Latest / United We Scan / Fight Like Hell Rallies and Legislation
Transcript
- 0:14Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
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- 0:47Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
- 0:50United We Scan podcast. Welcome back everybody.
- 0:54Where are we at Episode 116? We are going to talk a little
- 0:58bit about the Fight Like Hell rallies that went on across the
- 1:01country today, some legislation that's come about and whatever
- 1:06else we feel like talking about. So on that note, how was your
- 1:10week, James? They're pretty normal at the
- 1:13post office, you know, it was very, very light for most of the
- 1:17week, but Monday missing pieces of chunks of my DPS thank you
- 1:24mail handlers and then Tuesday I got that mail in my mail and
- 1:31also had two box holders to go along with it.
- 1:35Then Wednesday I had the valve packs come along, you know,
- 1:39Thursday and Friday was actually nice to have a little bit later
- 1:42day, you know, But other than that, Saturday was a easy day.
- 1:48I'm going to end up having to file a grievance because they're
- 1:51splitting multiple routes in my office every week now because of
- 1:57the carrier and emergency placement and the retirement
- 2:00that we had. So now they're splitting the the
- 2:02routes every weekend and I'm getting sick of it.
- 2:06I want to be able to work on my relief day if needed, and so do
- 2:11the carriers on the relief day work list.
- 2:13But apparently District has told everybody that nobody gets
- 2:16overtime anymore. Probably trying to prevent Doge
- 2:19from finding all that overtime that they're paying out and
- 2:22screaming at them. But other than that, went to the
- 2:25rally today and we'll talk about that during the episodes.
- 2:30But that pretty much sums up my week.
- 2:32Ready to get another week underway here?
- 2:35How about you, Bill? How was your week?
- 2:36Oh, like I said, off air, you know, I'm getting some prompts
- 2:42and individuals who run for our state board and considering it
- 2:47and a lot of phone calls, you know, a lot of questions and
- 2:51everything in regards to a lot of topics, which sadly, you
- 2:57know, we, we have repeatedly, you know, addressed time and
- 3:00time again on this podcast, But you know, people missed it.
- 3:04Don't go back and listen to podcast with the headers and in
- 3:07regards to the topics they're covering.
- 3:09But it was a good week, decent weather.
- 3:13We've got some much needed rain comings in tonight.
- 3:16And you know, I, I, I didn't get a chance to get out to the
- 3:20rallies. We had some things we had to
- 3:22take care of today, but we had a very good showing up in
- 3:26Philadelphia at several locations, almost 1000 people at
- 3:31the main post office. So that that was nice to see
- 3:35that, you know, that all these people were out there and you
- 3:39know, everybody's now, you know, with the signs out there and
- 3:43T-shirts and everything. I mean, they, they really had,
- 3:45you know, a great response to this rallies.
- 3:49So I'm glad to see that they got out there, you know, you know,
- 3:52the get their voices heard and put faces to to it.
- 3:55Like the one man said, he says, you know, I'm one of the newer
- 3:58carriers. I have my daughter here.
- 3:59You know, I don't know if I'm going to have a job, if I'm
- 4:02going to pay, be able to pay for her, you know, daycare or food
- 4:06or anything because of this. And like I said to my wife, I
- 4:10said, you know, this is a, a bunch of fear mongering, you
- 4:12know that, you know, get people all worked up in the friends,
- 4:15you know, but the problem of it is if you don't respond like the
- 4:19carriers did today, then guess what?
- 4:22It might just slip through the cracks and become reality.
- 4:26So you have to get, you know, your craft and your community
- 4:29and your senators, representatives involved in this
- 4:33and let them know how you feel about this so they can prevent
- 4:36it. Other than that, living large,
- 4:39loving grandchildren. And how about you, Kristen?
- 4:43How'd your week go for you? Oh, it started off OK.
- 4:48And then Ruby, he'd left Tuesday afternoon to go to Academy,
- 4:54which was Wednesday through Saturday for her.
- 4:57So I was then full time Grandma. My week at work wasn't too bad,
- 5:05seemed pretty average. I was off Wednesday because
- 5:09little man had his six month doctor's appointment.
- 5:12Thursday and Friday we're fairly light.
- 5:14Friday he did not let me sleep one bit.
- 5:18I've worked my K day yesterday on very very very little sleep.
- 5:23Was hoping to have an easy day when I walked in and that
- 5:26quickly went bye bye and out the door when I saw that I had the
- 5:30two tubs of Advos sitting there and 119 parcels.
- 5:35But yeah, so other than that, you know, Ruby is finished with
- 5:40Academy. She got home about 8:00 last
- 5:43night and let's just say that was the happiest 7 month old
- 5:48baby I have seen in a long time when Mama walked through the
- 5:52door. And here I was happy too because
- 5:56I could actually get some sleep. Other than that wasn't too bad.
- 6:00I mean we're we're down to regulars right now.
- 6:03So we've got the one H route is being covered by either my sub
- 6:09or the one that I trained most recently when he's not running
- 6:14his route, and the other one is being covered by that brand new
- 6:20RCA assigned to that route. So it's been it's been kind of
- 6:25interesting, but Oh no, it wasn't all that bad this week
- 6:29for me anyways, other than the lack of sleep.
- 6:32But this is a new week and Ruby starts her on the job training
- 6:35Tuesday. So shall be interesting to see
- 6:39how that goes. That's all I'm going to say
- 6:42about that at the moment, but I'm pretty sure she'll do all I
- 6:45unfortunately, as much as Ruby and I both wanted to go to one
- 6:49of the rallies here in Michigan, unfortunately we weren't able to
- 6:53do it and a little man, I think he's gotten the daycare crud on
- 6:57top of it. So, you know, brand new daycare
- 7:00starting, It's like when kids go back to school, stuff goes
- 7:02around and Ruby not getting home until 8:00 because she was 404
- 7:08hundred, excuse me, 4 hours away at Academy.
- 7:11And although close or you know, all the rallies to me were 3 1/2
- 7:16to four hours away. So unfortunately it was not
- 7:19feasible for us to go as much as we both really wanted to go, we
- 7:22couldn't do it. But I was definitely there in
- 7:25spirit with everybody and I just love seeing all the photos that
- 7:29I've been seeing from the rallies across the country.
- 7:32The turn out just looks awesome. The news reports are starting to
- 7:36pick it up. I've so, you know, noticed from
- 7:38all the local news channels in those areas.
- 7:41And yeah, we're we're, our voices are starting to get
- 7:44heard. Get the message out.
- 7:48Absolutely. Yeah, I was.
- 7:50I was lucky to be able to attend the one in Ann Arbor.
- 7:53And that one, of course, was hosted by multiple branches in
- 8:00the Ann Arbor area. And we had about 130 people show
- 8:04up. And I'm, I saw that talk with
- 8:07five other four other rural carriers that were there, as
- 8:11well as 4 customers of the Postal Service that showed up
- 8:16for the rally. And other people have said
- 8:19they've had customers show up and things like that as well to
- 8:21their rallies. So that is awesome to see that
- 8:24not only are the postal employees showing up, but the
- 8:27very people that we serve, we're showing up and fighting
- 8:31alongside of us to make sure that Postal Service remains the
- 8:35vital service that it is. Yeah, I, I love the fact that,
- 8:40you know, Donald Trump, you know, sit there saying how much
- 8:43money we're losing. Yeah, we're we're losing money.
- 8:45He's got to remember we are a service just like the Police
- 8:48Department, just like the Armed Services, just like a fire
- 8:51department. We're we're not there as a
- 8:55profit making mechanism. We're there to service the
- 8:58country thing is simple. So, you know, if you want that
- 9:02service, you know, the yes, it it should be self-sustaining,
- 9:05but how much, how much return do we really get on what you pay
- 9:10your military? All you get the the security of
- 9:13of your mind saying we'll never be attacked or if we are
- 9:16attacked, we can respond. I mean, I've never had a a house
- 9:20fire, but you know, every year I give money to the fire
- 9:23department because of the fact that they they need millions to
- 9:27run one Firehouse, even with an all violent Volunteer Fire
- 9:32station. These are things that you need.
- 9:36And if you don't have those services, you'll be surprised
- 9:39how fast people will realize how important they are.
- 9:43I mean, look, look at look at the situations where local the
- 9:46police departments can't hire anybody and they have to rely
- 9:50upon regional or state police to help give them coverage on, you
- 9:53know, night times and weekends. Folks, we're not here to make
- 9:56money. We're here to provide a service.
- 9:59Is it required? Do we make money?
- 10:01Yes, we have expenses. We, you know, we have cost, We
- 10:04have retirement and medical and paid payroll and everything
- 10:07else. Back to the matter is we are a
- 10:10service first. It's right in the name.
- 10:14Exactly, exactly. We are there to serve the
- 10:19people. And if if management and the
- 10:23Senate, the House don't understand that and definitely
- 10:27President Trump and Elon Musk don't understand that, we do.
- 10:32We understand what our customers need from us.
- 10:35We understand where the service comes from and that is the
- 10:40letter carriers on the ground serving the customers, the
- 10:44clerks serving the customers over the counter, the mail
- 10:49handlers moving the mail around in the plants to get them to
- 10:52those offices, the VMF fixing vehicles to get them to the post
- 10:58offices and to serve the post offices with the big trucks,
- 11:04things like that. The people that actually do the
- 11:07work at the post office, upper management, no they don't.
