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Open the Pod Bay Doors, Hal... · United We Scan

• 0:18
  The. Welcome to the United We Scan
• 0:33
  Podcast, the podcast by rural carriers for rural carriers.
• 0:38
  The views expressed in this podcast are of the presenters
• 0:41
  and the presenters only and do not represent the views,
• 0:43
  opinions, or strategies of the United States Postal Service or
• 0:46
  the National Rural Letter Carriers Association.
• 0:49
  We ask that you please consult your assigned union
• 0:51
  representative for guidance in your local area.
• 0:54
  Please like this podcast, share with your fellow rural carriers,
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  and subscribe to be notified each time a new episode is
• 1:00
  uploaded. Please leave a comment or
• 1:03
  question for us below. Thank you.
• 1:06
  Now here are the hosts of the United We Scan podcast.
• 1:10
  Welcome back everybody. Episode one O 3 and here we are
• 1:17
  just a couple days out from Christmas Day.
• 1:21
  This should final week of Christmas.
• 1:24
  Overtime coming up though with the holiday in the middle.
• 1:27
  We'll see if anybody actually gets any overtime this week.
• 1:31
  Outside of that, how you doing, James?
• 1:33
  How was your week? Heavy heavy mail volume.
• 1:39
  Lots of packages did get assistance pretty much every
• 1:43
  single day on my route, which is surprising considering I'm
• 1:47
  hearing a lot of offices aren't letting the Rcas actually give
• 1:51
  help to the carriers. So it's refreshing to know that
• 1:55
  at least in my office, we are getting some assistance.
• 1:59
  Didn't make the truck one day this week but made the truck
• 2:04
  every other time, which is actually also surprising
• 2:07
  considering mail volume has been normal overall.
• 2:11
  Little heavy some days, especially with box holders in
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  the DPS, but that benefits the route evaluation overall so I'm
• 2:19
  kind of OK with that. I do feel bad for the carriers
• 2:24
  that are just getting overly inundated with packages and mail
• 2:29
  too. I've heard some officers are
• 2:31
  getting slammed with mail now and RCA should not be sitting at
• 2:36
  home. They should be helping these
• 2:38
  routes. Management should be allowed to
• 2:41
  work their routes, their offices the way they're they need to to
• 2:45
  limit overtime and they should be doing it throughout the year
• 2:48
  to help carriers and keep them at or below evaluation if they
• 2:52
  can help it. But other than that it was
• 2:56
  pretty much a normal work week at the post office.
• 3:00
  How is your not To Do List bill? I accomplished everything that
• 3:05
  wasn't on the list. And it's the first week since
• 3:10
  retirement that I've done that. So I'm very proud of myself of
• 3:13
  not doing everything I wasn't supposed to do.
• 3:16
  I, I, kudos to me. I've answered a lot of questions
• 3:20
  people. And like James says, you know,
• 3:22
  there shouldn't be an RCA sitting at home at this time of
• 3:26
  year. And yet the, the stories are
• 3:29
  just, you know, too numerous to count that they're sitting home.
• 3:34
  And, you know, what type of management do you have that
• 3:38
  you're paying overtime? You know, on table one, the
• 3:40
  Table 2 regulars and the Subs are sitting home.
• 3:44
  And it just doesn't make any business sense.
• 3:47
  You want to know why you lost $10.1 billion decisions like
• 3:51
  that? You know, the, the fact of the
• 3:53
  matter that, you know, you, you're, you're doing these SD
• 3:56
  and CS which, you know, just in my, you know, the office I'm out
• 4:00
  of, it's, it's costing them money because every route's a 48
• 4:05
  and it just didn't make any sense whatsoever.
• 4:10
  So a lot of crying, a lot of bitching, a lot of long hours
• 4:14
  out there. The, the cold weather is set in.
• 4:18
  Please be careful with your footing in the dark.
• 4:21
  You know, you don't know what's iced over or not just glazed.
• 4:25
  God, you know, you still don't know where all the dogs are.
• 4:28
  Everybody be safe out there, please.
• 4:31
  Other than that, just another wonderful weekend or week, you
• 4:35
  know, assisting people, talking, talking to people and getting
• 4:40
  some things addressed across the board for our fellow members in
• 4:44
  the in our craft, not our union, but our craft and as a whole
• 4:51
  that that's about it. How about you Chris, and how was
• 4:53
  your week it? Wasn't too bad.
• 4:55
  Monday was pretty darn heavy. I worked about 11.68 hours on
• 5:03
  Monday. I didn't have assistance
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  because, well, we didn't have anybody available for assistance
• 5:07
  on Monday. So I Tuesday did I get
• 5:13
  assistance Tuesday? I don't think I did, but it was
• 5:17
  a little bit lighter of a day. And then Wednesday I used my
• 5:23
  last annual leave day for the year, Wednesday, to go see my
• 5:27
  daughter's band concert for the makeup date from being snowed
• 5:31
  out the week before. So I made that trek over to
• 5:35
  Gaylord and went and attended her 8th grade band concert.
• 5:40
  So it was a good evening. Thursday I got in with a note on
• 5:45
  my clipboard on my 4240. It says leave two hours worth of
• 5:49
  packages for the new sub, like 2 hours worth of packages.
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  It was actually a fairly light day parcel wise.
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  And I'm like OK and then I have the clerk saying that skit over
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  there is yours. There was 8 mattresses going to
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  one house. I said well I know I guess the
• 6:08
  sub can take those. And I left a few more and he's
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  got a 95 right hand drive Jeep Cherokee.
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  So when I got back and I saw him when I was on my last row
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  delivering the last couple packages and so he pulled in
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  shortly after I did and I said, did you get all eight of those
• 6:29
  mattresses in the Cherokee? He's like, yeah, he goes and
• 6:32
  everything else you left me too. And I'm thinking, wow, because
• 6:35
  there was a lot of their large box.
• 6:37
  Somebody ordered a gaming chair and and a few other smaller
• 6:43
  ones. I think I left like 26 for him
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  total. It wasn't a lot but it helped me
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  out. I could close that divider door
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  in the LLV and stay warm. So I did that and Friday was not
• 6:56
  so bad. DPS was heavy on Friday though.
• 7:00
  I had AWSS Mailer in my DPS Friday so that sucked.
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  Plus we got more snow Friday. I had 40-40 minutes of wait time
• 7:11
  Friday because when we came in it was snowing bad.
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  We'd have gotten about, I don't know, four or five inches the
• 7:20
  night before so and our plow company really sucks.
• 7:25
  Truck was running late anyways because of the weather.
• 7:29
  And when he finally pulled up about an hour later than he
• 7:33
  normally does, it took him another 45 minutes to actually
• 7:37
  get into the dock because it had not been cleared out.
• 7:40
  And so in that process, there was a clerk, ACCA and the truck
• 7:45
  driver and the cleaning lady out there with shovels in the salt
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  dispenser clearing it up for him to finally get the truck into
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  the dock around 9:00 AM. And then Amazon showed up even
• 8:00
  later than that. So I had no Amazon on Friday,
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  which was fine. It actually wasn't a lot.
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  So you know I'm got done Friday and called it a day and then
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  yesterday was a fun time. I went and did my Cpl. class
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  yesterday and yes we had an outdoor shooting range and it
• 8:23
  was 10° outside but we all had fun.
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  I'm really thinking our flats have been super light all week.
• 8:33
  One of the days I pulled down into my DPS, I think it was
• 8:37
  Tuesday Fry and I ate the rest of the week where they I had
• 8:42
  like 1/2 a tray of pull down. It was like other than loose
• 8:45
  flats, we've had no presorted flats in a little over two
• 8:51
  weeks. So I imagine yeah, yeah it is.
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  So we'll see what tomorrow holds for us.
• 9:01
  Oh no, it wasn't a bad week other than weather sucked
• 9:05
  because you know, nothing did but nothing had been cleared by
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  the time. I love when I left the office on
• 9:09
  Friday and I guess the plow trucks were after I went through
• 9:15
  everything, but thankfully it was powdery so I didn't have any
• 9:17
  issues with being on the shoulder.
• 9:20
  Thank goodness there was only two mailboxes.
• 9:22
  I didn't rest. One was down and the other one I
• 9:25
  it looked really sketchy trying to pull in there so I didn't do
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  it. But that was it. 2 out of 800 I
• 9:32
  can't complain. I I always like the after the
• 9:37
  first full week in December, you know your flats, you know,
• 9:42
  especially the pre sorted bulk shit, just you know, up and
• 9:46
  disappeared because they do they you know, they they they weren't
• 9:49
  getting anything else orders. And no, all the Christmas ones
• 9:53
  have been delivered, so hold everything back.
• 9:58
  It's not going to get from China to there in in time, so.
• 10:01
  Ain't that the truth? Speaking of delays, Oh my God,
• 10:07
  you know Paul Meadows got 50 tractor trailers back loaded.
• 10:11
  Texas. They had a warehouse with
• 10:13
  almost, you know, 3-4 hundred pages of parcels and you know, a
• 10:19
  little. There was a little town in Iowa,
• 10:22
  38 pallets sitting in the parking lot for an 8 route
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  office. I guess they've been redirecting
• 10:30
  stuff out of Indianapolis and down in that area because of the
• 10:35
  backlog. And yeah, it's been crazy.
• 10:39
  I mean, and not even postal related.
• 10:42
  I know the the FedEx Ground hub there over and where I used to
• 10:48
  live when I last heard they were 70,000 packages behind.
• 10:53
  I guess trucks were lined up to get in down the street that it's
• 10:57
  on. And of course that was my old
• 10:59
  mail route over there. But yeah, and I'm bringing
• 11:03
  people up from downstate and one not to try and get it out.
• 11:06
  I've seen a lot of FedEx drivers on my side of the state driving
• 11:10
  rental vehicles too. So yeah, it's, it's crazy.
• 11:15
  Don't forget northern Alabama. There they have that one office
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  that has 150 gaylords of packages sitting in their
• 11:22
  parking lot. Jeez, they actually, the news
• 11:27
  reported it and now the Postal Service finally went out and
• 11:31
  bought temporary tents to cover them because the packages are
• 11:34
  sitting out there getting rained on and everything.
• 11:37
  Oh, of course. Yeah.
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  So I'm still waiting on them. I'm still waiting on them to put
• 11:45
  out a detail 30 day for a regular carrier to go down there
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  and deliver that stuff, you know, get somebody to help them
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  out. Yeah, I mean.
• 11:56
  You know, you know, those people up here in the negative
• 11:59
  temperatures are going to turn around and go, what, Northern
• 12:01
  Alabama, Let's go. Sign me up, I could use some
• 12:04
  more weather. Yes, I'm still trying to warm up
• 12:09
  after yesterday. That is the heart.
• 12:14
  There. You go, but you'll need your own
• 12:17
  vehicle, Bill. No problem.
