10 years, but
• 50:00
  their vehicles can make it as long as they take it gently.
• 50:04
  But they can't do 39.45 miles an hour for the mile and a half two
• 50:09
  miles. They have to drive from 1 box to
• 50:11
  the other. There are a lot of high mileage,
• 50:14
  low volume routes out there that are getting jacked by the speed
• 50:19
  matrix because they're out in the middle of nowhere.
• 50:22
  And it doesn't take into account anything like weather,
• 50:26
  especially in our snow states. It doesn't take into account
• 50:32
  dust storms in the South, heavy rains, flooding where you're
• 50:36
  driving slow so you don't flood your car out because you're
• 50:39
  driving down the road. You probably shouldn't be going
• 50:41
  down, but you're trying to deliver all the mail.
• 50:45
  It doesn't affect any of that. And so you're working harder for
• 50:49
  less money. So those, those are the biggest
• 50:53
  things that I would change in the rec system are those two
• 50:56
  items because our carriers deserve to be paid for the work
• 51:01
  that they do. It doesn't matter if they have
• 51:04
  mail for it or not, they're still going there.
• 51:07
  So they should be paid for it. And let's not forget the high
• 51:10
  mileage routes too. That took a real big cut.
• 51:14
  In pay because exactly. Oh yeah, our, you know, our one
• 51:20
  POV route which has 95 miles and 485 boxes lost three hours and
• 51:28
  that was just in box value dropping and the drive speed
• 51:32
  matrix, the only reason why it lost.
• 51:36
  All right. I'm going to go on to the next
• 51:38
  one. With contract negotiations going
• 51:41
  on this year and there being little hope with them being
• 51:43
  resolved by the time of the National Convention, what
• 51:47
  challenges do you foresee in regards to change in leadership
• 51:51
  mid negotiations and how do you plan to overcome those
• 51:54
  challenges? As president, I foresee no
• 51:58
  challenges because until we have a signed contract, everything's
• 52:02
  a discussion for consideration. And if we want to change that
• 52:06
  discussion, we will. We will turn every topic around
• 52:12
  that doesn't benefit the entire craft.
• 52:16
  Now accordingly, 400 resolutions are submitted.
• 52:21
  They'd like to see 20 to 30, preferably 20 according to our
• 52:25
  president, to be considered thrown into the contract
• 52:29
  negotiation. I'd like to throw all 400 in
• 52:32
  there, because if I throw 400 in there, I have a better chance of
• 52:36
  having fifty or six stick to the wall.
• 52:39
  Then I will having 456 the wall out of 20, and all those
• 52:44
  resolutions are passed by the membership, so they should get
• 52:49
  that representation in the negotiation.
• 52:53
  Anything that they discuss up to now, like I said, has been a
• 52:57
  discussion. Nothing's in concrete, nothing's
• 53:00
  been signed, nothing's been agreed to, and if it's been
• 53:03
  agreed to, we'll agree to disagree and remove it.
• 53:07
  If it doesn't serve the craft, it's not being considered vice
• 53:13
  president. I was.
• 53:15
  Going to say I have to agree with Bill on that.
• 53:17
  You know, until it's signed and ratified or not, then there is,
• 53:24
  you know, contract. Yeah.
• 53:26
  I would go in and ever to review, review all the talks
• 53:30
  that have previously occurred to see what they have agreed on and
• 53:34
  disagreed on And if there's anything in there that was
• 53:37
  agreed upon that is not beneficiary to the craft, I'm
• 53:43
  going to bring that back to the table and say, no, I don't agree
• 53:45
  with this. If there's stuff on there that
• 53:48
  was not agreed upon but it was talked about that benefits the
• 53:51
  craft, then I'm going to bring that back up to the table and
• 53:55
  say, OK, what do we got to do to try and get and try and get this
• 54:00
  for the craft? That's The thing is it's got to
• 54:04
  benefit the craft as a whole and if it's not benefiting the
• 54:08
  craft, then I don't want it as well, You know, yeah, it could.
• 54:11
  It may be a challenge to go in there and say, no, we don't want
• 54:14
  this. I understand you guys agreed
• 54:17
  upon this bar, but we don't like this.
• 54:19
  We don't want this or you guys didn't agree upon this before.
• 54:24
  But we need to go back and talk about this again because this is
• 54:28
  what the craft needs. We've been the ones that have
• 54:31
  been working for the last 10 plus years on the ground.
• 54:36
  We know what's going, We know what all these carriers are
• 54:38
  going through. This is what needs to be done.
• 54:42
  Let me let me throw a quick one in there and this gets me
• 54:45
  because of a situation in our office where we have an
• 54:50
  apartment building serviced by a rural carrier and they have no
• 54:55
  CB US big enough for some of the parcels and so it's a three
• 55:00
  floor unit. So they have to walk up and down
• 55:04
  the flights of stairs, put the package outside the apartment
• 55:08
  door. They don't get the credit for
• 55:12
  that distance. Yeah.
• 55:13
  There is no vertical credit, and there should be.
• 55:16
  And there should be, there should be.
• 55:18
  When you do your, when you do your, you know, measurements,
• 55:22
  you ought to be taking that walking, you know, rolling,
• 55:25
  measuring wheel and going to the furthest apartment away and
• 55:29
  measuring and then, you know, walk it back, walk it back, walk
• 55:32
  it back. But don't tell me that we
• 55:35
  shouldn't be getting credit for that.
