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Nifty 50, It's beginning to look a lot like............ · United We Scan

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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 50. It's our nifty 50, and it's
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beginning to look a lot like. I'll let you fill in the blank.
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How was your week, Josh? It was fairly well.
1:22
Still waiting on arrow keys. Finally have.
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A vehicle. Not my vehicle, but a vehicle to
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use. Friday morning on my way to work
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the engine, the engine started running rough, car was shaking
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and the engine light came on. I was only about 3-4 miles,
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maybe five from the house so I just turned around and came
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back. Luckily my wife was off so I was
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able to take her car. So one of my neighbors has one
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of the things you can plug in. To pull the codes.
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Looks like it's misfiring in the cylinder 3, so I need to get the
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plugs and possibly the coils replaced for that.
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Unfortunately, the guy that was going to do it had a family
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emergency, so I messaged him to make sure everything was OK a
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while ago and he said he'll be here at 5:00 tomorrow morning,
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so hopefully it won't take him too long to get that done.
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Other than that, like I said, everything was pretty decent.
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Friday and Saturday were not as ugly as I thought they were
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going to be. I mean it is the post office, so
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it's the usual rigmarole of deliver this, deliver that and
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hopefully get back before the sun goes down.
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And I did pretty good Monday through Thursday and then Friday
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rolled around and I was out until just after dark and I
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actually had to use my new band headlamp that I got one of those
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LED strip lights headlamps which works pretty good.
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It's weaker than I thought it would be, but it works And I can
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at least see where I'm walking and don't have to step in, dog
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do or anything like that when I'm going to houses.
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But other than that, Saturday was good.
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And then today I went to my model railroad museum that I
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volunteer at. Unfortunately, I found out
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Sunday that the owner of it passed away but his son has
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taken over. So we're trying to keep that
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running in his memory and but other than that just a normal
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week for me. Bill, how about you?
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Oh, let's see. Monday was a 12 1/2 hour day,
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Tuesday was an 11 hour day, Wednesday was a 10 1/2 hour day,
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and Friday was a 12 1/2 hour day.
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I I had enough room in my truck on Monday and Friday to change
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my mind or fart, but I couldn't do both at the same time.
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I I had that packed like Tetris, which I was never good at.
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But you know with my cargo net I I took everything up to the
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ceiling and just you know plowed through.
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It's just and. And the worst part was if we
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have a machine partial sorting machine in our office now and it
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makes more mistakes than Stevie Wonder, it really does.
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And I mean they had the city carriers in there till 11:30 on
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Friday waiting for miss sorted parcels and you just you know
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how can you invest that kind of money in the machine that
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doesn't work? At least my station managers
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told us Fridays if it is what it is, We only have four weeks of
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this and I'm cutting them off at 9:30 so they could hit the
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street. In a decent time and get to get
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back. Yeah, my week Monday had to go
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help out on another row I had just shy of a 12 hour day.
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And then Monday package wise wasn't bad because our Amazon
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showed up after cut off and they held all our Amazon back.
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So I had heavy mail. Not a lot of packages.
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So I wasn't against going out and helping on that other route.
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Tuesday I had double Amazon and they still held another couple
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pallets back that came in and so when I got back Tuesday, I went
5:37
and ran those out. Second trip, Wednesday wasn't a
5:40
bad day. It was paper day.
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Yeah, no big deal. I was back, I don't know, 4-4
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thirtyish Wednesday. Kind of nice.
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Friday clocked out at 5:15. Can't complain.
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Saturday I was done. Yesterday at clocked out at
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3:40. So my week wasn't too bad to say
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the least. On the work front, it's kind of
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been an emotional world of coaster.
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I lost somebody that I grew up with on Thanksgiving morning.
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I found that about that news and then one of my old carrier
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friends passed away late last night, early this morning after
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a 26 month battle with pancreatic cancer.
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She was a warrior and I'm drinking my dicerono on the
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rocks in honor of her tonight so.
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But other than that it hasn't been too bad.
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It was supposed to be training this next week.
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I don't think I'm going to be doing training.
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They can't find somebody to come in my route now, so.
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Yeah, business as usual for me. Finish my first full week as a
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regular. I'll have fun for you.
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Oh yeah, let me tell you, just keeps getting more fun.
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I get to have some fun conversations with the
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postmaster in the morning because she fails to communicate
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anything in our office. I was a little peeved yesterday
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when I left for the route. I was about ready to take my
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last load out and supervisor goes, do you know you have
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another pumpkin of Amazon in the back?
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I said I do. I've been looking through
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looking at it every time I walk back in the door from loading
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another load. Never saw one back there.
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Nobody told me I had one back there till I was ready to make
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my final load. Went and pushed that sucker out
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and went, you're kidding me. Almost had to completely reload
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the truck because it was all big stuff, but I still made it out
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the door by 10:00 so I can't complain.
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I was just a little annoyed that there is absolutely no
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communication in my office right now.
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So. But other than that Saturday.
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Go ahead, James. It's that time of year, whether
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you love it or hate it, it comes around once a year.
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And for the Postal Service, it starts Saturday, supposedly.
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We all know that. It doesn't actually start
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Saturday, It starts weeks prior to Thanksgiving, especially for
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early Black Friday supposed sales.
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We all know they're not sales anymore.
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They're just we'll mark it up and then mark it down to look
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like a sale. But.
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Or just switch out the signs that say Black Friday special
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and do you see that one? With Target, they pulled out the
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other signs that for sale price and it was the exact same price
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as the Black Friday. That was Walmart.
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Was it Walmart? I thought it was Target, but I
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don't know. I don't get that attention.
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I thought it was. They're all the same now.
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They're all the same. Now aren't they though?