• 12:20
  Just rent A rent a van, right? Yeah, I'll just take my Kia
• 12:26
  Siltos down there and, you know, put a trailer on the back.
• 12:30
  There you go. There you go.
• 12:31
  I'll take my Ranger and put a trailer behind.
• 12:35
  Yeah. Yeah, I'll put the cargo rack on
• 12:39
  my Jeep and I'll get a little trailer for that too.
• 12:42
  Let's do it. Look, look at this 660-3055.
• 12:51
  Even 30's comfortable. I'd like 30. 30's not too bad
• 12:56
  wasn't it -25 in Gaylord this morning. -21 They set a new
• 13:01
  record for the day. Yeah, so Speaking of cold, we'll
• 13:08
  go into cold hearted. Oh, nice transition there.
• 13:15
  Yeah, yeah. We've been talking about it for
• 13:19
  about a week now on social media.
• 13:23
  Well, I have at least. I don't know about you guys, but
• 13:26
  City Carrier's been talking about it for about two weeks
• 13:28
  now. The pod employees going around
• 13:34
  observing if you have an unattended running vehicle, not
• 13:38
  wearing a seat belt, distracted driving, fingering the mail,
• 13:42
  headphones, earbuds, utilizing cell phone, eating while
• 13:46
  driving. Todd will immediately stop the
• 13:50
  vehicle, identify themselves. I wonder how they're going to
• 13:54
  stop the vehicle. They just step in front of the
• 13:56
  truck and go stop. Do you?
• 13:59
  Want to explain what POD stands for?
• 14:04
  I believe it to be postmaster on detail.
• 14:07
  Personnel on detail. Personnel on detail, basically
• 14:11
  same thing. It's a manager on detail and
• 14:14
  they're they're basically being paid to drive around and find
• 14:18
  these violations. In fact, I have actually seen an
• 14:21
  e-mail from an MPU telling these pods that they are not to return
• 14:27
  to their office until they find a violation.
• 14:33
  And what are they doing upon finding a violation?
• 14:36
  I'm getting there. So they will ask the employee to
• 14:40
  shut off the vehicle, remove the key from the ignition and wait
• 14:44
  for further instruction. Most likely they'll tell the
• 14:47
  employee, give me the key. POD will contact local office
• 14:52
  management and request immediate support.
• 14:56
  Once EAS arrives, POD will provide all supporting notes,
• 15:01
  photos and a statement to EAS. POD will remain on site, oversee
• 15:09
  emergency placement procedure and offer support where needed.
• 15:15
  Notified verbally Notify the carrier verbally that they are
• 15:19
  being emergency placed and driven back to the office.
• 15:24
  Emergency placement letter obtained by local Labor
• 15:27
  Relations. E-mail drafted outlining high
• 15:31
  level overview with all supporting documentation to Team
• 15:35
  lead and team lead will review and escalate.
• 15:40
  And as a note on this little call to action they have, the
• 15:45
  employee's supervisor or manager must be the one to place an
• 15:49
  employee in emergency placement, not the pod.
• 15:53
  Employees being placed at emergency placement due to the
• 15:55
  three motor vehicle infractions are not permitted to continue
• 15:59
  operating vehicle. So that little extra note at the
• 16:05
  bottom there is how they're trying to protect themselves
• 16:10
  with this system. They're doing the biggest thing
• 16:14
  is the emergency placement. Now, we're not arguing safety
• 16:19
  here. Safety is our responsibility.
• 16:24
  We are responsible for our own safety.
• 16:27
  And yes, an unattended running vehicle is dangerous.
• 16:31
  Not wearing a seat belt is dangerous.
• 16:34
  Distracted driving is dangerous. What we are arguing is the
• 16:40
  procedure that they are doing, which is exactly what the union
• 16:44
  should be arguing is the procedure.
• 16:47
  They are trying to take away the choice of the local manager by
• 16:53
  having this pod tell them to put you on emergency placement.
• 16:58
  This pod is directing all the steps management is doing in
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  this situation so it is not following proper procedure.
• 17:08
  Did you guys agree? I I know I can see it that way.
• 17:20
  I think it's more punitive than corrective.
• 17:22
  In my personal opinion, emergency placement is quite
• 17:27
  harsh. The problem I see with this
• 17:31
  James is that they're getting a directive that they can't return
• 17:35
  until they find a violation. Isn't that management
• 17:39
  benchmarking? It is benchmarking for those
• 17:43
  managers on top of on top of that, it's basically they're
• 17:50
  terrorizing their own managers to find these violations.
• 17:53
  Because if you don't find a violation, you're going to be
• 17:55
  doing this for the rest of your career, basically, because we
• 17:59
  won't return you to your office until you find a violation.
• 18:04
  Yeah, it's bad enough they turn on the carriers, now they're
• 18:07
  turning on their own management team, I mean.
• 18:11
  All right, I'm going to, I'm going to go over Article 16.5,
• 18:17
  which is emergency procedure. I'm sure you were going to do
• 18:21
  that, James. Exactly, exactly.
• 18:24
  You can read it and then go from there.
• 18:28
  Says an employee may be immediately placed on an off
• 18:32
  duty status without pay by the employer, but remains on the
• 18:38
  rolls where the allegation involves intoxication, use of
• 18:43
  drugs or alcohol, pilferage, or failure to observe safety rules
• 18:48
  and regulations. Or in cases where retaining the
• 18:53
  employee on duty may result in damage to USPS property, loss of
• 19:00
  Mailer funds, or where the employee may be injurious to
• 19:03
  self or others, the employee shall remain on the rolls non
• 19:08
  pay status until disposition of the case has been had.
• 19:13
  If it is proposed to discharge the employee, the emergency
• 19:17
  action taken under the section may be made the subject of a
• 19:20
  separate grievance that is 16.5 on emergency procedure.
• 19:30
  Yeah, and the P2 key pieces that they're working on which is also
• 19:35
  codified in the Elm Section 651.4 is fails to observe safety
• 19:42
  rules and regulations and where the employee may may cause
• 19:51
  damage to U.S. Postal Service property or the
• 19:55
  employee may be injurious to sell for others.
• 19:59
  That is what they're using for this procedure in these major
• 20:05
  penalties for minor infractions. And I understand there are
• 20:09
  people are going to argue not wearing your seat belt is a
• 20:12
  major safety issue and I agree with you.
• 20:16
  But the other part of it is you have the review and concurrence.
• 20:25
  So the issue that I have here with that is in our discipline
• 20:30
  you have to have a review and concurrence from a higher level.
• 20:35
  But what you have is the POD who is a higher level manager than
• 20:42
  your manager in this situation and is ordering your manager to
• 20:46
  be punitive in nature by placing you in an off duty non pay
• 20:50
  status and then turning around and ordering your postmaster to
• 20:55
  run discipline on you for this after the fact.
• 20:59
  And there are some carriers that are going to be waiting until
• 21:01
  January for their pre disciplinary interview over this
• 21:07
  emergency placement. I've spoken to a couple of
• 21:12
  managers about this and they've said they have emergency placed
• 21:17
  carriers for this before, but usually it's one or two days and
• 21:22
  they have to go through training or refresher course.
• 21:25
  Some of them have to redo driver's training, but they get
• 21:29
  them back on the rolls and working within a few days after
• 21:34
  the emergency placement. And you have these pods who are
• 21:38
  making it two weeks, 3 weeks before they get a chance to
• 21:42
  actually have their day in court in front of the manager that is
• 21:47
  issuing the discipline, which obviously can't be because this
• 21:54
  pod's not going to come into this office to have the
• 21:57
  discussion with the carrier over this emergency placement and the
• 22:01
  PDI. So who's reviewing and
• 22:06
  concurring this? Obviously two people who weren't
• 22:10
  actually there to witness it. They're just taking the
• 22:13
  statement from a third party. Oh, what really bothersome about
• 22:20
  this is that discipline starts off with discipline is to be
• 22:24
  corrective in nature and not punitive.
• 22:27
  And they're going straight to punitive and they're doing it at
• 22:32
  the worst time of year ever. So what, what, what is your
• 22:38
  mindset here? What?
• 22:39
  What's your end game plan in performing this bullshit?
• 22:47
  Oh God I got to find a term without saying too much.
• 22:51
  Just just this. This.
• 22:53
  It's just absolutely bullshit to be pulling it at this time of
• 22:56
  year when people are stressed out, tired, work to the bone and
• 23:03
  all you're doing is demoralizing the entire craft.
• 23:09
  And there's there's even another side to this.
• 23:13
  Why are we punishing the carrier?
• 23:16
  And you're looking at their past history of St. observations that
• 23:20
  they're supposed to have with management.
• 23:22
  And if they passed every street observation before that, why
• 23:26
  aren't you doing corrective action against the manager?
• 23:30
  Because obviously if the pods catching them, it's a habit.
• 23:34
  So obviously they should have been caught at a previous
• 23:37
  observation date. So what are we doing to these
• 23:41
  managers? Absolutely nothing, which is par
• 23:45
  for the course for management. Well, James, you're, you're
• 23:49
  overlooking the fact that they would require management to get
• 23:52
  off their asses and go out in the street and unless they're
• 23:58
  picking up lunch and that's just not in there Forte.
• 24:04
  I've also heard, I've also heard a rumor, and this is just a
• 24:07
  rumor, that they are specifically targeting carriers.
• 24:13
  They're targeting specific carriers.
• 24:16
  Both city and rural side though. And I've heard that some of them
• 24:22
  are the people that are outspoken, some of them are
• 24:24
  people that have filed grievances that have gotten
• 24:26
  this. In fact, the carrier got
• 24:28
  followed for an hour and a half by a pod following the rules,
• 24:34
  but they were an out. But that's the rumor.
• 24:45
  Yeah. It's.
• 24:47
  You never know. I mean, yeah.
• 24:52
  It sucks. I don't miss it, I miss my.
• 24:58
  Customers. I miss my customers but I don't
• 25:01
  miss this shit. Wouldn't that be if you could
• 25:04
  prove it? Let's say one of these carriers
• 25:06
  is one of those that's outspoken, educated and does
• 25:09
  file grievances and they are being followed by a pod.
• 25:14
  Wouldn't that be a form of retaliation?
• 25:18
  Yes, it would be. Yeah.
• 25:21
  It would be a grievance and you'd have to, you'd, you'd have
• 25:24
  to stop and ask the pod their name.
• 25:26
  Get their name so you can put it in the grievance as retaliation,
• 25:29
  a retaliation agreement and put it as that management chose to
• 25:34
  follow them. No, don't text the scanner and
• 25:40
  tell management you're being followed.
• 25:42
  Call 911. Yes, call the police.
• 25:45
  Advise them that you are a mail carrier and that you are being
• 25:49
  followed on your mail route by a vehicle.
• 25:52
  Give them a description of the vehicle.
• 25:54
  Yeah, call the cops first. Yeah, let the cops let the cops
• 25:58
  come out and deal with it, because they don't.
