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The guys will play · United We Scan

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Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Welcome back, everybody.
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Episode 122, the boys will play with Kristen stepping off the
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podcast to pursue other avenues. The boys are left to play.
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Me and Bill are here. And we've had Josh step in to
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actually fill in the third spot. Give us a third voice of reason
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on this podcast. Help us out here.
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And so Speaking of that, how was your week, Bill?
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We'll start with you and then we'll go to our new special host
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here. Well, oh, another exciting week
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in retirement. Basically more news out of RSD
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and C it it's, it's just horrendous.
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It really is. And I haven't, I haven't gotten
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a response back on my art art application.
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So today I put an application in for an RCA in Chester Springs
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right down the road from me, just to make sure I can, you
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know, be a full member at convention time.
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I'm, I'm not betting on anything.
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So I'm, I'm trying to line up my ducks here so that I can go in
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there and you know, when somebody says when you're
2:05
retired and I'll say, no, I'm not, here's my union card.
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But. Other than that, my son
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graduated Friday night from the University of Delaware Medical
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Sciences. In October, he goes to Puerto
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Rico, joining the Air Force and they'll pick up the rest of his
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medical training until he's a a full doctor.
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And Oh my, my oldest son and his wife are pregnant again.
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They waited till she was 10 weeks to announce it to make
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sure everything was going healthy.
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And, and you know, well, this time she she did have a
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miscarriage earlier last year. And this time the ultrasound
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showing the healthy baby heartbeat and little head.
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And he's got a, a, a big a tattooed on his head already
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taking after his grandfather. So I'm all happy about that.
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And I mean, it's just, it's just wonderful news because they're
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so they're so excited about starting a family.
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And with that, are we going to Josh?
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How was your week? My week was good.
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I have an RCA assigned to my route even though we're in SNDC,
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and she seems to be catching on very quickly.
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I taught her stuff that she's going to learn next week when
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she's in the Academy. She did have trouble with one
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section of the route, so we got her a map.
3:30
We got her very detailed directions because my line of
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travel, not surprisingly, is wrong.
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So we got that straightened out and she had trouble with that
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section of the route and I said, guess what, since you had
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trouble, you're going to get to do it again today with these
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good directions. So she is in Academy next week
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and she comes back to the office on Saturday, I think, and we
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will continue her training and I'm just happy to have an RCA.
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And I told her, you're going to be working a lot, not just on
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the fact that you're my RCA and that I go to conventions and
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conferences and take vacations, but also you're in an SNDC and
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by that nature you're going to be working pretty much all the
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time. James, how was your week?
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That is the saddest thing to hear, you know, and I do feel
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sorry for every RCA that is in an SNDC because you may be
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working in this town Monday, this town Tuesday, this town
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Wednesday, back to that town Thursday, you know, and covering
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maybe helping split routes too if necessary and things like
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that. Plus you work and probably
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Amazon Sunday on top of that. Hopefully, hopefully the
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overtime paycheck is really good because that's the only way that
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they're going to actually be happy to be doing that job in
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any which way, shape or form because they still have only
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paid enough on their hourly wages.
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But. Don't even get me started on RCA
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pay. But my week was pretty good.
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On Monday, my supervisor came up to me and said, by the way,
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we're going to be scheduling you to work Saturday.
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And she's like, I know you probably are going to want to
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look into it and stuff. But we made sure it was right.
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And I did look into it and they did get it right.
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They made sure everybody that was the designated holiday was
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working those all the RCA that we have and we're still a little
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short handed on RCA, which is why I had to work my Saturday.
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But they did do it right. And so the thing I did is I
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said, you know what, you did do it right.
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I checked everything. I made sure everything was the
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way it was supposed to be and you followed the rules
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completely. And I believe that positive
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encouragement like that keeps them from breaking the rules.
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You know, when they do breakthroughs, I correct them,
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but when they are doing it right, I give them praise.
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That's the way you're supposed to do it.
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And but other than that, I had four box holders this week. 3, I
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had one on Monday that I did not take out.
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I got two more on Tuesday, and then I got a third one on
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Thursday and Saturday. I got done in 5 1/2 hours on my
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route, the shortest I've ever been on my but it was a very
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light day Saturday, but and then on a side note, personal side,
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Tuesday I got to work on the layout some more and I found
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that spiking railroad track on the on the layout at the model
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railroad look club is very, very relaxing.
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It's tedious but it's very relaxing.
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So I have now have found an outlet to call myself after
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getting upset over management BS.
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But all right, let's get into this episode.
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And you guys were talking about SMD CS and you 2 both have
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experience with SMD CS. So how is that helping or
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hurting being able to get people to be involved in the union
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itself? Because I think the biggest
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issue that we have in this union across the board is just getting
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everybody to come together on the same page and fight for this
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crap. Do you think an SNDC can
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actually help that, hinder that or no change that?
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We'll start with you, Bill. It is OK.
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Well, to me, it really has very little effect on, you know,
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recruiting people because of the fact that you're basically still
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in your own office. You you're in your own little
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segregated area. And with the Hitler district
8:00
manager there, you're not allowed to leave your case.
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You're not allowed to wander around.
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You can't walk over to the other areas.
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And, you know, basically, you know, have a conversation with
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anybody if you're, if you're leaving your case, you better be
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going to get your throwbacks, your hot case or your parcels.
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And that's it. I mean, you know, they don't,
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they don't want you wandering around.
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It's it's a very rigid atmosphere in regards to what
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you you're allowed to do. It's almost like, like, you
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know, a prison camp. It really is.
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There's not an, you know, from coming from Westchester, our
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office is very lively with interaction among the carriers.
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And the clerks did this, which is, like I said, almost like a
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prison camp. It's, it's a startling and
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drastic change in the atmosphere.
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And there's not as much support for each other because of the
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fact that if you step out to say something, you know, you get
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reprimanded. And I, I'm, I'm trying to figure
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out, you know, a way for them to, to, you know, rebuttal that
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type of behavior. But I haven't found anything yet
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because of the fact that a, if it doesn't directly affect you,
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you know, you're not to be involved in it.
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You know, even if you're a Stewart, you're, you're not to
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get involved unless you're, you know, requested or is it
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something egregious or flagrant on the floor?
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All the office in the in the SD and C Phoenixville has nothing
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to do with Westchester at all. And if it wasn't for
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Westchester, Phoenixville office would have never realized that
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back in September. And they had the mini mail
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survey that they hadn't gotten their footage done in three
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years at an SDNC. And then when it was brought up,
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guess what? Phoenixville office turned
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around and had four overburdened routes just on the footage
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within the office. Nature route even went up to AKK
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level. So that's that that's the
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problem with, you know, this atmosphere that, you know,
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you're not allowed to exchange ideas or information.
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You're not allowed to, you know, wander from your area and, and
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you know, to a certain extent I understand I'm on your dime and
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you know, I'm, I'm responsible to carry out my duties in a
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professional, efficient manner. But one of the, the, the nicest
10:22
things about being a rural carrier was, you know, the
10:24
interaction among carriers, the way we helped each other.
10:28
And, you know, even even some of the carriers we didn't like, you
10:32
know, we, we assisted at times. We, we learned to get over that
10:36
after a couple years. But the fact of the matter is
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we've always tried to provide assistance upfront to people who
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are struggling in some fashion. Well, you know, whether it's
10:46
with their route, whether it's with management and all.