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Aren't they? So I mean, technically for us,
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we've always said that the Christmas rush really starts the
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day after Columbus Day. That's the unofficial kickoff to
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the holiday season for us. Yeah, but on December 2nd, What
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starts then? Christmas overtime, December 2nd
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through December 22nd always starts first Saturday of the
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month which and goes for three weeks.
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Why it's a pay period and a half and not two full pay periods,
9:22
I'll never figure that out. That's managed pay 10 pennies.
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And why it doesn't go through the new year, I'll never
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understand. Now it technically should be
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like from Black Friday through New Year's.
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I agree. Well, no.
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It should be some Columbus Day. It should be from Columbus Day.
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Yeah, yeah, in some areas, yeah, Yeah, but.
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So that's peak season for city starts, I believe started this
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Wednesday, this past Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving.
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Oh yeah, the the no penalty stuff, something like that,
10:00
Yeah. Yeah.
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Rule carriers, we get 3 weeks. Go ahead, James.
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So this episode is all about the Christmas season and dealing
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with things as a rural carrier during Christmas peak period.
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So the first thing we want to talk about is what is Christmas
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overtime? Who wants to take that first?
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Anything over your evaluation for the week is paid at the
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overtime rate. So for example my route is a 48K
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and. Anything I work over 48 hours in
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the five days go is entered as overtime.
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Kristen, you're what, a 45, right?
10:48
Yes, I'm A45K. So anything in the five days
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that Kristen works over 45 hours will be paid at overtime and.
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To add in on that. If you are an aux route carrier,
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you go hourly. Yep.
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So if it's a 3 hour aux route, if it takes you 2 1/2, you'll
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get paid 2 1/2 for the day. If it takes you 5, you'll get
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paid 5 for the day. Correct.
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Now for the rest of the Rcas out there, it's business as usual.
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The only exception is the aux route Rcas.
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Everybody else, it's business as usual.
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Nothing changes in the way that you get paid and the ETFs are
11:39
the same as the Rcas. Yep, got to make sure we make
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that distinction for them as well.
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So nobody feels left out on this.
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And of course Arcs being involved in the Christmas
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overtime period. That's the other side of this.
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Arcs should only be utilized for parcel delivery.
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They aren't fully trained in mail delivery.
12:06
They shouldn't be running mail routes.
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Some are, but they shouldn't be. And if they are, it should only
12:14
be on a Saturday, correct? If they've gone through the RCA
12:19
Academy, so if they are being utilized on routes, what do we
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do, Bill? Smile and smile, baby.
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Also also during those three weeks, second trips are not paid
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out. At the three minutes a mile for
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second trips, it's your accumulative total time that you
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work, so you do not get sick at second trip pay.
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If you are Apov route, however, please track those miles and
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write them down on your 4240 'cause you are still entitled to
12:54
the additional EMA, just you're not going to get second trip
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pay. Just the main thing is, is this
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is one of the few times that carriers actually get paid for
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the work that they do. We know carriers are not getting
13:09
paid for the work they do anymore under Rex for a lot of
13:14
routes, but this is the opportunity for routes that are
13:19
extremely overburdened to actually earn the pay that they
13:23
deserve for their routes. The other side of the other side
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of this is we're going to be out later.
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It's getting dark earlier and unfortunately it doesn't start
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gaining time until December 21st.
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So your safety is paramount when delivering.
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Management should be providing you the equipment to be able to
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deliver, including headlamps if they are providing it.
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What do we do? We make that safety call 1767
14:03
baby. It's it's the same with road
14:09
conditions. A lot of places are getting snow
14:13
yet, either yesterday, today, tomorrow or later on in the
14:17
month. If you feel unsafe, you can go
14:21
back to the office. The union will back you up if
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you feel unsafe. And file that 1767.
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For unsafe working conditions, especially if you're out on one
14:32
of those very, very rural routes that there is very little St.
14:37
lights and it is dark, dark, dark.
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I mean, it's hard to see those boxes.
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We all know that. That's a safety call.
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I mean, you're not going to see that deer or whatever animal
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running out in front of you. You might not even see that guy
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walking his dogs at night if he's not wearing a reflective
14:54
vest. You know you make that safety
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call if it is absurdly dark. Even if you have a headlamp,
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that's not going to help you seeing where those mailboxes
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are. And we all know how well those
15:06
headlights work in the LLVS. All of ours now have the LE DS
15:11
headlights so. Yeah, but they don't always work
15:16
in those dark, dark areas. I know.
15:18
Well, this is true. You said earlier that if you're
15:21
48 and you go over 48 hours. That's incorrect.
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You have to go over your routes evaluation.
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Your KK48 goes up to 57.36 hours, not 48 hours.
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AK 45 isn't a 45 hour route either.
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No, I'm saying in the five days, not, not, not all six, in five
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days. So.
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Your relief day doesn't count. It still says your evaluation.
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It says right on the Christmas overtime, yeah.
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Your auto evaluation is. Your standard hours your your
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your standard hours for the week 9.6 hours for a 48.
16:07
Yep, Yep. Because if you work that if you
16:09
the standard hours is 1/6 day and if you work that 6th day as
16:17
AK route, that's automatically an overtime.
16:21
Correct. Or next day.
16:23
But yeah, it's either way it's it's overtime.
16:26
But in in relation to your routes evaluation for the five
16:30
days. Right now, that's what I'm
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saying. You got to, you know, as a 48K,
16:38
if I go over 48 hours in five days.
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What if your J route? It depends on if it's week 1 or
16:45
week two, if it's five or six days.
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Yes, you got to clarify that. And for H routes it's the six
16:53
day evaluation. It is management's right if they
16:57
have the coverage, if they know I'm going to go over my 48
17:03
hours, they can tell me not to come in on that last on that
17:08
fifth day or I can come in, but I have to leave by let's say
17:14
11:00 or not to come in until 11:00.