• 26:00
  They don't care if they're management or not.
• 26:02
  They're going to stop the car and do a thorough investigation
• 26:05
  for at least 15 minutes before they let them go.
• 26:11
  And for added measures, say I think they're porch pirates.
• 26:16
  They may be waiting for me to deliver a parcel to steal it.
• 26:21
  Yeah, well, they may be trying to get my arrow key as soon as I
• 26:24
  get out of this truck. I don't recognize this vehicle,
• 26:31
  I don't recognize the person driving it and they have been
• 26:34
  following me for so many miles. Or so many minutes, depending on
• 26:39
  the IV route. Yeah, they're following me turn
• 26:43
  by turn in my on my route. So that means I shouldn't whip a
• 26:49
  doughnut at the end of the one cul-de-sac, OK.
• 26:55
  Again. I mean, if it's slippery out
• 26:59
  there, there's not much you can do to help it.
• 27:01
  Right, right. I mean fresh snowfall below 30°,
• 27:06
  plows haven't come out yet and. Need to keep momentum.
• 27:11
  Need to keep momentum to get through it.
• 27:13
  Yeah, yeah, exactly. Rear wheel drive, what can you
• 27:17
  say, it happens. Can you imagine 100,000 rule
• 27:24
  carriers you know in the course of a month calling the police on
• 27:28
  suspicious vehicles? Add in the Add in the 200,000
• 27:37
  city carriers too. Yeah.
• 27:39
  That that would that would probably put an end to that real
• 27:42
  quick. Yeah, we do know our routes.
• 27:47
  And when there's weird cars, we do we, we we know when there's
• 27:51
  things that are not right on our route.
• 27:53
  Unquestionable. There's my infamous running with
• 27:57
  the postal inspectors trying to get into my truck.
• 28:01
  Yeah. And that guy still hates me.
• 28:07
  You were protecting the sanctity of the mail.
• 28:10
  Thank you very much. So he didn't.
• 28:14
  He didn't. Identify himself.
• 28:16
  You throw him into the truck before you ask for.
• 28:19
  Well, you know, I'm proactive. And, and I will say this, every
• 28:27
  carrier that listens to this podcast needs to follow the
• 28:31
  safety rules. Not even an earbud in your ear
• 28:35
  at this point. So if you want to have music in
• 28:39
  your vehicle, get a Bluetooth speaker.
• 28:44
  They can't complain. Wouldn't that be great if they
• 28:47
  got a pod coming up and they're listening to this episode as
• 28:51
  we're talking about pods and it is on a Bluetooth speaker
• 28:54
  pretty, you know, so they could hear it over the the, the racks
• 28:58
  of the LLV, the noise those make.
• 29:01
  Wouldn't that just be wonderful? I mean, I, I can, I can
• 29:08
  understand it with the Bluetooth and all that stuff.
• 29:11
  But I do know that a lot of people, especially like city
• 29:14
  carriers and do do their routes with one earbud and listening to
• 29:19
  books on, on tape and things like that on their route that
• 29:23
  helps them stay focused on what they're doing and things.
• 29:27
  And the problem is, is that now you've turned something that was
• 29:32
  a benefit to help beat up carriers and turned it into a
• 29:37
  penalty to slow them down. Oh, Listener says there's a pod
• 29:51
  in their area who'll stop at a box and wait on you, introduce
• 29:54
  himself and wave his hand at his car and dictate exactly how long
• 29:58
  he'll be following you. Wow, that's a good pod.
• 30:03
  Damn, that's. A good.
• 30:05
  Pod that's not. Yeah, no covert activities
• 30:11
  there. Probably learn that from the
• 30:13
  City side they they actually have a a no covert spying on
• 30:20
  carriers. I'd want too many cops called on
• 30:26
  them. Yeah, and that's what you got to
• 30:30
  do. You know, I, I had my, I had an
• 30:33
  observation by MY2O4B on my route.
• 30:36
  And of course I had a spot where they were.
• 30:39
  I had to do AU turn and I told and I stopped the truck and I I
• 30:44
  went over my shoulder out the window like this pull in here at
• 30:48
  the driveway before the driveway where I turn around so that way
• 30:51
  they wouldn't be blocking my way as I come back the other way.
• 30:56
  Oh, I remember having an observation by a former
• 30:59
  postmaster. Who parked in a driveway and I
• 31:02
  just actually had a package for that house and I did not
• 31:05
  recommend recognize the postmaster's car thinking it was
• 31:09
  the resident and walked up to her with the package.
• 31:16
  What gets me especially like for city carriers on, you know,
• 31:19
  walking routes, OK, you're listening to music, you're
• 31:23
  listening to books on tape, whatever.
• 31:25
  I mean, those are the kinds of things that help your your
• 31:29
  mental stability. And especially this time of year
• 31:33
  with the cold and the snow and, you know, traipsing across, you
• 31:36
  know, people's, you know, lawns to get to the next door.
• 31:40
  Whereas you take those things away from the people and what
• 31:43
  are they thinking about how miserable this fucking job is,
• 31:46
  how much I hate doing this in the winter time.
• 31:49
  You know how suck ass management is, you know, and and that's
• 31:53
  just going to foster more anxiety in that carrier.
• 31:58
  I mean, you know, and, and not only little relief.
• 32:02
  Thinking about work you know they could be thinking about how
• 32:05
  far behind their bills are, or what you know they have left to
• 32:09
  get for kids for Christmas as they may or may not be able to
• 32:13
  afford, or how they know. Yeah.
• 32:16
  Exactly. Whereas, you know, they're
• 32:18
  focused on something else, They got something positive going to
• 32:21
  keep their mind off the negative stuff to keep them going
• 32:24
  throughout the day. I mean that can go for people
• 32:27
  unmounted routes listening to stuff too.
• 32:30
  Correct. I get the safety issue, I really
• 32:33
  do. But you know, it's, you know,
• 32:38
  you got to have, you know, sometimes you need that other
• 32:40
  stimuli, stimuli to keep yourself going throughout the
• 32:44
  day. It really, Yeah.
• 32:47
  It's the distractions in life that keep you sane.
• 32:50
  Yes. Yes, I said that.
• 32:58
  But it's true. It it is.
• 33:00
  It really is. I mean, nothing like a plane
• 33:04
  stairway to heaven at the top of the volume.
• 33:11
  That's me. We did.
• 33:14
  We did have one carrier. He was written up years ago when
• 33:18
  we had our POV's. He had outside speakers mounted
• 33:22
  up on his vehicle playing Christmas the Christmas music
• 33:27
  and you know, not everybody's a Christmas person, so he had
• 33:31
  several people call up and complain about it.
• 33:34
  That's funny. What Scrooge is calling in
• 33:40
  complaining about Christmas music?
• 33:46
  Yeah. You know, but that's that's the
• 33:50
  biggest thing is, you know, it's not about carrier safety that
• 33:55
  they're doing this. If it was, they'd be doing a lot
• 34:00
  more to protect us, like new vehicles, better vehicles, only
• 34:07
  90. Three have been delivered so
• 34:09
  far. Better Christmas assistance to
• 34:13
  get us off the roads faster, get us off the roads before dark,
• 34:18
  before 10:00 PM, before 8:00 PM. Protecting the carriers from
• 34:24
  hostile management. But no, this, this, this is
• 34:30
  something else. And I understand a lot of people
• 34:33
  are defending it. A lot of people are defending
• 34:36
  them, putting these carriers on emergency placement, but the
• 34:40
  thing about it is, is how they are doing it.
• 34:43
  Again, the procedure is the most important aspect of this.
• 34:47
  It's not what they're doing, it's how they're going about and
• 34:51
  doing it. You want to know what would
• 34:53
  actually be a better use of these pods?
• 34:57
  Putting them in a truck and delivering the mail or even
• 35:01
  running packages? Either or, I don't care.
• 35:06
  They need to get down here to our level and support us.
• 35:10
  Hell, I think some some people should actually be out there,
• 35:14
  you know, doing the mail without being a manager anymore.
• 35:18
  Some of them don't deserve to be a manager the way they treat
• 35:21
  people. Oh, that's why they're there
• 35:24
  Jeans, They're not worried about it.
• 35:27
  I mean this, this smacks of that, that the e-mail that we we
• 35:31
  talked about where management was being told that you have to,
• 35:35
  you have so many Pdis a week. Yeah.
• 35:39
  What? What?
• 35:41
  So you're, you're going to create a, you know, a hostile
• 35:44
  work situation because management now has a benchmark
• 35:48
  to meet on PD is, you know, I mean, really.
• 35:57
  Yeah. It's the same type of mentality.
• 36:01
  I I. Honestly, say that the post
• 36:03
  office could run with 1/4 of the management that it has and
• 36:06
  probably run more efficiently. I can't argue that one.
• 36:12
  Well, do you saw where the interview with Dejoy was trying
• 36:15
  to explain how they're in debt, you know, since he took over and
• 36:18
  he's trying to straighten things out, but yet they've hired
• 36:21
  190,000 more people. So what craft?
• 36:26
  Oh yeah, management. Management.
• 36:32
  You know, it's funny, I I hear those numbers and I'm looking
• 36:35
  at, OK, if you hired 100,000 people, that would mean that one
• 36:39
  of the crafts grew 100,000 people.
• 36:42
  But yet none of the crafts are reporting close to that.
• 36:46
  And even if you add in the numbers that they've hired into
• 36:49
  each of the craft, it still doesn't equal that number, which
• 36:53
  tells me they're hiring managers right off the street.
• 36:56
  And out of those 190,000, how many of them last more than a
• 37:02
  month? Well, if they're on the craft.
• 37:06
  Six months. Maybe 30% at most for all crafts
• 37:13
  across the board. And that's the first month the
• 37:17
  numbers go down even further 2-3 months down the line.
• 37:22
  And a lot of that has to do with hostile management, poor
• 37:26
  scheduling, lack of pay, and all the normal issues that people
• 37:33
  have when it comes to these kinds of jobs with the biggest
• 37:36
  #1 issue is treatment, hostile work environment.
• 37:44
  Amen. So, you know, we're coming up on
• 37:54
  what should be the heaviest week of the Christmas period for
• 37:59
  parcel delivery. I saw some ads saying that oh,
• 38:02
  you, if you order now, you'll get it by Christmas.
• 38:06
  You know, some of those will be coming, some of those will be
• 38:09
  coming the day after Christmas. So I.
• 38:12
  I've seen more complaints about FedEx lately than I have anybody
• 38:16
  else, and not just in my area. My area too.
• 38:20
  My area too. I got a got a got a trailer park
• 38:23
  where they're dropping them in one spot for everybody to come
• 38:26
  and collect, and it's not the Postal Service.
• 38:31
  Oh yeah, miss delivering everything else.