- 11:11They don't do anything of super importance to the post office
- 11:17that isn't already being done by a computer.
- 11:20Most upper management is sending out emails, doing reports,
- 11:25things that are automated in most other organizations, but
- 11:29instead they're automating jobs at the bottom here while
- 11:33maintaining and holding on to theirs, not saving the post
- 11:36office money. Yet they're the ones that get
- 11:38the raises, and those of us that are getting our hands dirty
- 11:42doing the work don't see crap. Let's talk about.
- 11:45Legislation, come on, let's get it.
- 11:47Get it going. James, get the legislation
- 11:49going. All right, so I posted about all
- 11:53the resolutions and bills that have been put forth in Congress
- 11:59yesterday, and I kind of wanted to get you guys in on this
- 12:03conversation because everybody should be in on these
- 12:07conversations. We should know what our
- 12:09legislature is doing and what it's doing to affect us.
- 12:14Now, granted, this isn't an all-encompassing list.
- 12:16I spent three hours on congress.gov putting this
- 12:20together just to get this information, but it's out there.
- 12:24And this is the same as reading out the PO6O3 or your Elm.
- 12:30You got to know what's going on so you can stay informed.
- 12:34So the very first one that I want to talk about is House
- 12:38Resolution 70. Now, this is different from the
- 12:41bills that are usually put forth.
- 12:43This is basically a statement from the House expressing their
- 12:49opinion, and it states it is expressing the sense of the
- 12:52House of Representatives that Congress should take all
- 12:55appropriate measures to ensure that the United States Postal
- 12:58Service remains an independent establishment of the federal
- 13:01government and is not subject to privatization.
- 13:05Now as a standing, this has 168 Co sponsors to it, 160 Democrats
- 13:15and eight Republicans. So basically they just want to
- 13:20make a statement that the House does not believe the Postal
- 13:23Service should be privatized. Your guys in stock?
- 13:26Well, I agree. I mean, that was part of the
- 13:28reason for all the Israelis today.
- 13:30Well, yeah, from a business perspective, this would be a
- 13:37ginormous type of undertaking in regards to trying to privatize
- 13:42the post office. And the reason being is because
- 13:46of the fact that as a service, we go into areas where a private
- 13:50entrepreneur, it does not want to service, you know, the rural
- 13:54Americans, OK, it's too expensive.
- 13:57That's why we have all the last mile hand offs from UPS and
- 14:02FedEx and DHL and Amazon because we go those extra miles and it
- 14:08it's a money loser. But the fact of it is that we
- 14:12are the service of record and nobody else that wants to go out
- 14:16there. Now what are you going to do in
- 14:20regards to giving them equal service per SE that they're they
- 14:24are entitled to? Are you going to restrict it to
- 14:27six days? Are you going to get restricted
- 14:28to every other day? As we've heard the options being
- 14:31discussed, it it really it is such a big problem for you to
- 14:38turn around and kind of take this monster that the post
- 14:42office is and divvy it up. And then again, once you divvy
- 14:46it up, you now have to regulate the privatization of it because
- 14:50you're not going to get find anybody who's going to buy the
- 14:53post office in its full entity. It's going to be broken up in
- 14:57pieces. So therefore who's going to
- 15:00regulate out each piece is sold off and how it is regulated in
- 15:07regards to their responsibilities to the public
- 15:10in regards to service, in regards to accountability, in in
- 15:15regards to just privacy. Because now you have a public
- 15:19entity running the Postal Service and they're not going to
- 15:23be bound by the sanctity of the mail that's required by the
- 15:27United States Postal Service. So where, where are these rules,
- 15:31regulations, these guidelines all going to be coming together
- 15:35and formulated and, and it's not going to be done in a couple
- 15:38months there President Trump, it would be a year long type
- 15:42situation and you're not going to be sell, be able to sell
- 15:46every piece of the post office because every piece is not a
- 15:50money maker. We'll actually get into that
- 15:52later. I actually have a document that
- 15:54I found that talks about that now.
- 16:01This next one is currently not a threat, but it is out there. the
- 16:08IT only has a sponsor. It has zero Co sponsors since
- 16:13being introduced on January 3rd and that is HR 86, the NOSHA Act
- 16:21to abolish the Occupational Safety and Health
- 16:25Administration. He calls it the Nullify
- 16:28Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act, and the
- 16:32language is specifically just as the Occupational Safety and
- 16:36Health Act of 1970 is repealed, the Occupational Safety and
- 16:41Health Administration is abolished.
- 16:44And I seem to recall an e-mail from management going around
- 16:48saying stop the OSHA retaliation.
- 16:52So it sounds like Representative Andy Biggs from Arizona 5 agrees
- 16:59with management that they the retaliation from OSHA needs to
- 17:03stop, so we need to abolish it. But you know, and you realize
- 17:06OSHA does cover more than just the post office.
- 17:09I mean, that's. Yeah, everybody.
- 17:12That's everybody. I mean, you know, it's like
- 17:17privatizing the post office. All you know, OK, the
- 17:19government's going to get out of it.
- 17:21Well, it's not affecting just our mail customers.
- 17:25It's affecting every business in the country.
- 17:27It's affecting every government office in the country.
- 17:32It is not just, you know, the mail delivery to, you know, Joe
- 17:35Adams at 123 Main St. It's everybody in the damn
- 17:40country. How the hell are you going to
- 17:42get around that? Let's get rid of OSHA.
- 17:44But you know, in regards to the post office, well, if you get
- 17:46rid of OSHA, you're getting rid of it in regards to every entity
- 17:51in the country, every charity, every business, every, every
- 17:56service. Every manufacturer.
- 17:59Yeah, everybody. I mean, that's the one thing
- 18:02when I hear the term OSHA, you think more of your manufacturers
- 18:08and, and, and stuff like that as well.
- 18:11I mean, that's the one thing that comes to me when I hear the
- 18:14word OSHA. So yeah, that would affect the
- 18:17entire nation. I mean, how, how would you like,
- 18:21and James would know this from being, you know, in in the
- 18:24paramedic field there with firefighters and all.
- 18:27How about the fact that, you know, OSHA doesn't regulate you
- 18:30guys and you know, you go in there and and you know, you have
- 18:33a, a multi, you know, alarm fire going off.
- 18:37And since you're not required to be OSHA regulated, half your
- 18:40equipment doesn't work. You know, half your people
- 18:42aren't trained, but you know, this is what OSHA looked for in
- 18:46regards to, you know, that aspect because the people have
- 18:50to be responsible enough, trained enough equipment has to
- 18:53be available, available and functional, you know, to fight
- 18:58fires. If somebody sits there and says,
- 19:00well, we can't do it because we have a bunch of split hoses that
- 19:03froze last week in, you know, in a fire that we serviced and
- 19:09somebody, you know, pumped the lines out, that's what I'm I'm
- 19:13going. To have to correct you there,
- 19:15Bill, the fire service is covered under the National Fire
- 19:20Protection Association. OSHA would be involved with
- 19:25everything else, but the firefighting stuff is covered
- 19:28under the National Fire Protection Association.
- 19:30So you're saying that she has no viability over to fire
- 19:33companies? OSHA does have viability but
- 19:37when it comes to the firefighting stuffs, NFPA
- 19:40standards are usually what the fire departments go by OSHA
- 19:44would cover like the fire station, vehicles, safety,
- 19:49things like that. But firefighting you go to a
- 19:52higher standard with NFPA than OSHA.
- 19:55So a fire truck, which is part of their equipment would fall
- 19:57under their jurisdiction. Yes.
- 20:01And it would also cover that would also go under the dot too,
- 20:05the Department of Transportation, so many able to
- 20:08recover that. Yeah, yeah.
- 20:10So, but the equipment that we use on a fire scene is NFPA
- 20:15certified? So if your truck isn't probably
- 20:18service and you take your good equipment out there and the
- 20:22truck doesn't work and the door doesn't go up and you crash
- 20:25through the door that that'll fall under ocean.
- 20:30Hey, look, I, I, I, I remember Liz Lightfoot out there at Grand
- 20:35Rapids several years ago, driving into a parking lot
- 20:39garage with a car carrier on top, not realizing it said 7
- 20:43foot clearance. OK, I'm just.
- 20:47That's why we have warning. That's that's why we have
- 20:51warning labels on things now. Yeah, don't drink battery acid,
- 20:55No. All right.
- 20:59How did we live this long without those warnings, Jesus?
- 21:03So the next one, this was actually a good one.
- 21:06It doesn't have any Co sponsors right now, but it was introduced
- 21:11by Nick Laloda out of New York 1 And it is to require the Postal
- 21:17Service to use a mobile retail unit to provide retail postal
- 21:21services in an area when the post office for such area is
- 21:25temporarily unavailable to provide such services and for
- 21:28other purposes. So I know that we have mobile
- 21:32post offices where they put a clerk in a little van that
- 21:36offers limited postal services in a parking lot.
- 21:41This this bill would actually make it required that they do
- 21:45that. And not only that, but even for
- 21:50postal retail facilities that are contracted out that are
- 21:55temporarily unable to provide services.
- 21:58The only The only exception to that is if the contract with the
- 22:04contractor has expired, like they're not going to renew the
- 22:07contract with them is the only reason why they wouldn't have to
- 22:10do that with this bill. So think of Hurricane Helene and
- 22:14Milton and those areas. They would have had to bring a
- 22:17bunch of mobile retail units to those areas that have been
- 22:21affected by those hurricanes or even the areas with the
- 22:24Tornadoes at the post office was damaged.