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I know when I first started we have they would schedule an RCA
17:23
to come in. They would case one route come
17:25
in in the morning start and case one route until like about 11:00
17:30
and that's when the regular came in to carry it.
17:33
And then they would switch to another route to carry a
17:36
different route to get the regular carriers hours down.
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So they weren't paying the overtime.
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Or they can have an RCA come in and take.
17:47
Hours off of the route as well. I mean, I've done that in the
17:51
past as an RCA. Yep.
17:53
Throughout the week, you know, I may run my route or I actually
17:57
end up running parts of like two or three different routes for
18:01
the day just to help keep that down.
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But again, that just depends on your office's situation on
18:07
having leaf replacements available.
18:09
Right. And in my office, well, we don't
18:12
have any available. Well, you know, like our office
18:17
did on Friday, they brought the Subs in at 6:00 AM to run
18:20
parcels and then sent them home after they came back at 9:00 and
18:26
half of our office was still there till 12:30 waiting for the
18:29
rest of the parcel to be done. I've actually at when I was in
18:33
RCAI would go in and I would run all day running parcels.
18:38
I would use my personal vehicle to run parcels.
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I'd get not only the hours but also EMA for delivering in my
18:47
own personal vehicle. And did that too.
18:51
Other other Rcas would come in and they would deliver with the
18:55
LLVS and get with the carrier that they're using the LV of and
19:01
find out their approximate leave time.
19:04
So they could take parcels out in the morning and then I just
19:07
clean up whatever was left over. So it it worked out pretty well
19:12
for us. But when you have management
19:14
that actually understands how to manage people, it works pretty
19:17
well. Right.
19:19
Well, that's we we would do that too sometimes we would do that.
19:23
They would have us you know take an LLB for a carrier that they a
19:28
regular that they do was going to be later leaving to do a
19:32
morning run. And then after they were, we
19:34
came back and gave them the keys back they'd send us with more
19:38
parcels than our PO VS. At my at my first station the
19:44
last two years, from what I heard, they've had two or three
19:51
cages worth not Gurney's cages, and at one point they were.
19:59
There was nowhere to put them in the building.
20:01
They were rolling the cages out and parking them behind the the
20:05
LL BS of the route that it belonged to.
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When I came in Saturday, the 1st 20 minutes of my day after
20:16
hitting clock in, I immediately hit start loaded.
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I wheeled out three pumpkins worth of packages to go load for
20:22
the 1st 20 minutes of my day Saturday before I even touched a
20:26
like a mail. Is AM parcel runs, Yeah, yeah,
20:33
go ahead and touch on that one. OK, so management.
20:39
And their infinite wisdom has thought getting regular carriers
20:45
to run parcels out as a second trip in the AM is a smart idea.
20:53
They're calling them second trips.
20:54
They want to pay them 3 minutes per mile, etcetera, etcetera.
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They are not second trips. That is your first trip.
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You're making the first trip of the day as a second trip.
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The union has said don't do it now.
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The only. Management is fighting it.
21:14
The management is fighting it. And I thought I fought this in
21:18
my office a couple years ago and I got it stopped to where if
21:23
they are going to require the regulars to go out, they were
21:26
going to have to pay them 8127 time.
21:29
And I cited the F21 time and attendance manual on this and I
21:35
had it stopped. However, the the the little
21:39
loophole that management tries to play with this is during the
21:42
Christmas overtime because we don't get paid for second trips,
21:47
we get paid. So that is going to be that is
21:51
their little loophole on that for those three weeks.
21:55
Now if they are requiring you to do this, you are going to clock
22:00
in as usual when you report to the office.
22:04
You are then going to do your start load and your in load of
22:07
your packages. You are not going to hit depart
22:11
to route. You are going to just do your
22:14
start load and load. You're going to run your
22:17
packages when you get back and then when you case your mail and
22:21
you actually depart for the route with the mail is when you
22:25
will hit depart to route. We're just going to cover that
22:30
because that is that little loophole on those 6 to 9 plays
22:34
during the actual Christmas, overtime, 3 weeks.
22:39
But you should get it in writing round dated and sign that they
22:44
want you to do that so you can use the F21 time and attendance
22:48
grievance like Kristen did because you should be in that
22:54
office sorting mail in the morning.
22:57
They want carriers to come in at 6:00 AM.
22:59
The carrier should be in there sorting mail, getting things
23:02
ready to go for the day. Because we know mail is going to
23:06
still be heavy because you're still going to have Christmas
23:08
catalogs coming through. You're still going to have your
23:12
pre Christmas sales, your Christmas Eve sales catalogs and
23:16
and advertisements and things like that.
23:19
You're going to have all the people sending their Christmas
23:21
cards out. And then you're going to have
23:23
all the parcels that people decided that, oh, I got to order
23:27
this for this person, this for that person, and have it shipped
23:29
to my house because I I don't want to go to the store because
23:32
too many people go to the store. I don't think enough people go
23:36
to the store anymore, but. I think, I think every mail
23:43
carrier says that I used to love Christmas and Christmas shopping
23:48
and and yeah, that went out the window several years ago.
23:56
But yeah, no, it's the the only technical loophole with that 6
24:01
to 9 play is during the Christmas overtime because
24:06
you're not getting paid second trips anyways, you're getting
24:08
paid your full accumulative hours.
24:12
But yeah, if if they are going to do that, I would then make
24:15
sure you do get that in writing. Round 8 is stamped in.
24:19
Contact your ADR, your Dr. your local union steward, whoever is
24:23
your representative, and get with them to see what they're
24:29
saying on that. Technically.
24:33
I mean, to me, what's the difference?
24:34
It's dark at 6:00 in the morning anyways.
24:36
So what's the difference if you're running packages at 6:00
24:39
in the morning versus 6:00 at night?
24:41
It's still dark. The.