• 38:34
  I I've seen pictures on my local Facebook groups of whose door is
• 38:40
  this? Anybody recognizes this is my
• 38:42
  package and I don't know where it was dropped but it wasn't my
• 38:45
  house. We had, we had one in our area
• 38:50
  where all that was like 150 packages.
• 38:54
  The 150 people commented they got the same signature on the
• 38:57
  packages for delivery and it was 150 parcels and nobody could
• 39:03
  figure out where they were delivered to.
• 39:05
  And finally FedEx figured out that the guy that delivered them
• 39:10
  took him back to the facility after he for all 150 of them
• 39:16
  because he was done for the day and went home, but he said they
• 39:22
  were delivered. I I did have a good laugh when
• 39:25
  the FedEx driver said I had over 180 packages today.
• 39:29
  I just started laughing. I was like, yeah, OK, wuss.
• 39:34
  Exactly, exactly. I've been up beyond that myself
• 39:40
  on my route and I I'm averaged at 80 so.
• 39:43
  I had 297 on Monday and 140, 178 on Tuesday, 146 on Thursday.
• 39:58
  I've seen I've seen pictures on Facebook of people at the end of
• 40:03
  their day where they're almost at half a grand packages.
• 40:08
  Yeah, I mean, I didn't even have Amazon Friday and I still had
• 40:11
  120. Yeah, it's bad out there, folks.
• 40:15
  And, and it's going to get rough.
• 40:19
  It's going to be hard. We're all going to be working
• 40:21
  our tails off, but we're going to get through it because that's
• 40:24
  what we do, because we care for our customers and that's the
• 40:28
  most important aspect. Doesn't matter what management
• 40:31
  does. It doesn't matter what volume we
• 40:33
  have it. We're here for our customers.
• 40:37
  And just like that, we're here for you guys.
• 40:39
  Us here on the podcast are here for you too.
• 40:42
  If you need the vent, get a hold of us.
• 40:44
  We're here. Just don't talk to Bill, he'll
• 40:48
  egg yawn. Oh God, yeah.
• 40:58
  It's like April Saturday. She's just sent me a picture of
• 41:02
  her scanner. She had 402 packages, you know,
• 41:05
  402 scans. And I said, yeah, well, how many
• 41:10
  were spurs? And she goes, oh, I had 16 trays
• 41:13
  of spurs. I saw how many fit in the
• 41:15
  mailbox and she owes 4 trays. I'm like, OK, you had a rough
• 41:21
  ass back then. Jesus Christ.
• 41:25
  Because you know, because a lot of this stuff is, you know, in
• 41:29
  in the boxes that just they're, they're not fitting in mailboxes
• 41:32
  unless they're oversized. Yeah, she has no CB us at all.
• 41:39
  So everything's going to the door.
• 41:42
  She she said one guy. He's he's gotten the package
• 41:46
  like every other day. And every time he sees her, he
• 41:49
  gives her another tip. And she just reminded she she
• 41:53
  reminded. She goes, you already giving me
• 41:54
  two tips this year. And he goes, well, when I see
• 41:58
  you again, I give you another one.
• 41:59
  OK, You don't have to. But I said, hey, take it, you
• 42:05
  know, just be, you know, grateful.
• 42:07
  Exactly. I'll tell you Candy, you know,
• 42:11
  we do have those customers that really do love us and that's why
• 42:16
  we do this job, you know, is, is to serve those people.
• 42:20
  Yeah, I, I said earlier I was on, I got it forward from next,
• 42:26
  you know, the next Door app, which is a local community app
• 42:29
  in this area. And you know, somebody said
• 42:31
  something about, you know, the, the sub really sucks.
• 42:34
  Didn't pick up the parcels that they were supposed to.
• 42:37
  And this guy, you know, he, he, he makes shipments like at least
• 42:40
  twice a week. And she goes, oh, I really miss
• 42:43
  Bill and everything. And I, I, I went back to April.
• 42:46
  I said, you know, God, I feel bad for my customers.
• 42:48
  You know, she goes Leo, the thing of it is, is that, you
• 42:52
  know, he's just a bad carrier and, you know, you treated him
• 42:55
  like they were family. Well, they are.
• 42:57
  I mean, they really are part of your family.
• 43:01
  And I did that even as a sub. I, you know, it didn't matter
• 43:04
  what route I was running, I got to know everybody that I could
• 43:08
  on those routes. Yeah.
• 43:11
  You know, it's, that's what you do.
• 43:15
  You know, it's I'll have one of the other regulars in my office.
• 43:20
  I ran his route quite a bit. And you know, when somebody
• 43:23
  passes away or moves or something.
• 43:25
  Hey, did you hear about so and so?
• 43:27
  And I'll be like, Oh no. Or I had one that forwarded off
• 43:32
  his route onto mine. I said, hey, what's going on
• 43:34
  with these guys? He's like, I don't know.
• 43:36
  He goes. Just one day they were gone and
• 43:37
  the house was for sale. I said, well, they're living
• 43:39
  over on my route now. You know, it's because I
• 43:43
  recognize the name before I even saw where they forwarded in
• 43:46
  from. Yeah, Carol.
• 43:49
  Carol brought up the point that, you know, this year I haven't
• 43:53
  had cases of The Chew bones delivered, you know, at the
• 43:57
  house for my Christmas dogs. Right.
• 44:01
  Because I, I'd get about 200 of them, you know, anywhere from,
• 44:04
  you know, the baseball bat size for the Pyrenees, you know, down
• 44:07
  to the little sticks for the Chihuahuas.
• 44:10
  But, you know, they, they, they all got their Christmas bones.
• 44:15
  And yeah, nobody, nobody had to ask where they came from.
• 44:17
  They knew Bill did it. I, I even got a mention from
• 44:23
  this lady Jessica. She doesn't even live on my
• 44:26
  route. She lives in these townhomes.
• 44:28
  There's a common walkway over to my, you know, Main Street there.
• 44:32
  And they would always walk their dog Lacey over there.
• 44:35
  And, and Lacey is one of the big old Polly type dog.
• 44:40
  And she would just lay down as soon as he saw the truck.
• 44:42
  She wouldn't move until the, you know, I got up to her and it's
• 44:46
  like, funny as hell. Yeah.
• 44:47
  In the middle of the street. She would lay down and they have
• 44:49
  to drag her out of the damn St. Bill's coming.
• 44:52
  Bill's coming. Well, it's like in pre show I
• 44:55
  was talking about the one little the little dog I got on my route
• 44:59
  who you know when the normal, you know when the average time
• 45:02
  for coming around comes, she's right there at that door just
• 45:06
  waiting for that truck to pull in.
• 45:07
  And soon as she hears the LLV door swing open because it's my
• 45:11
  hardship and she's all prancing at the door waiting to go out to
• 45:16
  greet me. And then if she misses me, like
• 45:19
  if they got doctor's appointments or run to the store
• 45:21
  or something and she doesn't get to see me, man, she's pouting
• 45:24
  for us to the day they tell me. Isn't that the best feeling
• 45:28
  though? I mean it.
• 45:29
  Is, and so I know when it's been a few days and I haven't seen
• 45:33
  her and bent down to pick, to pat her and whatnot, I'll scoop
• 45:36
  her up and pick her up and give her all sorts of lovings and
• 45:40
  then put her down. And she knows when I say all
• 45:42
  right, time, go back to work, she goes right to the door like,
• 45:44
  OK, let me back in. I got my lovings.
• 45:49
  They go back to work and only use sub on my route.
• 45:58
  Sometimes I do miss being in RCA and then that thought goes away
• 46:02
  really quickly. Well, yeah, it, it, it's funny
• 46:09
  because I, I kept my case Immaculate, kept the names, you
• 46:13
  know, the change of names, everything up to date, you know,
• 46:16
  had a label printer. You didn't have to read my
• 46:18
  handwriting. And then, you know, there's no
• 46:19
  white out all over the place. It was, it was just, you know,
• 46:24
  it was a piece of cake to train people on too.
• 46:27
  And, you know, just just missing the, the people is I, I guess
• 46:33
  the, the most wrenching experience of retiring because
• 46:36
  of the fact that them, the kids, the dogs, I mean, you know,
• 46:40
  little kid out there selling a, a bottle of warm water for
• 46:43
  $2.00. It's like, yeah, give me two,
• 46:48
  yeah. Okay, the.
• 46:50
  Little the little girl that sold me lemonade for for $5.
• 46:54
  All I had was a 20. She goes.
• 46:56
  I'll give you change tomorrow. I never saw that change again.
• 47:03
  But you knew you wouldn't, so you know.
• 47:05
  Well, no, no, I expected it. But her grandmother, her
• 47:09
  grandmother lived next door and said, I'll guarantee you her
• 47:13
  mother took that money off of her.
• 47:15
  Oh, damn. You didn't raise a good
• 47:18
  daughter. She is.
• 47:20
  I know, Bill. I know, I know.
• 47:22
  That's why I have everything set over here.
• 47:26
  But where's the baby? Where's the baby Ruby sleeping?
• 47:36
  That's no excuse. He's been out for.
• 47:40
  His no. I ain't waking him up just for
• 47:44
  you. Oh, you steer the hell out of
• 47:49
  us. You are.
• 47:51
  But I know you wake him just for you, all right?
• 47:59
  No, she has to reapply. Why?
• 48:06
  Because District is stupid and Naki said she didn't reply to
• 48:13
  the last correction. In fact we did.
• 48:16
  We even called USPSI or USPIS or whatever the hell it is and they
• 48:21
  told us to e-mail district directly with the explanation in
• 48:25
  which we did. We never heard anything and as
• 48:28
  of December 3rd they had flagged it as a failed reply and kicked
• 48:34
  it out and told her she could reapply after 30 days
• 48:38
  postmaster. The postmaster did send the
• 48:42
  e-mail on again to whoever her contact was and has yet to hear
• 48:48
  anything as well. And they wonder why they have a
• 48:51
  problem with hiring. Exactly.
• 48:53
  So she's waiting for her start date with Burger King for now,
• 49:02
  and that pays 1350 an hour. Jesus.
• 49:08
  I know. So.
• 49:11
  So she basically got screwed over because somebody didn't
• 49:14
  check their e-mail Pretty much. Wow.
• 49:19
  With as many emails as they send back and forth, you'd think they
• 49:21
  would have seen it. Yeah, I know.
• 49:27
  So that's where we're sitting with that.
• 49:31
  Wow, so did you guys have a chance to watch Masten's
• 49:37
  wonderful video he made? I did once.
• 49:45
  What did you guys think of it? It was a waste of 5 minutes of
• 49:50
  my life. He really didn't tell us
• 49:53
  anything. He's still still using my party
• 49:57
  in my ending line incorrectly, I might say.
• 50:02
  And basically, I mean, you know, he, he's, he's trying to put
• 50:06
  off. That.
• 50:08
  They're fighting for us, but do you see that?