- 22:28Or even those that have offices that burn down.
- 22:31Yep, thank you. I I wasn't just going by by by
- 22:35bills there, but also I know of an RMPO location in my old
- 22:40office that burned down. Now all those people that had PO
- 22:45boxes there have to drive 20 miles to go get their mail.
- 22:51Or my office when the person lit the lobby on fire.
- 22:54I have an alibi for that day. Well, they got them on camera,
- 22:58so it was all good. But they did provide, they did
- 23:02provide the mobile retail unit for a little while and they
- 23:06actually parked it next door at the library for people to go to.
- 23:10But then it just became difficult for them to handle it
- 23:13because all the mail was going to another post office where we
- 23:16were all at. And then the clerk would have to
- 23:19come in to that office, pick it up and then drive to the mobile
- 23:22truck to hand out the mail. And they kind of got annoyed
- 23:26with that. See, this is where the politics
- 23:30get involved. Westchester burned down and it
- 23:33it happened in August. What was coming up folks that
- 23:36that that would make them put a a temporary mobile office there.
- 23:41Well, you had the election. So to make sure that, you know,
- 23:44in this, you know, area that there is a availability of
- 23:50postal services, they put a step van that was in there that had a
- 23:54service window that you could get out and go up to just for
- 23:59the ballots. As soon as the election was
- 24:01over, that van up and disappeared.
- 24:03Why can't you put a temporary office in a tractor trailer and
- 24:08parked at the trailer on the lot with full services for the
- 24:11people in the area? I agree.
- 24:13I mean, they're still fighting about whether to rebuild that
- 24:17post office, and it just doesn't make any sense.
- 24:21Yeah. Yeah, you moved 87 routes 24
- 24:26miles away. That's 48 miles round trip that
- 24:29everybody's getting paid now, added on their routes.
- 24:32That's why every route became AK route.
- 24:35You know it, it didn't affect mine as much because I was
- 24:38already a overburden K route, but now you had 11 overburden K
- 24:43routes. You talk about wasting money.
- 24:47How about that, folks? How about putting this back into
- 24:50our office? And yet they turned around and
- 24:53we're discussing moving three other post offices into a
- 24:57rebuilt Westchester office, and now you would have three offices
- 25:02traveling extra mileage to get to their routes.
- 25:05This doesn't make any damn sense.
- 25:07No, Bart, nobody said they were intelligent and they are allowed
- 25:10to mismanage. Yep.
- 25:12All right. The next one I have is HR 491
- 25:19Equal COLA Act. Now before anybody jumps on
- 25:21this, this does not touch the Postal Service.
- 25:26It will not touch the Postal Service, but what it does affect
- 25:30is retirees on the Federal Employees Retirement System on
- 25:34hers or the Civil Service Retirement System.
- 25:38Because it's under Title 5, it's to amend it to change to achieve
- 25:43parity between the cost of living adjustment with respect
- 25:46to an annuity under the Federal Employees Retirement System and
- 25:50an annuity under the Civil Service Retirement System.
- 25:53That every once a year, effective December 1st of each
- 25:58year, each annuity will have an increase by the percentage
- 26:03change in the price index for the base quarter of such year
- 26:08and up to the adjusted in the nearest 110th of a percent under
- 26:12Section 88462 of Title 5 USC. So basically if you're a
- 26:19retiree, they want to make equal COLA adjustments for all
- 26:23retirees on furs and CSRS. For that.
- 26:27And I'm for that too. How about you, Kristen?
- 26:32You for it too. Yep, I am.
- 26:37All right, a little extra cheddar.
- 26:38Cheddar Roma sandwich. Yeah.
- 26:42You'll get to be able to buy one more slice of cheese with that
- 26:44increase. Yeah, you ain't kidding.
- 26:48All right, we'll go on to HR 758 Mail Traffic Deaths Reporting
- 26:55Act. This one is to direct the USPS
- 26:59to issue regulations requiring Postal Service employees and
- 27:02contractors to report to the Postal Service traffic crashes
- 27:06involving vehicles carrying mail that result in injury or death
- 27:10and for other purposes. This is basically they want to
- 27:14make sure that because Postmaster General Louis Dejoy
- 27:20did not know of traffic accidents and deaths in the
- 27:24Postal Service, they want to make it so that they're all
- 27:27reported and tracked. And this has passed the House
- 27:33with a vote of 402 to 16. It was pretty much almost
- 27:40unanimous in the House and it's on in the Senate now.
- 27:46But that's one that is important because tracking injuries and
- 27:51deaths with accidents in the Postal Service is something that
- 27:55really should be monitored and taken care of because it's been
- 27:58happening a lot more lately. Your thoughts?
- 28:01You're not. You're not referring to the time
- 28:04when Dejoy was up before the committee who asked him about
- 28:08how many deaths there were, and he didn't know the answer.
- 28:11It well, he they were asking him about Palmetto, but he doesn't
- 28:16even know about. Well, yeah.
- 28:20Well, the Palmetto was. Yeah, it was a specific question
- 28:24about Palmetto, but they also asked him about how many the US
- 28:28Postal Service suffer every year, and he didn't know that
- 28:31answer either. Exactly He.
- 28:34Just he, he, he was taken a guess like 9 or 10.
- 28:36I don't know. It's pretty.
- 28:38Yeah. When you sit there and you say,
- 28:40I don't know, yeah. But in the past 12 months, we've
- 28:43had well to 14 rural carrier deaths in the past 12 months.
- 28:48It's 12 too many, 13 too many. Yes, it.
- 28:52Is, Yeah. And they were all on the job,
- 28:55Yeah. And let's not, let's not, you
- 28:58know, also discount the how many attacks have been made on util
- 29:01carriers, mostly city, but you know, there are rule attacks on
- 29:05rules too by individuals. HR 765, the Males Act.
- 29:15There is also Senate 155 that Matt is congruent to this.
- 29:22It is to improve the communications between the USPS
- 29:26and local communities relating to the relocation and
- 29:29establishment of Postal Service, retail service facility and for
- 29:33other purposes. So basically they want them to
- 29:37talk to local communities before they move, relocate, or even
- 29:44create post offices in communities.
- 29:48And would that also include consolidation into SDCS?
- 29:55Yes, it does. And so the Postal Service, it
- 29:58says in the bill, it says the Postal Service may not implement
- 30:01a temporary relocation, including for a commemorative
- 30:05event for a period longer than two days without collecting and
- 30:09considering community input under paragraph C of that
- 30:11section. So they don't want the Postal
- 30:14Service to just Willy nilly close and move facilities or
- 30:19bring in new facilities all over the country.
- 30:22And just as a footnote, nobody from the Board of Governors has
- 30:25gotten back to me in regards to me volunteering to be the
- 30:29Postmaster General. Next one.
- 30:36Is James, it just sounds like, you know, they're going to come
- 30:40up with another committee to create more payroll for somebody
- 30:42that they're friends with, you know, to, to do a study on this
- 30:46or, you know, they handle the questioning.
- 30:48You know, it's real simple folks.
- 30:51You know, we serve the community at large.
- 30:54And if you can prove the viability of that service, then,
- 30:58you know, for God's sakes, why are you removing it?
- 31:02I mean, my Leo, OK, we, we've had an office in Phoenixville,
- 31:07PA get relocated to the FD and C now to get back out to
- 31:12Phoenixville. The mileage isn't so bad, but
- 31:15the traffic is OK now. The Phoenixville post office is
- 31:19still there, open and operating. What's the point of driving all
- 31:23these extra mileage? You know, at the extra mileage,
- 31:26the extra pay, the extra wear and tear, the extra liability of
- 31:30being on the road longer in the same piece of shit vehicles.
- 31:35To save 2 commercial trucks from going to and from that facility.
- 31:39Well, I did find out April first there are cutting all of our
- 31:43trucks down to one in the morning and that's it, but
- 31:49struck in the afternoon starting April 1st and.
- 31:52And you know that serves 2 purposes, OK, you're going to
- 31:54save some money, OK? And because the joy changed the
- 31:58the time frame in the specifics in regards to the delivery of
- 32:01mail, unless you have expresses OK that have to move to make
- 32:07their commitments, that one extra day is not going to make a
- 32:10big difference in this time standards already established
- 32:13under the joy. So I'm I'm not that upset about
- 32:17up in the afternoon, but the fact of the matter is you still
- 32:20have these facilities that you have to maintain.
- 32:23They're still there for the, you know, as a Center for the
- 32:26public. Why are you going through the
- 32:28sixer expense of moving the the carriers to an SD and C?
- 32:34And spending more money and people wear and tear on the
- 32:36vehicles. Right.
- 32:39And these vehicles, some of these vehicles are coming up on
- 32:4150 years old. James, the LLVS are coming up on
- 32:45being 50 years old. Now you're making.
- 32:48Now you're making me feel old. You know the shoe fits I'm.
- 32:52I'm just a little older than the LLVS, all right?
- 32:59You know, I'm I'm old enough to take my driving test in the LLV.
- 33:06The next one I have is HR 1249 to require the USPS to post
- 33:14notices of changes that will affect nationwide postal
- 33:17services. And the ACT may be cited as
- 33:20Instituting notification Formalities on Reorganizing Mail
- 33:23Act, also known as INFORM. And basically when a proposed
- 33:30change is dismitted to the PRC, the notice of the change with an
- 33:34effective storefront postal facilities to remain posted for
- 33:38no fewer than 30 days after the change has gone into effect.
