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Boosters, How to learn · United We Scan

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Welcome to the United We Scan Podcast, the podcast by rural
0:20
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Thank you. Now here are the hosts of the
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United We Scan podcast. Hey, welcome back everybody.
1:05
It is Sunday the 15th. Oh gosh, Friday was Friday the
1:10
13th. How did Everett everybody fare
1:12
out on that one? I don't want don't tell me.
1:15
I don't want to know the horror stories.
1:16
See you guys Episode 44 Boosters How to Learn.
1:20
Hey, we've had some fall boosters going on around the
1:23
country and I know ours for the state of Michigan was this past
1:27
weekend. I unfortunately could not attend
1:30
due to working 55 plus hours this past week.
1:36
So I think if you count this Saturday I logged about 66 hours
1:44
between last Saturday and yesterday, so.
1:47
Part timer. I know, right?
1:50
Right. So, but good news for me on the
1:55
front, though the postmaster did hear back from the powers to be,
2:00
and the route is scheduled to go up, forbid, on Tuesday the 17th,
2:05
supposedly, supposedly. So if it does go up, and when
2:11
you do all your dating calculations correctly, it's
2:15
either at the very earliest, November 4th or November 18th,
2:20
it'll officially be regular. Woohoo.
2:25
I know, right? Yeah, we're not going to be able
2:28
to live with her then. And we do have two new Rcas in
2:34
the pipeline and our one RCA that we did have left resigned
2:41
Monday evening via text message to the supervisor.
2:48
That's how that went. My day after Columbus Day was
2:52
just that, 261 scans, 12 hour day, two different loads.
2:59
So yeah, how was how was your week there, James?
3:05
Well, like you, Columbus Day was nice to have off.
3:12
The day after Columbus Day was like Christmas in July.
3:16
Had double the packages, double the DPS, triple the flats.
3:22
I don't know where they found all those flats, but I didn't
3:26
get back into the office until 5:30 on a route that's supposed
3:30
to be back just a little after four and me out the door at
3:34
4:15. So it was not nice, but.
3:39
I managed. I had an early day on Tuesday.
3:42
No I I made it happen. But I was still an hour and an
3:46
hour and a half over my evaluation.
3:49
Same with Tuesday. It was still a heavy day, and I
3:52
even had a flat box holder to go with it.
3:56
And of course, a lot of COVID tests, a lot of Amazon started
4:00
coming in that day because some people went with one day
4:03
shipping. Apparently on the Prime orders.
4:07
The whole week was just tons of packages.
4:09
Overall, mail did did finally settle down Thursday, but Friday
4:16
it still was moderate. For my route and packages I did
4:22
every day. I was doing 130 to 170 scans on
4:27
a route that averages 80, so that's pretty much my week in
4:33
the office. And then right after work on
4:36
Friday came home, packed up and went to our full booster up at
4:40
Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City.
4:43
I do not recommend that if you don't have kids and you're not
4:48
used to kids because couldn't barely sleep with all the noise
4:54
going on, even though they're they're like quiet times. 11:00
4:57
PM in the in the hotel. Yeah, no, it sounded like a herd
5:03
elephants through the hallway. It sounded like there was a mess
5:06
of horses up in the room above us.
5:09
And I swear, I swear the kid in the room above us was literally
5:13
running across the room and then face planting on each end of the
5:17
of the room. It was crazy.
5:22
And then and then the pools were nice.
5:27
I mean it was nice, but there isn't a lot for just adults in
5:31
there. They've great.
5:32
Wolf Lodge is mainly focused towards kids, of course, but
5:36
there is an adult only hot tub. You have to be at least 18 to be
5:41
in there and don't get dirty. Thoughts.
5:44
Everybody stays clothed in there and the tubes were nice through
5:49
the building. They really fun to little slides
5:52
to go on and things like that. Nice lazy river as well.
5:57
And of course downtown Traverse City.
5:59
You got old mixed with new and all kinds of different things
6:02
there, especially for a tourist trap of a town that it is.
6:06
But before we left today, we did make a trip up to the Mission
6:10
Point Lighthouse. Because I love seeing old
6:13
buildings and old history and things like that.
6:16
I'd highly recommend people go up there and visit it.
6:19
It's a beautiful little structure.
6:22
So, but other than that, that's one of the reasons why the topic
6:25
is boosters and how we can learn is because I did just attend a
6:30
booster and it's something that carriers can do and it's not.
6:35
It's a union function, but it's not all the pomp and
6:40
circumstance and work that a convention would be, and it's
6:47
great information. You get all different kinds of
6:49
talkers and things like that, which was great in ours, and
6:52
we'll go over that in our episode today.
6:56
How was your week, Josh? My week was pretty good.
7:02
Like I said, you had, it sounds like you had an early day on
7:05
Tuesday. I didn't get done until after
7:10
8:00. Granted they didn't have a truck
7:13
for me to use, so they said they would pay me the EMA if I used
7:19
my vehicle to run some of my CV US and then came back and once a
7:25
vehicle was available, which I did Wednesday was a little
7:33
better. And then Thursday was off, which
7:38
is when the Amazon stuff should have hit.
7:42
But I was told Thursday and I noticed Friday and Saturday
7:47
there was more postal packages than Amazon packages, but they
7:52
were heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy. All you know through the end of
7:56
the week. Hopefully this week will be a
8:00
little better. We'll see, Bill.
8:06
How was your week? Oh well, first I had Monday off
8:10
because it was Indigenous People Day Tuesday and going in there
8:17
and I was happy to say that I was done by 714 on my Tuesday
8:22
evening. We kind of got blindsided, but
8:28
my route is overburdened. I'm a 62 hour route and it runs
8:32
like a 62 hour route almost every day.
8:36
Thursday I had the doctor's appointment and I offered to
8:40
come in and case up in case they needed to break it, break the
8:44
route off because I had a New Girl training with me on
8:47
Wednesday. Now I want everybody to give me
8:51
your opinion on this. This New Girl was introduced as
8:55
having 10 years of RCA experience in the course of
9:00
teaching her my case and showing how I have it laid out and
9:03
everything. I discovered she's been with the
9:06
post office. She's worked in Kansas, she's
9:09
worked in Connecticut, she's worked in New Jersey, she's
9:11
worked as a clerk at a plant distribution facility, as ACCA
9:18
and as an RCA. When I went to show her how to
9:23
do the recs entry for WSS, she said what is REC?
9:29
Oh my. Now.
9:32
No, OK. I mean, now the hairs go up on
9:36
the back of my neck because how do you have 10 years experience
9:39
and not have heard heard of Rex? OK, well, second of all, when
9:46
you're teaching somebody, don't they usually have a question on
9:49
what you're doing, how you're doing it and all that?