• 50:13
  I mean, you know, we, we haven't got any real contractual
• 50:17
  updates. So where's the fight?
• 50:23
  I, I, I mean, you know, what are you fighting for?
• 50:27
  Because you haven't explained that to us either.
• 50:30
  Yeah, you, you said things about the pay tables and all a while
• 50:33
  ago, but what, what are the, what are the points that you're
• 50:37
  hung up on now that you're not in final negotiations?
• 50:45
  I think he's, I think the biggest that he biggest reason
• 50:50
  he's holding off on all of this is because of the city carriers
• 50:55
  and he doesn't want to put a contract together that benefits
• 51:00
  us in a lot of ways or hurts us in a lot of ways unless City
• 51:06
  side vote stairs down. And I think that's what he's
• 51:08
  waiting on. If city votes stairs down, one
• 51:11
  or two things is going to happen.
• 51:13
  He's either going to wait for them to go to arbitration or
• 51:15
  he's going to present something very similar to us.
• 51:18
  And either way, it doesn't matter because what he's going
• 51:24
  to present is not going to be enough.
• 51:26
  With the joy going on record in both the Senate and the House
• 51:30
  talking about how 20% inflation has hurt the Postal Service and
• 51:36
  our carriers are not getting 20% inflation increases in their
• 51:41
  pay. Obviously there's some disparity
• 51:44
  there. Oh man, anybody getting the
• 51:46
  raises? Not us.
• 51:48
  Yeah, management got 20% or 21% something like that.
• 51:52
  Was that is that what what you heard too?
• 51:54
  I. Don't remember what I heard
• 51:56
  exactly but I know management gets raises but you know, screw
• 52:00
  the people actually doing the hard work.
• 52:04
  Again. You know, and he's not just
• 52:10
  stealing your lines, Bill. But he's stealing.
• 52:16
  Out of our yeah, as we, as we head into the new year, let's
• 52:23
  continue to stand together for each other, yeah.
• 52:30
  Yeah. He's listening.
• 52:32
  He's listening to us. Hi, feel free to give me a call
• 52:38
  and we can discuss this. I mean, I know you don't like
• 52:40
  talking to me at conventions, but that's OK.
• 52:44
  But. How's your overburn route doing,
• 52:47
  Don? Yeah, the one you've never seen.
• 52:53
  Yeah, the three Subs that you have there, I'm sorry.
• 52:59
  And and then you then you have you literally have no good
• 53:07
  information coming in this. Yes, he's trying to say he
• 53:11
  hasn't forgotten what it's like to be a rural carrier.
• 53:16
  But you've been up there on the national board since 2008.
• 53:20
  You started off as an executive committee men, then moved up to
• 53:24
  vice president, then moved to president.
• 53:28
  And what do you have to show for that?
• 53:31
  At least give us something that we can hang our hat on in these
• 53:35
  videos and you give us lip service.
• 53:42
  I mean, I'll give credit where credit's due about least putting
• 53:46
  videos out on a somewhat routine.
• 53:50
  But I do wish, I mean, I'll give credit for for attempting to
• 53:55
  reach out. I, I, I'll do that.
• 53:57
  But I still wish there was something, a little bit more
• 54:01
  meat and potatoes that us as carriers on the ground level had
• 54:04
  something to work with or something to possibly look
• 54:08
  forward to or just something that could answer some of our
• 54:14
  questions or some of our concerns.
• 54:19
  The other thing that bothers me is the lack of empathy that that
• 54:25
  he displays, the lack of emotion.
• 54:27
  OK, when when I sign off and I say, you know, make sure you get
• 54:32
  home to your loved ones, you're the most important delivery of
• 54:35
  the day. It sounds like I mean it because
• 54:38
  I do he he does it just out of, you know, wrote reading off of a
• 54:44
  damn placard. You know, there's, there's
• 54:47
  there's no emotional attachment. There's no real care or concern
• 54:51
  being expressed by him. It's just saying something, you
• 54:54
  know, you know, plagiarizing my, my, you know, sign off James,
• 54:59
  you know, comment about we're all in this together.
• 55:02
  I, I just, you know, it's, it's so plastic.
• 55:05
  It just it's annoying. Yeah, and I'll be honest with
• 55:12
  you, when when I saw that he posted a video update, my first
• 55:16
  thought was, hey, maybe we're going to finally get answers as
• 55:20
  to why the union signed this MOU.
• 55:24
  Maybe we were going to get answers on why carriers are
• 55:28
  getting their pay cut again. But no, we get a lip service on
• 55:36
  how hard it is to be a rural carrier.
• 55:39
  We get a lip service on I'm still negotiating and we get a
• 55:44
  lip service of us being all together.
• 55:51
  I mean, we do all need to stand together.
• 55:53
  I understand that. But I mean, literally, I mean,
• 55:57
  there are so many concerns that carriers have today, as in we
• 56:01
  all know if they're not personally, they have friends or
• 56:06
  other people, they're in all the social media groups they hear
• 56:10
  about and they see what concerns and, and, and the things that
• 56:14
  carriers are bitching about and carriers are questioning about
• 56:19
  why can't we put some of that stuff at ease by addressing it
• 56:23
  on these videos? Amen.
• 56:26
  You know. There's enough issues going on
• 56:29
  that you could have a weekly video or a weekly social media
• 56:34
  post just on what's going on with management in the union and
• 56:38
  stuff like that. Give us updates, you know, but
• 56:41
  no, it's once a month and it's a lip service once a month.
• 56:45
  You know, maybe, maybe he's still getting his footing and
• 56:48
  figuring out how to present to the to the craft on a video.
• 56:52
  But. He could have addressed the PO
• 56:55
  DS right now. He could have.
• 56:59
  He could have. Nothing mentioned at all.
• 57:02
  No. And like I said this, this is,
• 57:04
  it's, it's 100% a problem procedurally, not safety related
• 57:11
  because safety is number one for us.
• 57:15
  We are our own safety advocate, not management.
• 57:20
  Management is not doing this to be a safety advocate for you.
• 57:26
  So why isn't our union saying something about how this is
• 57:29
  being procedurally done? That's the biggest question we
• 57:32
  have to ask. You know, and even just a heads
• 57:37
  up to say, hey, we are aware there are PO DS out there.
• 57:41
  Make sure that you're following all the safety guidelines that
• 57:46
  you're required to follow. I mean, just something of that
• 57:49
  nature to say, heads up, we know this is going on.
• 57:54
  Just make sure you're doing what you're supposed to be doing
• 57:57
  while you're out on the street. And contact your designated
• 58:01
  union representative if anything happens.
• 58:04
  Yep. That would have that would have
• 58:08
  been a great video. Honestly, it would have been.
• 58:13
  It would have been great. It would have been sure.
• 58:15
  Yeah. Yeah, fit that in the middle of
• 58:17
  that video where you're talking about the contract negotiations
• 58:20
  that you have and step into the pods being out there on on the
• 58:24
  street and then step into we care about you, we're standing
• 58:27
  with you. If you need anything, contact
• 58:30
  us. Would have made a great video.
• 58:34
  Yeah. I mean some of them that nature,
• 58:37
  I understand contractual negotiations, that Gray area of
• 58:42
  some things that cannot be talked about, especially if
• 58:45
  you're still negotiating certain things.
• 58:48
  But hey, you know some sort of heads up on stuff or just to
• 58:52
  say, yes, we are aware of these situations, we are looking into
• 58:56
  them, we are talking to the management about this, that type
• 59:02
  of stuff. I think that is a type of things
• 59:05
  that the craft wants to hear from when being addressed by the
• 59:11
  national board. Exactly.
• 59:17
  They they pay these dues for a reason.
• 59:21
  And that's for information from national going on, what's going
• 59:25
  on nationwide. We pay them to tell us what's
• 59:30
  going on up there. We pay them to represent us.
• 59:36
  We pay them to fight for our pay.
• 59:42
  Yeah, I mean we. Pay them too much.
• 59:46
  Oh, I'm sorry. For what they do, for what
• 59:49
  they're doing to us, I would agree with you on that.
• 59:52
  For what they're doing to us, taking our money out of our
• 59:54
  pockets. Is that the truth?
• 1:00:01
  But you put somebody in there that's worth the money to fight
• 1:00:03
  for you, you know, put them in there to fight for you.
• 1:00:08
  Get somebody in there that's actually willing to put their
• 1:00:11
  foot down and tell management that's enough.
• 1:00:14
  We've had enough. Our union is tired of being
• 1:00:17
  treated like a doormat by management, by pods, by
• 1:00:20
  everybody above local management in a lot of cases.
• 1:00:24
  We're not the red headed stepchild.
• 1:00:27
  We're rural carriers. Yeah, some of us don't even have
• 1:00:30
  a lot of hair. My red is diminishing.
• 1:00:34
  I got to. I got to cover the Gray again
• 1:00:37
  here. Don't don't have to have hair
• 1:00:42
  when you're fighting for the craft.
• 1:00:44
  In fact, it gets in the way when it's flinging around in front of
• 1:00:47
  your face. That's why I have it pulled back
• 1:00:51
  in a ponytail. Yeah, my son.
• 1:00:56
  Son was over to me over here today.
• 1:00:59
  He's going Dad, He says you got to shave.
• 1:01:01
  He says I don't like you with hair.
• 1:01:05
  I said, I said that's all right. I says I don't like you, period.
• 1:01:13
  Because I love them. I love my boys.
• 1:01:17
  They're better children than I deserve.
• 1:01:20
  So somebody said, I'm sure they take a poll from the local
• 1:01:24
  social circle to know the important issues.
• 1:01:27
  Yeah, that's the problem. That's why they have comments
• 1:01:33
  turned off on Facebook. That's why their page is not
• 1:01:37
  getting spread as as quickly as others out there because they
• 1:01:41
  don't listen to the craft. They don't want to hear from the
• 1:01:44
  craft. In fact, that's why they do a
• 1:01:47
  written Q&A at the conferences is because they they want to be
• 1:01:55
  able to pick and choose which questions they answer.
• 1:02:01
  It that that is a little bit discerning that you know, you
• 1:02:05
  you can't stand up and just ask a question.
• 1:02:07
  They have to be able to prep the questions and answers.
• 1:02:14
  You know. Being rigged.
• 1:02:17
  You know, I'm going to throw this out there.
• 1:02:18
  You, you know, I go to my local boosters and they have AQ and a
• 1:02:28
  with the, the district representatives and assistant
• 1:02:31
  district representatives. There's you can write your
• 1:02:35
  questions down, but they'll take questions straight from the
• 1:02:38
  floor. Why?
• 1:02:40
  Because they want the craft informed.
• 1:02:45
  And I understand that a lot of the national board doesn't want
• 1:02:50
  to hear from the craft on the floor, especially at things like
• 1:02:54
  National Convention where it's actually on the record.
• 1:02:57
  But that's where you learn all the issues going on.