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And, and yes, T&C to me suffocates that type of
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cooperation and atmosphere between the carriers now in, in
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my particular SD and C, I've got the carriers up in, in, in a
11:04
riot right now because the fact that a former ADR and
11:09
facilitator is doing the route adjustments.
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And I brought to everybody's attention that route adjustments
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are a management function. So anything, anything at all
11:21
that gets done by this person that doesn't meet anybody's
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likes or pleasures ought to be greed automatically because of
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the fact that management did not do the adjustments.
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And not only is he not in not doing it, he is he doing the
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adjustments and yes, D&C, he's actually going to other offices
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and doing adjust route adjustments.
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Therefore, you know, I think this person ought to be kicked
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out of the union period. If you want to be in management,
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go on management. But the, the fact of the matter
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is that craft members aren't allowed to do management, you
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know, level work. And he's a, he's a Monday drop
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day. He's got 2830 years in.
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And if his doesn't drop down to a 43 and somebody with a
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Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday drop day drops down all the way
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to a 43, there's going to be hell to pay.
12:13
Because I've already you've got everybody informed and said, you
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know this, these are the articles you want to invoke.
12:21
Go after them because right now, you know people are losing too
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much money. And you know when, when I'm
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sitting there looking at ten $12,000 pay cuts, Lord, how you
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going to make it? And if you're on Table 2, God
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bless you. It's, it's a mess, but there,
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there, there isn't a lot of interaction, James, there's not
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a lot of, of, of avenues for us to involve people.
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And unfortunately, just like Westchester prior to going to
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the SD and C, there are people who just want to go in, do their
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job, get the hell out and go home.
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You know, there's others who want to go in, do their job, get
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paid, you know, and, and have you, you know, stand up for
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them, but they don't want to stand up for themselves.
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And so that dynamic hasn't really changed at all at the SD
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and Z. There's just a lot, lot less
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conversation on the floor. SNDC it's, it's not, it's not
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complete yet because toward the end of the year, we're going to
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have probably 50 or 60 more routes come in.
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So we haven't, we're online, but we don't have everybody in
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there. And me, I'm a little bit
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cynical. I'm like, what's this going to
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be like at Christmas? Because we're all on top of each
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other now. But imagine when you put 50 or
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60 more routes. Oh, and by the way, we have to
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go through a mini mail survey after that and how many routes
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are they going to make? So I hear you, Bill.
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I will say this, it does give me an opportunity being in an SNDC
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to address more carriers at one time than if I were at my
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office. Well, you'll, you'll find out,
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depending on whoever's running the show there, whether or not
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you can involve those other carriers.
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Yes, like I said, ours ours is run like a prison camp.
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I think it helps at mind that I taught Academy in the same
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building that became the SNDC for almost 4 years so I know
14:19
most of the managers in the city and in that building
14:22
specifically. So I think this may be my
14:24
naivety kicking in, but I think I have gotten myself into their
14:28
good graces. Not trying to brown nose
14:29
anybody, but just because I've been in that building for so
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long, teaching and RSD and C is it's pretty much you come in,
14:39
you do your job. As long as you do your job,
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management's not really going to have it out for you.
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Maybe I'm just a Unicorn. Speaking of more people to reach
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out to, like you said Josh, you know the ballots came out for
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the tentative agreement and a lot of states are getting their
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ballots for their National Convention delegates for each
14:57
state. Do you think it makes it easier
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to talk with the carriers about getting them to vote for it as
15:04
is the most important thing that any dues paying member of the
15:08
union can do is vote for the tentative agreement and vote for
15:12
delegates for National Convention.
15:14
Do you think it helps out with that guy?
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It helps out because I was able to as part of the stand up two
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or three times this week. I was able to go up after
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management finish their feel about whatever needed to be done
15:27
and I was able to say, look guys, and I want to be specific
15:30
because I know this is being recorded and I know people
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listen to it. So I'll be very measured in what
15:35
I say. I want you to bring field ballot
15:40
ratification and national delegate.
15:44
I want it sealed, repeating. I do not want to see who you
15:48
voted for. If you want to vote for me or
15:52
national delegate from North Carolina, I would appreciate it.
15:55
If not, that's fine. But if you bring me your sealed
15:58
ballot, I will at my own cost, put a stamp on it for you
16:03
because there's so much at stake with both the convention and
16:08
especially that contract. I want to make sure that people
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vote. Y'all, go ahead and talk.
16:17
Speak among yourselves because I found a post that I think it's
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in one of the groups. I'm going to pull it up.
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And so I might break in and read it to you because this one
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pissed me off, but go ahead and keep going.
16:30
OK. Bill, you talk about what you
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think. Do you think that an SNDC
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actually makes it easier to get people to participate in the
16:38
Union when it comes to the tentative agreement or the
16:40
national delegate balance? Well, it the my SNDC, it
16:44
doesn't. But like I said, you know,
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you're not allowed to have conversations, you know, on the
16:50
floor, you're not allowed to step out of your case that you
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know, there, there is no allowance for you to have any
16:58
type of discussion on the floor. And when you go out to load your
17:01
truck up and two and three carriers go out to load up their
17:04
vehicles, whether we just be with the parcels or we're with
17:08
their full mail or whatever, the supervisor goes out on the dock
17:12
and observes what you're doing and they will actually come up
17:16
and approach you in regards to having conversations in the
17:19
parking lot. So, you know, but yeah, I, I'm
17:23
telling you, you know, and like I said, I mean, I came from
17:26
Westchester and, and our office, you know, you often had to yell
17:30
over to the city carriers to keep it down because they were
17:32
so loud. You know, OK, in, in this SD and
17:36
C, you have over 300 plus carriers in there and you don't
17:41
hear anybody ever getting loud unless somebody's going off on
17:45
the City side about, you know, an extra 2 hour pivot 45 minutes
17:50
away from the end of their six hour route.
17:52
So I mean, it's, it's a jailhouse.
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It really is. There's no.
18:00
Advantage. That supervisor does that to me.
18:03
That supervisor does that to me. I'll be like, yeah, I'm getting
18:05
8191 now. I'm finally even done that and I
18:10
need an EO. Because as it stands, as long as
18:14
you are doing work while talking, they cannot discipline
18:20
you. They cannot tell you to be
18:21
quiet. It's if you are standing around
18:24
doing absolutely nothing and having a conversation about non
18:28
work related things that they can tell you to go back to work.
18:32
Also, James, wouldn't that be a violation of the joint statement
18:35
on workplace of violence? Yes they would, which is why the
18:38
grievance would be filed. Well, you don't understand the
18:41
district manager who works there, He's the one that
18:45
initiates this type of action because when the city carriers
18:48
go out at 8:00 on on the on the other routes in the office, not
18:53
Westchester, but 8:00, he is standing at the top of the
18:57
stairs overlooking the entire parking lot for for that section
19:02
of barriers observing them and it.
19:05
Sounds like a hostile work environment to me.
19:08
Yeah, well it it feels like it now in regards to talking on the
19:12
floor. There was actually, and, and
19:15
God, I'd have to spend about 3 days digging it up.
19:18
It was actually a grievance that was filed and settled in favor
19:24
of the post office in regarding allowing carriers to speak on
19:29
the floor. And it's, it's been years before
19:33
any of y'all ever started working in the post office.
19:36
And when I read that and I said, well, how the hell could
19:39
somebody ever agree to that? But I'll, I'll, I'll do some
19:43
investigating on that and, and see if I can dig that up.