9:52
Not one question. All day long now I didn't know
9:58
whether or not she was a plant. You know, OIG or postal
10:03
whatever, you know, trying trying to nail me because I'm
10:07
going to, I'm going to, I'm a nice target to take out.
10:09
But something just didn't seem right about the whole situation.
10:14
So come Thursday on my day off, nobody calls me to say she
10:18
called out and said she quit. I just, you know, hey, So I came
10:26
back to Friday morning. I had parcels leftover from
10:30
Thursday. I had flats leftover from
10:33
Thursday. I had all my clerk mail which is
10:35
a tray and a half leftover from Thursday.
10:38
So Friday turned into an 11 and 1/2 hour day for me and and I I
10:46
sit there and laugh when you guys go, oh I got 170, I got 160
10:49
packages. Boy I I would love to have those
10:52
days because my average day is 212 packets a day scans a day.
10:59
Friday was 276. Of course it was.
11:03
It was a nice day. So you know, weather wise I
11:07
didn't mind. I get to see my customers,
11:09
people complaining because people driving on the route they
11:13
they had the guy go by, deliver the DPS at 5-10 and then
11:17
somebody come by and deliver the parcels at 6:40 and none of them
11:22
had dog biscuits of poor dogs. Break my little puppy's heart.
11:29
See, I know, I know. Other than that, I mean, yeah, I
11:33
did get my drop day. And and you know, I spend the
11:35
day with my son and his wife, her and her parents and like I
11:40
said, replacing toilets in their new town home and then coming
11:45
home to watch the Eagles lose to the New York Jets.
11:48
So there. You go that'll.
11:51
Work just just just enough so they can deliver their route.
11:55
There you go. You'll just give.
11:57
You'll just give him the Christian look.
12:00
Oh, yeah. Oh.
12:03
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Oh oh, more news.
12:05
More news. Yeah.
12:07
Friday morning our supervisor comes over and reads us a text
12:10
from her phone our postmaster sent to her.
12:13
As of today, I'm no longer Postmaster Westchester,
12:16
Pennsylvania. I don't know where my new
12:19
assignment is, but I'm taking some time off to decide what
12:23
career options I have. Now this is a guy who has saved
12:26
Bryn Mawr, Newtown Square, Haverford, Villanova.
12:29
He's God's savior for the post office, and he got ousted in
12:34
less than two years in Westchester.
12:37
Wow, folks, let me tell you something.
12:41
I don't care who the hell they bring in there.
12:44
We're still going to be there after the next put is out the
12:47
door. Yep.
12:51
Yep. I don't know where to get these
12:52
people but. Did they ought to send them
12:54
back? Oh, I tell you man, it's yeah,
13:00
it it it's been a week at mine too.
13:03
I, besides the sub quitting and having to run the double s and
13:08
got the entertaining factor of watching the postmaster run a
13:11
full route yesterday. Oh God.
13:15
Well, I ran my she she ran the 46H.
13:20
And let's say I was done with my Oxtra and my 45 K about 45
13:25
minutes before she was back and she left the office before me.
13:31
So Bill, talking about parcels, it's been a couple weeks now.
13:35
How's that machine working out? Well, let's see.
13:39
It's pretty good. I, I, I averaged 3 Miss Sorts a
13:43
day as everybody else does. I keep getting this one from.
13:49
California going to the Bronx because the bar code says 1050
13:55
Airport Rd. West Chester, PA but there's no
13:57
Bronx addresses there. And at the end of the line they
14:02
have a cage where they have to sort the parcels out that the
14:05
machine can't read. And I'm sitting there just
14:08
looking as hold it. This is a black and white label.
14:12
I can read it. You know, why can't the computer
14:15
read it? But.
14:18
Yeah, we we have a supervisor who sits on her ample ass and
14:24
says 82 carriers don't leave yet.
14:27
Your spurs aren't done yet, which are the ones that fall off
14:30
the end of the line and then they bring you over 2-3 tubs of
14:34
spurs. I was like, are you kidding me?
14:38
Well, we don't deal in Spurs, so why are we waiting for Spurs
14:41
when we don't deal in Spurs? Well, we call them spurs, you
14:45
numb nuts. Hey, we got to be technical.
14:49
We got to be correct here. Rural does not deal in spurs
14:52
because spurs are small parcels and rolls that are smaller than
14:57
a shoe box. Well, you know what?
15:00
I've been doing this for 25 years.
15:02
We've been calling them Spurs. So spur this.
15:07
Don't tease. Don't tease.
15:10
I cry. All right, so before we get into
15:15
this, I do have to put this out there.
15:19
We want to send our sincere condolences to Vice President
15:24
Pitts over the passing of his father, Jewel Pitts, who passed
15:28
away this past weekend. So we send our heartfelt
15:32
condolences to him and his family right now.
15:34
A. Nice, man.
15:36
We want to be sincere about it because we do care about our
15:39
leadership of the union craft. Even as a person to person
15:45
issue. We may not always agree with
15:48
things, but when it comes to being human, we all are human
15:53
here. That's the most important part
15:55
of this is that we are all human.
15:56
We are all part of the world craft.
15:59
Well, you sound like Bridget trying to, you know, suffocate
16:02
my opinion. Oh boy.
16:05
Oh boy, is it going to be one of those nights.
16:09
It's starting to sound like it there, Kristen.
16:12
Do I have to go find? Do I have to go get another
16:14
drink? Yes, yes, I'm thinking so at
16:18
this point. I'm about to get my dollies and
16:22
go home. You got to take your ball and go
16:26
home like the joy did at the at the National Convention.
16:30
No, my dollies. Your doilies dollies.
16:34
You know, like my little Barbie dollies.
16:37
Oh, your package haulers that you use on the route.
16:40
Oh, your dollies. OK.
16:43
Yeah, yeah, that's it. Oh, and my truck still hasn't
16:47
come back. Oh fun.
16:50
Which has my hand cart and bowfuck.
16:53
In it so getting into a lot of this discussion about becoming
16:59
more involved and learning more from the union.
17:03
There are a lot of events that happen in all different regions
17:07
where you can actually learn things.
17:10
Not only do you have your county or local regional meetings in
17:15
your state, but some states put on boosters, like here in
17:20
Michigan. We put on a spring and a fall
17:21
booster for the craft and they bring in special guest speakers
17:27
to enlighten the rural craft a little bit more like this past
17:34
weekend, I had the luxury of being able to attend our fall
17:38
booster in Traverse City. As I said in in the intro.
17:43
And within that, not only did we have our usual union speakers
17:47
like our president and our auxiliary president, the PAC
17:53
chair and our insurance representative, we also had our
17:57
district manager from Michigan District 2, Kristen.