24:44
Difference is doing. A 7:00 it's. 637 o'clock.
24:49
It starts to get light depending on where you're at.
24:57
Well, the biggest thing is management should be doing
24:59
everything they can to hire people to be Rcas, arcs,
25:03
whatever to cover this stuff. If management is mismanaging the
25:09
office like they normally do, then it's never going to get
25:12
done properly. Management needs to step up and
25:16
do the right thing and hire people that are going to do this
25:18
stuff. That's the problem.
25:22
And then retain them now that now not just not just hire, but
25:27
retain them because I can't count on one hand how many Rcas
25:33
have been hired and have left in the last year in my office.
25:37
I I need two hands and probably start with my toes on that one.
25:42
We we just lost one of our best Rcas taking a job outside the
25:45
post office. And we have three right now that
25:49
on average it takes them 12 hours to do a route.
25:53
Yep. That way we can arm you with the
25:55
information you need to go. Hey, you can't do that.
26:00
And if they would argue with you, OK, well, I get I I'm going
26:03
to file a grievance now. Consider this my step one.
26:06
I'm filing a grievance. Yeah, I may have.
26:10
And if they refuse to print out an 8191, which is the rule
26:15
carrier grievance form, that is also another issue file file.
26:24
File and file some more. Talking about working all these
26:28
hours and all this stuff. Care to explain how carriers not
26:35
on the relief day work list? Or carriers who choose to get
26:41
the X day? How that works during the
26:44
Christmas overtime period. Supposed to use it in the same
26:47
pay period and they can't give it to you because they have
26:50
nobody? Yeah, that's.
26:53
Well, I'm not even on the relief day work list, 'cause I went
26:55
regular after it came down, obviously.
26:58
And and actually it's beginning of the guarantee period through.
27:02
So it was October, that first pay period of October, October
27:07
8th, yes, through the end of the Christmas overtime period, which
27:10
is December 22nd of this year. And that's when you have to use
27:15
that X day within the same period pay period.
27:19
And if it's not feasible, they are to pay you out via the DACA
27:24
5 overtime. The system will not let them
27:30
enter the three if there's no X. And then the last thing that I
27:34
wanted to talk about was. Taking leave during the
27:40
Christmas overtime period for those who have relief carriers
27:45
in their offices. Unlike the other crafts, we do
27:50
not have blackout dates. The real craft does not have a
27:53
blackout dates and they cannot tell you that we have blackout
27:57
dates because we do not. And it was specifically say
28:02
Article 10 covers everything about leave, and if there's a
28:06
leave replacement available, they should be granting you that
28:10
leave. And RCA are scheduled to run.
28:15
Parcels is not unavailable, correct?
28:25
They. Remember.
28:26
To be scheduled to run a route that day.
28:31
And remember to follow the order of consideration when it comes
28:34
to covering a route. So they can even look for Subs
28:38
in other offices that are only doing parcel runs.
28:41
Those Subs are still available, even to other offices, because
28:45
parcel runs are just additional work.
28:47
They're not an actual scheduled route.
28:50
Route. Yes, even even though they're
28:53
scheduling RC. As for it, it is not a route
28:57
correct, but you have to remember the order of
29:03
consideration and of course. Seniority only applies on the
29:09
same day, So if they put in a leaf slip the same day, that
29:15
seniority applies. But if they put a leaf slip in
29:19
after you and your lower seniority than them your
29:21
seniority, your leaf slip still beats their leaf slip out
29:26
because you turned it in first? Yes, and make sure when you are
29:32
turning in a 3971 your leave slip that you are getting
29:37
management to an sign and date that they received it because
29:41
that starts the clock for your three days.
29:44
To have that returned to you and keep a copy always file in
29:48
duplicates or do it on the light blue elra.
29:54
And yes, you can use that for dates in the future, regardless
29:59
what management wants to tell you.
30:02
Yes, Elra is an approved way to input your leave and it is a way
30:12
to ensure the three day rule because once leave is submitted,
30:18
they have the three business days after that to approve or
30:21
deny it, and if they do not deny it with legitimate reason then
30:27
it's automatically approved. Needs of service is not a
30:31
legitimate reason. Subs on parcel runs is not a
30:37
legitimate reason. Subs working routes in other
30:41
offices is a legitimate reason with their previous previously
30:48
scheduled to cover a route, yes, and and that includes your own
30:53
office. Any time Leaf replacement is
30:55
scheduled to cover a route prior to you putting a Leaf slip in,
31:00
if your leave replacement is scheduled to cover another
31:02
route, whether it is in your office or in another one or a
31:07
different office, they are then considered unavailable
31:13
regardless of how it used to be handled.
31:15
That is how it is contractual now.
31:19
And leaf slips of course are within 60 days of the leave,
31:23
unless you have non refundable deposits on things.
31:28
Extenuating circumstances life events like.
31:33
Guy shooting about money spent? No, it does not like
31:38
graduations, weddings, funerals, stuff like that.
31:42
Well, if you're knowing a funeral at least 60 days out.
31:46
I can. I can plan that, right?
31:52
Right. Like my daughter and union,
31:59
union is still covered on the article 24 and it tells you to
32:02
put it in as as when it you know you can.
32:07
So union functions actually do qualify to fall outside of those
32:11
60 days. State convention, National
32:16
Convention, regional conferences, boosters.
32:21
Yes, your your county meetings are usually after.
32:26
Close of business at the post office, so those don't really
32:30
matter. But the ones you have to
32:32
normally travel for, Unless they're in your region, of
32:35
course. But the ones you have to travel
32:37
for, you can put in before before 60 days.
32:42
Yes, you can't. Great.
32:44
Like I said, graduations. That reminds me how to put my
32:46
daughters in. I already have my state
32:49
convention approved for next year.
32:53
I haven't done any of that yet. Can also.