• 55:37
  That's why most of our apartment complexes are serviced by
• 55:40
  highway contractors, because we don't want it on our routes.
• 55:45
  I've got several of my condos that are second floors and it's
• 55:49
  just not one set of steps going up to the second floor.
• 55:52
  It's a set of steps, a landing, a turn and going up to the
• 55:54
  second floor. You know, I totally get where
• 55:57
  you're coming from on that. I definitely think there needs
• 56:00
  to be a vertical measurement for for those condos and apartment
• 56:07
  buildings that have two floors or more.
• 56:10
  Even though it does say in the P6O3 that if it's more than two
• 56:14
  floors without an elevator, you don't have to go up to that
• 56:17
  third floor, you can leave a notice.
• 56:20
  That's not what the carriers are being told and and they're
• 56:23
  fearful for their job, so they actually do walk it up three
• 56:26
  flights. My opinion on contract
• 56:30
  negotiations is similar to everyone else is here.
• 56:36
  Nothing is ever set in stone until it's signed, dated, and
• 56:43
  mutually agreed upon by the craft.
• 56:47
  Once the craft votes on it and says this is what we want,
• 56:52
  that's the only time contract negotiations for that contract
• 56:56
  come to an end. I'm going to be going in right
• 57:00
  from the get go with three things in mind #1 Is it a
• 57:04
  benefit to the craft, #2 is it legal following the law?
• 57:12
  And #3 is there a way management could use it against us, whether
• 57:22
  it be by them misinterpreting it, mismanaging it, or just
• 57:29
  ignoring the fact that it's there in the first place?
• 57:33
  I'm going to be looking for a lot of airtight language because
• 57:39
  there are a lot of loopholes in our contract as it stands, a lot
• 57:43
  of Mays and shoulds and things like that.
• 57:48
  If it's something that benefits the craft and I don't want
• 57:52
  management using it as an abusive thing, I'm going to make
• 57:56
  sure that it will include finite words instead of open, easy
• 58:03
  loophole words. Because all too often we see
• 58:08
  that management uses those loophole words to abuse carriers
• 58:13
  and then tell them file a grievance.
• 58:16
  Management has gotten so bold at abusing our contracts and
• 58:20
  manuals and MO us that they actually just look at the
• 58:24
  carrier and go do it and then file.
• 58:27
  I'll even give you the grievance form, because they know that our
• 58:31
  current system will settle for language and that's going to
• 58:35
  stop too. But our contract needs to be
• 58:40
  strong enough to protect the craft now and airtight enough to
• 58:49
  protect them in the next contract negotiation.
• 58:53
  OK, I have to agree with you that on the airtight language as
• 58:56
  well this next one is kind of long, might be a crazy
• 59:01
  proposition question. What would you people think
• 59:05
  about simplifying the evaluation chart?
• 59:08
  Any hours under 40 evaluated is an H route, 40 to 47.59
• 59:16
  evaluated hours is AJ route and 48 to 58 is AK route.
• 59:21
  I think they're talking standard hours, not evaluated hours.
• 59:25
  A route evaluated 40 to 40.59 would pay at the level, 4041 to
• 59:32
  41.59 would be a level 41, etcetera.
• 59:36
  Once 48 hours is met, the chart starts back at 40 and grow one
• 59:41
  step per hour. Example 50 hour route would be
• 59:44
  paid at the 42 level. This would lower the threshold
• 59:48
  for people able to get a day off and raise the pay in most
• 59:52
  instances. Keep us.
• 59:53
  Keep things simple. It's never simple.
• 59:56
  Yeah, No. You know the current.
• 1:00:01
  The current system is pretty beneficial in terms of hours
• 1:00:07
  paid. You know, because a route has to
• 1:00:10
  have 42 standard hours in order to become an H route.
• 1:00:14
  So. But that is a window of 41 1/2
• 1:00:19
  to almost 42 1/2. It's one minute shy.
• 1:00:24
  So if you actually have 41 and three quarter hours, you're
• 1:00:28
  still getting paid for working 42 hours.
• 1:00:32
  Of course there's the other side of it, the 29 minutes on the
• 1:00:35
  other side of 42 that you're not getting paid for.
• 1:00:39
  But every single one of these hours does have 1/2 hour prior
• 1:00:46
  to the hour set. Adjusting it to where the hour
• 1:00:50
  starts at the hour would not be beneficial to the craft and the
• 1:00:56
  system we have really does make it easier for carriers to have
• 1:01:04
  more days off. Also.
• 1:01:07
  And I don't know about you guys, but if we had a full complement
• 1:01:12
  of RC, as I'm sure and everybody was paid a fair wage and I'm
• 1:01:18
  sure every carrier would love to have more days off than working
• 1:01:25
  more hours for fewer, fewer days off.
• 1:01:30
  But that's just my personal opinion.
• 1:01:32
  How about you guys? Well, it's funny you say about
• 1:01:34
  more days off because Josh responded.
• 1:01:36
  Somebody going from A44K to A44-H and he put in the comment
• 1:01:43
  is, but you're only losing 2 days.
• 1:01:46
  Well, that's two days that you could possibly be working
• 1:01:50
  overtime. That's two days that you could
• 1:01:53
  be spending with your family. You know those two days, the
• 1:01:58
  time is just as important as the money in some respect, but the
• 1:02:03
  thing of it is that those two days give you the opportunity to
• 1:02:07
  make more money if need be. You're not.