18:01
Your district. Yes.
18:03
And and also we had a member of the Better Business Bureau
18:11
talking about scams and how to recognize them as a postal
18:15
carrier. You know, we get those text
18:17
messages saying we're holding your package until payment is
18:20
made or we cannot complete delivery until you follow this
18:23
link, which never click on a link you don't trust from
18:27
somebody you don't trust. So, but there's so much
18:32
information to be had within the rural craft that even if you try
18:37
to learn it on your own or learn it through a podcast, there's
18:42
still even more out there than that.
18:44
And being able to put on these little meetings, they call it
18:49
information boosters is a great way to do that.
18:55
I know Bill has said that he doesn't have boosters in his
18:58
area, but Josh says his is coming up shortly, so and Josh
19:04
has been to a booster. So Josh, why don't you start us
19:07
out? What was it like at your last
19:09
booster you attended? What did you learn?
19:11
Did you learn anything new? Was there stuff that you may not
19:14
have thought of at that booster? I don't want to say there wasn't
19:19
anything I would not have thought of, but it was.
19:25
They had the insurance reps safety.
19:30
Upcoming events, a lot of information what's going on with
19:36
Brexit at the time because that was in the fall, you know last
19:42
September, October time frame like this time frame.
19:45
So we were in that holding pattern at that.
19:48
You know, at that point they did have representatives from the
19:53
rural carrier benefit plan there, you know, giving out
19:57
information. Upon what changes were coming up
20:01
for the new year with the plan and coverage, because by this
20:05
point they are finalizing, they will have just about finalized
20:09
everything that will be or won't be covered.
20:13
You know what? They've added additional
20:15
coverages. I know in the past we have.
20:25
Try to eliminate the need or the requirement to have the fall
20:29
booster because at least in our state, more than half the people
20:36
that show up are required to be there.
20:43
Most of the rest of them are your retirees and or seasoned
20:50
vets we'll say and it got shot down by a lot of the older
21:00
members, so which is why we still have it.
21:07
What kind of information they put out this weekend for you,
21:15
James? Like I said, we had the usual
21:20
the pack, the insurance and of course, the regular officers of
21:25
the state board. There for the event and then we
21:30
had the Michigan two district manager who actually talked
21:34
about what they're doing in Michigan 2 for the rural craft.
21:39
And an interesting fact that I found out from him is that he
21:43
has worked really hard to get the disputes resolved for this
21:47
last mini mail survey. Not the one we just did, but the
21:50
one before it. And he even threw Michigan one
21:53
manager under the bus about him not getting the disputes done
21:57
because nobody in Michigan District One has gotten their
21:59
disputes back. So, but there was a lot of
22:04
information about what he's doing and how they're trying to
22:07
fix things. And he even told us there are
22:10
some managers out there that are trying to reduce costs of the
22:13
post office by over $1,000,000. They have what they call belts.
22:21
That they could earn by reducing costs for the post office.
22:26
And of course Michigan One and Michigan Two are competing for a
22:31
yellow belt, which I believe is reducing costs by $100,000.
22:37
And then the highest one which is the black belt is the
22:41
$1,000,000 club. So that's one of the reasons why
22:46
these district managers are fighting.
22:49
For your evaluations to go down and why they're fighting with
22:53
you, doing your inputs, fighting with you for all this other
22:56
stuff. So that was a great correlation
22:59
as to what's going on through a little piece that he's trying to
23:04
entice us to help him reduce those costs.
23:10
So that was one of the. Things that we learned.
23:13
And then the Better Business Bureau guy was great information
23:16
because he was talking about these different little scams
23:19
that are going on across the country.
23:21
And one of the big ones that we have, and I've actually seen
23:24
this on scammer payback is they use what they call money mules.
23:29
So if you're paying attention and you suddenly see one of your
23:33
customers, it doesn't have to be an elderly customer, it can be a
23:39
younger person. That could be 18 to 25 years
23:42
old. In fact, 18 to 25 year olds
23:45
actually get scammed more than a 70 plus year old according to
23:49
the Better Business Bureau. But if you see all these large
23:52
packages coming, usually they're books or magazines that people
23:59
have actually stuck money in to sneak it through the Postal
24:02
Service as a money mule to ship it overseas to these scam
24:08
artists. So if you're seeing this,
24:11
they'll usually get those packages for a month or maybe
24:14
two months before they're not paid and they start asking why
24:19
haven't I been paid yet? Why haven't I been paid yet?
24:21
And then they turn around and they stop using that person,
24:24
move on to the next scammed person.
24:25
So that was great information to have and something that I
24:30
wouldn't have even thought about myself personally.
24:32
I wouldn't have thought of looking for a large amount of
24:35
packages going to a single person like that.
24:38
I would think, oh, they got birthdays or Christmas or
24:41
something like that. So that was great to learn.
24:44
And then the last day was actually AQ and A just with the
24:54
district Rep and the assistant district reps answering
24:57
questions from the audience. And it started out with you had
25:02
to have written questions to start it out.
25:05
But as the written questions were being asked, they allowed
25:07
us to actually step up to the mic and do follow up questions
25:12
to the question that was answered.
25:14
So you got a lot more information out of your district
25:18
representatives, whether it be your Dr. or your ADR.
25:21
So it was great to have that and just the information, it was
25:26
compact and they made it actually easier to understand
25:30
that way. So it's great to have this
25:33
little conference. To get together and learn all
25:37
this stuff. But I know Kristen went to last
25:44
year's fall booster and spring booster as well.
25:47
So did you want to talk about that to yourself?
25:51
I mean, I went to this past spring as well.
25:53
That's like I said, this is the only the 2nd booster I've missed
25:57
since I started going to them back in 2015, fall of 2015.
26:03
I think it was my first one. So but no, yeah they usually
26:08
have you know your guest speakers and whether it's
26:11
somebody local or somebody that does you know one of our
26:18
benefits type people reps or I've seen sat through TSP
26:24
retirement seminars at boosters. You know it's there's you always
26:28
got some good information and then the last day is always
26:31
usually. Closed out with the the Stewart
26:34
Q&A. And unfortunately, Bill, you're
26:42
not going to any of these boosters in your area, but I
26:47
wanted to know because you don't have boosters there, would they
26:51
be willing to have you go to another States booster nearby?
26:58
Only if it's an open booster. And since we don't get notified
27:03
of the the dates and location, it's hard to participate in
27:08
something that they don't pass outside of their immediate
27:12
membership. So I got a question about your
27:17
$1,000,000 club though. Has has management ever
27:21
considered following the contract so they don't have to
27:25
pay out hundreds of thousands of dollars in grievances all the
27:28
time? No, that's an.