32:56
Put in for medical two Medical is another one.
33:01
I found out that you can go 12 months out on ELRA and put in
33:10
for it back in June. So and they never denied it or
33:14
told me it was denied. So I'm already approved.
33:20
All right. So this question come through
33:22
real quick and I'm going to answer it.
33:23
So as an RCA holding down a regulars route for the next six
33:26
weeks, I'll only be paid evaluation time no matter how
33:29
long it takes me with this overburden, with this overburden
33:33
weeks, it's a 40H. If you go over, nothing changes.
33:37
For RCA pay designation 78, you go over 40 actual hours worked.
33:43
You'll then go into overtime. If you stay under 40 hours,
33:48
you're going to get paid the evaluation.
33:49
You go over 40. You will get your actual time
33:52
plus overtime for the hours, over 40 hours for the week.
34:02
So rack them hours up. I would say if you, if you know
34:10
you're going to be over 40 but you.
34:15
Typically will run it in under the evaluation slow down a
34:19
little bit. Don't.
34:21
Carry your. Discussion.
34:23
Yep. Don't safely, safely and
34:28
accurately. As we all know it is coming into
34:32
the end of November, December. A lot of our areas are starting
34:35
to get snow. So yes, make sure that you are
34:40
delivering safely. Be safe.
34:43
Be accurate. And get yourself back to the
34:46
office in one piece. There has been no other comments
34:51
about the loss of pay that over 2000 carriers are dealing with
34:58
the union. 22 Yes, the the union did put out that it is
35:04
unacceptable, but they haven't put out any additional
35:12
information. Or verified anything about that.
35:18
And even though they knew about it on Monday and it's been a
35:22
week. So I just wanted to put that out
35:25
there that we do not have any further information on what's
35:28
going on with that when your pay is finally going to come
35:30
through, how it's going to come through or any of that stuff.
35:34
Unfortunately, that kind of information always stays behind
35:40
closed doors, so. We don't have transparency in
35:45
that aspect. And the other side of it is
35:48
since the update some people have been having issues with the
35:52
load truck feature, which especially this time of year for
35:56
Rcas who aren't familiar with their routes would be beneficial
36:01
has been inoperative. Some of that could be based on
36:06
the fact that they're not scanning the parcels containers
36:11
that come in. That have the QR code and the
36:14
paper on them. They aren't scanning those in by
36:16
uptime, so the scanner's not picking it up that those parcels
36:19
have arrived at the post office, even though they've been sorted
36:23
to your route with the scanner. They're not being uploaded to
36:26
the system saying that it's there or something's wrong
36:29
inside the system internally. No, IT people have come forward
36:34
to tell me what's going on with with that, but I'm still looking
36:38
into it to see what we can figure out. 4 Clerks aren't
36:42
docking their scanners and uploading the information when
36:44
they're supposed to too. Dad as well.
36:47
Can can I take that personal point of privilege here?
36:50
Personal point of privilege, Mr. Chairman.
36:54
I am sick and fucking tired of the strongly worded language
37:01
that are union issues when people don't get paid enough
37:05
with this horseshit every time you screw up a carrier's pay.
37:09
There's a 5% penalty period because we never hear about
37:16
management having screwed up pay.
37:18
Do we ever? Nope.
37:20
No. But yet we get screwed time.
37:24
What's this the the sixth time this year In a year?
37:29
Something like that, yeah. You know for me when I when I
37:33
read that letter from the union. And this is my own personal
37:38
opinion. It does not affect reflective
37:40
views, opinions or strategies of anybody on this podcast.
37:43
The USPS or the inner LCAI read that letter and all I could
37:48
think of is I could see our leadership going over to the
37:52
national office, shaking a finger at them going this is
37:57
just not right, and then walking out the door and going back to
38:00
the headquarters. I don't even see them doing
38:03
that. OK, maybe they did it.
38:06
Maybe they did it on zoom just to wag their finger at them or?
38:10
Send an e-mail. I was going to say an e-mail or
38:12
a phone call saying so you guys messed up again.
38:17
OK, thanks. Yeah.
38:21
Thanks for letting us know. We'll pass it on to our
38:23
carriers. We're aware of it.
38:25
Sorry to be you. That's basically all it is.
38:30
You know, you think about all these carriers.
38:33
And and some of these carriers that didn't get paid this time
38:36
were carriers that didn't get paid last time.
38:38
So these carriers not only took, took a hit not only with their
38:43
not getting their money, but their automatic withdraws,
38:46
overdraft fees, fees for missing payments, late fees on bills,
38:51
things like that. And it's more than 5% that you
38:54
said Bill, some of them could be upwards of 10% of their of their
38:58
income especially RCA and. To have them just say we know it
39:03
happened again and we're sorry that it happened, and then we'll
39:07
get it fixed. You can get a money order.
39:09
You can get in advance. I don't like them calling it an
39:11
advance either. It's your pay.
39:14
You are getting paid your pay. I have yet to see any other
39:19
company in this nation that has not paid their people on time or
39:27
within a few days of their time when they find out that there's
39:30
been a payroll error and. You see this company?
39:34
I know of, and you see this every pay period, Every pay
39:39
period, whether it was management that didn't submit it
39:43
in on time within the local office or it's a glitch that
39:48
affects 54,000 carriers or 2200 carriers.
39:55
Or one there or one there is every pay period.
40:01
There is carriers out there not getting their paychecks and
40:08
that's bullshit. We should be paid a fair day's
40:12
wage for a fair day's work, and that fair day's wage should come
40:17
in on our payday. And if it's not coming in on our
40:21
payday, they should be sitting there and printing a check for
40:25
us. I don't.
40:27
Care say I know. I don't.