• 1:02:11
  Not that you're guaranteed the overtime that's in the contract.
• 1:02:15
  Not a guarantee. But there is an opportunity.
• 1:02:18
  Don't, don't piss off that. It's just two days.
• 1:02:22
  Those are two days of your life that you have to give the post
• 1:02:25
  office for the same amount of money for 10 days.
• 1:02:29
  Yeah, I, I, I'm going to say let's not try and change the
• 1:02:34
  evaluated the evaluation hours pay charts just yet.
• 1:02:38
  I mean that's we've got enough with Rex and I think with the
• 1:02:43
  evaluation chart that we have now, it works.
• 1:02:46
  It's what's been there for quite a while and let's you know,
• 1:02:50
  unless something else happens down the road, I wouldn't even
• 1:02:53
  want to look at even trying to change it right now.
• 1:02:56
  The next one, this is the last one of the ones we didn't get to
• 1:02:59
  last time, Does have any candidates ever served on the
• 1:03:04
  state board? I've been asked and I've refused
• 1:03:08
  several times because of, I'll say, the corruption of my
• 1:03:15
  Pennsylvania State Board. Plain and simple.
• 1:03:21
  If you want to, if you want an explanation of that, our our
• 1:03:25
  current Dr. got her position for backing the National Steward
• 1:03:30
  System against me in regards to, you know, having somebody denied
• 1:03:34
  as a delegate to the National Convention.
• 1:03:37
  She was with me right up to the point where the National Board
• 1:03:40
  made their decision saying that I had insufficient evidence.
• 1:03:45
  After I submitted 14 pages on this individual, the ADR at the
• 1:03:52
  time part time ADR got the full time ADR position when she
• 1:03:58
  backed up the National Board with the same exact language
• 1:04:02
  because our our State Board president was resigning.
• 1:04:07
  I don't know our State board Dr. was resigning at the time.
• 1:04:11
  Two months later, the part time ADR got the full time Dr.
• 1:04:14
  position and everybody knew it before it happened.
• 1:04:17
  I have ran for state board. I did last year.
• 1:04:21
  I have not served on the our state board.
• 1:04:24
  However, I do go to the state board meetings as an observer as
• 1:04:31
  they are open to the membership to observe, and I do go to those
• 1:04:37
  every chance I get. So no, I have not served State
• 1:04:40
  Board James. Considering the issues
• 1:04:45
  surrounding the current system of electability in our union,
• 1:04:52
  the current process to go from just a carrier up the chain to
• 1:04:59
  national board is to proceed through your state system first,
• 1:05:05
  whether it have been through the national steward system or
• 1:05:11
  through your state board to get elected to the national board.
• 1:05:15
  And this is the way we've done it for years.
• 1:05:18
  For years and years and years people have moved up through the
• 1:05:22
  chain of politics to the national board and where has
• 1:05:26
  that gotten us? It has gotten us here where we
• 1:05:31
  have wrecks that has destroyed carriers.
• 1:05:34
  That our president says is the greatest thing since sliced
• 1:05:37
  bread for the craft, because everybody is now working the
• 1:05:43
  hours that they're being paid for, basically.
• 1:05:48
  That rural carriers have had it for too, too good for too long.
• 1:05:52
  But in order to have a healthy working system, going through
• 1:06:00
  the process of going up the chain hasn't worked for the
• 1:06:04
  craft in the last 20 years. You can go through the old
• 1:06:08
  magazines and watch how the people moved up the chain to get
• 1:06:12
  into the offices in the national board.
• 1:06:15
  And the reason I am running for national board versus going
• 1:06:19
  through the system, even though I have enough years ahead of me
• 1:06:23
  to go through the process is because I believe at this point
• 1:06:29
  it is time for people to step up that haven't been politicized,
• 1:06:34
  that haven't gone through the chain to get up there and had to
• 1:06:40
  kiss backsides in order to go up that chain.
• 1:06:45
  So I was not going to run for state board.
• 1:06:49
  I was asked to possibly run for county board by a few people in
• 1:06:53
  my county. But I want to make a change for
• 1:06:58
  this craft because I care so much about this craft and that
• 1:07:02
  is why I have not served on my state board.
• 1:07:05
  I want to be where I can make an actual difference for the craft.
• 1:07:09
  Yeah, I'm just going to add in. I have served on two different
• 1:07:12
  county local boards. I do currently on my as well it.
• 1:07:20
  I know it's not the same by any means, but I have served on
• 1:07:24
  local boards and currently do. All right, so this one's kind of
• 1:07:29
  going to be somewhere in nature. How come each of you were never
• 1:07:33
  area or AD Rs or district reps? Or did you attempt or apply for
• 1:07:37
  that in the past? I think I just covered that in
• 1:07:40
  the last section. That's why I was following this
• 1:07:44
  one up with from that one so. Yeah, same thing.
• 1:07:49
  It's it's because when you get into those positions, you are
• 1:07:54
  appointed by the national board. You can be recommended by your
• 1:08:00
  state board for the position, but the national board doesn't
• 1:08:04
  have to follow the state board's recommendations and we've seen
• 1:08:09
  it so far this past year. They've been removing people
• 1:08:15
  from positions of D Rs and AD Rs that don't fully align with what
• 1:08:20
  the board wants. And I don't know what the
• 1:08:23
  numbers we're up to now yet, but there's been a lot of them and a
• 1:08:27
  lot more than normal that we have.