• 1:03:06
  That's where you learn from the craft, what's happening in the
• 1:03:10
  union, aside from them calling your office or in most cases
• 1:03:15
  getting the voicemail of your secretary because nobody wants
• 1:03:18
  to answer the phone at national office.
• 1:03:22
  But you've got to have an ear to the craft and not just the
• 1:03:28
  people you choose to listen to. You got to listen to them all
• 1:03:33
  because those people are out there begging for your help,
• 1:03:38
  looking for guidance from the union, and you've got to be
• 1:03:42
  there for them. That's what you're paid to do.
• 1:03:46
  And it doesn't matter if it's 7:00 in the morning or 7:00 at
• 1:03:50
  night, 10:00 at night, whatever. You're paid to support the craft
• 1:03:57
  and that's what you should be doing.
• 1:04:00
  Is there anything else we want to discuss tonight?
• 1:04:03
  That's all I really had on the list, Bill said.
• 1:04:07
  He went took a short break. Yep, Yep, I saw that.
• 1:04:17
  Do we feel better? Maybe yeah, let.
• 1:04:27
  Me tell you that isn't. It somebody asked can we make a
• 1:04:33
  resolution for that and they were replied, I think there
• 1:04:38
  there were some about being more transparent would have to check
• 1:04:41
  the resolutions to be sure. So yeah, there were resolutions
• 1:04:47
  about being more transparent and there's been several of them and
• 1:04:52
  they always end up in the non binding section of the
• 1:04:56
  resolutions, which means they're advisory in nature and the
• 1:05:01
  national board does not have to listen to them.
• 1:05:06
  They can take them under advisement.
• 1:05:09
  Take them under the tables, more like it.
• 1:05:11
  No, that's it takes 2020 to 30, but closer to 20 resolutions to
• 1:05:16
  the table and the rest of them go in go in the circular filing
• 1:05:20
  bin. Hey, I'd take every one of them.
• 1:05:23
  You know, everyone. We could argue I'd take every
• 1:05:26
  one of them. That's the point.
• 1:05:28
  You know, these these resolutions were passed by the
• 1:05:32
  body to be cataloged and organized and taken for our
• 1:05:39
  contract negotiations. And I understand there are
• 1:05:43
  repeats. But here's the thing.
• 1:05:45
  There were at last National Convention, there were four
• 1:05:48
  resolutions about making RCA's career.
• 1:05:52
  What you do is you take those four, you start with the best of
• 1:05:55
  the best of them and work your way through the rest of them.
• 1:05:59
  If management won't agree the first one, why you throw down
• 1:06:01
  the second best? Management doesn't agree the
• 1:06:03
  second one, you throw down the third best.
• 1:06:06
  Yeah, fight for every single inch you can get because
• 1:06:10
  management will take a mile from you.
• 1:06:14
  Yeah, 111 listener says. Why pay for and have a
• 1:06:17
  convention if you're just going to ignore our room?
• 1:06:19
  But. Because that's who's on the and
• 1:06:23
  the presidency right now, 20 to 30 of the the 400 plus
• 1:06:27
  resolutions passed in three years are the ones that he was
• 1:06:32
  taking to the negotiating table. But it hasn't done.
• 1:06:39
  Yeah, but it hasn't been just done that.
• 1:06:41
  That's been their standard practice.
• 1:06:43
  Yes, it's time to change that practice.
• 1:06:51
  We need more active carriers as delegates.
• 1:06:54
  And if you feel that it's just you're going there to visit
• 1:06:59
  friends, it's not the place for you.
• 1:07:01
  You are fighting for this craft because this craft needs
• 1:07:06
  strength put into it, it needs power put behind it, it needs
• 1:07:11
  unity across the entire craft, and we need delegates.
• 1:07:18
  You know, that's the one thing when I go to conventions, yes,
• 1:07:24
  it's great to see my friends from other places, but that's
• 1:07:28
  not why I go. I go for the business I go to,
• 1:07:34
  you know, go through the resolutions it, you know, I have
• 1:07:37
  submitted resolutions that have gone up to national and passed
• 1:07:40
  it national. I, you know that I am there for
• 1:07:44
  the business part. You know, even with this
• 1:07:47
  podcast, I'm not there to advertise the podcast.
• 1:07:50
  I am there for union business. Now, if we're off the convention
• 1:07:55
  floor and somebody mentions, oh, I recognize your voice, blah,
• 1:07:58
  blah, blah, you know, and I have a button or a magnet or
• 1:08:02
  something like that, I have no problem saying, Oh well, thank
• 1:08:05
  you, here you go. You know, but none of that's
• 1:08:07
  done on the convention floor. You know, I don't it to me the
• 1:08:11
  convention floor is the place of business and that's what I am
• 1:08:14
  there for is the business. Yeah, and.
• 1:08:21
  It's funny, you know, we we we go into the you know, convention
• 1:08:25
  with all these resolutions that, you know, the states have
• 1:08:27
  passed. They come up to the National
• 1:08:30
  Convention and they have a resolution.
• 1:08:32
  You know, committee overlook everything and it's
• 1:08:35
  disheartening that you pass so many and so few get considered.
• 1:08:39
  It's just another form of them controlling the narrative.
• 1:08:44
  You know, the the same way at certain levels that the states
• 1:08:47
  do, you know, in depending on, you know, where their loyalties
• 1:08:51
  lie. But the fact of the matter is,
• 1:08:53
  you know, you, you file a grievance and you know, you have
• 1:08:57
  a, you know, lackadaisical steward or, you know, ADRDR
• 1:09:02
  doesn't get back to you, or this is what the, the demoralizing
• 1:09:06
  effect is, is that keep beating the people down because no
• 1:09:11
  matter how much effort they put into it, it's not considered
• 1:09:16
  essential. It's not considered necessary
• 1:09:19
  for their consideration. It's not worthy of their time.
• 1:09:24
  Well, I hate to tell you, but you're on my dime, ambassadors,
• 1:09:29
  so you better make it a preferential treatment for my
• 1:09:33
  resolution that the state passed, that your resolution
• 1:09:37
  committee passed, whether they recommended or not recommended
• 1:09:40
  it. But all of them should be
• 1:09:42
  considered. You know, the biggest, the
• 1:09:47
  biggest pet peeve I have, and this is this is coming straight
• 1:09:51
  from Don Madison again, was when he re upped the MOU, he turned
• 1:09:59
  around and said, and rural carriers, regular rural carriers
• 1:10:02
  can work to earn as much money as they want to cover whatever
• 1:10:06
  they need. It's not about working more.
• 1:10:10
  You have to have a good work home life balance.
• 1:10:14
  You know, you got carriers out there that are working 16/18/19
• 1:10:20
  hours a day and yes, they are filing grievances on that.
• 1:10:23
  I've been discussing discussing that with them.
• 1:10:26
  But you have carriers out there that are running 2 routes a day.
• 1:10:31
  You have RC, AS2 RC as running down Mastin's route every day,
• 1:10:36
  you know, but how many hours do you have to work to cover your
• 1:10:43
  expenses? And then guess what?
• 1:10:46
  You miss your kids concert. You miss your kids baseball
• 1:10:50
  game, football game. You miss your kids prom.
• 1:10:54
  You miss all the important events in your family for what?
• 1:10:59
  More money that barely covers the bills that you have.
• 1:11:02
  And then turn around. Your kids aren't going to
• 1:11:05
  remember how many hours you worked for them.
• 1:11:08
  They're going to remember how many things you missed that were
• 1:11:12
  important to them if they're going to remember how you
• 1:11:16
  weren't there when they were sick because you were too busy
• 1:11:19
  working 12 to 14 hours a day at the post office.
• 1:11:24
  When is enough, enough? Our carriers need better pay.
• 1:11:29
  Not more hours, better pay. That's it.
• 1:11:36
  And what what are what are the carriers that are 60 and 70
• 1:11:39
  hours, You know, they, they got more than enough hours you.
• 1:11:43
  Know Oh yeah, and they're not going to wait too much.
• 1:11:46
  Yeah, and they're not getting any extra pay.
• 1:11:49
  You know these carriers are killing themselves.
• 1:11:51
  And that relates to the City side's TA with the, you know,
• 1:11:58
  letting carriers work over the 1260.
• 1:12:02
  The 12 to 60, yeah, you're right.
• 1:12:04
  And. Get 2 1/2 times pay.
• 1:12:08
  I don't want 2 1/2 times pay. I want to go home.
• 1:12:11
  Yeah, I want to. Go home comfortably.
• 1:12:14
  And, and with this MOU that has been renewed so many times over
• 1:12:18
  the last few years, you know, and that and that you hear
• 1:12:21
  about, well, carriers want it. Carriers want it because they
• 1:12:24
  want to work that over. It's not that because they want
• 1:12:27
  it, it's because they need it. Those carriers the same side.
• 1:12:30
  This is because they need it to survive.
• 1:12:34
  Yeah. You know, if I was living on my
• 1:12:37
  own, I wouldn't need it. You know, it's luckily I'm, you
• 1:12:42
  know, the two income household, but still, I mean, it's, you
• 1:12:48
  know, the wouldn't especially and you know, and it's some
• 1:12:51
  areas even with a 2 income household, but especially some
• 1:12:54
  of these single income households where you don't have
• 1:12:57
  a choice but to work 6-7 days a week and work as much as you
• 1:13:03
  absolutely can. Just to be able to pay for the
• 1:13:06
  roof over your head or the vehicle that gets you back and
• 1:13:09
  forth to work or the vehicle that allows you to work because
• 1:13:13
  that's your POV or, or, you know, to make fixes on it.
• 1:13:17
  And when you have a POV it, you know, or to make sure that your
• 1:13:21
  kids have what they need. And then in return, you're
• 1:13:26
  missing out on your kids stuff that you should be there
• 1:13:31
  supporting them for. I mean, I've been there.
• 1:13:34
  I have been there. And.
• 1:13:37
  I think Ruby behind Ruby behind me can can confirm that I have
• 1:13:42
  been there with how many times I've had to miss cheerleading
• 1:13:44
  competitions and and all that stuff to, you know, because I
• 1:13:50
  was working, you know, she, she knows, you know, or my youngest
• 1:13:57
  daughter, how many times you know, I would love to go to her
• 1:14:00
  all her soccer games. I was happy if I got I, I, you
• 1:14:03
  know, if I could get to one in a season, you know, I did what I
• 1:14:09
  had to do to make her band her Christmas band concert.
• 1:14:12
  You know, I didn't. I would rather have rolled that
• 1:14:15
  one day of annual leave I had over for next year.
• 1:14:19
  But you know, for me, it was more important to be there for
• 1:14:23
  her than it was to roll that annual leave day over.
• 1:14:27
  You know, especially single parents with multiple children,
• 1:14:31
  you know, they have it here. This is bad.
• 1:14:33
  I mean, it's it's terrible out here.