40:29
I don't care if they have to use the express system and have
40:32
somebody run it from district office, because I know the
40:35
district offices have checks that they can print in their
40:39
offices and they can have the express drivers pick them up,
40:45
deliver them to each office for each carrier.
40:48
It's not that hard to do. It's just they don't want to do
40:51
and they don't want to pay that person to drive all those things
40:54
all over the place. I would say I know in other
40:57
crafts I've heard of them from Egan sending their payroll check
41:04
express mail to their local office.
41:10
Why are they not able to do that for us?
41:13
Here's the problem. OK, at this time of year, you
41:16
know you're trying to do all your Christmas shopping and
41:18
everything else. But at this time of the month
41:20
when everybody's mortgage and rent and everything else is due?
41:24
This this puts a hardship on people you know and and you know
41:29
we shouldn't tolerate this. We we ought to have a a national
41:32
day of OK, we're not we're not working until we get paid, but
41:38
then they can fall that under a strike.
41:41
They they would call that a a coordinated work stoppage.
41:47
I've. Been acknowledged that before
41:49
that would still be a felony under under the law.
41:53
It'll be a felony. And we don't.
41:55
If I get the. If I get in the same cell as you
41:57
James, I won't worry about it. We don't.
42:00
We don't condone. We don't condone violating the
42:04
law. We don't condone violating the
42:07
contract. We go honest carriers doing
42:11
honest work. Management will sit there and
42:15
they will falsify records. They will fail to do their job
42:22
and they'll be fine. But if we falsify anything, if
42:25
we fail to do our jobs, we're into an I I.
42:29
And we're being told this interview can lead to discipline
42:33
up to and including termination on every single I, I that we
42:37
have and we only have, We only have five steps to termination.
42:44
Letter of warning 7 day. Seven Day 14 Day day of
42:55
reflection. Day of reflection.
42:57
Termination. Yeah, it's no, it's it's letter
43:01
of warning. Day of reflection 7 Day 14 Day
43:05
Termination. You get a day of.
43:09
You get a day of reflection at the 714 and termination.
43:17
And management has none of those.
43:22
Management can violate the contract 87 times, and what will
43:28
happen? They'll probably just get
43:29
transferred to another office management.
43:34
Management can commit a felony on the job, commit a felony on
43:40
the job, and maybe they'll get a stern talking to maybe, but
43:46
they'll keep their job. Rural carriers have to be
43:51
honest. Dependable and do their job.
43:57
Management can mismanage, miss mangle management and really
44:04
destroy the office and they'll get maybe a talking to.
44:11
You need to remember this when you're talking about things you
44:14
want to do, when you're talking about what needs to be done
44:18
because the only way to get things to change.
44:22
Is to come together as a unit, an entire craft, stand up, fix
44:31
this union, get us going in the right direction.
44:35
Because the last thing we need is to keep rolling over when
44:39
carriers are getting hurt. Carriers are wondering if
44:44
they're going to be able to pay their bills, wondering if
44:47
they're going to be able to feed their kids, be able to feed
44:49
themselves. They're wondering if tomorrow is
44:54
going to be their last day. Carriers have committed suicide
44:59
over this, and it's not right. And carriers have walked off the
45:06
job because of this, which, you know, destroys the the entire
45:11
fabric of an office. We there was a post on the
45:15
interwebs on the social media is about a carrier and that
45:20
carriers in Michigan, Northern Michigan to be exact, who did
45:24
put in her notice and the other two regulars walked out with her
45:30
this past week. And they don't see this.
45:33
You know the the management doesn't see this and and I and I
45:38
don't understand why you can't recognize a a oh just a toxic
45:46
atmosphere that these people are creating.
45:50
Parents is bliss. I mean, I've got you know I've
45:55
had two carriers in my office vocally say that they were ready
46:00
to walk out just because of the mismanagement.
46:06
We. Got a situation in Westchester
46:12
where we are now not allowed to do PM casing without permission.
46:20
And I talked to my ADR and the ADR says, well, there's nothing
46:25
that guarantees you the right case in the PM.
46:30
And I'm like, excuse me, we've already established this two
46:33
years of regular mail counts as well as the previous two mini
46:38
mail surveys that it it was part of our accepted practice, well,
46:44
they have the right to mismanage.
46:47
I hung up the phone. Yeah.
46:50
I I, you know, between that and settling for language, I don't
46:54
want to hear from union officials in in any respect to
46:59
say they're allowed to mismanage.
47:03
I I have to get off the phone. Otherwise, I'll say things that
47:06
I shouldn't You know what we need.
47:10
What what we need sitting at that head table for our union.
47:16
We need union officials that have experience and boots on the
47:22
ground within the last five years.
47:27
We need, we need we need union leaders that know what goes on
47:35
day in and day out in the offices now.
47:40
Not what how it was 10/15/20 plus years ago today.
47:47
We need union officials who have gone into offices and seen
47:51
what's going on. Not just the office that they're
47:54
assigned to, but offices that don't kowtow to leadership,
47:59
offices that actually have problems, offices that have no
48:06
union representation in them. We need people stepping up and
48:12
checking our carriers, checking on our carriers, making sure
48:16
they're taken care of. Because the problem is not only
48:21
are our managers misinformed in a lot of things, a lot of our
48:27
carriers are too, especially from management, yes.
48:34
I personally was misinformed until I got involved in the
48:38
union. I still make mistakes, but I'm
48:42
getting better at it. I'm learning a lot more.
48:45
Being involved in this podcast has taught me a lot about the
48:48
union, a lot about the Postal Service, a lot about everyday
48:53
life for carriers beyond what I see in my office.
48:57
I'm grateful I have management that actually listens and is not
49:02
ignorant to what the real craft is, but there are many offices
49:07
that are not. I I've been to one personally
49:11
that is not. But the thing about it is, you
49:16
cannot lead a union if you don't know what's going on at the
49:23
bottom. Yep, if your route is 230 miles
49:28
from your home and you haven't touched it in over a decade.