• 1:08:30
  So something's going on that these people who have been
• 1:08:35
  appointed by previous national boards are being removed and
• 1:08:39
  replaced by people who are more aligned with our current
• 1:08:43
  national leadership. Why would we want to put
• 1:08:46
  ourselves in a position of having to agree with everything
• 1:08:54
  the national board does? All right, I'm going to go on
• 1:08:58
  this one. I have not.
• 1:09:02
  I had talked about going for applying for area on a few
• 1:09:11
  different occasions. When I did mention it to my
• 1:09:15
  doctor, I was kind of blown off the first time.
• 1:09:18
  The second time, by the time I was able to get my application
• 1:09:23
  and resume started and around was about the time that we got
• 1:09:29
  decertified for this podcast. So I kind of felt that it was a
• 1:09:32
  mute point at that at that time to do that.
• 1:09:35
  It definitely had crossed my mind in the past many times
• 1:09:38
  about moving up in the steward system.
• 1:09:40
  So it's not something that I wasn't ever interested in.
• 1:09:44
  I definitely was. It's just timing wise.
• 1:09:47
  Never was able to happen, Bill. I've never considered it because
• 1:09:53
  of the fact that I was, you know, busy enough in my own
• 1:09:56
  office in regards to grievances. It is an appointed position.
• 1:10:01
  It is a recommended by the the Dr. with input from the AD Rs in
• 1:10:07
  this state. Again, it's not something that
• 1:10:11
  the National Seward System at the national level has that they
• 1:10:15
  can consider it and then they could blow it up on you.
• 1:10:18
  Again, since we've been decertified, it's kind of a mute
• 1:10:21
  point now, but in the past if I was asked to do that, I I
• 1:10:27
  probably would have because of the felt.
• 1:10:30
  I felt that I could have served more people effectively over the
• 1:10:36
  the course of my assignment and I also felt that they weren't
• 1:10:41
  getting the proper representation.
• 1:10:42
  Anyway. It's it's a bit like the state
• 1:10:46
  board. If you don't sign up on the
• 1:10:47
  state board, as you know most state board policies mirror the
• 1:10:52
  national board policies. That's why the system works the
• 1:10:56
  way it is moving up the chain the the up the food ladder per
• 1:11:01
  SE to get to the national and it hasn't worked for 20 years.
• 1:11:06
  Yes, you know, I I've, I've considered it.
• 1:11:09
  No, I was never asked. And it's because of the fact
• 1:11:13
  that, you know, I I'm just not one of those lackey the NSS or
• 1:11:17
  you know state politics either. I believe in being my own
• 1:11:21
  person, my own man and I believe I represent most of the will of
• 1:11:25
  the people who are in this craft union and non union and that
• 1:11:30
  they're the people I'm concerned with.
• 1:11:31
  I'm not concerned about the the politics per SE on my part
• 1:11:36
  because of the fact that I don't believe in politics.
• 1:11:38
  I believe in service. OK guys, what would you do if
• 1:11:42
  elected to help recruit new members?
• 1:11:45
  Well, somebody said something about, you know, getting it out
• 1:11:49
  on TVT. Well not TV, but getting your
• 1:11:51
  customer base. But wouldn't that be neat?
• 1:11:54
  To have APSA and public service announcement with a carrier and,
• 1:11:59
  you know the word interviewer interviewing customers on your
• 1:12:03
  route saying how much they enjoy having you there, how many times
• 1:12:07
  they you know, you save the child or a dog or help an
• 1:12:11
  elderly neighbor. And the show how vital we are to
• 1:12:15
  the entire country is probably something the post office
• 1:12:19
  wouldn't finance. But I'm sure that you know the
• 1:12:22
  union itself. If you know you cut the expenses
• 1:12:27
  enough, you can probably put that out there and garner some
• 1:12:30
  attention for the rule craft itself because we are a vital
• 1:12:34
  role in in the American community.
• 1:12:36
  I I I think that would be a a nice little Gold Star on your
• 1:12:41
  refrigerator, don't you? How would I help recruit new
• 1:12:44
  members and not necessarily new members?
• 1:12:48
  I'd want to recruit old members that have dropped out and
• 1:12:52
  recruit them back in and that would be by regaining the trust
• 1:12:56
  of the of the craft. I mean a good portion of the
• 1:13:00
  craft is lost trust and national leadership.
• 1:13:03
  And I would want to restore that trust and show them that we're
• 1:13:06
  actually working for them and not for what's in our best
• 1:13:11
  interests. Our best interest is the craft,
• 1:13:14
  not our personal gains. And I think that would
• 1:13:17
  definitely help recruit new members into the union as well
• 1:13:22
  as bringing back those that have left because of their their
• 1:13:26
  disdain in lack of representation.
• 1:13:31
  And I think I mentioned this on a couple episodes ago and you
• 1:13:35
  know, I would just, I would show up at local meetings, local
• 1:13:39
  picnics, wherever is just another craft number.
• 1:13:42
  Remember, I'm not, I wouldn't be coming in as a special guest or
• 1:13:47
  an official matter. I'd just be coming in as, hey,
• 1:13:50
  I'm just another member coming and I hang out with you guys and
• 1:13:53
  see how it's going. I mean, I think that's what
• 1:13:56
  we're really need to do is put ourselves out there with the
• 1:13:59
  craft and with the membership and be seen and talked to more
• 1:14:03
  than just, Oh well, you can go to your regional conference to
• 1:14:07
  talk to them, but then do you really get to talk to them?