27:32
Idea. Right there.
27:34
I mean, unfortunately I wasn't able to get up and ask him a
27:36
question like that. I mean because.
27:41
In Westchester, my my, my last settlement was for $14,000 for
27:46
nine people, and the meantime the city carrier side are now up
27:50
to $340,000 of grievances this year.
27:57
That's just your office. That's my office 81 office.
28:02
Wow. No, I mean, that's the
28:04
suggestion that we can make, but will it fall on actual listening
28:10
ears is the other question. Because instead of doing the
28:15
right thing and fixing it, we found that management would
28:17
rather climb a tree to lie than stand on the ground and tell the
28:19
truth. So, and that includes them
28:22
talking to their bosses. Don't throw.
28:25
Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
28:27
Yeah. Well we can, we can always, we
28:32
can always try. You know that's the biggest
28:34
thing is we can always try to open the eyes of management.
28:38
And way we do that is learning as much as we can through as
28:43
many events that we can possibly get to as well as through other
28:47
sources of information like the union website and other sources
28:53
that you have like your fellow Co workers in your office.
28:57
Don't ask management. They won't know.
29:02
Well, that's that's 100% correct.
29:05
I mean I showed our supervisor where she's required to put the
29:09
PTR up at the end of the every day and she's required to to put
29:15
up the radar reports and she says just because it's in your
29:19
magazine doesn't make it. So I looked at her, and I said.
29:25
Just because your supervisor doesn't mean you know anything
29:32
and I wonder why they don't like me.
29:34
My supervisor had no clue how to get to the PTR report.
29:40
Well yeah, I have printed. I have printed instructions on
29:43
how to do both because they keep losing them or forgetting how to
29:46
do it. I have not seen APTR yet and the
29:53
last two weeks the read our report that they that they
29:57
posted was for the 28214 zone, not the 17 zone.
30:06
So the three of us in my zip haven't seen our numbers.
30:13
File a grievance file. File file.
30:16
Oh, I will. And then file some more but.
30:23
Since we're on this topic of events you can go to, I did want
30:27
to go over that. The next big events other than
30:31
these boosters are your regional conferences.
30:36
Now you don't have to be a delegate to go to the regional
30:39
conferences. There are ways that you could be
30:43
supported in some areas. To go to these conferences, it
30:49
is not a guarantee that you will, and it's not a guarantee
30:52
that they'll support you fully for the cost of going to one of
30:55
these. Plus you have to take time off
30:57
of work to go to these events. It is protected to go to a union
31:03
event, including boosters, conferences, conventions, things
31:08
like that. But the very first important
31:11
ones coming up in January and that's the South Atlantic
31:15
Conference. On January 27th through the 29th
31:20
in Atlanta, GA Now if you are in this the South Atlantic
31:25
Conference region, check your local union website for
31:31
information on that. That would be your state
31:34
website. If your state has a website, it
31:37
should be in your state magazine.
31:39
It should also be on your national magazine as it gets
31:43
closer as well, so I'll keep an eye out for that.
31:47
The second one coming up is the Southwest Area Conference.
31:52
That's February 15th. I think it's the, let me pull it
31:58
up here. They oh, you got to access their
32:02
website, how nice, but I believe it is.
32:07
They have it blocked off on their calendar in Texas, which I
32:11
don't have a login for Texas. But they have it from February
32:15
15th through the 20th is their block for that.
32:18
So that's the time that they're going to be there.
32:21
So check your Southwest area schedule on your date, whether
32:26
it's State magazine or I just want to say, Zach, the room
32:32
block is opened as far as I know, yeah.
32:36
So if you're thinking about and wanting to go, you want to make
32:40
sure you get a room sooner than later, because they've outgrown
32:45
that hotel already years and years ago.
32:49
And and the present owner of the hotel isn't happy about having
32:52
SAC there either. No, they have.
32:56
They're not. Yeah, they have new owners who
32:58
didn't want to honor the contractual obligations of SAC
33:03
and they had to sue and counter sue, you know, to get those
33:06
dates and hold those reservations.
33:09
Yes, they did. Yep.
33:14
And then following that is Bill's area in the Eastern
33:22
States Conference March 15th through the 17th.
33:26
Hey, my birthday is the 16th. Should I go and celebrate?
33:31
I was going to say go and celebrate it out with Bill.
33:34
Yeah. There you go.
33:38
And then? So that's going to be in your
33:40
Eastern state, state magazines. For that information, Western
33:46
States is April 13th through the 15th.
33:52
So if you're in the Western states, of course your state
33:55
magazine will have that in there.
33:58
And then lastly but not least is the 2024 mid states which is May
34:06
3rd through 5th right here in Michigan.
34:09
You want to come to mid 8 and meet at least me and maybe
34:13
Kristen if she can get time off. Figuring.
34:17
For sure. Figuring 2 weeks after that, I
34:20
think I'd have to look at the date again.
34:23
Hey, that's oops. OK, later, not calendar.
34:34
Yeah, because that's March. That will help.
34:39
Because I believe it's the following weekend.
34:48
Is my daughter's graduation No2 weekends after that?
34:53
Yeah. And it's as we said about that
34:57
there could be fall boosters coming up like Josh has his
35:00
coming up. Or there could be Spring
35:03
Boosters before or after these regional conferences, which is
35:07
another great opportunity to get information.
35:12
And of course, your local meetings are great information
35:14
tool as well. But only you can help yourself
35:21
get more information and can help fellow carriers get more
35:25
information. You can't rely on anybody else
35:30
but yourself. To get that information out
35:33
there to people and the more participation you have in the
35:38
union, the more informed you are as a carrier and the more you
35:41
are a bane to management's existence.
35:46
Right, Bill. Not only management, but the
35:50
national board too. Anybody.
35:54
Anybody with less experience and knowledge in the stuff that we
35:58
deal with? You got to know more than
36:02
anybody when it comes to this craft.
36:07
Even more than us. You got to know more than us.
36:11
I rather have people more knowledgeable in the craft than
36:16
I am. I'd rather come to you guys and
36:18
have you guys answer my questions.
36:24
I'll get back to you. Let me look into that.
36:28
Let me get an e-mail. Send me an e-mail.
36:32
Well, the bases boosters at conferences, boosters are going
36:37
to have the the, the state information, your your benefits
36:41
information, you know, stuff like that.
36:44
Stewards are usually easily reach out and touch them while
36:48
you're there. Don't actually reach out and
36:51
touch them, but you know you can get.