- 33:41Basically inform the customers what what's changing and why.
- 33:46You know that that reminds me of informing, you know, builders
- 33:50when they're putting up new, you know, developments that you have
- 33:55to use the cluster box unit. You can't have curbside
- 33:58mailboxes. You know, this is what we're
- 34:00going to do. And there's nothing you can say
- 34:02about it. And personally, you know, I, I,
- 34:05I, I feel like, you know, if you're living in a development
- 34:09that has, you know, 6 to $700,000 homes, you're just
- 34:15ghettoizing ghetto. Ghetto as in the ghetto
- 34:19ghettoizing the development because it looks like crap?
- 34:23Looks like a trailer park. It it well, I wouldn't go that
- 34:27far, but you know, there's a newer development on off of
- 34:30Lenape Road and it has all these $800,000 carriage homes.
- 34:35Now all they are is townhomes that are modified in regards to
- 34:39their roof lines and everything like that.
- 34:41And their back decks are different based on the
- 34:44customers, you know, Willy Nilly's and what they wanted on
- 34:48the on the House. But the fact of the matter is
- 34:51they've got one giant, one cluster section there that is
- 34:566/6 CBU's. OK, not, not a lot, OK, But all
- 35:02the trash that the people basically dump when they get
- 35:06their mailbox open up, their mailboxes, the stuff that's
- 35:09spewing around there. And then you go to the other end
- 35:11of the development and you have another six CBU's on the
- 35:15cul-de-sac. And this all sits on top of a
- 35:18hill. So it gets all the nice windage
- 35:20there and you go up there on a windy day and you just see all
- 35:23the Advo's blowing around in the cul-de-sac that people have, you
- 35:27know, taken out of the mailbox that got away from them and they
- 35:30just let it go. So it looks like a ghetto.
- 35:33It really does. Then yeah, the I love the first
- 35:37house on the left because he's got little 2 foot high shrubs
- 35:40all around his property and all the trash and plastic bags and
- 35:43everything just swirls around and ends up up against his
- 35:46house. I bet you he gets tired of that
- 35:48shit every day. Why?
- 35:51Why can't they have curbside savings?
- 35:54That's why. Pay the carriers less.
- 35:57That's all it's about is paying the carriers less because the
- 36:01post office doesn't pay for the CBU.
- 36:03The post office doesn't pay for curbside boxes.
- 36:07The cost is in the carrier going box to box.
- 36:10That's the cost. So next one is HR.
- 36:15Of course, James, you could always raise the postal rate
- 36:18again for first class letter. That makes sense.
- 36:20We'll get to that. We'll get to that.
- 36:26I will be talking about that on the next article.
- 36:28I have after I get done with all these resolutions, house HR 1310
- 36:35to limit the closure or consolidation of any United
- 36:39States Postal Service processing and distribution center.
- 36:42So that would be all your PND CS, just PND CS, not the SND CS.
- 36:48It doesn't include those, just the PNDC.
- 36:51It's and the the extra part of that is if such action would
- 36:55result in no such center being located in that state.
- 37:00So for instance, that one actually is this is not a good
- 37:05bill with that statement being in there because if you have
- 37:11like let's go with Nevada since she got into a great argument
- 37:15with the joy over this. In Nevada, you have a processing
- 37:18center in Reno, you have a processing center in Las Vegas.
- 37:22They could close the Reno facility and not violate this
- 37:25bill because they still have the processing center in Las Vegas.
- 37:28Inversely, if you have one on the Eastern Shore of Maryland,
- 37:34OK, and you have one on the Eastern Shore of Delaware, you
- 37:38have to maintain both of them even though they're only 14
- 37:42miles away from each other because they're not within the
- 37:45state. Yeah, but if there's one on the
- 37:48western side of Maryland way over by West Virginia, Yep, they
- 37:54can close that one and still keep the eastern one and this
- 37:57bill would would not be violated.
- 38:00Exactly. They'll make the 50 mile rule
- 38:03there. Or take Texas, you have one on
- 38:05the east side of Texas and when on the West side of Texas, it
- 38:09takes for a semi truck a day plus to drive across that state
- 38:15on I-10 because they only can drive for 11 hours before they
- 38:18have to shut down for a 10 hour break.
- 38:21So we take a day and a little bit for mail to go from the West
- 38:24side of the state to the east side of the state in Texas or
- 38:27the same for I-5 in California from the north side to the South
- 38:30side. For smarter than you.
- 38:36This one is actually a little bit better on that than that
- 38:40last one, and it was actually issued by Harriet Hagman out of
- 38:44Wyoming at large. And it is HR 1473, Postal
- 38:50Processing Protection Act, to require the United States Postal
- 38:54Service to apply certain requirements when closing a
- 38:57processing, shipping, delivery, or other facilities supporting a
- 39:00post office and for other purposes.
- 39:04And it's reasonable. It is, I'm going to say, not bad
- 39:08on that one. Yeah.
- 39:10Hold on, somebody actually put some thought into this.
- 39:13I guess so. Amazing.
- 39:16Must be a freshman lawmaker. Yeah.
- 39:19The next one I want to put out there, this one that we don't
- 39:22have to discuss because we've already rallied on it last year
- 39:26and it's been reintroduced. That is HR1065 and S463 that
- 39:35Protect our Letter Carriers Act. That is the big one.
- 39:41Here's the next really big one that a lot of RCA's and regular
- 39:47carriers will really appreciate and that is HR 1522.
- 39:53The Federal Retirement Fairness Act, also known as the buyback
- 39:58bill to a mid title 5 USC to provide that civilian service in
- 40:04a temporary position after December 31, 1988 may be
- 40:08credible service under the Federal Employee Retirement
- 40:11System and for other purposes. You can find back your.
- 40:16Non career time with the Postal Service.
- 40:19Unless you're on Table 2. No, this covers anybody at in a
- 40:24that in a civil service position after December 31st, 1988, which
- 40:30is when they cancelled that. So it applies to everybody.
- 40:35Yes, civil service. But if you're on, if you're on
- 40:37Table 2, you can't afford to do the buyback, so.
- 40:40That's why I'm, well, even some, even a lot of people on table
- 40:43one since Rex came into effect. Oh yeah.
- 40:48Now the next. Pros and cons?
- 40:51I'm going to weigh in on this a little bit because please do.
- 40:55I mean it. The previous one was subsidized.
- 41:00Subsidizing this would would be a financial nightmare.
- 41:05And honestly, and people don't understand how a buyback would
- 41:09work. They're all like, yes, I had
- 41:11nine years in as an RCA. I want those nine years to
- 41:15count. It's not going to include a full
- 41:19nine years. It's going to take the hours
- 41:22that you worked and calculate towards the amount of service,
- 41:28not your yearly amount. So if you were one of those Rcas
- 41:34that first started and you worked one day a week, maybe a
- 41:38few days here and there, so maybe you have a total of 6
- 41:41months that you worked for that year.
- 41:44It's going to calculate the amount of work hours you had and
- 41:49lump those together towards time served.
- 41:52Not you have nine years, here's your anniversary date to this
- 41:57date. Now it doesn't work that way and
- 41:58people don't understand that. Yeah.
- 42:00So you're looking at the way it would work, is the 2080 rule
- 42:052080 hours because that's full time service.
- 42:07That is what the Retirement Act is based on for checks as well.
- 42:12So every 2080 hours you worked would equal one year of
- 42:18retirement or fraction thereof. Yep.
- 42:21So you got to remember that as well.
- 42:23And we all know, I mean, if not within the last five years in
- 42:27some areas, but there's still offices that are well staffed
- 42:30that the job as an RCA is feast or famine.
- 42:34And if you're feasting, great, that's awesome for you.
- 42:38But if you're one of those that is in the famines, you're not
- 42:42going to have as much time being able to accredit towards it.
- 42:45I'm just just saying, you know, that's something I mean, there's
- 42:50yes, it's a great idea having, you know, nearly nine years
- 42:55myself. And I know those last few years
- 42:58I was working six days a week. And so, yeah, I mean, I could
- 43:04see where that is. But if you're one of those that
- 43:06you know didn't work as much, it may not benefit you so.
- 43:12And then it's like. I said there's give or take,
- 43:14there's up pros and cons to everything and people just have
- 43:17to realize it's not going to be you're credited from your higher
- 43:21date to when you went career. It's going to be a calculation
- 43:27of the hours that you work. And it's also a question of
- 43:29whether they're doing it based on the hours you actually worked
- 43:34or the evaluations of the route that you got paid for and things
- 43:38like that as well. Because Subs that worked one day
- 43:41a week and worked the month heavy Monday and worked 1011
- 43:45hours on a nine hour route or an 8 hour route.
- 43:49That's another calculation that probably has to be figured out
- 43:52as well. It was.
- 43:53It's actual worked hours. It doesn't go by.
- 43:55Your evaluation. So I hope so because the post
- 43:59office would probably try to do it that way.
- 44:00All right. HR 1559, I do not have text on
- 44:09this, but it is called to extend the right of appeal to the Merit
- 44:15Systems Protection Board to certain employees in the United
- 44:18States Postal Service. This one actually effects
- 44:21veterans in the Postal Service and that is the appeals process
- 44:26involving the MPMSPB and that's in discipline, grievances,
- 44:32things like that. So that's something that we
- 44:35should keep an eye on when the text comes out.