• 1:14:11
  You know, that's The thing is we really, in order to recruit new
• 1:14:14
  membership into into the union, is we really need to be
• 1:14:18
  available to the craft as a whole on all different levels.
• 1:14:24
  We can show that we are working for them, James.
• 1:14:27
  Well, along those lines, I agree with Kristen.
• 1:14:31
  We need to not only recruit new members to join the craft, which
• 1:14:36
  can be done with a proper strong contract that protects the craft
• 1:14:41
  and entices people to apply to this job for the wages, benefits
• 1:14:46
  and work conditions that we negotiate in that contract.
• 1:14:50
  But also I would be putting the National steward system to work.
• 1:14:56
  I would be putting stewards in these offices.
• 1:14:59
  I've met carriers that have didn't know who their steward
• 1:15:03
  was 10/15/20 years into their career.
• 1:15:07
  So I would want our stewards going out and introducing
• 1:15:10
  themselves to the craft and asking how can the the
• 1:15:13
  leadership help you? How can the steward system help
• 1:15:17
  you? Because I think the biggest
• 1:15:20
  downfall of our union membership is the fact that the craft does
• 1:15:28
  not feel like they're listened to.
• 1:15:31
  Craft doesn't feel like they're being heard.
• 1:15:34
  And getting people out there to listen to the Craft and send
• 1:15:38
  information up to the top of the chain, up right up to the
• 1:15:41
  Director of Stewart Operations and the Director of Stewart
• 1:15:44
  Operations, Sending information straight back down is going to
• 1:15:48
  be the biggest benefit of growing union membership.
• 1:15:54
  This podcast was designed to help strengthen the craft, help
• 1:16:00
  bring people together, help bring the craft together, and
• 1:16:04
  grow union membership. Because the craft, the union is
• 1:16:10
  only as strong as its weakest link, and the weakest link are
• 1:16:14
  the craft members who don't know anything about the contract
• 1:16:20
  manuals and their job description.
• 1:16:23
  So by strengthening our craft, you can strengthen the union.
• 1:16:29
  And a lot of people think that, oh, people aren't going to pay
• 1:16:32
  dues even if you give them all the information.
• 1:16:34
  That's true. There are going to be people who
• 1:16:37
  aren't going to pay dues because they don't want to or because
• 1:16:41
  they want to get everything for free.
• 1:16:44
  That's OK there. There's a law for that, but
• 1:16:48
  you're going to get a lot of the people who have pulled their
• 1:16:52
  dues back into the union if you just listen to them.
• 1:16:58
  When I was at SWAC, a total of 240 people pulled their dues in
• 1:17:06
  four states. Imagine if those 240 people who
• 1:17:11
  wanted to pull their dues were asked why do you feel you need
• 1:17:15
  to pull your dues? I'm sure the leadership could
• 1:17:19
  have fixed that and gotten them back into the dues paying
• 1:17:22
  status, but instead they turned around and decided to degrade
• 1:17:27
  them in front of dues paying members.
• 1:17:31
  The 1st way to fix things. The 1st way to fix things is to
• 1:17:36
  ask questions. Now you can go ahead.
• 1:17:40
  OK, I just wanted to add, when we were talking about the
• 1:17:43
  stairs, it's actually the Wilbur Wood letter M44.
• 1:17:48
  In the POM section 617 which is 4 pages.
• 1:17:51
  It talks about how many flights of stairs is too many for a
• 1:17:54
  parcel delivery. It is accepted by the parties
• 1:17:58
  that when there is no working elevator in a building with more
• 1:18:02
  than more than three floors that the item will either be
• 1:18:05
  delivered to an authorized location on the 1st floor or a
• 1:18:10
  3849 will be left in the customer's mailbox.
• 1:18:13
  So it has three or more floors, excuse me, that doesn't have a
• 1:18:16
  working elevator. And I think I said more than two
• 1:18:19
  floor, third, yeah, so it's three, more than three floors.
• 1:18:24
  OK. All right.
• 1:18:25
  I got a couple more. These ones are the ones that
• 1:18:27
  were in listener chat. So I'm just kind of going
• 1:18:29
  through them. The arbitration ruling that put
• 1:18:34
  Rex into place that it had to be implemented and it has been,
• 1:18:37
  Would it be possible to renegotiate evaluation methods
• 1:18:41
  with this new contract now that the obligation of the
• 1:18:44
  arbitration has been met? So considering I deal in the law
• 1:18:50
  and stuff, an arbitration ruling is meant to be in agreement
• 1:18:56
  between the two parties and follow what the arbitrator said.
• 1:19:00
  If you want to change what the arbitrator said and mutually
• 1:19:05
  agree on it, you can, because the ruling was already made,
• 1:19:09
  finalized and everything. You can change things after an
• 1:19:14
  arbitration ruling as long as they are mutually agreed upon,
• 1:19:19
  because you'd be setting forth new contract language, whether
• 1:19:23
  it be in your national contract or in Amou or similar.
• 1:19:30
  But it has to be mutually agreed upon, and if it's not, then you
• 1:19:33
  have to go back to the arbitrator for a ruling on it.
• 1:19:37
  Bill, do you have anything to add on that one?
• 1:19:40
  No, he's covered that succinctly.
• 1:19:42
  It's until it is mutually agreed upon, it's non binding and the
• 1:19:48
  arbitrator can make the adjustments to that.
• 1:19:51
  So he's correcting that format and that's how it should be.