• 1:14:35
  You know, I feel bad for a lot of carriers out there that are
• 1:14:39
  being forced even to work all kinds of hours.
• 1:14:44
  You know, that one carrier was talking to, he's working six
• 1:14:47
  days a week. I mean, one week he got 93 hours
• 1:14:52
  as a regular carrier. You know, how do you, how can
• 1:14:58
  anybody justify working somebody that hard, that long?
• 1:15:06
  You know, it is unfathomable how we are treated today, especially
• 1:15:13
  given the MOU. Given all the crap that we get
• 1:15:18
  tossed on us, it's time for us to step up, stand up and fight
• 1:15:24
  for what's ours. Absolutely, we are going to wind
• 1:15:31
  this down for tonight and. Or Bill gets wound up anymore,
• 1:15:37
  right? Right, right.
• 1:15:40
  And I know you. Don't Kristen James and
• 1:15:45
  everybody listening, You don't know you, you don't know how
• 1:15:49
  much this wretches my heart when I'm, I'm hearing from people
• 1:15:52
  across the country, my own office and, and I'm, you know,
• 1:15:56
  you got the PO DS, you, you have a, you know, a benchmark for
• 1:16:00
  Pdis or Ionis, whatever you want to call them.
• 1:16:03
  You know that management are issued and they're being
• 1:16:05
  threatened with their jobs. And it's like, how can you run a
• 1:16:10
  business? And we are a business, ladies
• 1:16:12
  and gentlemen, you may say, oh, we're a service, not we are a
• 1:16:16
  business. We have to generate income to
• 1:16:18
  pay the carrier to pay the bills.
• 1:16:21
  And how do you run this type of business model and, and expect
• 1:16:26
  people to give it their all to, to really care?
• 1:16:30
  I mean, a lot of carriers are here because it's a way to make
• 1:16:34
  a living. They're not happy about it.
• 1:16:37
  If, if any of you listening, you know, would it would have been
• 1:16:41
  in my office 26 years ago when it, when I first stepped into
• 1:16:45
  this job. And I said, Oh my God, you know,
• 1:16:47
  this is the easiest job I've ever had.
• 1:16:50
  And for almost five years it, it was a great job.
• 1:16:55
  And then, you know, they started micromanaging and yeah,
• 1:16:58
  everything that goes on nowadays, it it's just another
• 1:17:03
  nail in the coffin. And, you know, we've lost
• 1:17:07
  carriers in this, in this last year because of the situations
• 1:17:11
  at work, the tension, the hostile, hostile work
• 1:17:15
  environment, you know, the, the berating, the, the constant
• 1:17:19
  kneeling that we get from management.
• 1:17:21
  You know, I got to move faster. I, yeah, yeah.
• 1:17:23
  You got to get out of here by, you know, 1030.
• 1:17:25
  I got to, you know, God bless you all.
• 1:17:29
  You know, I, I knew I had reached my end when we went up
• 1:17:31
  to the SDSDNC. And after two months there, I
• 1:17:35
  knew that I couldn't tolerate that work situation anymore and,
• 1:17:39
  and not end up in prison. That's how bad it got because I,
• 1:17:45
  I don't take to that well and I do lash out.
• 1:17:50
  But the fact of the matter is, you know, I'm wise enough in my
• 1:17:53
  years that you know, I was able to step away, but you all can't.
• 1:17:59
  And that just tears that my very heart.
• 1:18:03
  God bless you all. Yeah, it does.
• 1:18:05
  You know, I, I have seen a lot of carriers that have just
• 1:18:09
  decided to resign both, you know, and that just not just
• 1:18:13
  sleeve replacements, but regulars or, or regulars that
• 1:18:17
  are stepping into management and other offices because after so
• 1:18:22
  many years, their body just can't physically take the job
• 1:18:26
  anymore. Because it, hell, it's a hell of
• 1:18:28
  a lot different than what I started 10 years ago.
• 1:18:32
  You know, I started before Amazon.
• 1:18:34
  I know what it was like prior to Amazon and I had a ton of mail,
• 1:18:40
  and now it's the opposite, you know?
• 1:18:43
  Yeah, we have our heavier days here and there, but in general,
• 1:18:47
  my average day of mail is nothing what it was like when I
• 1:18:50
  first started. Packages on the other hand,
• 1:18:54
  well, that's, you know, tenfold. I mean I look at our one POV
• 1:18:59
  route and when I transferred in my office and then I moved to
• 1:19:02
  that route as a sub, you know if you had 70.
• 1:19:07
  I remember the first time I broke 100 package hundred
• 1:19:10
  hundred scans on that route that day, 100 parcels and I was like
• 1:19:13
  Oh my God 100 parcels. This was a heavy, heavy day.
• 1:19:17
  This 44 K POV route now with only 500 active boxes on a daily
• 1:19:24
  for the last month and a half two months has been getting more
• 1:19:28
  than what I have on my 46K800 box route.
• 1:19:33
  And when they are running second trips nearly on the daily or
• 1:19:37
  having to have the ox carrier take out half of the route's
• 1:19:40
  parcels because they couldn't fit them in.
• 1:19:42
  In fact one day they had two Subs take parcels up because
• 1:19:45
  there was over 70 parcels for the front half of the route.
• 1:19:49
  They had to be left behind that couldn't benefit into the POV.
• 1:19:54
  And it it's just, it's completely different than what
• 1:19:57
  it was like I said, even when I started 10 years ago.
• 1:20:02
  And yeah, it's it's crazy. And I can totally see where, you
• 1:20:08
  know, it's not going to be easy on the body when we're humping
• 1:20:12
  gaming chairs in multiple mattresses and oversized things
• 1:20:18
  on a daily nearly it it that, you know, that's not easy on
• 1:20:23
  anybody for sure. I know the last thing I want to
• 1:20:25
  do when I get home is any heavy lifting.
• 1:20:27
  I'm like, shit, I've already done that for today.
• 1:20:29
  I'm good. So no, I mean, I understand
• 1:20:34
  where some of that are coming from.
• 1:20:35
  And then you top it off with the micromanagement and the
• 1:20:40
  benchmarking and everything else.
• 1:20:42
  It's just, it's an overload for many people.
• 1:20:47
  It really is. Yep.
• 1:20:52
  We can't deal with what everything that's going on on
• 1:20:57
  top of the micromanagement, on top of the heavy workload that
• 1:21:01
  we're getting, on top of the lack of available leave
• 1:21:05
  replacements. I mean, there's some offices
• 1:21:08
  that can't even get the routes covered because they can't get
• 1:21:11
  anybody hired in to actually work full regular routes.
• 1:21:16
  When did it stop you? Know I mean than not forcing
• 1:21:20
  Rcas to have a POVI mean that was the remember that when I
• 1:21:25
  started course when I first started 9 out of 12 routes were
• 1:21:28
  POV routes. So you absolutely had one.
• 1:21:31
  I mean in my office we have one POV route.
• 1:21:33
  Everything else is LLVS. But to even run Christmas
• 1:21:37
  parcels, you have Rcas out there that have more compact cars that
• 1:21:44
  they wouldn't barely be able to get one box and or, or five, let
• 1:21:48
  alone, you know, parcel runs. And so now, you know, what do
• 1:21:52
  you do? They're sitting at home when
• 1:21:54
  they could be helping because they don't have a vehicle.
• 1:21:56
  But, you know, let's not force them to have a vehicle that they
• 1:22:00
  can even deliver parcels out of properly to.
• 1:22:05
  Yeah. I mean, it's completely
• 1:22:07
  different than what it used to be.
• 1:22:08
  It definitely is. Yeah.
• 1:22:13
  I mean if when I hired on to my office, you know, as an RCA
• 1:22:19
  looking at what we would had done and what we had done deal
• 1:22:22
  with, there was no way I would have had a POV at the time.
• 1:22:26
  There was no way I'd be able to have APOV.
• 1:22:28
  Now I'm lucky that I'm able to have nice vehicles and things
• 1:22:33
  like that. But there are carriers out
• 1:22:36
  there, RC as I just, I had a friend I talked to, I had an RCA
• 1:22:41
  that had made $11,000 in a year. It's been $12,000 in repairs on
• 1:22:48
  their car in that year. And that was including their
• 1:22:52
  EMA. They got $11,000 and they spent
• 1:22:55
  12,000 on their car. How is it that you spend more
• 1:23:00
  money repairing a vehicle and mind you, it wasn't a brand new
• 1:23:03
  vehicle and you make less money than what you spent to repair
• 1:23:10
  the vehicle you're delivering with And so that's how they
• 1:23:15
  actually quit and walk off the job they're done.
• 1:23:17
  You know. I.
• 1:23:19
  I see a lot of things where I mean, and if you look at any of
• 1:23:22
  the job descriptions, when an RCA goes to apply, it
• 1:23:26
  specifically says must have a vehicle that you'd be able to
• 1:23:31
  deliver mail out of. I don't have the exact wording
• 1:23:34
  in there, but that's the gist of it.
• 1:23:36
  And you know, even if you're in an all government office, Rcas
• 1:23:39
  are still supposed to be required to have a vehicle.
• 1:23:44
  A lot of times it is not upheld. But that could be for parcel
• 1:23:48
  delivery. That could also be if they send
• 1:23:50
  you to another office that doesn't have government vehicles
• 1:23:54
  and it isn't all POV route office or send you to an office
• 1:23:58
  to cover APOV route. That was the whole point of
• 1:24:01
  having, you know, our CA is having a POV available and
• 1:24:07
  that's gone to the wayside. I mean, I, I didn't get rid of
• 1:24:12
  my POV until my route actually went up.
• 1:24:15
  Forbid, you know I. Delivered.
• 1:24:20
  Yeah, I delivered in my Tahoe in part for parcel delivery.
• 1:24:24
  So I mean technically I had APOV for mail delivery.
• 1:24:28
  It just wasn't right hand drive and wasn't capable of delivering
• 1:24:31
  out the right side of the vehicle without modification,
• 1:24:35
  you know. But if I had to, I could have
• 1:24:37
  probably made the modification and right hand drove it.
• 1:24:40
  I, you know, I did what I had to do.
• 1:24:42
  I mean, when I first started, I mean in the eight years that I,
• 1:24:48
  you know, had to have a POVI, went through, I don't know, 5 or
• 1:24:52
  6 vehicles. I mean, when I first started, I
• 1:24:55
  was using my X's 02 Ford Explorer Sport 2 door and I sent
• 1:24:59
  the passenger seat and swung my leg over.
• 1:25:02
  Luckily the console was not in the way for me to swing my leg
• 1:25:05
  over and drive that way. Same thing with my 99 Blazer
• 1:25:09
  that I had. I my best POV was a 93
• 1:25:13
  Oldsmobile Cutlass sear a bench seat and that's like a for
• 1:25:16
  almost five years before the chain timing went out.