- 44:37It was, it was introduced on February 25th and they still
- 44:41haven't uploaded the text onto the website.
- 44:43This next one is going to get some people riled up.
- 44:48Bill. Bill HR 1560, Postal Supervisors
- 44:59and Managers Fairness Act to modify procedures for
- 45:05negotiating pay and benefits of supervisory and other managerial
- 45:09personnel of the United States Postal Service.
- 45:12So Gerald Connolly of Virginia 11 put this forth.
- 45:17He does have a Co sponsor, Mr. Boast, who is from Illinois, 12.
- 45:25They want to try to basically bargain, represent for
- 45:31management pace, pace policy schedules and fringe benefit
- 45:36program. So basically it's, I think it's
- 45:38trying to unionize supervisors and managers through
- 45:43legislation. Making them bargaining unit
- 45:46employees. Making them bargaining
- 45:48collective bargaining agreements between the Postal Service and a
- 45:51bargaining representative organized under Section 12.
- 45:55O3 that affects any matter. So it would be a separate union
- 46:00for supervisors and postmasters. But they already have their
- 46:03associations. They're not bargaining, but they
- 46:06are associations. So they'll become bargaining
- 46:10unit employees of the managers and postmasters or whatever they
- 46:16decide to call the the association that wins this
- 46:21lucrative bill. I'd like to see management file
- 46:24agreements on upper management for something stupid.
- 46:27That'd be funny, that. 'D be entertaining.
- 46:29I'd actually love to sit in on that.
- 46:33You can't do that, right? Well, the our contract says
- 46:37yeah, yeah, that's why we hollered at you all the time
- 46:39because you can't do that because our contract says this.
- 46:43Yeah, yeah, I. And yet it, it, it, it's
- 46:50reminiscent of the fact that, you know, most of these
- 46:52supervisors and postmasters are in fear for their jobs.
- 46:57So just like the arts, you know, and, and just like the Rcas,
- 47:01they're under 90 days or, you know, you know, people that are
- 47:04getting harassed and all that, that the intimidation factor
- 47:07comes into play for them. We consider when they want to
- 47:11file, you know, a grievance per SE against their supervisors or
- 47:16upper management, their DMS, their pooms, whatever.
- 47:20Yeah. This, this, this, this, this
- 47:23could turn into a Jerry Springer show.
- 47:25I want it. That's exactly what I was.
- 47:31Could you imagine your postmaster file in a hostile
- 47:35work environment? Grievance against their POOM or
- 47:38district management. That would.
- 47:44Be. That that would be funny.
- 47:48Did it help? I mean, really?
- 47:51And yeah, they they come in the next day.
- 47:53Any other they're all pissed off.
- 47:55So why you know a grievance was denied?
- 47:58It's like didn't line didn't line you ass wife.
- 48:06I didn't find feel the paperwork in time.
- 48:13I filed it on day 15, now we had 14 days to file it.
- 48:19Oh God. Yeah, that would, that would be.
- 48:23Ironic. That's gonna be entertaining
- 48:24about. That one.
- 48:26Yeah, yeah. All right.
- 48:28The next one is HR 1760, USPS Act to require the Comptroller
- 48:36General of the United States to submit reports to Congress on
- 48:39theft of mail and United States Postal Service property and
- 48:43other similar criminal violations relating to the
- 48:46Postal Service and for other purposes.
- 48:49It may also be cited as upholding a Secure Postal System
- 48:52Act. Oh my God, But let's create
- 48:55another job, another committee and another subcommittee to do
- 48:59something that we should already be doing currently under the
- 49:03current, you know, regime. I mean, but you know, James,
- 49:08it's just like, you know, hiding mail when, you know, you have
- 49:11routes that are they vacated because people calling out or
- 49:16whatever and they turn around and they just work the parcels
- 49:19and they hide the mail. But yet, you know, you delay,
- 49:22you know, taking out mail or coming back and picking up a
- 49:24tray of DPS that they couldn't find.
- 49:26Oh, holy hell to pay. But management does it all the
- 49:30time. My post office was a big
- 49:33violator of that. So this one is they shall
- 49:36investigate nationwide patterns and instances of the theft of
- 49:40mail, delays of mail, United States Postal Service employee
- 49:44violations investigated by the Office of the Inspector General
- 49:48of the Postal Service. Any other criminal or civil
- 49:51violations under the jurisdiction of the Postal
- 49:53Inspection Service in the theft or vandalism of Postal Service
- 49:57property. And submit a report on each such
- 49:59investigation to the Committee on Oversight and Government
- 50:02Reform of the House of Representatives and the
- 50:04Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the
- 50:07Senate, the two bodies of the the Legislature that oversee the
- 50:11Postal Service. But what are they doing now?
- 50:14In general, they are themselves the the the Postal Service is
- 50:19delaying the mail themselves. Yes, but, but just just like
- 50:23other police agencies, we've investigated ourselves and found
- 50:27no wrongdoing. Yeah.
- 50:29All right, this is another one that does not have the text yet.
- 50:34It was induced on March 14th and it still has not been posted
- 50:39yet, but it is to amend Title 18, United States Code to modify
- 50:46the rules and duties of United States Postal Service police
- 50:49officers and for other purposes. It's HR 2095, so we do not know
- 50:55what they're modifying, but I'm hoping that what it is, is
- 50:59they're actually allowing the police officers to go back out
- 51:02and protect mail carriers on their route, especially with all
- 51:04the arrow key fast and robberies and and fatal assault mail
- 51:11carriers that have happened. I hope that that's what this,
- 51:14this resolution is for. I will keep an eye on this one
- 51:17for sure. And when I get the text, we'll
- 51:19come back to it. Another one that I that I do not
- 51:24have the text on, which was introduced the same day was
- 51:28HR2103 to modify the procedures used by the United States Postal
- 51:33Service for the closure or consolidation of any post office
- 51:37or any processing and distribution center and for
- 51:40other purposes. That's one we're looking at.
- 51:43It's got 4 Co sponsors already, but waiting on the text on that
- 51:47as well. HR 2174 Paycheck Protection Act
- 51:54this one is going to be controversial overall.
- 52:00HR 2174, Paycheck Protection Act to provide that agencies may not
- 52:06deduct labor organization dues from the pay of federal
- 52:09employees, including the United States Postal Service.
- 52:13And this one, you can argue both sides of it, OK.
- 52:19But the thing I see on this is basically they're trying to make
- 52:25the employees have to write a check for their union dues if
- 52:29they're a federal employee and, you know, or an employee of the
- 52:32Postal Service versus having it deducted from your paycheck.
- 52:37Now, I don't know about you guys, but when I signed my dues
- 52:41deduction paperwork, I knew what I was doing.
- 52:44I knew I was joining the union, I wanted to join the union, and
- 52:49this made it an easy way that I didn't have to remember that I
- 52:52had to send off my dues to the to the union.
- 52:55I didn't have to worry about the check getting lost in Palmetto
- 52:58or any other facility like Indianapolis or wherever on its
- 53:03way to the Union. It was taken care of for me.
- 53:06What do you guys think? It's going to be a hot potato
- 53:08either. Yeah.
- 53:09I mean, I could see both sides of it, you really could.
- 53:13But at the same time, I mean, like you said, you know, it's
- 53:17already coming out. That's one less thing I have to
- 53:20remember to send off a payment for well.
- 53:23And. Then worrying if a check is
- 53:26going to clear by the time it gets there and they get it in
- 53:29the bank or you know, I don't know.
- 53:34Well, here's the other problem, OK, because of the delay of the
- 53:37mail process, Yeah. How would our union, for
- 53:41example, handle all these payments coming in in a timely
- 53:45fashion without, you know, some type of grace period for it to
- 53:49arrive? The other problem of this is if
- 53:52they enact this, then you can withdraw the union anytime you
- 53:56want. I'm not sending your payment in.
- 54:01Imagine how many people would bail with that.
- 54:04You know, and there are a lot of people that hate the idea that
- 54:09they have to wait until their annual year is up, but that's
- 54:13the other side of it. You would have to send in the
- 54:15check annually as a carrier to the union versus bi weekly small
- 54:22amounts taken out of your check. You would have to save out those
- 54:25small amounts every paycheck in order to reach your annual dues.
- 54:29And I understand people are going to come at me for saying
- 54:32this, but paying your union dues helps protect carriers.
- 54:40There are stewards that protect carriers, there are Adrs and DRS
- 54:47that protect carriers. There are regional reps that
- 54:50protect carriers. There are national officers that
- 54:53protect carriers. The money you put into this
- 54:57union doesn't just pay for fun and games at conventions and
- 55:01conferences and things like that.
- 55:03It pays for the ability to represent the craft and things
- 55:07like arbitration. Arbitration can cost $100,000 in
- 55:13some instances easily to protect the carrier, like the carrier in
- 55:18my office on emergency placement that may end up going all the
- 55:23way up because of this, this pod stuff going on across the
- 55:27country that may go all the way up and may even end up in
- 55:30arbitration. Now that carrier is sitting at
- 55:32home, has been sitting at home for weeks already and probably
- 55:36will not be back to work for a long time until that's all
- 55:41settled. So I want you to think about
- 55:43those carriers that are getting hurt by these things when you
- 55:47talk about dues and protecting carriers, because these are your
- 55:51brothers and sisters of the craft that you're protecting
- 55:53with your union dues. OK, I don't want you to get mad
- 55:56at me, James, but I'm going to play devil's advocate too.