• 1:19:57
  Yeah, I will have to agree. James basically covered that one
• 1:20:00
  on all basis. Thank you, James.
• 1:20:03
  You made that easy for the rest of us.
• 1:20:07
  I try. I try.
• 1:20:08
  Why is every office so different if we fall under one contract
• 1:20:12
  and how do you fix that? And that's where educating
• 1:20:17
  national steward system, educated carriers, it's
• 1:20:22
  everybody. It has to be everybody coming
• 1:20:24
  together and standing their ground and up to making sure
• 1:20:27
  management upholds that contract.
• 1:20:29
  Well, and and it's the same reason why, you know that you
• 1:20:33
  have a office like Josh's where you have 100 plus carriers in
• 1:20:38
  there versus, you know, Bumbletown, Iowa, which has, you
• 1:20:44
  know, 3-3 routes in there. The postmaster is your mom.
• 1:20:48
  You know, the clerks are your your sisters and cousins and you
• 1:20:52
  know, the the other two people in there are your neighbors.
• 1:20:55
  I mean there's there's a certain familiarity that you know
• 1:20:58
  develops between those people that you can't get in a larger
• 1:21:01
  office and they're more willing to work together.
• 1:21:05
  That doesn't under score the fact that the contract is still
• 1:21:08
  a contract but they're willing to work together.
• 1:21:11
  And and that is the underlying problem with the post office is
• 1:21:16
  that you can have a small office like that cooperating and and
• 1:21:20
  everybody gets the job done versus offices like mine or
• 1:21:23
  Josh's or you know anybody else's where you have you know
• 1:21:26
  more than 20 carriers in there and everybody's going their
• 1:21:30
  separate ways and you know they have their separate agendas.
• 1:21:34
  There's you know you know people that the supervisor likes
• 1:21:37
  doesn't like but the problem of it is that they're not following
• 1:21:41
  the contract. So guess what you're you're
• 1:21:44
  going to have, you know, even though you have identical routes
• 1:21:47
  you have, you have the same exact contract, the MO user
• 1:21:51
  enforced, and everything else. The atmosphere and and working
• 1:21:55
  with management is different in almost every office.
• 1:22:00
  And it's a shame because I I would like to work in a small
• 1:22:03
  just like that, where you could work together and settle your
• 1:22:06
  differences without initiating A grievance process.
• 1:22:10
  But until that day comes and hell freezes over, we're all
• 1:22:15
  going to be different. All right.
• 1:22:19
  Yeah. I think we all kind of did you
• 1:22:21
  have anything to add on that James Well?
• 1:22:24
  Basically, like I said, the National Sewerage System is the
• 1:22:26
  biggest thing that we have. And getting every steward to be
• 1:22:33
  the same information source in every single state and territory
• 1:22:39
  of the United States that the Postal Service operates in is
• 1:22:44
  the most important thing that our steward system can do.
• 1:22:50
  Because it's important for every steward to have the same
• 1:22:54
  information, to be able to fight every single grievance the same
• 1:22:58
  way across the entire country. Sure, there are going to be
• 1:23:03
  regional things that have to be sorted out.
• 1:23:07
  It's understandable what works in Michigan is not going to work
• 1:23:11
  in Texas, especially when you have weather differences and
• 1:23:14
  things like that. But the contract is national,
• 1:23:19
  the PO6O3 is national, Your MO US are national.
• 1:23:25
  Everything is national across the board when it comes to
• 1:23:29
  disputes between management and carriers.
• 1:23:31
  And if any carrier has a question, I want them to be able
• 1:23:35
  to go to any steward in the system and get the same answer
• 1:23:40
  no matter what. So that is the only way we can
• 1:23:44
  solve this problem. This local MOU thing is a city
• 1:23:48
  thing. City carriers give local MO us.
• 1:23:52
  We don't have that and we shouldn't have that because it
• 1:23:56
  makes issues in these offices. All right.
• 1:24:00
  One more question and then we're going to wrap it up for tonight
• 1:24:02
  because it's after 9:00. So what about the hiring time?
• 1:24:09
  Yeah, Eastern Time and I have to edit.
• 1:24:12
  So last question for this evening.
• 1:24:14
  What about the hiring process? Can this change, shorten the
• 1:24:18
  process somehow, maybe give it back to the office?
• 1:24:22
  Unfortunately, it's the employer that chooses their hiring
• 1:24:25
  process and USPS is the employer and however they feel to choose
• 1:24:32
  how to do the hiring process is basically on them.
• 1:24:35
  Am I correct guys? It's one of the things that's
• 1:24:40
  frustrating as hell. It's bad enough when it takes,
• 1:24:43
  you know, six to seven months to get a Steward Cert trained and
• 1:24:47
  certified. But when you're waiting three to
• 1:24:49
  four months to hire somebody who's looking for work and can't
• 1:24:53
  afford to be sitting on their hands for three to four months,
• 1:24:56
  it's very frustrating. Because one gentleman we have in
• 1:25:00
  our office, Drew, came into the office the day after he filled
• 1:25:05
  out an application online. The window clerk turned around
• 1:25:09
  and came to me and said, Bill, can you talk to this gentleman?
• 1:25:12
  So I went, you know, introduced myself, we talked, I told him, I
• 1:25:17
  said you know your your form's in, let's get the postmaster in
• 1:25:22
  on it. And I says, after I get done
• 1:25:23
  with you, I says I will go talk to him directly.