36:53
In touch with them. Yes, in person while you're
36:56
there, I should say. And then you know your regional
37:00
conferences, you have the majority of the national board
37:05
there in one way or another. So you do have presentations by
37:12
national board members. You have TSP benefits seminars
37:18
as well. I've even had some that had
37:21
seminars I've been to in the past that you know you had one
37:24
for Rcas. And you had one for Academy
37:28
instructors and one for local officers.
37:31
And so yeah, there's a lot of different informational stuff.
37:36
And that's the nice thing about it, because it really isn't the
37:38
business aspect of the meetings, like conventions.
37:41
So the conferences and boosters are good for for learning rather
37:46
than the brain meld of conventions and actually having
37:50
to use your brain. Well, you, you kind of kick
37:54
started a thought for our next. So there dealing with stewards
38:01
area, Stewards AD Rs and D Rs. In regards to not responding, I
38:07
I think that's a topic that needs to be addressed.
38:09
I've been seeing an awful lot in social media in regards to the
38:13
failures to duly represent our craft and I I'd like the anybody
38:19
that has information on that to DM us and.
38:24
Let us know what your thoughts are, what your problems are.
38:26
If you have some good stewards or AD Rs, let us know so we can
38:30
prop them up. If you have any problems, we can
38:34
give you some guidance on how to address this situation.
38:38
That might be a good topic for our next episode, that.
38:44
'D be great Episode I I think that as we go through and work
38:48
our way through the process. So we can tell you how to go
38:51
about that, how to get where we're going and how to see
38:55
results from those actions. Absolutely.
39:03
Now, absolutely. Now the biggest things you can
39:09
take away is boosters are very informal because they're state
39:14
level. You're going to get state
39:16
information. You're going to get.
39:20
Just that going to regionals you're going to get regional
39:23
information, national you're going to get national
39:27
information. But the the more groups you get
39:30
involved the less access to open information there is.
39:38
It's more controlled the the larger the group gets.
39:43
But I've seen in mid states where they'll let you stand up
39:48
at the mic and. Ask three or four questions in a
39:51
row, whereas at National you're only allowed one question
39:55
because there's so many people and they wouldn't be able to get
39:58
through everybody in time or they'll just storm off stage
40:02
like the Joy did. But like, for this, this, this,
40:13
this booster here, they allowed us to ask a few questions of the
40:17
district manager before we went on break.
40:19
And then the Better Business Bureau guy allowed us to ask a
40:23
ton of questions to him about the organization, what they do
40:28
and things like that. And just so you know, the Better
40:30
Business Bureau is not attached to the federal government.
40:33
No, it's not. It is a 501C3 non profit company
40:40
that was actually started by businesses that treated their
40:47
their clients better and we're trying to push out shady
40:54
businesses. So that's what they're doing
40:58
now, still to this day. I'll reserve comment on that
41:06
until we're off the air. See how you are?
41:12
Well that just that just tells people that hey, when we
41:15
actually record these, we do these on a live stage and there
41:19
is a pre and post show that is not recorded because that allows
41:25
us. It's not necessarily that it's
41:28
not recorded, it's just edited unwind.
41:32
It allows us to unwind and it is not podcast.
41:38
It's still not, it's still not associated with the USPS or the
41:43
NRLCA. As we say in the the disclaimer
41:47
at the beginning of the podcast, the views expressed are those of
41:51
the presenters only, do not express the views, opinions or
41:55
strategies of the United States Postal Service or the National
41:58
Rural Letter Carriers Association because we are not
42:03
associated in that aspect. We do not speak for either
42:08
organization. We are just a group of people
42:12
doing a concerted effort to help educate the craft to better the
42:17
craft as a whole. Yeah, we're just sitting around
42:23
the round, the round, the round table shooting the shit with
42:27
each other for the most part. Ain't that the.
42:30
Truth if you guys. If you guys weren't listening to
42:35
us, if you guys weren't listening to us, we'd still be
42:38
doing this. Oh yeah, we'd still be having
42:40
these conversations because we're united together in this
42:45
situation. We have one thing in common to
42:49
start with and that is we are rural carriers in the rural
42:53
craft and we want to talk about that with each other, just like
42:57
you do your Co workers at work. The only difference is, is we're
43:01
hundreds and thousands of miles away from each other.
43:06
You. Talk to my Co workers at work.
43:11
I got woke up two different times by my phone ringing.
43:17
By two different carriers today. They're like, were you sleeping?
43:23
Yeah, I just worked half my life away this week.
43:26
Yes, I'm sleeping today. Thank you.
43:32
That's really all I did. Well, these false boosters, are
43:36
you given the opportunity to, like you said, chit chat, round,
43:41
table, reach out and touch, but not physically touch?
43:45
The people that you are concerned about in regards to
43:50
representing us at the national level, do you or do you have
43:53
that opportunity just sit around and spit ball ideas and you know
43:57
where the union's going, where manage how management's treating
44:00
you And everything really came up at this event in the meeting
44:07
itself, in the booster itself. But outside of that, there were
44:12
several groups of people that got together outside of that.
44:15
And we're discussing issues in the post offices and finding
44:18
solutions and even had our AD Rs and our Dr. involved in those
44:23
conversations. You can have that ability at
44:27
most of these events if you get the people together to do that
44:32
and when you only have eighty, I think it was 85 people that we
44:37
had at this booster out of I think it was 4000 rural carriers
44:43
in Michigan. It was nice to have that little
44:48
group session with smaller groups about it, but anybody can
44:53
do that if they tried. Just have to ask the question on
44:57
the board there. And anybody want to attend these
45:02
boosters, use the order of consideration as your argument
45:07
for attending them, because. They have to call local offices,
45:11
they can split routes, they they can have CC as carried around,
45:15
so they can have management carried around to give you
45:17
adequate coverage. But they should not deny you
45:20
ever unless it's extreme emergency and then even then
45:25
it's questionable as to what is an emergency.
45:29
By management standards, an emergency might not be them
45:32
having the carrier route. Yeah, whereas in my case, after
45:40
this week I became the the only help holding down a route.
45:45
And we did reach out to other offices, but unfortunately
45:48
Saturday is not a day to be able to find coverage.
45:51
So Yep, I worked my double. And don't forget article 24.
46:02
Yes. Employee Employees will be
46:06
granted annual leave or leave without pay at the election of
46:10
the employee to attend national, state, and area Union
46:14
conventions, provided that the request for leave has been
46:18
submitted by the employee to the installation head as soon as
46:21
practicable and provided the that approval of such leave does
46:25
not seriously adversely affect the service needs of the
46:28
installation. That seriously adversely affect
46:34
is not superseded by anything other than the Order of
46:40
Consideration. They have to follow the entire
46:43
order of consideration first before denying you leave for a
46:51
union event. And then you call out sick.