- 55:59We. Do we need that kind of stuff on
- 56:01here? No you you make a good point in
- 56:05regards to our representation and everything.
- 56:07And the good stewards, the good NROSADRS and DRS.
- 56:15Conversely, we're also paying for the bad stewards.
- 56:20ADRSDRSNROSA point in case. So we had ADR from my area who
- 56:28had failed to process Step 2 grievances for over 2 years.
- 56:33Where was the NRO overseeing him?
- 56:36OK, we had, you know the the ADR's who had pushed them up to
- 56:42the Dr. Where were they? We have local stewards who don't
- 56:47know enough about the contract and just give in to management
- 56:51or they have a personal agenda against that carrier, which
- 56:55you're not supposed to have. Thankfully we're not paying them
- 56:59the post office it, but the fact of the matter is that your
- 57:02representation is fail failing to duly represent you.
- 57:07What about the fact that these people who get into these full
- 57:10time paid positions aren't required or responsible enough
- 57:16to do the jobs that they were elected to or?
- 57:19In the case. Of like the you're appointed to.
- 57:22Exactly. And the thing of it is that, you
- 57:25know, you have a, a 5050 balance there.
- 57:28And, and just like some people have Unicorn post offices where
- 57:32the postmaster goes out and carries a route when it's vacant
- 57:36or, you know, we'll, we'll run out, you know, the mist thrown
- 57:39parcels and, and spurs because, you know, everybody's been been
- 57:43dismissed for today and one or two got left behind.
- 57:46You have just as many people. And, and you know, in my
- 57:49experience with the last SD and C, as well as the 26 years at
- 57:53Westchester, that, you know, for the most part, they don't give a
- 57:58shit about the carriers. They, they, they worry about
- 58:01getting their, their zoom meetings done.
- 58:04They worry about getting their reports done in a timely
- 58:06fashion. They worry about the, the
- 58:08latest, you know, tirade from Adm or a poom thing.
- 58:13OK, you're only allowed three hours in the office.
- 58:15OK, you, you have to do this. You have to this, this is the,
- 58:20the, the, the, the, the muddle that we're encompasses that you
- 58:27have good and bad on both sides. And and I'm saying all this
- 58:30because of the fact that if you don't get involved, it'll never
- 58:34get resolved. Nothing will get better unless
- 58:38you get involved. And you have to be in the union
- 58:41to get involved to the point of making significant changes to
- 58:46the entire structure of our national board, our national
- 58:50steward system and, and every steward NRO that that's on
- 58:56payroll because of the fact that, like I said earlier, I I'm
- 59:01being prodded to run for our state board, OK.
- 59:04Because people are tired of the politics and it's so hard to
- 59:08fight that. But if you don't fight it,
- 59:11you'll never win. You'll never gain an inch of
- 59:13ground and you'll never make an improvement in your work
- 59:16conditions, the environment that you go go into and spend a third
- 59:21of your day, every day of your life that you go in.
- 59:24You spend more time with these people than you do your own
- 59:27family. And if you don't fight for a
- 59:29better treatment, if you don't fight for the contract language,
- 59:33if you don't fight for each other, it's not going to get any
- 59:36better. Because we have both extremes.
- 59:38We have great carriers, great stewards, great DRS and some NR
- 59:44OS and then some people in the national board.
- 59:47But conversely, we run into, you know, the same amount of people
- 59:51who aren't doing their jobs. And I've had it for years, you
- 59:55know, in my position and you have bad management.
- 59:58And the, and the worst part is they're terrified of losing
- 1:00:02their jobs and they kowtow to their superiors.
- 1:00:06So you know, this, this is the problem.
- 1:00:08You know, you've got the good and the bad and there's a middle
- 1:00:11ground that yet you got to find. But once you do that middle
- 1:00:14ground, you have to keep pushing.
- 1:00:16Against the bad, because otherwise it'll just stay there
- 1:00:20and fester. So get involved.
- 1:00:22You want something done, stand up for change.
- 1:00:26Get involved. Quit crying about it.
- 1:00:28So to answer you on your devil's advocate pair, wouldn't the
- 1:00:33failure of those individuals, whether they be local steward,
- 1:00:36the local steward one that is a failure on the representative
- 1:00:41above them and the carriers in the office for standing up
- 1:00:46against that? Because the carriers in the
- 1:00:49office by a 2/3 vote can remove their steward if they believe
- 1:00:55the steward is not representing them.
- 1:00:57And the representative overseeing them, seeing things
- 1:01:03like that could also move to have them decertified as well.
- 1:01:08It's the same going up the chain.
- 1:01:10If it's an ADR, the Dr. has that responsibility.
- 1:01:13If it's ADR, the NRO has the responsibility.
- 1:01:17If it's an NRO or an area or the regional, then that's also on
- 1:01:23the responsibility. The regionals also on the
- 1:01:25responsibility of the NRO. If it's an NRO, it's the
- 1:01:29responsibility of the national board.
- 1:01:31And it all comes to head at the top with the president.
- 1:01:37He is responsible for everything that happens within this union,
- 1:01:40as he is the top dog of this union.
- 1:01:44He is to make sure that this union not only is properly
- 1:01:49protecting this craft and representing this craft to the
- 1:01:52best of its ability, but he's also responsible ensuring that
- 1:01:56everybody is treated with dignity, fairness and respect
- 1:01:59throughout the steward system. So I've got, so I've only got
- 1:02:06four more bills left. We'll go through them kind of
- 1:02:09quickly here. This one is one that we need to
- 1:02:13keep a big eye on for sponsors and stuff like that.
- 1:02:19Right now it doesn't have a lot, it only has one Co sponsor, but
- 1:02:23it is was introduced on March 18th.
- 1:02:26If HR 2193 the FEHB Protection Act.
- 1:02:32Now this act, the only thing this act does is it requires
- 1:02:38anybody with dependence on their health care, and this includes
- 1:02:43the the Postal Service health benefit plan to send in
- 1:02:47verification that their dependence actually have the
- 1:02:54familial relation to them, whether it's a birth certificate
- 1:02:58or marriage certificate, whatever it is.
- 1:03:01And if you do not do that within six months, they are required to
- 1:03:06remove that dependent from your healthcare coverage.
- 1:03:11I can see the point of this. I think it's one of those that
- 1:03:17has its pros and cons, but I mean, I could see why they would
- 1:03:22do that. I mean, it would be like in a
- 1:03:26situation like mine or, or you know, and I'm going to just we
- 1:03:32don't recognize common law in the state of Michigan.
- 1:03:35But if you think of those areas that have common law, you're
- 1:03:38technically you don't have a legal document between the two
- 1:03:42of you being married. You know, it's a slippery slope
- 1:03:47or those that, yeah, I'll just say that you're my spouse or my
- 1:03:53child and I'll put you on my insurance.
- 1:03:55I mean, I can get it. I see the point of it.
- 1:03:58But at the same time, it's like, yeah, that's just creating a
- 1:04:01whole another fiasco of yeah. And on top, on top of that, my
- 1:04:07question is it's, it's a government agency that's running
- 1:04:10the can't the government agency pull up the birth certificates,
- 1:04:13marriage licenses and whatever that's filed with the systems
- 1:04:16already? I mean you when you have a
- 1:04:19change of life event as it is, you have a baby or a a legal
- 1:04:24adoption or you get married, you have to Smith that documentation
- 1:04:29as it is to add them on to your insurance.
- 1:04:33So it's already there. Yeah.
- 1:04:36But if it's one of those instances I could see for like
- 1:04:39open enrollment, new employee, you know, newly career,
- 1:04:44something of that nature where you don't necessarily have to
- 1:04:47submit the supporting documentation.
- 1:04:50I think this is what would just say, hey you need to send this
- 1:04:53in as well. So the next one I have is
- 1:04:58HR2241. No text on this yet.
- 1:05:02Introduced on March 21st, it's to amend the National Labor
- 1:05:07Relations Act to ensure the right of employees to a secret
- 1:05:12ballot election conducted by the National Labor Relations Board.
- 1:05:16Still trying to figure out why this one's coming out.
- 1:05:18I mean, I thought secret ballots were the way we're supposed to
- 1:05:21to do the elections. I'll let you from the states
- 1:05:26where they tell you who to vote for.
- 1:05:28Did I say that out loud? You mean like the NBA's were
- 1:05:31telling people how to vote on the city carriers TA?
- 1:05:36I may have been looting alluding to that.
- 1:05:40I'm just, you know, just spitballing, that's all.
- 1:05:46And this is this is another one that I'm trying to figure out
- 1:05:51what it's pertaining to and what they're actually trying to
- 1:05:56remove. It came from Ashley Henson out
- 1:05:59of Iowa too. HR2262 to amend the Fair Labor
- 1:06:06Standards Act of 1938 to exclude certain activities from hours
- 1:06:11worked and for other purposes. Trying to figure out what
- 1:06:15activities they're trying to exclude and if they're actually
- 1:06:20work related activities that they're trying to exclude that
- 1:06:24are currently included, like bathroom breaks or something
- 1:06:28similar to that. You know, since management likes
- 1:06:30to think that bathroom breaks are a off the clock activity.