• 1:25:26
  I gave him my phone number, you know, the guy called me for the
• 1:25:30
  next three days in a row and I told him, I says I'll go ask the
• 1:25:35
  postmaster again, go ahead. He was the shortest ever because
• 1:25:39
  it took two weeks to get him set up for training.
• 1:25:43
  But I had to hound the postmaster for eight days
• 1:25:46
  straight to get this guy, you know, put into the Academy and
• 1:25:50
  everything. It shouldn't take that long when
• 1:25:53
  you're short of people and you need somebody and they're coming
• 1:25:57
  day and after day after day, get a job, hire them.
• 1:26:03
  I mean you know the drive and desire.
• 1:26:05
  And I told the postmaster and my supervisor, I said this guy's
• 1:26:09
  motivated, we need to get him on board and we need to get him
• 1:26:12
  trained and into the system. I said because you know we're
• 1:26:16
  short 5 Subs right now and thank God that you know, the clerk did
• 1:26:22
  hand them off to me and and I persevered and now he's worked
• 1:26:25
  out, you know he's APTF and he's second line for the next route
• 1:26:30
  that comes up and he's been an asset all around.
• 1:26:34
  So yes, I think, you know, the hiring process should go back to
• 1:26:38
  the local offices. The, the people they have in my,
• 1:26:41
  my district are incompetent. And we've seen people been out
• 1:26:45
  there for, you know, three months waiting to get a job.
• 1:26:50
  And it's ludicrous because if they're looking for work folks,
• 1:26:54
  they can't afford to sit around on their hands for three months.
• 1:26:56
  Taking back off of that, you know, we have the hiring process
• 1:27:02
  that was designed and created by the Postal Service back when
• 1:27:08
  people were lining up out the door to work here.
• 1:27:12
  And granted, I'd love to have a contract with the Postal Service
• 1:27:16
  that makes people line up out the door again.
• 1:27:20
  But the fact of the matter is, even if they're lining up out
• 1:27:23
  the door today, these people aren't going to be willing to
• 1:27:27
  wait three or four months, especially with today's climate.
• 1:27:32
  They need a job now. They need a job yesterday to be
• 1:27:37
  able to pay for a lot of the stuff that we have today.
• 1:27:41
  And I know companies that have stricter background checks than
• 1:27:46
  the Postal Service does, and they're hiring people within two
• 1:27:51
  weeks of them applying, getting background checks done, getting
• 1:27:55
  fingerprints done. All that stuff.
• 1:27:58
  They work with the FAA, they work with Department of Defense.
• 1:28:01
  They work with, you know, private industry security,
• 1:28:06
  things like that, work with money, lawn money systems,
• 1:28:11
  things like that, that they get their background checks way
• 1:28:14
  quicker than the post office does.
• 1:28:16
  The issue herein lies that the Postal Service doesn't want to
• 1:28:21
  change the system that they have because that means they'd have
• 1:28:25
  to train people. And as we have observed with
• 1:28:28
  Rex, the Postal Service doesn't like to train people.
• 1:28:32
  We see it with their management. Management doesn't know the
• 1:28:34
  contract, doesn't know rural, doesn't even know city rules and
• 1:28:39
  regulations. But yet they make the
• 1:28:41
  management. The fact is, the Postal Service
• 1:28:45
  is doing the bear minimum that they can get away with in order
• 1:28:52
  to stifle our system to force us into these MO us force us into
• 1:28:59
  working carriers like dogs. 12 hours a day, 13 hours a day, 14
• 1:29:05
  hours a day. Because they aren't willing to
• 1:29:08
  adjust the process to the modern day, they aren't willing to make
• 1:29:12
  change. And sometimes change has to
• 1:29:17
  happen somewhere, somehow, in order to allow an industry, a
• 1:29:23
  company or a government agency to continue to operate.
• 1:29:30
  And if they aren't willing to make that change, they're going
• 1:29:32
  to go the way of the dodo bird all.
• 1:29:35
  Right, guys, I think we're going to wind it down and call it a
• 1:29:39
  night. So thank you guys for your
• 1:29:43
  questions. I will update the question forms
• 1:29:47
  and get them posted again that way.
• 1:29:50
  Y'all have any more questions for us, please feel free to fill
• 1:29:54
  out those forms. I'll post it again on the
• 1:29:56
  Discord channel and the Facebook page as well as the Facebook
• 1:30:01
  group. Again a way you guys can fill
• 1:30:03
  out the form and get that to us. As you know, we don't tell, we
• 1:30:07
  don't mention who you are or where you're from when we call
• 1:30:11
  out the questions. We're just answering.
• 1:30:13
  You know, we're just doing the questions.
• 1:30:15
  We don't care who it came from. So on that note, any final
• 1:30:21
  comments this evening, James? You know, we come on here for
• 1:30:27
  the Craft and one of the biggest comments that I have ever gotten
• 1:30:33
  on here about what the union leadership could do to help grow
• 1:30:39
  the craft and get things going was, oh, you know what would be
• 1:30:45
  even better? A weekly podcast put out by the
• 1:30:47
  leadership to address current issues and such.
• 1:30:50
  We could listen to it while on the route.
• 1:30:53
  Well, we already have the podcast and the next step is
• 1:30:58
  your leadership. So the biggest thing we want to
• 1:31:04
  do is just help The craft. We're here for The Craft.