46:56
We do not condone call outs, but carriers have used that as an
47:02
excuse. James, you said you guys had
47:08
about 80 or so people in attendance this weekend, Yeah,
47:13
correct. Last year we had 3035 what at
47:23
our full booster and how many, how many real carrier dues
47:29
paying real carriers do you have in your region in your state?
47:37
4000. We have about 4400 routes.
47:42
I'm not sure how many of those are juicing.
47:45
OK, so we'll say about 4000 like us.
47:48
So that just goes to show you that either there isn't enough
47:54
help. People aren't enticed to go to
48:01
these things or they're so disenfranchised with the
48:06
information and things that are going on that they don't want to
48:10
attend anymore. And the the thing I want to see
48:13
is I want to see these numbers go up.
48:15
I want to see the fall boosters, the spring boosters, the mid
48:19
states that the area conferences, the national
48:22
conference. I want to see the numbers go up.
48:26
Of the first timers that attended, we had we had seven
48:31
first timers to this fall booster.
48:36
I was proud of that because last year I was one of two first
48:42
timers to to the fall booster. I was probably the only first
48:47
timer last year. As far as I go, we definitely
48:53
want want participation. You know, like I said, the state
48:58
has or. The constitutional change has
49:04
been proposed to eliminate the requirement to have it and it
49:10
got voted down by a lot of the retirees because like I said,
49:18
3035 people showed up. You know, we're there.
49:23
Half of those are required to be there.
49:29
Whether they're a board member or you know on a committee, I I
49:38
I think in my, in my case, I think 3/4 of them were not
49:41
retirees at at the fall booster. I was surprised there were a lot
49:50
of actual carriers there, actually asking questions about
49:54
carrier issues, including racks and scans and the 4240 ones and
50:00
things like that. I was proud to see that turn out
50:03
at this booster. It was great to see.
50:06
I don't know the exact numbers of who was retired, who wasn't,
50:10
but it seemed like a lot of regular carriers and Rcas were
50:14
there too, which was surprising for a Saturday.
50:19
That's awesome. No offense.
50:20
No offense, Kristen. No, no, no.
50:24
No offense taken. It's just how it is currently,
50:27
you know. Well, see, Muffins wants to know
50:30
what it would take to entice people to come to boosters.
50:34
Well, how about some parcel, partial reimbursement for the
50:37
expenses? You know, how about the the fact
50:40
that you let the new people get involved in these boosters, you
50:45
know, putting them on on a committee or two to introduce
50:47
them to the process of holding said events?
50:53
How about getting them involved in regards to, you know, AQ and
50:57
a session? And you you should be able to do
51:00
this AQ and a session right on the floor about the issues that
51:04
you know concerning the carriers.
51:08
I mean you know wouldn't it be nice.
51:10
I mean I I've got a e-mail that I responded to in regards to
51:15
somebody getting married and this and that and the other
51:18
thing and and I I responded back to them and you know I I've got
51:22
14 other you know likes goats and everything else because of
51:26
the fact that. You shouldn't have to choose
51:29
between a wedding and work. Are you kidding me?
51:35
Yeah. You know I I got other ones that
51:38
you know people are are DM me in regards to you know the national
51:42
board and I says hey you know for the last five years I've
51:45
been up there banging the drum with others from United we scan
51:49
and we need to change the president the vice president the
51:53
director of Labor operation director of steward operation.
51:58
Because until we put together a united group as a, you know,
52:04
platform, you're not going to get rid of all four of them and
52:09
it, you know. And without at least three of
52:11
them being, you know, unseated, nothing's going to change
52:17
because it's an echo chamber at the top.
52:20
Yep. And you need three to to be the
52:23
ruling majority on the national board of five.
52:27
So we have to replace at least three of those people, starting
52:31
with the president. So absolutely agree.
52:38
The other side of it is you have to also think about a lot of the
52:42
people that attend conventions and attend these boosters attend
52:50
other events are on table one for a lot of them.
52:55
Yeah, they they can afford to go to these and have the leave
53:00
without pay on their checks. It doesn't affect your
53:04
retirement type computation date either, because it's a union
53:09
event. Hey, but there's some of us
53:12
diehard Rcas that make it work though those that are on Table 2
53:18
Rcas, those that aren't in the financial stability of some of
53:23
those that are on table one can't afford to take the time
53:28
off to do these things. Like me.
53:31
I worked Friday, drove up Friday night, got in at 10:30 at night
53:37
to be a downstairs at the booster at 7:00 AM and I still
53:41
had to unpack my stuff, get myself ready for bed, all that
53:45
stuff before I even went to the booster.
53:50
So trying to find a way to work it out to go to these events can
53:55
be beneficial to a lot of people, and Kristen is a great
54:00
example of that. She goes into debt every time
54:05
she goes to a union event. I, I she literally do I I yeah,
54:13
I I do. Whether it's taken out a loan or
54:17
maxing out credit card or two, I've been known to play the
54:20
credit card roulette to pay for dinner.
54:22
You know it's. And not and not every and not
54:26
every time do I go, do I get reimbursed.
54:29
I've gone to national the last two years in a row completely on
54:33
my own dime. I have got, you know, yes, yes,
54:40
yes. You bought dinner, but you know
54:41
what I mean. And I did share a room with a
54:44
friend of mine, but you know, I got no reimbursement from the
54:47
union local state. None.
54:50
And why do you do it? I do it for the information.
54:55
So if there's something that is being released out there that I
55:00
hadn't heard yet or you get and find a new information on some,
55:04
you know, you could take that back to your office and if it
55:08
affects somebody, you can go let them know.
55:10
Hey, guess what I just heard this weekend?
55:13
I guess what I just found out this weekend.
55:20
You know, I I do it for the information.
55:23
And it's nice to see my, my, my postal family.
55:26
But it's not. What I'm there for is prime
55:28
reason. I don't hang out late at night
55:31
with everybody. I'm usually in bed quite early,
55:36
hang out late at night. OK, so I'm talking boosters and
55:43
conferences. I'm not talking National
55:46
Convention because you're up to the middle of the night anyways.
55:51
Yeah, because you're trying trying to go through all the
55:54
paperwork that they just gave you that you guys are going to
55:56
be talking about the very next day.
55:58
So at that time, you might as well just do it as a round table
56:01
with the friends and the alcohol.
56:07
So you can't. You can't keep your eyes open
56:09
anymore. Yeah, So you can't keep your
56:11
eyes open anymore. And you're falling asleep,
56:13
sitting out by the river. But I really haven't done a lot
56:17
of sightseeing or touristy stuff when we go.
56:21
Other places, I mean I went to a movie in not this past mid
56:28
states but last year with a with one of the other carriers.