- 1:06:34I'm still hearing that from carriers to this day, even
- 1:06:39though our quick reference guide actually says right there does
- 1:06:43not include bathroom. Yeah, I, I, I get, I get such
- 1:06:47joy out of hearing that one because of the way I was
- 1:06:49questioned about a bathroom break.
- 1:06:52It didn't like the answer I gave them.
- 1:06:57I mean, yeah, I was honest about it, but I I was very detail
- 1:07:00oriented too. Anything else, James?
- 1:07:04So I won't, I won't, I won't say anything more, Kristen.
- 1:07:07So you don't have to edit it. Thank you.
- 1:07:10I appreciate that. Well, that was all the bills I
- 1:07:15had for now. There are.
- 1:07:16There were a couple more that I had included on my post, but I
- 1:07:20thought those were the most interesting ones to talk about.
- 1:07:25So I was actually given a document from Wells Fargo on the
- 1:07:31privatization of the Postal Service.
- 1:07:34And let's just say they aren't living in reality.
- 1:07:40Let's start with this, the fact that they're turning around and
- 1:07:45saying that mail and parcels can be split with the mail and
- 1:07:51parcel businesses with the intent of maintaining mail
- 1:07:54operations as a government enterprise, preserving rural
- 1:07:58community access and the universal service obligation.
- 1:08:02Parcel could be carved out or and sold or IPO.
- 1:08:06The combination of IPO proceeds and monetization of the real
- 1:08:09estate portfolio could be used to build out stand alone assets
- 1:08:14for parcel and monetize technology as well as the
- 1:08:18subsidized potential mail losses unlocking 85 billion of real
- 1:08:22estate. They own 8500 facilities of
- 1:08:26which they believe 7200 or smaller post office facilities
- 1:08:29and 1300 or larger store facilities and the Postal
- 1:08:33Service on 20,700 acres of land. So it could be $1.2 billion for
- 1:08:39property and three 34 billion for the land and federal federal
- 1:08:47parcel pricing, raising the prices 30 to 140% on parcels.
- 1:08:57Restructure $400 billion of pension and healthcare
- 1:09:00liabilities. Move to another entity likely to
- 1:09:05the US taxpayer. Where they could, they arguably
- 1:09:07are now since the buyers or investors will be reluctant to
- 1:09:12assume such a large legacy liability.
- 1:09:14No shit Sherlock, In order to drive efficiency and maximize
- 1:09:20value, it is likely that employees receive a the type of
- 1:09:25deferred buyout, offer to leave or layoffs could ensue.
- 1:09:31USPS parcel pricing was 25 to 60% below FedEx UPS depending on
- 1:09:36product type. So they'd have to raise it 30 to
- 1:09:39140%. The federal government would
- 1:09:41have raised proceeds from buyers or investors.
- 1:09:44But yeah, there's AI have a 13 page report from Wells Fargo on
- 1:09:52the privatization of the Postal Service.
- 1:09:54I will actually put that in our Discord server for people to
- 1:09:58look at. Something to read if I have
- 1:10:01insomnia. Yes, it'll definitely put you to
- 1:10:04sleep, but So what are you guys thoughts on on on that document
- 1:10:11I. Have no thoughts on it?
- 1:10:15I'm kind of going. To take a a a a page out of
- 1:10:18Corey Walton's book, and I'm not stressing over any of this right
- 1:10:22now. No, no, I think it's a lot of
- 1:10:24fear mongering, OK. Exactly what it is.
- 1:10:28But in regards to the Wells Fargo 1, James, I've always had
- 1:10:32the contention that the post office ought to split it's it's
- 1:10:37service between the mail and the parcels.
- 1:10:41And, and, and I truly believe that if you know, you have
- 1:10:45vehicles that you know, can handle the mail, OK,
- 1:10:48specifically just mail and, you know, then you have other
- 1:10:52vehicles that can handle the parcels.
- 1:10:55Yes, there's going to be some overlap, but the, you know, the
- 1:10:57parcel aspect of it is going to be, you know, skipping, jumping,
- 1:11:01you know, over 3 or 4 routes. Whereas you can now take a route
- 1:11:05and put anywhere from 1000 to 1500 addresses on there and just
- 1:11:09focus on the mail. And that would include, you
- 1:11:12know, anything that's certified or, you know, a registered
- 1:11:16express that, you know, requires a signature like that so that,
- 1:11:19you know, the parcel aspect of it could be more efficient.
- 1:11:22I I still think that's something feasible that they ought to look
- 1:11:26at. I, I, I can concur with that.
- 1:11:29But at the same time for cost efficiency overall and in
- 1:11:35general with, with the service in your rural communities, it's
- 1:11:39easier to keep the parcels and mail together than it is to send
- 1:11:44two vehicles out to the same areas to deliver.
- 1:11:47Like I know rural areas that every other house they're
- 1:11:51delivering a parcel to at the same time that they're
- 1:11:54delivering the mail. Whereas like in my in my area
- 1:11:58with the size of my area, half, half the trucks could probably
- 1:12:02deliver the routes mail and half the trucks could deliver all the
- 1:12:07parcels. But you're also talking about
- 1:12:10you're still using the same amount of vehicles to do the
- 1:12:14same amount of work. Right.
- 1:12:15But the, the efficiency let let let me, let, let me try to put
- 1:12:20this in perspective to you youngins, OK?
- 1:12:23Because back in the day when we used to get mail when used to
- 1:12:26come in, in the morning and there was 20 plus feet of
- 1:12:30bundled catalogs and then three and four tubs of loose flats.
- 1:12:36And we used to, you know, do that plus anywhere from 9:00 to
- 1:12:4012:00 trays of DPS. And we were consistently three
- 1:12:43to five hours under evaluation because all you did was you hit
- 1:12:48the mailboxes bang, bang, bang. You know, no, no stopping to
- 1:12:53find this parcel of that package.
- 1:12:54You know, and this is, you know, this is a formula that you can
- 1:12:57only use in areas that are concentrated enough in in, in
- 1:13:01housing density. You can't do it out in Iowa
- 1:13:04where there's where there's 120 mile route.
- 1:13:06Just wouldn't make any sense there to send a vehicle to the
- 1:13:09end of the route to deliver a parcel that the trucks already
- 1:13:12going to for mail. But in, you know, the, the
- 1:13:15suburban and semi rural areas, you know, such as Westchester,
- 1:13:19Pennsylvania, it would make great sense.
- 1:13:23You know, I, I swear to God, I, I sit there and I hear somebody
- 1:13:27get, oh, I got 2 box holders and I got 5 trays of DPS.
- 1:13:32I'm like, shut the hell up. I used, I used to go out with 15
- 1:13:38to 18 trays of flats and letters every day before we had, we had
- 1:13:42the parcel business and you know how pissed you would get when
- 1:13:46you got a parcel? Oh my God.
- 1:13:49Because we actually had that, you know, out of the vehicle,
- 1:13:51yeah. Oh, and you, you mean back in
- 1:13:56Paris? When, when, when you know,
- 1:13:58somebody said that they could still deliver box to box like
- 1:14:01they used to. Yeah, or, or like when they
- 1:14:04first came out with the barcodes on the scans there and one of
- 1:14:08the first barcodes was the EVEVS barcode and they were having a
- 1:14:15fit because, you know, first of all, we had a little flip phone
- 1:14:20that was our transponder for our 14 LB scanner, OK.
- 1:14:25And we and I would never scan these EVs packages and
- 1:14:30management was having to fit. And then I turned around and
- 1:14:32showed them the language that says those those packages don't
- 1:14:35require scans. Well, why are we putting the
- 1:14:38barcodes on there? I said, look, I'm not, I don't
- 1:14:41know who the idiot is came up with that.
- 1:14:43I'm just showing you the language that the post office
- 1:14:45agreed to. OK.
- 1:14:47But you know, like I said, we, we would get done by 1/30, 2:00
- 1:14:52in the afternoon and, and had, you know, 600 addresses, you
- 1:14:58know, a lot, a lot of them. And that was, that was a big
- 1:15:01route in our office. 600. Most of us were in the four
- 1:15:04hundreds with the volume of mail we had.
- 1:15:06And we'd still get back, you know, in time to pick up the kid
- 1:15:09from daycare or off the school bus drop and all.
- 1:15:13You know, there is a certain efficiency just delivering mail.
- 1:15:17Ask anybody that happens when they turn around and, you know,
- 1:15:21Amazon doesn't show up and and they've got, you know, 20
- 1:15:24parcels and the rest of it's mail.
- 1:15:26They're, you know, they're walking out of the office at
- 1:15:28120-1140 saying, oh great, well, you're going to pay for it the
- 1:15:32next day. I like those.
- 1:15:34Days I'm much more in the mailbox.
- 1:15:36Little packages and I'm just tossing mail.
- 1:15:39I miss those days. Meow puts now what?
- 1:15:41What happens when the mail volume goes down?
- 1:15:46It's it's been going down for the last 15 years dramatically.
- 1:15:50I mean, you know, you're just going to end up turning around,
- 1:15:52consolidating routes and, you know, yeah, right.
- 1:15:56As the parcels go up, the mail goes down.
- 1:15:59So, you know, one way or the other, you might have to convert
- 1:16:02a mail route to a parcel route. Same equipment, same driver, you
- 1:16:06know, just different function, that's all.
- 1:16:09Yeah, and I mean I, I actually got to know what it was like to
- 1:16:13just throw and go with the boxes.