• 1:31:08
  We talk to The Craft. We listen to the craft because
• 1:31:13
  the biggest thing anybody in leadership can ever do is listen
• 1:31:19
  to the people they're leading. Because at the end of the day,
• 1:31:24
  we're all in this together. I I sit there and I wonder how
• 1:31:30
  much change we can affect with our podcast.
• 1:31:34
  And I know that we've had people stay in the union.
• 1:31:38
  We, I know we've had people run for Stewart and win the
• 1:31:42
  elections and we get enough feedback, you know, on this site
• 1:31:48
  and others so that I know that we are doing some good.
• 1:31:52
  Is it, is it enough? Some good is better than what
• 1:31:56
  the National Board is doing. So I'm proud of the fact that us
• 1:32:02
  as a group are willing to put ourselves out, you know, our
• 1:32:06
  time and energy to help educate the craft, to help them
• 1:32:11
  understand that they have right that they are important, that we
• 1:32:17
  care because we're out there delivering just like you are
• 1:32:22
  every day. And it it makes me immensely
• 1:32:26
  proud, even if we're fighting a losing battle, OK, we don't give
• 1:32:32
  up, we don't quit, and we don't shy away from the issues that we
• 1:32:38
  have to face every day. As Carrier I, I'd like to thank
• 1:32:42
  everybody who listens because of the fact that without you there
• 1:32:46
  wouldn't be much reason for us to do this other than our own
• 1:32:50
  egos. And frankly, I can't even spell
• 1:32:54
  ego. But the fact of the matter is
• 1:32:57
  that we do care and and genuinely and we would like for
• 1:33:04
  everybody who listens and and cribes to turn around and get
• 1:33:08
  others involved. Because until we get more people
• 1:33:11
  involved, we can't affect change without you.
• 1:33:16
  And that that's the most important part.
• 1:33:18
  You're the linchpin in changing the direction this union's
• 1:33:21
  heading. And God forbid we go into
• 1:33:25
  another year with Don Madsen as our president.
• 1:33:29
  Everybody go out and do your job as effectively, professionally
• 1:33:34
  and safely as possible, and make sure you know you do everything
• 1:33:38
  you're supposed to. Get credit for what you're
• 1:33:40
  supposed to get paid for what you're supposed to do.
• 1:33:44
  And then go home at the end of the day to your loved ones,
• 1:33:47
  'cause you are the most important delivery to your
• 1:33:50
  family and to us. God bless you.
• 1:33:54
  Thank you guys. I can't disagree with either of
• 1:33:59
  them have said that's, I mean that's what we are here for.
• 1:34:02
  We're here for the craft. It's pretty much been a passion
• 1:34:06
  of mine since I first started. I got involved first thing on
• 1:34:09
  early on and I'm still very, very much involved and I don't
• 1:34:15
  plan on changing at whatever the future holds for us.
• 1:34:18
  It it it does, whether it's you know where, you know, we after
• 1:34:24
  National Convention, we're coming back to our routes.
• 1:34:26
  That's what it is. But we're still going to put up
• 1:34:27
  the good fight for the craft regardless.
• 1:34:30
  You know, we're not going to. That's The thing is is, you
• 1:34:33
  know, we want to see the people. You see the people all the time
• 1:34:37
  complaining about this and that. But are they doing anything to
• 1:34:40
  help the change? Are they getting involved?
• 1:34:42
  Are they are they trying to be a delegate?
• 1:34:45
  Are they going to their conventions?
• 1:34:47
  Are they going to their meetings?
• 1:34:48
  Are there, are they just venting and they're not doing anything
• 1:34:53
  to help themselves or help the craft, you know, and we do, we
• 1:34:57
  we do what we can to help the craft.
• 1:34:59
  I mean, I spent an hour and a half on the phone with a craft
• 1:35:01
  member from another state yesterday, basically just
• 1:35:04
  letting this carry your vent because they needed a vent.
• 1:35:08
  And you know, that was no problem for me.
• 1:35:11
  I, you know, I happily do that to any one of you, you know,
• 1:35:14
  hey, you know, I got a message said, hey, give me a call this
• 1:35:19
  week sometime. You know, tell me what time
• 1:35:21
  works out for you. I gave them a call.
• 1:35:23
  We talked. They vented more than anything,
• 1:35:25
  but they just needed that extra ear.
• 1:35:27
  That wasn't somebody in their office or in their local or or
• 1:35:31
  that just they needed to get it out and what they're going
• 1:35:33
  through in their office. And you know, that's what we're
• 1:35:37
  here for. We're here for you.
• 1:35:38
  And if there was a way that I could have helped them right
• 1:35:40
  then and there, I would have without a doubt.
• 1:35:47
  And that's how I feel for everybody.
• 1:35:49
  You know, I I'm an ear to vent to if needed.
• 1:35:52
  Unfortunately, I wish at this present time that I'd be able to
• 1:35:55
  help every carrier that has those toxic work environments or
• 1:35:59
  are dealing with bad management or bully Co workers or you know,
• 1:36:05
  whatever it may be. But at least I do care and I'm
• 1:36:10
  willing to listen even at this present time.
• 1:36:14
  So on that note, we're going to wrap this up tonight.
• 1:36:17
  We will be back next week and normal time, normal place, all
• 1:36:21
  that good stuff. And till then, everybody stays
• 1:36:24
  safe. This week and I'll.
• 1:36:40
  Leave that comment at right there because I could go on more
• 1:36:44
  and Kristen be editing for the next 45 minutes.