56:32
But that was really it. So we wanted to go see the movie
56:36
at the IMAX. I was like hell yeah, let's go.
56:38
So we went to a later show, but that was really it.
56:41
I mean I haven't, I don't do the touristy stuff.
56:44
I usually don't do a lot of the extras.
56:48
Don't golf, thank God. No, that's just always pretty
56:53
much hang out the hotel and straight to business or go out
56:57
to dinner or something with a couple others.
57:00
That's about it for me anyways. Yeah.
57:06
And and like we said, even going to National Convention, there is
57:12
a lot of information there. We had Postmaster General Dejoy
57:16
there, and we were so lucky to be able to make him storm off
57:19
stage like a baby. And then we had the what was he?
57:24
He was the legislative representative that came in.
57:31
I can't remember who that was. But then you also have a lot of
57:36
other information there in the halls from vendors and things
57:42
like that as well. But the biggest at state and
57:47
national conventions is the resolutions.
57:51
At state, you can learn what your state is thinking.
57:55
They want rural carriers to go and you can present resolutions
58:00
for the state. National is the same way.
58:03
You get the state resolutions that get passed up to National
58:06
and you learn what the rest of the nation is thinking about
58:09
this craft. And you'll be surprised at how
58:13
many carriers across this nation think identically.
58:19
They may not word it the same way, but they think identically.
58:24
And that's what we're here to do, is to help bridge the gap
58:29
across all these states, to get everybody that thinks
58:33
identically together as a whole united craft.
58:38
I wouldn't necessarily say identically, but similar similar
58:42
interests, similar thoughts, similar passion.
58:49
Yes, absolutely. Without that passion, and I
58:58
don't think I would have made it through this week.
59:01
What a week it's been for me. That monster drinks.
59:06
Yes, Monster drinks because coffee does nothing.
59:10
I had a box holder in with all that crap.
59:13
CPS was not light at all. And what day was it?
59:18
Yeah, because Tuesday two of us had.
59:21
We were told to be back by off the street by 7.
59:25
And it was 5:00 when I'm picking up my second load.
59:28
And I still had mail for that back half because I go near the
59:33
post office a couple times on my route.
59:35
So it was just easier to do it that way and.
59:40
By 5:45 I had to stop delivering all mail and get the rest of
59:46
that truckload of packages out. Be back by 7:00.
59:50
And then one of our our 46 K route had to do the same thing.
59:55
her and I are like, well, yeah, tomorrow DPS will like, what?
59:58
Have a train, train, and 1/2 for the whole route.
1:00:01
No big deal. We both brought a train and a
1:00:03
half back for the end of our routes yet.
1:00:06
No, she walked up to me and she's like, well, that really.
1:00:09
Backfired for us today, didn't it?
1:00:11
I said yes. Yes it did.
1:00:15
I ended up casing 3/4 of a tray of DPS that came in for
1:00:19
Wednesday and once I then condensed everything down, I had
1:00:25
three very full pack trays and then Thursday was 4 trays of
1:00:31
DPS, half a tray of pull down box holders and I had nothing
1:00:46
less than 164 scans the entire week.
1:00:53
Oh yeah, it's been a week and two routes.
1:00:59
I've got a question since we're all from.
1:01:01
All over the country, except for your, you two guys are pretty
1:01:04
close to each other. Are you?
1:01:07
Are you getting all this grief from district management in
1:01:10
regards to recording, taking pictures of, or bringing over
1:01:16
copies of WSS that you know you're you're putting into your
1:01:19
scanner? I've seen so many things on
1:01:23
social media in regards to what carriers are required to do and
1:01:27
I'm sitting there going it's not the contract.
1:01:30
If they don't know what they're receiving as far as the printed
1:01:33
materials are, that's not my concern.
1:01:36
But the problem of it is, is that if you don't watch your
1:01:40
scans every day, you don't know if you're actually getting that
1:01:43
credit because they have been known to go in and alter those
1:01:49
numbers. And we we just had that late
1:01:53
last time in the during the mini mail survey where somebody was
1:01:57
copiously. Approached about having 26
1:02:01
unscanned parcels. Oh that was me.
1:02:04
I'm sorry. And and it was the Restoration
1:02:09
Hardware catalog which were too big to fit into the case with
1:02:13
the mail and gave that explanation and said I want a
1:02:18
print out of my report for tomorrow to make sure that
1:02:23
they're they're in there. Well, we're not going to adjust
1:02:26
them, and I says. I'm making sure that you don't.
1:02:31
So at this at this fall booster our district reps was asked that
1:02:37
you know because a lot of people are scared of the fact that
1:02:40
management can have access to that And as it stands right now
1:02:45
as of today because it was talked about today, there is no
1:02:50
access for management to alter anything, but you're 40 to 40.
1:02:58
Now, that doesn't mean that national management can't alter
1:03:04
the 4240 ones before they get sent to carriers, but because
1:03:09
everything is so redacted, you can't understand it as it is,
1:03:13
the district managers, the local managers, and even the regional
1:03:19
managers do not have access to change your numbers.
1:03:24
Well, that that would be great to believe.
1:03:27
If people weren't constantly having, you know, boxes go
1:03:30
vacant on them or mileage being reduced on them, And I'm not
1:03:34
talking about tenths of a mile, I'm talking miles.
1:03:38
And that's see and that's the other side of it.
1:03:42
Yeah, you want me to believe that they can't do that while
1:03:45
they're while they're doing it? So on that, the mileage issue is
1:03:52
inside the system. They don't know where it is, but
1:03:58
everybody that's done mileage editing on the DPM and the LTM
1:04:05
that may have had accurate mileage when they finished the
1:04:07
mapping of the routes have lost mileage, gained mileage, changed
1:04:13
mileage, whatever to a different thing.
1:04:15
They've changed the number of authorized dismounts.
1:04:17
They've changed this, They've changed that.
1:04:20
There's something wrong in the system itself.
1:04:24
That's making this happen. They don't know where but like
1:04:30
one of one of the carriers at this fall Booster said, you know
1:04:34
I have 600 and I have 63 miles on my route but my 4241 says I
1:04:44
only have 59 miles and it was said 59 miles on the 1st 4241
1:04:50
even though the 1st 4241. Her LTM said 63 miles and her
1:04:56
second just before did the mapping.
1:04:58
Just before this mini mail survey, it said 63 miles.
1:05:02
So there's something wrong in the system itself.
1:05:05
And As for the marking vacant, that is actually the system
1:05:10
doing that after 30 days of no mail to that house.