19:46
But the fact that matter was they agreed that the post office
19:49
had the had the right to require us to be silent on the work
19:54
floor. And I was like, you know, like
19:56
you said, if it's work related, you know, in certain situations
20:00
talking to a clerk or a supervisor, you know, OK, So
20:04
when, when you know, one of the things came up about a mistro
20:07
package and I took it and put it in the mistro area, somebody
20:11
said, well, did you ask if they're not allowed to speak on
20:14
the floor, you know? Sorry, I'm not allowed to speak
20:18
on the floor so I put it in the misro area.
20:21
Oh, you want, you want to talk to me, You want to talk to me on
20:24
the work room floor 8127 time in order to get paid for it because
20:28
it's not part of my duties. And you have a silence on the
20:31
work room floor rule. So if I'm going to be doing
20:33
something outside of the current work rules in this office, I'm
20:36
going to need 8127 time for it. Yeah, I mean, you know, Oh.
20:40
And also I'm invoking my Weingarten rights because this
20:43
could affect my terms of employment.
20:45
Oh, I, I found the comment that I was speaking about.
20:48
Oh. Read it.
20:50
Read. It is that related to that?
20:52
It's about ballots, OK? Perfect.
20:56
Because we have a ballot, and this is from the United We Scan
20:59
Facebook group on the post that I made yesterday at 7:15, I'm
21:03
very specific. This is anonymous, Person
21:06
writes. We have a ballot.
21:07
No way of knowing anything about the people on the ballot.
21:10
I want change. I don't know anything about the
21:13
people on the ballot. In my state there are 25 on the
21:16
ballot and 19 will be delegated. Even if no one votes, what is
21:19
the point? Waste of postage.
21:21
And, and that's the, the, the problem that we're facing
21:26
because of the fact that people are so apathetic about the
21:30
weight of their voice, the weight of their vote, They, they
21:33
have total disdain and in regards to being involved
21:36
because they haven't seen any clear changes, even though last
21:41
year on the national board, we had, you know, substantial
21:44
changes. But the fact of the matter is
21:46
they haven't seen anything that affects them personally in their
21:50
office on a daily basis. They haven't seen any change in,
21:53
in regards to pay the, the, the toxic harassing environment that
21:58
they deal with every day. They haven't seen a change in
22:01
regards to hiring practices. Let's get the hiring practices
22:05
back in the hands of the local postmasters.
22:08
I mean, you know, I put in for an ARC position.
22:12
It was giving me simulated situations in regards to how to
22:16
handle customer complaints, you know?
22:19
Yeah. And most of my said, most of my
22:23
said it was the RC as fault. No, it wasn't.
22:28
That wasn't the choice. But the fact of the matter is
22:30
that, you know, I'm sitting there laughing on, if you're
22:34
applying for a position and, and you've never done it, how would
22:38
you know how to handle these situations that they were
22:40
throwing at you? It was, it was just, it was just
22:43
ridiculous. So, you know, really, I, I, I,
22:47
I, I understand the apathy because of the fact that, you
22:51
know, our local, other locals around me, our state, you know,
22:55
our national board, everybody suffers from it.
22:59
And, you know, a testament to myself and James, you and
23:03
Kristen and all the others, you know, all our listeners, It it
23:07
it's to the fact that you guys still listen.
23:10
You still stand up. You still request information.
23:13
You help other people. That's why we do this.
23:16
Yeah. We've had people, you know, not
23:17
quit the union and not only not quit the union, but become
23:21
stewards. You know, we've had people put
23:23
their names up for delegates. They request information that
23:26
that irritates the living shit out of me.
23:28
James, when somebody goes on one of the Facebook platforms asking
23:32
information and people belittle them, you know how long you been
23:36
in the craft. You are.
23:37
You not see it? It doesn't matter.
23:40
They're reaching out for help. The instead of kicking him, give
23:44
him a hand up. Yeah, but quit.
23:47
Quit being such a piece of shit. We get that at work every day
23:50
from the post office. We don't need it from our grown
23:53
craft. But we don't need to have our
23:55
worst enemy be from within our own union.
23:58
We got enough shit to deal with as it is.
24:02
There you go, meow. There you go.
24:05
And I'll, I agree with you on that, Bill.
24:07
And on top of that, you know, going after the people that are
24:11
running for positions and trying to put them down or trying to do
24:15
an aha gotcha moment with them. You're turning around and
24:19
basically saying that you you don't like the current person,
24:24
but you're not willing to listen and support a person running
24:28
against them. So if you're not willing to, you
24:31
just don't support the person running and you're against the
24:34
person who's running against them.
24:36
Then sign your damn name up and run against them.
24:39
Put your money where your mouth is and step up and do something
24:43
about it instead of just turning around and attacking everybody
24:46
else. Be a man or a woman and stand
24:48
up. James, I, I when we were back in
24:51
our office, what, you know, years ago, about 5-6 years ago
24:54
and, and this one carrier, you know, she's coming up on her
24:58
retirement, you know, last year and a half or whatever and we
25:02
had gone through a contract and something and she, she's
25:04
standing there just mouthing off.
25:06
This is why I'm getting out of the effing union.
25:08
This or no, I'm getting out of the effing job.
25:12
The effing union doesn't do anything.
25:13
But yeah, she hadn't been a union member since, you know,
25:17
she was there two years, then she, you know, pulled her dues.
25:21
Now she's coming up on 30 years and, you know, 28 years of, you
25:25
know, free protection from the union, you know, by the union.
25:28
And she's mouthing off. And, and, you know, it was one
25:31
of them days where Bill's last nerve was right on top of his
25:35
bald ass head. And I just struck out and told
25:37
her to shut the fuck up. You had no right to sit there,
25:42
criticize anything that you're not involved in.
25:44
There's nothing you believe in. You don't care.
25:47
You want to get your job done. You want to go home at the end
25:49
of the day. So, you know we leave you be.
25:53
Shut your effing mouth because you have no right.
25:56
If you're have no involvement, you don't have a horse in this
26:00
race. And I swear, half the people
26:03
there clap. Yeah, Yeah.
26:05
And then I got pulled in the office for using profanity on
26:07
the floor. And then you just turn around
26:11
and fill the 1st Amendment on the desk.
26:13
No, I, I, I, I turned around and frankly, I said to the
26:17
supervisor at the time who I really couldn't stand and said,
26:20
you know, you need to watch your mouth, eyes, it's no fucking
26:23
problem. It's kind of hard to My eyes are
26:28
up here, my mouth is here, my eyes don't look right there.
26:30
Oh good God. I just, they just sit there and
26:34
say, you know, the, the biggest whiners we I've ever had in my
26:37
office were the non union craft members.
26:41
And it's like, you know, it's like voting for you in politics.
26:45
Don't complain if you're not registered, you don't vote.
26:49
It's my right not to vote. May I take a moment of personal
26:53
privilege? The The chair recognized
26:56
gentleman from North Carolina. OK, you talk about voting.
27:00
In addition to being a union member and a mail carrier, I
27:04
also work in elections. So when people say, oh, what's
27:08
the point of voting? I say there have been times
27:11
where there have been things decided by the thinnest of
27:15
margins. Every vote counts.
27:19
We, I don't know if y'all were watching the news, but we had a
27:23
pretty nasty race here in North Carolina for a judge and it got
27:28
pretty heated. It came down to maybe 10,000
27:32
votes or something like that. But I've seen it closer than
27:35
that. I've heard about things that are
27:37
closer than that. When someone says what's the
27:40
point of voting, I'm like, why are you saying that?