49:35
Or ever. Or if you.
49:39
Or if you've never been a regular carrier.
49:43
Because you went straight from RCA to a union leadership
49:46
position, you don't know what's going on down here.
49:52
You don't know what the carriers are dealing with.
49:54
You haven't dealt with the scanners.
49:57
You haven't actually ran a route under Rex.
50:03
Now you can say the average is everybody lost an average two
50:07
hours. Everybody lost on average 2
50:11
hours or everybody gained an hour on the last Rex survey.
50:17
But you don't know what's going on with boots on the ground.
50:20
You're not in these offices. You're not coming to see these
50:23
people and see what we're dealing with on a daily basis.
50:28
You're just looking at spreadsheets like Dejoy, and
50:34
spreadsheets don't show you the truth.
50:39
The same way district managers just look at the scan reports.
50:44
You know, yeah. They they don't, they don't look
50:48
at anything else except for what gets scanned.
50:51
Doesn't get scanned, delivered or not delivered.
50:53
Yeah, they they don't even give a rat's ass about the DPS
50:56
because of the fact that, you know, that's the not the money
50:59
aspect of the business anymore. Don't get me started on how bad
51:04
that DPS has been this past week.
51:06
Oh Lord oh God 4 trays and I brought back over a half a tray
51:11
it miss sent miss sort and I on a daily can fill up almost half
51:17
a tub of ubbm from my route almost on a daily.
51:24
Yeah, yeah, you're you're not lying there.
51:30
Yeah, it it was so bad on Friday that I had 9 trays of DPS.
51:36
And I need another 3 inches to fill a tray up of miss sorts.
51:41
Yep. And that's why I don't take mine
51:44
in the street. I mean, you know, there's not
51:46
enough room in the truck to throw that much mail.
51:52
Yeah, I actually had a couple days this week where I filled a
51:57
full tub up or more the Saturday when I finished delivering my
52:03
Advos or Monday. Excuse me Monday because
52:06
Saturday I started my Advos and then Monday I went to finish
52:09
them because we she held our Amazon over.
52:12
So I'm like well good, I'll just finish up my Advos.
52:14
So between the crap and the DPS that didn't belong there or bad
52:20
addresses and the Advos I couldn't deliver because they
52:24
were addressed and I have a lot of seasonals.
52:28
I filled up two tubs of mail. Now who, who?
52:33
Who else has the problem with getting their UTF and their
52:37
forwards back in their clerk tubs Every single day at my
52:43
office is horrible. I mean, you know, I I I actually
52:46
got into a magic marker to mark the individual piece so they
52:51
don't come back and they still do.
52:54
I had. Handfuls of of UTF and A&K's
52:59
coming back in my DPS this week. Oh God, I had a couple pieces of
53:05
mail that I know. I put in the three M at least
53:10
three times this week, the same piece of mail that came through
53:16
my. DPS We were having that problem
53:18
a couple months ago. It seems to have stopped for
53:21
now, but I'm sure it'll happen again.
53:28
Yeah, we got, I got a funny for you because we have a new
53:32
postmaster and a she has no idea what she's in for with Christmas
53:38
in Westchester, but she come over and she goes Rd. 17.
53:45
I have a package for you and she gives it to the guy and the guy
53:49
looks at she goes. It's for Jamaica, NY.
53:53
She said what he goes, it's R17, Jamaica, NY and I said well I
53:59
know that's a mess up. And she goes why?
54:01
I said Jamaica's in the middle of the Bronx.
54:03
There's no rural routes in the Bronx.
54:07
Oh, I had. I had three parcels this week
54:10
thrown to Route 3. My route for Route 3 in Cairo,
54:15
Michigan, which is approximately 2 hours South of me.
54:21
Not once, not twice. Three different packages, three
54:24
different days. I had one for route one in
54:29
Texas. I don't remember the city, but
54:32
it was in Texas is all I remember.
54:36
Still don't know how that one got to me because it came out of
54:38
California. Well, that was.
54:41
I had a piece of I had a lot of piece of letter mail not too
54:44
long ago in my DPS for Vermont. OK, it was mailed within the
54:50
state of Vermont, going to another city in Vermont, but
54:53
somehow ended up in my DPS in Oscoda, MI.
54:57
It's Klingon. Yeah, something.
55:01
Yeah, it stuck to another, you know, letter in front of it.
55:04
And that's why he got, that's why I explained that to a lady,
55:07
what a Klingon was. And she goes, oh, she goes, I
55:10
thought you were talking about dingleberries.
55:12
That's what my kids call them. I'm like OK and and so I made
55:18
sure when I got that back going sorting through my mail at the
55:21
end of the day I cut out the black marker and I had to cover
55:25
up the barcodes because it was sprayed for my zip code and I'm
55:30
like wow that's a mess up. Now back back in the day our our
55:38
DPS plant used to double run our mail you know to to get the
55:42
stuff out of there. They're not doing it at all.
55:45
They're they're just trying to get it out the damn door with a
55:47
first pass and and you know up to our office because we're one
55:51
of the last officers to get it. We have a dedicated truck.
55:55
So I I just sit there and I laugh.
55:57
It's like, you know if I'm getting paid by my DPS litters,
56:01
then then you know I'm making out.
56:02
But since I'm getting 84 a minute, I'm not 86 a minute. 86
56:09
86. Well, I only had 84 fingers.
56:18
Oh so everybody have a good Thanksgiving.
56:22
I did my my bonus son showed up. I was I didn't know he was
56:29
coming till he walked in the door.
56:31
My boyfriend's son, so that was nice.
56:34
My youngest daughter was with her dad at his parents house and
56:37
of course my son is so in Okinawa.
56:39
Oh oh oh update update on my son.