- 1:16:16You know, I had a day where I, we were so overloaded that they
- 1:16:19sent me help and I just gave them all the parcels except for
- 1:16:23one down a, down a back Rd. that I had to go all the way down to
- 1:16:25their box because they got a hardship.
- 1:16:28But going along, I did the second-half of my route in an
- 1:16:32hour and a half, which normally takes me 3 hours.
- 1:16:36I remember back, you know when I was still a newer RCAI was like
- 1:16:416 months in and the package volume was you know this was pre
- 1:16:46Amazon days and I remember it was a bad day.
- 1:16:49Anyways bad days start with me. I ended up being like 1/2 hour
- 1:16:5340 minutes late coming in and had a box holder that day but I
- 1:16:58had very little packages. I was on a well 4748 Ki was done
- 1:17:03at 1:30 that day with a box holder.
- 1:17:07Mm hmm. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:17:09I mean, when you just throw and go, it's nice.
- 1:17:12Back when carriers had it good. Yeah, we had it too good for
- 1:17:18too. We had it too good for too long,
- 1:17:19James. All right, guys, we ready to
- 1:17:24wind this down. Sounds like a plan to me.
- 1:17:28All righty. Your final words, James.
- 1:17:31You know, it's great to see all the people coming out for all
- 1:17:34these rallies across this nation.
- 1:17:36It can't stop. The legislation out there is
- 1:17:39proving that. It can't stop the stuff going on
- 1:17:42between the unions and the postmasters general and the
- 1:17:46contract negotiations, the president, everything that's
- 1:17:50going on. We need to keep fighting.
- 1:17:54We need to keep standing up. We need to keep educating
- 1:17:57ourselves because the most important thing is an educated
- 1:18:00carrier is the bane of management.
- 1:18:03You have to know more than management does to stay ahead of
- 1:18:07the game. You have to protect yourself.
- 1:18:10You have to protect your career and you have to protect your
- 1:18:13brothers and sister of this craft and the other craft
- 1:18:17because at the end of the day, we're all in this together,
- 1:18:21Bill. Well, you're right.
- 1:18:23You know, an educated carrier is, is a dangerous carrier.
- 1:18:29Westchester, specifically local carrier, brought up the fact
- 1:18:34that they're putting somebody who's in their third week onto
- 1:18:38another route to carry because they had three call outs that
- 1:18:41day and the carrier, not the steward, stood up to management
- 1:18:47and says no, you can't do that. Well, then the steward got
- 1:18:50involved. Well, the steward had to look up
- 1:18:52the information which was handily provided them by some
- 1:18:57asshole you all know, not mentioning my name in
- 1:19:00particular. But the fact of the matter was,
- 1:19:02you know, by the end of the day, they had it resolved and they
- 1:19:05had to redo their schedule because of the contractual
- 1:19:08grievance. And it it's, it's those people
- 1:19:13who are, you know, my heroes, the ones that stand up for
- 1:19:16another carrier. You know, they're getting
- 1:19:18involved. They're they're not letting the
- 1:19:21status quo go. And the fact that, you know,
- 1:19:24Stewart didn't know about it because he's only concerned with
- 1:19:28issues that are brought to his attention.
- 1:19:30He's not looking, you know, for any improprieties by management.
- 1:19:34Well, you have to be alert. You, you have to be that
- 1:19:37tactical office and look for those situations that are
- 1:19:40developing or could develop because management's trying to
- 1:19:44get over, you know, I don't care who you are.
- 1:19:49If you if you see something egregious, if you have a
- 1:19:53question, challenge it. Challenge management, challenge
- 1:19:56your local steward and get involved because of the fact
- 1:19:59that it takes all of us to protect the craft.
- 1:20:02It's not, you know, you're protecting an individual, but
- 1:20:05the craft in whole, because that goes a long way of showing
- 1:20:09people that you know you care. It's like being the steward who
- 1:20:12represents somebody they don't like or the person they don't
- 1:20:16like doesn't like them either. It's you have to do due
- 1:20:21diligence and protect that individual, protect the craft
- 1:20:26and watch out for everybody. Watch out for you, your fellow
- 1:20:29brothers and sisters. But you know, the thing of it is
- 1:20:32that you have to care. You have to put in the time and
- 1:20:35the effort. You have to put in the the the
- 1:20:38the due diligence in regards to knowing the contract, the, the
- 1:20:42M38, the PO6O3, the ALM, the F2021.
- 1:20:47I mean, you know, it's a lot. Arcam Rex yes, it is a lot and
- 1:20:52that's what we're here for we're to help we're here to help you
- 1:20:54with these situations and understandings, the rules and
- 1:20:58regulations that might affect your job or just the environment
- 1:21:01at your job. So, you know, all of us Texas
- 1:21:05IMS, you know, we're, we're here, I'm averaging about 3 new
- 1:21:09people a week right now. So, you know, I'm, I'm having a
- 1:21:12good time and, you know, responding to them.
- 1:21:15But the fact of the matter is it, you need to address it on
- 1:21:18the floor as it occurs, OK? Don't let it fester.
- 1:21:22Don't, don't let it slip by. Address the situation that needs
- 1:21:26correction. Stand up for yourself, stand up
- 1:21:28for each other. OK, go out there, have a good,
- 1:21:31good week. You know you've got the what
- 1:21:34you've your mini mail survey will is supposed to be what by
- 1:21:38the end of the week here? Do you have any results?
- 1:21:40Saturday. And then and then the following
- 1:21:43Saturday they go in effect. So make sure you've got your
- 1:21:46disputes ready and details. You need details, you need
- 1:21:51facts. Just can't say oh, I'm not
- 1:21:54getting the right dismounts distance much distance are you
- 1:21:57getting? How much distance are you
- 1:21:59supposed to get? How far is it to, you know, the
- 1:22:04parcel? You know, your hampers inside
- 1:22:06the office or your bullpen area? You know, you got a question,
- 1:22:10dispute it. Back it up with facts.
- 1:22:12Make sure each dispute is on a separate form.
- 1:22:15Yeah, guys, go out there. Be safe.
- 1:22:17You know, springs right around the corner for most of us.
- 1:22:20And you know, the kids are going to be out there.
- 1:22:23Be careful watching them around the cars and the cul de sacs.
- 1:22:27I love them little shits, you know, running out in front of
- 1:22:29you, but you know, I know you all do a good job and you try to
- 1:22:33be professional, safe and efficient.
- 1:22:35Just make sure you know, you get the get home to your loved ones
- 1:22:38because you are the most important delivery of the day.
- 1:22:40And that's how you say it, Don. You're the most important
- 1:22:43delivery of the day, Kristen. Thank you, guys.
- 1:22:47Yeah, that's, you know, that's like James says, we are all in
- 1:22:51this together, but you know, we're not going to have change
- 1:22:55if we don't all come together to be that change.
- 1:22:58That means being active. That means supporting those
- 1:23:03newer RC as and especially to be active.
- 1:23:07I I have an issue already off the bat.
- 1:23:09Ruby wants to be active. Let me tell you, she already has
- 1:23:13a taste of it is, you know going with me this past year and she's
- 1:23:18already put her name in for state convention delegate.
- 1:23:23She'll be on the ballot for National Convention delegate.
- 1:23:26She wants to and now I'm already getting pushed back by her
- 1:23:30regular that she'll to the route she's assigned at because he
- 1:23:33thinks she's going to run off and party at all these union
- 1:23:37conventions with me. No, that's not what it is, you
- 1:23:41know, and talking to other people, you know, we, we need
- 1:23:44the next generation to stand up, educate themselves, educate each
- 1:23:49other, get involved and be active.
- 1:23:53We really do. It's you know, and I hate to say
- 1:23:57this because you know, Ruby's had the experiences of going to
- 1:24:00those things with me. They did turn to her quite a bit
- 1:24:04at both. You know, the orientation
- 1:24:06presentation isn't as well a little bit at Academy that they
- 1:24:10could because she has experienced it.
- 1:24:13So she was able to tell them what goes on and, and what, what
- 1:24:19the union does and everything else, which I think was awesome.
- 1:24:23I mean, they had she had a brand new RCA in her Academy from
- 1:24:27another town that was going to go to one of the rallies today.
- 1:24:31You know, that's, you know, that's what we need out of this
- 1:24:36next generation coming up and that's what we need to do to
- 1:24:40mentor as we go into the future because you know, obviously we
- 1:24:45don't know what our future is going to hold for us at this
- 1:24:48present time. Nobody knows.
- 1:24:50We don't have that little crystal ball or that Magic 8
- 1:24:53ball to tell us what's going to happen.
- 1:24:54We don't. So until we know what's going to
- 1:24:57happen, let's do the best that we can do.
- 1:25:00Let's provide the service for our customers that they expect.
- 1:25:04Let's exceed their expectations if we can, and let's mentor our
- 1:25:09coworkers and our new Rcas and even our current Rcas who don't
- 1:25:14want to, don't think it's important.
- 1:25:17We needed to show them why it's important.
- 1:25:20So on that note, guys, I know it's going to be spring break
- 1:25:24coming up for several areas, I know in my area and whatnot.
- 1:25:27So please be vigilant. Like Bill said, the kids are
- 1:25:30going to be out and around you vigilant.
- 1:25:33Stay safe, stay hydrated. It's still March, weather is
- 1:25:37whatever it wants to be at this point, 50° one day, snowing the
- 1:25:42next, back and forth, you know, So stay safe out there guys, and
- 1:25:49we'll be back next week.