27:43
That then you're just conceding power to people that may not
27:46
care about your best interests. What?
27:51
Why would you give up such a right?
27:53
I mean, I understand there's a lot of veterans in the Postal
27:56
Service. Why would you give up a right to
27:59
express your opinion about how your state, your locality or
28:03
your country's run, or your union in this case?
28:06
And that's also spitting in the face of the men and women of the
28:09
armed forces that are veterans that fought and died to give you
28:13
that right to vote. OK, off the soapbox, please
28:16
continue. No, you're, you're, you're right
28:18
on the right on the money there. You know these people saying
28:23
that well, why does my vote matter?
28:25
Why does my vote matter? Guess what?
28:27
There have been margins of it's less than 51 percent or greater
28:34
than 50% that contracts have passed for organizations by the
28:39
narrowest of margins. There have been contracts that
28:41
have passed by only a difference of 20 votes.
28:45
So and that's hundreds of thousands of people for specific
28:50
unions in some instances. So you saying your vote doesn't
28:54
matter, It can matter. And on top of that, your vote
28:59
could be one that turns it into a deciding factor or one that
29:05
makes it a contentious factor where it's so close they have to
29:10
count the ballots multiple times to make sure it's right.
29:13
You can't take that risk. You need to vote your heart's
29:18
desire on it. Now, if you don't know whether
29:20
you want to vote for it or not, that's perfectly fine as long as
29:25
you have the right to vote. You can choose to obtain from
29:29
voting as your right to vote, but you must have the ability to
29:35
vote to exercise the abstaining of the vote.
29:39
So you, you want to, you want to go down that soapbox a little
29:41
extra there, James? Go ahead, Bill.
29:45
Oh, let's go back to the American Revolutionary War.
29:49
What kind of system will we have if the French hadn't intervened
29:52
and helped the, you know, the colonies in regards to fighting
29:55
the British? OK, you know, what would happen
29:59
to Europe in regards to us not coming to assist them during
30:03
World War One and World War 2? What, what would happen if we
30:07
didn't take a stand in Germany against the Russians?
30:11
People sit there and they argue, you know, Oh well, we, we
30:14
shouldn't have went to Iraq under the the auspices of
30:18
suspected WMD's in there. Well, the fact of the matter
30:21
that, you know, I hate to inform people, but war is a political
30:26
money making machine. And whether they had suspected,
30:30
you know, WMD's or not, weapons of mass destruction or not, the
30:34
fact of the matter is that as as the the world's police officer,
30:40
US gets involved at the help. Well, hotspots based on what
30:44
affects those areas can eventually affect us.
30:47
Well, you know, the fact that matters that Iraq was an
30:50
unstable country in the 1st place with a neighbor of Iran
30:54
who's even more unstable. Yeah.
30:56
So, yeah, we had to have some some kind of solidifying
30:59
government, you know, installed in Iraq.
31:02
And when those people got the opportunity to vote in Iraq,
31:06
they had to stick their thumb into a jar of purple dye to show
31:10
that they voted and they couldn't vote again.
31:13
But those people were brave enough to do so.
31:15
Knowing the Shiite and Sunnis that were in country in Iraq
31:20
would likely kill them because voting would have went one way
31:25
or the other against their party.
31:27
But they were still brave enough to the risk that the vote to
31:31
speak up for their country because they wanted something
31:33
better. Has it gotten much better?
31:36
Yes, but only marginally, but at least it's stabilized.
31:39
The the the same way when you know you have a problem with the
31:42
you know, the immigration in regards to people coming over
31:45
here and voting and swaying our elections.
31:48
This this is this is something that reminds me of that stupid
31:51
ass series Keith or Sutherland designated survivor.
31:57
OK, when it got to the end of their their, their series there
32:01
somebody was alternating alter, altering, excuse me, altering
32:06
DNA to possibly wipe out 10 brown, black, you know, people
32:13
without affecting their health, but making them sterile so that
32:16
they could swing the elections back to the Caucasians because
32:20
by 2058, you know, the Caucasians would be a minority.
32:25
This is the same thing that happened by letting the borders
32:27
open and giving people licenses or Social Security numbers.
32:31
And OK, if you got a license, then you were automatically
32:34
registered to vote. You're voting.
32:36
You're not even a citizen of the country.
32:38
These are the types of things that people have to realize how
32:42
their votes affect how the country's going to do and in our
32:46
respect, how our crafts going to do.
32:48
I saw more than enough where people turned around and said,
32:52
I'm voting your first contract, but for you, you're voting.
32:56
We disagree with you. Voting yes says, you know, sends
32:59
the message that we agree that this is a good contract.
33:03
And some people will say, well, I'm, I'm not saying it's a good
33:05
contract. Yes, you are because you're
33:07
endorsing it. If you're endorsing the
33:09
contract, that's a yes, OK. If you vote no, you're telling
33:13
both the post office and your union that you're not satisfied,
33:18
that you don't think this is enough, that you don't think
33:20
that this justifies all the crap we go through every day.
33:25
This doesn't justify carrying parcels since 2018 and not being
33:31
compensated where you're over 57.36 hours like I was for six
33:35
years. This doesn't justify people
33:38
breaking the contract. And then, you know, oh, you
33:41
know, I, I, I don't want to settle this grievance.
33:44
Well, you broke the contract and it doesn't justify leaving the
33:47
stagnant leadership that we have at the top of the national
33:51
board. Not that I'm endorsing James
33:54
Brennan from National Role Letter Carriers Association
33:57
president for 2025, shameless plug.
34:00
But the fact of the matter is if you don't chop the head of the
34:04
snake off, you'll still get bit. And we got bit.
34:08
Marginal, marginal, not even marginal, minimal gains on his
34:13
contract with matching percentages to the NALC.
34:17
And if this goes to arbitration, and if the arbitrator sitting
34:22
two days like they did on the city contract, which was, you
34:26
know, in negotiation for two years, and know that somewhere
34:30
somebody is working with the post office against this craft.
34:35
And the only way you change that is by removing the leadership.
34:40
So if you don't get out and vote, don't blame nobody but
34:43
yourself. If you're not a union member,
34:45
too late for this year, going back in, get involved, stand up,
34:49
be a voice for reason, be a voice to protect those in your
34:52
office that don't have the spine to stand up for themselves.
34:55
And there's plenty of them. And there's a lot of people that
34:58
are terrified to go against management.
35:00
Just just just found out that our area steward now office
35:05
didn't want to file another grievance because management's
35:07
already mad at them. I'm like, Oh my God, you filed 2
35:10
grievances for, you know, a false EP on a carrier and now
35:16
they're mad at you. If management's mad at you, that
35:19
means you're doing your damn job.
35:21
That means you're calling them on the carpet.
35:23
All right, I'm done. I need a drink.
35:27
But you're right though, and there's more people can do.
35:30
There's more things they can do. You can fight for change in your
35:34
office. You can work with your NSS
35:38
representatives to try and help make change throughout the
35:43
system. You can engage the national
35:46
board as best you can for some of them to make change through
35:52
the system itself. I have helped plenty of carriers
35:55
work their way up the chain to get a positive resolution for
36:00
their situation. Whether that resolution actually
36:03
resulted in them being right or wrong doesn't matter, but the
36:06
fact was we finally got them a resolution to what was going on.