• 1:25:19
  And then I had my O3B Wick Lesabre till I had a bad rod
• 1:25:23
  knock. I kept that until I've, you
• 1:25:27
  know, been on the road I'm on now with the government vehicle.
• 1:25:30
  But at the same time, you know, I've had to use what I've had to
• 1:25:33
  use in the past. I mean, I've borrowed from a
• 1:25:35
  four, you know, my old regular, I had borrowed minivan from them
• 1:25:38
  in the past when something was down.
• 1:25:40
  I straddled in an O2 Malibu. I straddled in my 2018 Jeep
• 1:25:46
  Compass. You know, I made it work.
• 1:25:49
  Heck, I use the boyfriend's full size Chevy Silverado a couple
• 1:25:53
  times and I felt bad for those that were on the side of the
• 1:25:56
  road on a lower mailbox when I had to put it in park and lean
• 1:25:59
  out if they probably got a nice view of my behind as I'm leaning
• 1:26:04
  out towards the mailbox. But you know, I did what I had
• 1:26:07
  to do to work. I mean, it's just, I don't know,
• 1:26:12
  I guess times are different now. And it's getting harder to find
• 1:26:16
  a reliable route vehicle. It is these days.
• 1:26:20
  Yes it is. You have one one manufacturer in
• 1:26:25
  the United States that you can get right hand drive from.
• 1:26:28
  And good luck being able to afford one of those, especially
• 1:26:31
  as an RCA. Yeah, you know you're looking at
• 1:26:35
  six. A base price for a right hand
• 1:26:37
  drive in the United States is $65,000 for brand new.
• 1:26:42
  I've seen them around 49, Yeah, but you know, even a good used
• 1:26:48
  one, you're still looking at well over 10.
• 1:26:51
  To 12,000. There are newer ones for 35
• 1:26:57
  listed now. Yeah, but you know, it's it's
• 1:27:01
  especially if you're I would I I still wonder the just say how
• 1:27:06
  people have delivered out of a stick shift.
• 1:27:11
  I asked an old regular that and he had a Ford Escort he had
• 1:27:14
  delivered out of back in the day when it was all male.
• 1:27:17
  It's how the heck did you deliver out of with a stick
• 1:27:19
  shift? He doesn't have to just leave it
• 1:27:20
  in second gear, OK? Hey is it work for work?
• 1:27:31
  Yeah, you know, you make you do what you have to do.
• 1:27:35
  I mean, I did it, I guess. You know, I, I was kind of
• 1:27:39
  joking with people in my in my office on that Friday the 13th
• 1:27:44
  there because that was my ten year anniversary with the post
• 1:27:47
  office. And I was like, you know, this
• 1:27:49
  is the most abusive employer I've ever had, but it's the
• 1:27:52
  longest job I've consecutively really had.
• 1:27:54
  I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment, but I enjoy what I
• 1:28:00
  do. You know, it's not, it's I let
• 1:28:03
  what whatever management wants to dole out.
• 1:28:05
  I literally let that roll off my shoulders when I walk out the
• 1:28:09
  door to head to the route. And once I'm out on that route,
• 1:28:13
  it's my, my main focus is my customers and getting that mail
• 1:28:17
  and parcels delivered. You know, when I get back,
• 1:28:21
  management's usually in a different mood by then.
• 1:28:23
  I put my stuff away. I clock out, hang my stuff up
• 1:28:26
  and say see you tomorrow. So, you know, it's sometimes
• 1:28:30
  that's what you have to do. You just have to, whatever you
• 1:28:32
  deal with in the office, you just have to let it roll off
• 1:28:35
  your shoulders, leave it in the office when you head out to that
• 1:28:37
  route and just focus on what you, what you have to do out on
• 1:28:41
  that route. And when you go home, too.
• 1:28:45
  Yeah, as much as you can, some of us.
• 1:28:49
  Yeah. But OK, let's wind this down
• 1:28:56
  because we totally thought we were going to do that about 20
• 1:28:59
  minutes ago, so. Well, we were basically winding
• 1:29:05
  it down. You know, we got very passionate
• 1:29:07
  there for a bit, so now we're winding down the passion before
• 1:29:10
  we close out. Exactly.
• 1:29:13
  We've we've covered quite a bit tonight, though, you know the
• 1:29:17
  the PO DS a little bit on the last YouTube video covered
• 1:29:24
  safety. We've covered our CAS and PO VS
• 1:29:26
  we've gone over the MOU things that we'd want to see, not want
• 1:29:31
  to see. Just you know, it's been quite a
• 1:29:34
  bit tonight guys. But you know, most importantly,
• 1:29:38
  we've got two days left of Christmas Day.
• 1:29:41
  Let let's let's be the best Santa as we can for the next two
• 1:29:46
  days and make sure, you know, our customers have a great
• 1:29:50
  Christmas. And I want everybody else out
• 1:29:53
  there to have an awesome Christmas with your families.
• 1:29:58
  And, you know, unfortunately, you know, the next day, many of
• 1:30:01
  us do have to go back to work. But, you know, we have that one
• 1:30:04
  day to enjoy with our families. And let's not let work bother US
• 1:30:09
  one bit on Wednesday. James, go ahead.
• 1:30:15
  Well, you know, we talked about a lot of stuff here and the
• 1:30:19
  biggest thing I can say is we get that from the social media.
• 1:30:23
  We get that from people messaging us.
• 1:30:27
  Some of the stuff comes across on my page for running for
• 1:30:31
  president. Some of it comes across the
• 1:30:32
  podcast page. Some of it comes across the
• 1:30:35
  groups that we're in. The biggest thing is, is we want
• 1:30:39
  information from you. What do you want to hear from
• 1:30:42
  us? What do you want to to see
• 1:30:44
  discussed between the presenters here?
• 1:30:48
  Because it's all about the craft.
• 1:30:51
  We're here for you guys. When we talk about our Closings
• 1:30:57
  that we do on this and the statements that we make, we
• 1:31:00
  believe in those statements. We believe 100% of this craft
• 1:31:06
  are the most important people to us here on this podcast and
• 1:31:11
  outside of it because the only people looking out for us are
• 1:31:17
  our brothers and sisters of the craft in ourselves.
• 1:31:21
  And the only thing that's worse than an uninformed carrier is an
• 1:31:30
  informed minority controlling the uninformed majority.
• 1:31:37
  When I sit here and I say we're all in this together, I mean
• 1:31:41
  that because when it comes to this craft, we have to be all in
• 1:31:49
  this together, Bill. Well, as I said earlier, it it,
• 1:31:57
  it does wrench my heart to hear all that's going on in this day
• 1:32:03
  and age with the post office, especially out of my office.
• 1:32:06
  I hear it every day. But it's not just Westchester,
• 1:32:10
  it's North Carolina, it's Georgia, it's Alabama, South
• 1:32:14
  Carolina, Iowa, Kansas, it's across the entire country.
• 1:32:19
  And it's remarkable that this is not in the forefront of
• 1:32:26
  management's mind in regards to enhancing, bettering the
• 1:32:31
  relationship with their workforce.
• 1:32:34
  And I'm just confounded, confused in regards to what is
• 1:32:38
  their end goal in regards to, you know, these PO DS or, you
• 1:32:43
  know, having benchmarking for Pdis, you know, a week.
• 1:32:49
  I mean, I don't get it, it, it doesn't make any sense and it
• 1:32:55
  just it baffles the hell out of me and, and God bless you all
• 1:32:59
  put nothing with it tolerating it.
• 1:33:02
  Like I said, I reached my limit and I had to get out of there
• 1:33:06
  and thankfully I was in the position to do so.
• 1:33:08
  I've been in that position for years.
• 1:33:10
  But it finally got to the point with the political mail and
• 1:33:14
  everything else that my SD and C and I just said that's OK, it's
• 1:33:19
  time to walk away and, and made that decision in the matter of
• 1:33:22
  2-3 weeks and executed it you know Florida State.
• 1:33:28
  But I, I pray for everybody safety like I said with the
• 1:33:32
  weather that we have coming in the cold, yeah, you see roads,
• 1:33:35
  the snow and everything else. All of you, you know, get the
• 1:33:40
  job done efficiently, safely, OK?
• 1:33:44
  Because as I say, you are the most important delivery of the
• 1:33:48
  day and get home to your loved ones.
• 1:33:50
  It's not about what's under the Christmas tree.
• 1:33:53
  It's about the people around that tree with you.
• 1:33:57
  That's the gift of Christmas. So treasure your loved ones,
• 1:34:03
  your friends, your neighbors, your customers and, you know,
• 1:34:09
  just take a day, a moment off from all the BS that you know,
• 1:34:15
  encompasses your careers right now and enjoy the people that
• 1:34:20
  you're with. That's that's the best time is
• 1:34:24
  when you're you're not thinking of the job and you're just,
• 1:34:27
  you're looking at the grandchildren running around or
• 1:34:29
  a niece or nephew, you know, all excited about it, a new toy or
• 1:34:33
  clothing, whatever. Enjoy the holiday.
• 1:34:37
  It's a brief respite in the middle of this storm.
• 1:34:42
  But as always, and like James says, you know, we'll get
• 1:34:45
  through this and you will, you'll persevere because that's
• 1:34:49
  the type of people rule carriers are.
• 1:34:53
  You know, for the most part, we don't quit.
• 1:34:57
  You know, we don't back down. And we provide an essential
• 1:35:01
  service for this country. And you know, God bless you all.
• 1:35:05
  Have a very Merry Christmas and be safe.
• 1:35:09
  We love you all, Kristen. Thank you, guys.
• 1:35:13
  I think I kind of said what I had to say prior to you guys.
• 1:35:16
  But yeah, you know, it's we got two more days.
• 1:35:20
  We've got Christmas coming up. You know, cherish the day that
• 1:35:24
  you have with your loved ones for sure.
• 1:35:27
  You know, spend that day, enjoy it.
• 1:35:29
  Don't think about work. I know I'm going to try not to,
• 1:35:33
  but it happens. And, you know, just you take
• 1:35:37
  care. Be safe out there.
• 1:35:39
  I know we've got more snow and stuff coming in tonight and
• 1:35:42
  tomorrow. It's going to be another fun
• 1:35:44
  Monday for me tomorrow. But you know, everybody, you
• 1:35:48
  take care, you stay safe, and most of all, enjoy the Christmas
• 1:35:54
  holiday with your families. And on that note, we should be
• 1:35:59
  back next week. And Yep, James is nodding his
• 1:36:03
  head. Yes, we'll be there.
• 1:36:03
  Ruby's waving by to everybody. So if you're watching the video,
• 1:36:08
  you know, she's kind of been sitting here with me.
• 1:36:10
  But everybody, take care. Have a very, very Merry
• 1:36:13
  Christmas and we'll be back next Sunday night.
• 1:36:49
  Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas y'all.
• 1:36:53
  Yep, Merry Christmas.