56:43
As of December 1st he will be Sergeant.
56:47
He passed his scores this past week and he gets his Sergeant
56:51
promotion on Friday, December 1st.
56:54
Congrats, yes. Still waiting to hear about his
56:58
leave to come home, though. But yes, he will be.
57:02
Sergeant William Wakeman of the United States Marine Corps.
57:06
The real the real leaders of the Corps.
57:09
Yeah. Yeah.
57:10
Oh yeah. Thanksgiving was good.
57:14
However, I I did forget that as part of the settlement on the
57:19
falsifying the hip training, they said they had to show us
57:26
the training material by the 22nd.
57:30
So guess what we had to do Wednesday morning?
57:35
Sit there and watch the stupid videos and they're like, well.
57:41
When everyone is like, why are we doing this looking right at
57:45
me? Well, someone filed a grievance
57:47
on it, so here you go. And she made sure to make sure
57:54
that I wasn't moving, and I was standing there the whole time
57:57
watching it. Did you have your cat with you?
58:02
Not at work. Oh, OK, I figured.
58:07
Your cat would help you with mail delivery.
58:09
Yeah. Oh, I'm sure he would.
58:13
You guys ready to wrap this up for tonight?
58:16
Sure. All right, Josh, go ahead.
58:22
Well, like we've already said, we're into that season long
58:26
days. Try and have a good week.
58:31
Be safe, it gets dark earlier. Don't get overwhelmed.
58:38
If you do take a step back, take a deep breath.
58:42
And step back in. Have a good week.
58:44
We'll see you next time. Go for it, James.
58:52
You know, this is the one time of the season that really boosts
58:58
our Rex evaluations. One thing we did not say is to
59:03
remind your RC as that when they are out delivering these parcels
59:08
for these routes to switch. To the route they're delivering,
59:14
option 6 on the main, on the main menu, on the scanner.
59:19
Yes. So make sure they're switching
59:21
to your routes to make sure that the route gets the credit for
59:25
those parcel deliveries because that is your evaluation in the
59:30
52 weeks and management will tell them no, just put it on
59:34
route 997OR998 or something like that, deliver with that.
59:39
No, it needs to be on on your route number for delivery unless
59:44
they're doing static dynamic routes, which also takes away
59:47
from your evaluation. But just remember, your safety
59:53
is your responsibility. It's not on management, it's not
59:58
on your customers, it's not on the dog that the customer owns,
1:00:03
it's on you. If you feel unsafe, go back to
1:00:08
the office. File a 1767 safety hazard form
1:00:15
and take care of yourself. I will be behind you on that
1:00:22
because we're all in this together.
1:00:30
Bill. Well, to reiterate, it's
1:00:34
everybody. It's dark out, getting colder
1:00:38
out. I've seen pictures of snow
1:00:39
already and. Like James says, you know if you
1:00:44
feel unsafe, slippery conditions, sidewalks,
1:00:49
driveways, whatever, that's the time to hang it up.
1:00:53
Come back to the office, file the 1767 unsafe condition.
1:00:58
Especially if you're driving a postal vehicle that has no
1:01:01
traction whatsoever. I mean LLVS and FFVS and the
1:01:06
metrics. They all have no ass like an old
1:01:09
white man. So, you know, be careful out
1:01:13
there. They're going to hold you
1:01:15
accountable for any type of accident.
1:01:16
They'll hold you accountable if you get injured.
1:01:19
So you are the most important delivery, not that package.
1:01:24
They can wait another day. You know they can wait two days.
1:01:27
You can, they can come pick it up.
1:01:28
I don't care. I care about people being safe,
1:01:33
being healthy and getting home to their loved one because you
1:01:37
are the most important delivery of the day.
1:01:40
And you need to get home to your loved one.
1:01:44
Thank you guys. Yes, definitely we are.
1:01:50
Saturday is the kickoff to the Christmas overtime.
1:01:53
This week is well, we just had Black Friday sales on Friday.
1:01:58
Cyber Monday is tomorrow. We are heading into this and if
1:02:02
you are an RCA who has not worked this time a year before.
1:02:09
Just take a deep breath because you're in for a ride.
1:02:14
For I mean some of us it's, you know, I this is my first
1:02:17
Christmas as a regular, so I can relate to you guys Rcas for
1:02:22
several Christmases going back. My, I actually did my Shadow Day
1:02:26
the day after Christmas. I kind of got lucky on the tail
1:02:28
end there. But you know, I had quite a few
1:02:31
Christmases under my belt in a couple different offices.
1:02:33
So yes, definitely the safety is your call once you're out on
1:02:38
that street. Safety is your call 100%.
1:02:41
You're not safe. Management wants to argue.
1:02:43
Fill out that 1767. Contact your local union Rep Do
1:02:47
what you got to do. But it is definitely your call.
1:02:50
Please stay safe out there, everybody.
1:02:52
I know I got to put the weight in my LLV tomorrow.
1:02:55
We got snow today, The wet, heavy stuff.
1:02:57
It's not going to be fun for me. But you know, it is what it is.
1:03:02
You take, you know, to stay safe.
1:03:04
Be safe. Deliver safe.
1:03:06
If you can't pull up to a box because of the snow, they'll get
1:03:09
their mail the next day. You know, don't get stuck, don't
1:03:13
get you know it's going to happen.
1:03:15
We've all gotten stuck. I've gotten stuck in APOV.
1:03:18
I've gotten stuck in an LLV. It happens.
1:03:21
But do what you can, do what you can and do it safely and stay
1:03:28
safe out there this week and we will be back next week.
1:03:33
And just remember. Like the meme says, kiss your
1:03:37
family, tell them you love them, and you'll see them in January.
1:03:40
Yes, absolutely. If I get in the same cell as
1:03:56
you, James, I won't worry about it.