36:11
That's the most important thing, and this is a problem throughout
36:15
the craft. We need a more responsive
36:18
Stewart system through the craft reaching out to these people,
36:22
but at the same time we need more people at the top being
36:27
responsive to the craft. Now I am only one man and I am
36:31
running against Don Math and for president and we only had one
36:36
other nominee step up and that is for the executive
36:40
committeeman position. I want to see every single
36:44
position on the national board talent, not because they deserve
36:48
to be removed, not because they're a problem, but because
36:54
they don't need to just coast into the position.
36:57
They need to be fighting for this craft and fighting for that
37:00
vote for themselves, not just mailing it in every single day.
37:05
The problem is there's not enough people to step up.
37:08
There's not enough people willing to step up, but we need
37:12
people to step up. We need people to want to fight
37:15
for this craft. We want to fight for this career
37:17
and want to fight for the future generations of this crap.
37:21
Go ahead, Bill. And that's, that's one of my pet
37:23
peeves, James. And to everybody listening, we
37:26
have 50 States and and we have, you know, Puerto Rico.
37:31
I don't think we ever get anybody from Guam, do we?
37:35
But the fact, but the fact of the matter is that you have 50
37:38
states with 50 state presidents. You mean to tell me out of those
37:42
50 states, there's nobody more qualified or better than not
37:47
even not even better qualified. It's better, more knowledgeable
37:52
about our craft and the people on the national board,
37:56
especially Don Matson's, who's been there since 2008.
37:59
And I'm talking about state presidents who still deliver
38:02
their own routes. I noticed something in
38:04
Pennsylvania this this past week.
38:06
My state president, you know, it sends an e-mail out and it's at
38:11
nrlca.org. Why does, why does not my state
38:15
officer have a national rule letter carrier association
38:19
address? Are they, are they monitoring
38:22
what our officers, state officers are doing, what they're
38:25
saying, what they're sending out?
38:27
I thought we were supposed to be individuals.
38:29
So this is just another my, my conspiracy, you know, theory is
38:33
that, you know, it's all about the control by the national
38:37
board. My state board ought to be
38:39
responding to the state craft. That's the National Rural Letter
38:44
Carriers Association. Yeah, that's, that's that's
38:46
another point of contention for a lot of people there is, you
38:51
know, what is the point of a state board other than to run
38:56
the state convention and drum up spring and fall boosters if they
39:01
do those in a state magazine? But they're important too.
39:05
I know that my state president is still carrying his route.
39:09
I know that the only person that's full time on my state
39:13
board is the secretary. And with over 5000, almost 5000
39:19
carriers on the rolls for the juice painting side of it, I can
39:23
understand it a little bit. But the rest of them all still
39:28
do work. And they also take care of date
39:33
functions, getting things put together for that, as well as
39:36
trying to make things better in the state of Michigan, you know?
39:40
Yeah, just like Josh said in the chat here, Different, Josh,
39:45
everyone except the secretary treasurer of North Carolina.
39:48
The whole whole board runs their routes too.
39:51
And that's something that is very important to think about.
39:55
A lot of state board members still do work their routes or
40:00
are involved in some aspect of carriers.
40:04
So they will have, they still have the ground truth.
40:08
They should be involved in more aspects of this union than they
40:12
currently are. I'm going to say that.
40:14
So, so let me ask you this, James, OK.
40:17
And you, you, you can check the data on this, but with 50 States
40:21
and people working their way up the ladder, like everybody
40:24
proposes that you have to do to earn the right to be on the
40:26
national board. Out of the 50 states, we don't
40:29
have anybody, you know, qualified to to run for the
40:32
national board. Now we've had people run, but
40:35
where do most of these people come from, James?
40:38
The state board. No the NSS.
40:41
Them too. But so and this, this is what
40:44
I've determined is the path that you're supposed to take.
40:48
You're either supposed to go through the NFS system or the
40:52
state board system and then you come on to the national board as
40:56
an executive committee man. Now you can do the executive
40:59
committee man for only so many years.
41:02
You can do it for one year and move up into a a national
41:06
officer, a resident officer position after just one year if
41:10
needed, but most often you'll probably run as an executive
41:14
committee man for two or three elections before you get moved
41:18
up to another position. At least it was 2 times for Mr.
41:23
Mastin to get up to presidency. Jeanette Dwyer has been back and
41:27
forth between a resident officer and an executive committee man,
41:31
but she is up off the board this election in in August.
41:36
Nikki Phillips has been on the board for many years as well.
41:40
That's the pattern. That's the path they want
41:43
everybody to take to get there. Because apparently somehow you
41:48
learn how to do all those positions starting at the
41:51
executive committee men to be a president of the union just by
41:55
being an executive committee of a non resident officer.
41:58
I guess I don't know. But you also learn that how to
42:03
be friends with management that way as well.
42:05
Oh, you know, and, and the thing that gets me is that, you know,
42:08
you'll have all these legislative committees bringing
42:11
people across the country in, you know, put them up and all
42:14
that go meet their senators or congressmen and, you know, which
42:19
is fine and dandy, OK, you're making your presence felt and
42:22
all that. But the, you know, the fact of
42:24
the matter is that, you know, when you get to the executive
42:27
committee men's persons position, yeah, you're basically
42:32
based, you know, based out of your own home, you're full time,
42:34
you're traveling around from the country and all that.
42:36
So what type of experience is that giving you for?
42:40
OK, Vice president? Well, not much.
42:44
Or president? Well, none at all.
42:46
Well, what about the Department of Labor relations?
42:50
OK, unless you're in the national Steward system, then
42:53
they're going to say it's unrelated.
42:55
Well, what about director of Stewart operations?
42:57
Well, again, if you're not in the national stewards, you know,
43:00
system, it's not related. So that that puts you into a
43:05
pickle where you're incumbent on one program, the national sewer
43:10
system, the kind of propagate your, your, your next crop of
43:15
officers. Well, I'm sorry because with all
43:18
the turmoil, turmoil that we've seen in the National Steward
43:22
System in the last three to five years, pickings have been slim.
43:26
The fact of the matter that, you know, we have people, the DRS
43:29
that are being removed, We have ADRS being removed.
43:33
We've had ADRS quit. We've had, you know, local
43:36
stewards decertified, shameless plug, and still hasn't been
43:41
resolved by the National Labor Relations Board.
43:43
But the fact of the matter is that it's almost like when the
43:47
NSS was created, the national board was already propagating
43:52
the seedlings for the future. And like you said, James, you
43:56
know, you got to go up the, up the ladder.
43:58
How well has that served us in the past 10 or 15 years?
44:03
It hasn't. How, how well has that served us
44:05
in regards to Rex implementation transparency as well as the, the
44:12
actual, you know, direct mini mail served at the, the mini
44:15
mail survey dispute forms or a lot of every, a lot of your
44:19
disputes will come back. No action required.
44:22
We're not being resolved at all. They, they are formulating and
44:25
propagating from seedling the individuals they want to work up
44:29
the ladder just to ensure their own support until they're ready
44:34
to retire. Because, you know, Don's not
44:36
going back to his route. Patrick Pitts may, may not, I
44:40
don't know, but the, I'll guarantee you Nikki's not going
44:43
back to his route. Don Adams would, but I don't
44:47
think he has to worry about that.
44:49
But this, this is seen as their plotted plan to go into their
44:55
golden years. And, and as the next, next
44:58
increase, they will be making $200,000 a year.
45:02
And Daryl says that better off having three-year terms.
45:06
I'd like to see two year terms on, you know, the president,
45:09
Vice president and the secretary treasurer.
45:15
And I don't argue, I will argue again, I will argue against that
45:20
only on one condition and that is because we are still under
45:23
the delegate system. It should be every year.
45:26
So that way if somebody is extremely terrible at that job
45:31
or somebody is really royally screwed the poop when it comes
45:35
to that position, they could be voted out within a year.
45:39
Look at what the city carriers are dealing with with their four
45:42
year term with rainfall. But if you were, if you were, if
45:48
you were to go to a two year term, then I would only do that
45:52
if we had one person one vote nationwide.
45:59
But the other issue with that is, is just like the city
46:04
carriers are dealing with the CLC, which is running against
46:11
the Renfro team for 2026, has has to spend hundreds of
46:15
thousands of dollars to advertise themselves out there
46:19
to try and beat out Renfro. Now you're adding cost to people
46:23
and especially for carriers on table too, you know they're not
46:27
going to be able to afford that to run against incumbents that
46:31
that get close to a quarter $1,000,000 in income plus
46:37
incentives. So it's very hard to to figure
46:42
out what would be the best approach to do that when you're
46:45
talking about a system that is literally top heavy in income
46:51
compared to people that could run against them.
46:54
You know, and, and we're coming up soon, we're going to be at
46:56
the precipice where there's going to be more Table 2
47:00
carriers in the union than there are Table 1 carrier.
47:04
So that's something else that that our current national board
47:07
needs to think about because once that scale is tipped, then
47:11
there is no way that management is going to ever bring Table 2
47:14
up to Table 1 levels. So you have to think of the
47:17
future on all this stuff. You have to think about what
47:20
what the impact is of what you do.
47:23
You have to think about this contract right here, this one
47:26
that we have. And I'm going to just say this,
47:30
this contract screws us over for the next two contracts, minimum
47:36
if we were to pass it, minimum because we're setting ourselves
47:40
up for pattern bargaining with the city carriers already.
47:44
We're setting ourselves up for accepting low wages, low wage
47:49
increases, and diet cola, all with the fear of losing diet
47:56
cola and Christmas overtime. Just the fear of it, because
48:01
it's not guaranteed we'll lose that.
48:03
But it's just the fear, the fear mongering works, especially for
48:08
those who are not educated in the system.
48:11
Do you agree, Bill? Josh 100%.
48:15
Yes, definitely 100%. So how do yeah it we, we've got
48:20
to get constitutional changes in there for one person, one vote,
48:23
OK. But we definitely need to get
48:25
term limits in there that that is a must, OK.
48:29
I mean, you know, if you haven't, you know, like somebody
48:32
said, you know, like James said, you know, if you, if you get
48:35
people in there for a length of service and you can't get rid of
48:38
them, like the NLAC, you know, can't get rid of Renfro, we can
48:42
institute, you know, constitutional language in
48:45
regards of removal. And the removal cannot be based
48:48
just on the national board. It it should be also based on
48:53
state boards too, that there's a greater range of voice as well
48:58
as observation in regards to what the national officers are
49:01
doing or not doing. It would be hard to get it done
49:04
on, on a individual carrier type, you know, vote.
49:08
But the fact of the matter is that the, the state officers
49:11
dealing with the national office would have a better at, you
49:14
know, you know, line of sight in regards to performance issues
49:19
that we're dealing with now. And you know, this, this TA
49:23
that's out there, I'd say somebody's having more
49:26
performance issues than, you know, an 80 year old man with
49:29
Ed. Oh, Jesus.
49:31
Wow. But.
49:33
Ladies and gentlemen, he went there.
49:35
I'm sorry. But the key to it is, is that we
49:41
need to focus on educating our craft, educating our carriers,
49:46
educating our steward system, and most of all, educating the
49:51
national board on what's going on down here and actually
49:54
getting them to listen to it and understand that when we ask a
49:58
question, we expect an answer not to have it be called a
50:02
bullshit question. Oh, you had to go there, didn't
50:06
you? Yes.
50:07
I did because that was a failure on the national board.
50:12
The carriers honestly asked the questions to get an honest
50:16
answer from our national board. If they thought it was a quote,
50:20
UN quote bullshit question, why the hell did they pick it up and
50:23
actually read it for everybody just to call it a bullshit
50:26
question on the floor. That was unprofessional.
50:29
I had no tact. So I'm going to call it out as
50:31
often as I can. Yeah, I agree, Rich, It was
50:34
intentional. It was intentional and it was a
50:38
disrespect to the craft members in audience and and I bet you it
50:44
also cost us a few first time attendees for that.
50:50
But I'm pretty sure the vernacular you're going for
50:52
James is 1 timers. Yeah, they're one and done.
50:56
They came once they saw what was going on and said I'm not coming
50:59
back because this is bullshit. It's kind of like what happened
51:03
last year at the National Convention.
51:06
When I am, and correct me if I am wrong, I think there was 3
51:11
two or three instances where someone had to assert personal
51:14
privilege to address bullying occurring amongst the body at
51:18
the convention. Yes, it was myself, Debbie
51:22
Hernandez and President Masten made a statement on it as well.
51:26
And that's another thing on the floor of the convention hall.
51:32
You can have your opinion, you can say, oh, I'm not going to
51:35
vote for that person. But when you start attacking
51:39
people verbally or even physically by getting into their
51:43
face about it, that is unprofessional.
51:46
On the on the caucus floor, the body is supposed to be the voice
51:50
of the craft, and you can't be the voice of the craft if the
51:54
voice is divided. Rich, you're correct, it is
51:57
disingenuous. All right.
51:59
Yeah, there were. Other he's got to go to time,
52:02
time out for her for using a big word.
52:06
But the thing about it really is, I agree with another comment
52:12
around here that the way they did that was to try and get
52:16
people to subconsciously self censor themselves to get them to
52:22
not ask questions like that. Because unfortunately, that
52:26
carrier that wrote that question truly hit a nerve because they
52:32
turned around and told the president of the union, you
52:38
sound just like management and they weren't wrong.
52:41
They weren't wrong. And I bring up what happened
52:45
last year at the convention because as a second timer, I was
52:51
surprised, not surprised, that a group of people that should be
52:56
backing each other could be showing respect to each other,
52:59
not acting like management was doing that.
53:02
I was both shocked and not shocked.
53:04
But does that excuse it? Absolute, absolutely not that.
53:10
That is to me what I call a tell.
53:13
And you're telling me that you're very insecure about
53:17
something or you're ignorant about something?
53:20
Well, I thought it was very telling that at the end when
53:22
we're hearing appeals and the one lady was getting attacked
53:26
again and again and again, and I'm sitting there going, well,
53:28
hold it. You know, there's three sides to
53:30
a story, Yours, hers and the truth.
53:33
We didn't get to hear hers or the truth, did we?
53:37
We didn't get to hear any side of it other than the side
53:41
accusing her. Yeah, yeah, as I said there,
53:44
there's hers. The truth.
53:45
And I was just like, you know, hold it.
53:47
You know, this is how you treat a member.
53:50
And, you know, I, I thought, you know, the, the decorum aspect
53:53
of, you know, that process was, you know, completely out of
53:57
line, uncalled for, unprofessional.
54:01
And, and yeah, it was, it was downright disappointed and see
54:04
people act like that. I mean, you know, you, I, I
54:07
remember when Dominic Crooks had his, what, 83 or 85 appeals.
54:13
And, you know, here's people that, you know, weren't even
54:16
half as smart as this gentleman is.
54:18
But you know, the, the fact that it is that smart people threaten
54:21
people. And, you know, I've seen this
54:24
before in the post office on a local level and they didn't know
54:28
how to respond. Well, their respond wasn't
54:30
threaten him with, you know, like you know, $200,000 of
54:34
billing for all the hours they had to spend, you know, filing
54:39
the charges or responses on his appeals.
54:41
That's the due process folks, you know.
54:44
And you know, if he wants to wait till the last minute to
54:47
respond to your certified, he's well in his rights to do so.
54:52
He doesn't have to answer it in in 48 hours or you know, 72
54:57
hours. He can take all the time he he
54:59
wants to make a well informed and, you know, actually backed
55:04
argument to your response. But again, here we are.
55:07
We we we got into a situation where the national board whipped
55:12
the floor up into a frenzy to the point where they wanted him,
55:15
you know, charged the money's expended, you know, to fight
55:20
these appeals. And he ended up with a what?
55:22
A five year ban being in the the the crafted the union itself.
55:28
Being involved in the craft, he had a five year ban from being a
55:32
member in good standing. And still take his money.
55:37
They'll still take his money. He just has no standing as a
55:40
member. But that's you said it wrong
55:43
though, Bill. You said it wrong though, Bill.
55:45
You said the word due process and unfortunately what you saw
55:48
there was the undue process. Yes.
55:52
And that's that's the problem when you have individuals who
55:56
use people's fear, again, their fear and the fear is, oh, we're
56:04
spending all this money, I'm sorry, what the hell are my dues
56:09
paying for if not to 1, defend the craft and two, defend the
56:15
union in situations like that or defend the carrier in a
56:18
situation like that. He paid his dues just like I
56:21
did. I would expect his his bills to
56:25
be covered if my bills, I will expect my bills to be covered on
56:28
that. But yet they whip them into a
56:30
frenzy about the cost of things to get them to vote the way they
56:36
want. We saw this last year when I put
56:39
up the resolution that TTS should not pay full dues because
56:46
many instances they aren't working five days a week.
56:51
They're only guaranteed 2 days a week, but they're paying regular
56:55
carrier dues and they made a huge deal about how much it
57:00
would hurt the union. Yet here we are with it's with
57:07
the new national agreement coming out, the opportunity for
57:11
more DTF position. They could have more than
57:15
made-up the cost of the losses of the current PTFS with all the
57:19
new PTFS that are coming in, but they didn't calculate that out.
57:23
They just calculated out just the losses alone.
57:26
But that's the fear mongering they do.
57:29
And unfortunately, because a lot of people don't look deeper into
57:33
the situation, they're going to vote with their emotions instead
57:37
of logic. And you have.
57:39
Someone who? Oh, sorry, James, you were
57:41
speaking. Go ahead.
57:43
As someone who works in the elections outside of the union,
57:47
I will say people tend to vote with their emotions safely and
57:54
that has. I'm not saying it's right or
57:56
wrong, I'm just saying that you need to take into account the
58:01
whole thing before you decide to check the box.
58:05
Yeah, it's it's the same for anybody running for position 2.
58:09
You have to look at the whole scenario that you're going into.
58:13
You have to look into what you want to do with it, how you want
58:17
to manage it, how you want to make things happen.
58:20
You can't just on a whim drop a bunch of money and run for a
58:24
position. Well, you're not supposed to.
58:27
You're supposed to know what you're going into.
58:29
You're supposed to know the the loopholes and legal liabilities
58:33
and things like that when you run for a position like that.
58:36
And you have to understand, especially in our situation,
58:42
that no matter what, the crap has to come first.
58:48
The crap has to be first laugh and everything in between and
58:53
what you do because when you lose sight of that, you become
58:57
management's best friend and you can call them by their first
59:01
name because they know you're going to roll over for the craft
59:04
every time you walk in the room with them.
59:07
I'd like to positive theory. If I, for example, was ever
59:12
nominated and won. Don't ever think that I'm asking
59:17
to run for office because I'm still kind.
59:20
Of nominators and gentlemen. OK.
59:23
Ladies and gentlemen, we need somebody to nominate him for a
59:25
national board officer position. Oh Jesus Christ, oh God, I'll,
59:32
I'll do it. I'll do it.
59:34
Bill will do it. Rap.
59:35
There you go. You just you.
59:36
You opened your mouth. You opened your mouth now until
59:40
your foot. Yeah, I'll do it.
59:42
Well, here's what I would say. If I take this position, I will
59:45
have in my, in the forefront of my mind every day that I am
59:51
working for the benefit of the craft and for the benefit of the
59:54
union members. And also I will have in my mind,
59:57
if at any time I screw up, I want the people to tell me.
1:00:02
I am a person that works best when I am told what, when and
1:00:07
how I screwed up. If I did, I'm not looking to
1:00:10
screw up, but if I screw up, I want people to tell me to my
1:00:14
face. I'll do that too.
1:00:16
Yeah, I respond a lot better when I hear someone's complaint
1:00:20
about me to my face rather than them going behind my back.
1:00:25
Yep. If you've got a problem with me,
1:00:27
come to me with it. Let's figure it out.
1:00:30
Let's figure it out together. You know I'm not going to get
1:00:33
upset that you've got a problem with me.
1:00:35
I'd rather talk it out with you and figure out what what the
1:00:38
actual problem is, and maybe figure out a solution to it.
1:00:43
And at the end, you may still not, you may still not like me,
1:00:47
but at least you'll know I respect you.
1:00:50
That being said, you can come to me.
1:00:53
You could speak to me about something you disagree with me
1:00:57
with. However, I will ask that you
1:00:59
present a certain level of decorum because I am the kind of
1:01:03
person that if you come to me, start cussing me out, my wall
1:01:07
goes up. I'm like, no, you're going to
1:01:11
act like an adult. Now you're just asking too much
1:01:14
there. I know.
1:01:17
You want me to act like an adult?
1:01:19
What? Oh, and make sure you pack your
1:01:25
suit for National then. I don't own a suit for a reason.
1:01:28
Billy's going to need help with a suit.
1:01:30
I'll get them, I'll get them fitted and paid for there.
1:01:34
There you go. Oh shit.
1:01:39
Hey, I'll even get your ass in for a pedicure and a manicure.
1:01:43
Get your eyebrows wax and everything.
1:01:45
I'll do the Brazilian wax in. Kelly Clarkson, That's all I got
1:01:48
to say. Just as long as you don't do
1:01:50
chest waxing like on the 40 Year Old Virgin, I'm good.
1:01:53
Well, ask James about that. That doesn't work out.
1:01:58
Oh Jesus Christ. And on that note, Josh, your
1:02:02
final thoughts for the evening? My final thoughts, ladies and
1:02:06
gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages, Convention season is
1:02:10
coming up. The national ratification
1:02:13
ballots are out. The national delegate ballots
1:02:17
are out. Please, please.
1:02:19
As far as I'm concerned, every one of us, even if we're on
1:02:22
Table 2, step one, can afford a 73 cent stamp.
1:02:27
You will receive your ballot, open the ballot and market and
1:02:31
send it back. Please post early.
1:02:34
Do not wait. I am cautiously optimistic that
1:02:40
at least the ratification ballot will garner more support than
1:02:44
ratification ballots past. And for my state, North
1:02:48
Carolina, we have a not so great return rate that gets on my
1:02:55
nerves. One, because I'm me and #2
1:02:57
because I work in elections, I don't like the the few deciding
1:03:02
for the many. So please, you received your
1:03:05
ballot, you open it, you vote and vote how you want you, how
1:03:11
you want your interest to be represented.
1:03:13
These people that are on these ballots, we figured it out.
1:03:17
They represent the hopes and dreams for the National
1:03:20
Convention of about 100 people. So if you have someone on that
1:03:23
ballot that you know represents you, by God, vote them in.
1:03:27
And I would like to. This is late for this year, but
1:03:32
I would like to appeal to RCAS, Arcs and PTS Please next year
1:03:39
get involved and go to the convention, even if you have to
1:03:43
pay your own dime. I am.
1:03:45
Sure. If you ask nicely, there might
1:03:48
be a nice person that might let you in their room and you
1:03:53
contribute part to the bill. We need more people in here.
1:03:57
We need the newer generation of carriers, retirees, yes, they
1:04:01
have their place, current carriers, they have their place.
1:04:04
But we need the up and coming generation, especially the up
1:04:08
and coming carriers that are younger.
1:04:10
We need to get them involved because at the end of the day,
1:04:13
we're all in this together and we are making this union not
1:04:17
just for us, but for years down the line.
1:04:21
Bill, your thoughts? Oh, well, I have to reiterate
1:04:25
your message in regards to the ballot because I have mine
1:04:28
sitting on my desk and I'm allowed to select 43.
1:04:32
Of course I've only selected 17 and that's, you know, I don't
1:04:35
have to select all 43. I can select one.
1:04:38
I can select 43, I can select 17 like I have.
1:04:41
And the people I'm, I'm, you know, nominating for as
1:04:45
delegates are all people A, that are interested in helping the
1:04:49
craft B, who have supported me and have my life interest in
1:04:53
mines in regards to the crafts betterment.
1:04:57
So I, I sit there and I go through the, the thing and it's
1:05:00
like we get 43, we've got 78 people here and 26 of them are
1:05:08
retirees. And the retirees get voted on
1:05:11
their name recognition alone. And, and it's, it's a shame.
1:05:14
Vote for somebody you know of, if you're not sure, just vote
1:05:18
for yourself or vote for somebody you, you know, you do
1:05:20
not just fill out one name on the ballot and send it in.
1:05:24
Don't fill out the whole thing just to get the, the maximum
1:05:27
number there. You know, you're not required to
1:05:29
do that. And don't vote for people, you
1:05:32
know, like I said, you know, on name recognition, because a lot
1:05:36
of them aren't representing your views.
1:05:40
I don't mean to persuade anybody from voting for anybody on, on
1:05:45
the, in the NSS because I voted for two.
1:05:48
I'm not voting. I'm not saying not to vote for
1:05:50
people who are on your state board.
1:05:52
I'm voting for one there. But the fact of the matter is
1:05:56
you need to vote this. This is, you know what your dues
1:06:01
pay for it. This gives you your voice, your
1:06:04
opportunity to turn around and have a say in who's representing
1:06:08
you at the National Convention and who's going to have a say on
1:06:12
the floor if they wish in regards to what they want this
1:06:17
board to do and what does who they want this board to be.
1:06:20
So don't take this lightly. Again, you know, Josh says, you
1:06:24
know, he's used to, you know, the elections on the on the
1:06:27
political front. And this is no difference.
1:06:29
You know, 22 to 26% of the people will control what over
1:06:34
120,000 carriers or 130 depending on the number they're
1:06:39
throwing out this week that you know, what their futures will be
1:06:42
like. So take a minute to invest in
1:06:45
your future. It's just like learning Rex or
1:06:48
RCAM or the M38, the six O 3 DL. Take a minute, invest in your
1:06:54
future, invest in your paycheck, you know, and learn to protect
1:06:57
yourself. Learn to, you know, exercise
1:07:00
your right to speak and to have a voice in your future.
1:07:03
Other than that, ladies and gentlemen, the the weather is
1:07:06
trying to come around a bit. It's still a little cool here in
1:07:09
Pennsylvania, but the fact of the matter is that, you know,
1:07:12
kids are, you know, a lot more active out there.
1:07:15
Watch for them in the streets in between cars and everything.
1:07:18
And animals, too. They're going to be out there
1:07:21
too. But be safe, be professional, be
1:07:24
efficient, do the job to the best of your ability, and then
1:07:28
get your ass home because you're the most important delivery of
1:07:31
the day and your job will always be filled.
1:07:34
But you can never be replaced, James.
1:07:37
Thank you guys. Appreciate you guys stepping up
1:07:40
to speak tonight. You're right Bill, it's
1:07:44
important that we all step up and do our duty to this craft,
1:07:49
to this career, to each other. And I'm going to step a little
1:07:55
bit on you Josh there. I believe that even the older
1:07:59
RCA, the ones that have 5/10/15 years in as RCA are just as
1:08:06
important as at these conventions as new generation as
1:08:10
well. Because they're still going to
1:08:12
have to spend 1020 years working as a regular carrier after the
1:08:18
time they put in as an RCA until we can get the House and Senate
1:08:22
to pass the buyback bill. So they're just as important to
1:08:26
to, to make a voice on the situations that are going on as
1:08:31
a non career member of the draft.
1:08:34
So everybody is important in this situation, every single
1:08:39
carrier that can vote good vote, because that's the only way we
1:08:45
can make change in this crap is if everybody starts stepping up
1:08:49
and stepping to make change. Now, it doesn't mean the change
1:08:53
is actually a real change. It could be keeping some things
1:08:57
the same, but unless we use our voice to say what we do and
1:09:01
don't like, they're not going to know it.
1:09:03
Sure, you could talk about the Postal Pulse survey.
1:09:05
That's a piece of garbage that doesn't really actually answer
1:09:08
any problem as a voice. But the tentative agreement
1:09:12
ballot is the ultimate voice of the craft, followed by the
1:09:17
national delegate ballot, followed by the state delegate
1:09:22
ballots. If you get those.
1:09:23
If enough people actually step up to participate in each of
1:09:27
their local areas for their state convention, then there
1:09:31
could be votes for state convention.
1:09:33
But a lot of places there aren't enough people stepping up as
1:09:37
nominated nominations for their state convention to even warrant
1:09:43
having an election. Everyone gets in by unanimous
1:09:46
decision because there weren't enough people to fill all the
1:09:49
slots. That is where we need to step up
1:09:51
and make a difference. Not only at National Convention
1:09:54
but our states too. Our locals.
1:09:57
There are locals that aren't getting enough people to even
1:10:00
hold a quorum. Some some locals are getting
1:10:03
dissolved and merged with others so they can have just enough
1:10:07
people at their meetings to hold a quorum.
1:10:09
The time to step up for this craft is now.
1:10:13
The time to step up for your fellow brothers and sisters is
1:10:16
now, whether it's on the vote or in your office.
1:10:21
I know Josh said my line earlier here, but I do mean it when I
1:10:25
say at the end of the day, no matter what, we're all in this
1:10:29
together. We'll see you guys all here next
1:10:32
week unless we have something special come up.
1:10:34
So join us back here again at the same time, same place.
1:10:38
Goodnight everybody A. Goodbye from three boys and a
1:10:41
dog. Goodnight and good luck.