1:05:16
If it's not gone through the if it doesn't have any mail, go
1:05:19
through the DPS for 30 days. The DPM automatically marks a
1:05:23
vacant. Wow, because you know, I I run a
1:05:28
96% coverage factor and I don't have a single address on my
1:05:35
route that doesn't get mail every week.
1:05:40
So how can they be vacant? Are they counting the clerk
1:05:43
mail? They are not or they are not
1:05:47
counting the flask. They're not counting flats.
1:05:49
They're not counting raw mail into that.
1:05:51
It is strictly the informed visibility that's causing it.
1:05:56
And the union. The union is aware of it and
1:05:59
they're trying to fix it, supposedly.
1:06:03
They're trying to fix it, supposedly.
1:06:05
But you know the Post Office won't let them fix it because
1:06:08
that saves them money and we're back to the black belt again.
1:06:15
So we're supposed to trust the system that the Post Office and
1:06:20
National Rule Letter Carriers Association agreed upon as being
1:06:24
an equitable system for our compensation.
1:06:28
But, and I mean but you can't trust the system they agreed
1:06:33
upon because it has so many flaws in it.
1:06:37
It would make the sinking the Titanic look like a casual day
1:06:41
in the winter. Exactly.
1:06:45
Don't forget. Don't forget the union.
1:06:50
The union's argument is that it was formed through arbitration
1:06:54
and the Postal Service argument is the union wanted this kind of
1:06:58
system and that's why it happened in arbitration.
1:07:03
But the same arbitration is the same arbitration we got Table 2.
1:07:07
This arbitration is the same arbitration that Jeanette Dwyer
1:07:11
was responsible for. This arbitration was supposed to
1:07:18
be a system to better measure rural carrier work performance
1:07:26
to get properly compensated for the work that we do, fair wages
1:07:31
for Fair Work. And the problem is, it took them
1:07:36
10 years from the finality of this arbitration.
1:07:42
To get what we have now put together.
1:07:46
If they had just kept their grubby hands off of it and both
1:07:50
sides just said this is let the engineers do it.
1:07:54
What the engineers come up with that's what we'll use.
1:07:57
Oh no. Now it's got to be Oh no one
1:07:59
scanned parcels Oh no no WSS Oh no WSH in there.
1:08:04
Know this. Know that that's the.
1:08:08
Problem authorized dismounts. No.
1:08:11
Extra authorized dismounts, No unscanned parcels, no trips to
1:08:18
door, no door. Miscellaneous.
1:08:22
Oh, and by the way, you can only load your truck for 5 minutes
1:08:26
and let's throw in one of the city ones and you have to be out
1:08:29
of the office in an hour. Our poor city carriers work
1:08:37
takes what it takes to get done. The mail is never the same.
1:08:43
Now, now, are you, are you talking about the same system
1:08:47
that the engineers came up with and the post office and the
1:08:50
union agreed to that would provide for transparency?
1:08:54
Is that the system you're talking about?
1:08:57
You mean you mean the obtuse? Clear as mud system that they
1:09:05
came up with that has no answers to it because we can't see past
1:09:08
the black lines that they put on the paper.
1:09:10
That's more redacted than AU2 spy plane, no?
1:09:14
I'm not. Oh, no.
1:09:16
I'm talking about the system where they canceled the mini
1:09:19
mail survey last September without notice.
1:09:22
Why? We're at the convention until
1:09:24
the new year and then moved it back twice because according to
1:09:28
our then President, Ronnie Stutz.
1:09:31
There wasn't any transparency, but we still went ahead with it
1:09:34
in the spring, even though we had no transparency.
1:09:39
That's. What I'm talking about exactly.
1:09:41
There hasn't been any transparency on both sides of
1:09:45
the aisle to the union craft members.
1:09:49
They can say, oh, we put all this information out on the
1:09:51
union website. No, I want to see the codec that
1:09:54
went into this. I want to see the calculations.
1:09:58
I don't want to. Have to build my own program to
1:10:02
understand Rex. I want a Rex calculator on the
1:10:08
Union website. I want an ability to download a
1:10:11
Rex calculator where if I put in all the information from the
1:10:15
PTR, the end of run reports all that stuff into this calculator
1:10:21
throughout the year. It'll spit out what my route
1:10:25
evaluation will be. There's a.
1:10:29
Mail count calculator Still on the union website.
1:10:32
You can still sit there and do an old fashioned count on your
1:10:36
route and see what your route would be, but there's not a Rex
1:10:41
calculator. You know, there's there's,
1:10:47
there's a really funny thing that's sticking in my craw is
1:10:49
that somebody on a national board pointed out the decline in
1:10:55
the amount of mail, specifically DPS.
1:10:59
And the the question to to the audience is if you're only
1:11:04
getting 82, you're getting 82 pieces per minute on DPS, which
1:11:11
over 10 minutes is 820 pieces, how much is the DPS really
1:11:16
affecting your evaluation? How?
1:11:21
How? How is that minimal amount of
1:11:23
credit towards your evaluation causing you to lose 6?
1:11:28
8 to $10,000 off your route? Yeah, I I know.
1:11:33
What 90? 90% of the loss. 90% of the loss
1:11:38
was not inputting scans and the the mileage.
1:11:43
The the variable speed matrix. Yes the drive speed matrix.
1:11:47
Especially with your high miles, very rural routes.
1:11:53
They suffered huge because of that drive speed matrix.
1:11:57
And not to mention the issue with CB US.
1:11:59
So if you had a high mileage route that had CB US, you were
1:12:02
screwed in this count. You were bent over with no Lube.
1:12:09
You know, and there's no fix insight for that either.
1:12:12
Yeah, what we separated that, the CB us and the curbside.
1:12:18
But you didn't fix the numbers. If you didn't fix the vacant
1:12:25
first box kills the CBU. How about the first box of my
1:12:31
CBU is inactive? If it's inactive, the whole CBU
1:12:36
is inactive. Get the whole CBU.
1:12:39
That's plenty of mail. Supposedly they fixed that,
1:12:46
supposedly. Then my question is why?
1:12:49
By having some CBU routes jumped in in in in value if that was
1:12:55
the case. Kristen They do use Lube.
1:13:00
I use. I prefer to use my own because
1:13:03
theirs is laced with sand. Oh, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha.
1:13:12
Yeah, seawater doesn't work. Supposedly fixing it.
1:13:17
I got some motion from property for you in Kansas, Josh.
1:13:25
I don't believe. I don't believe nothing till I
1:13:27
see it exactly. I haven't.
1:13:32
I'm just, hey, I'm just telling you what I heard.
1:13:36
No. And that's what I said,
1:13:38
supposedly. I I have AI have a summer home
1:13:48
that guarantees outside temperatures of 95 degrees in
1:13:52
Alaska for you. I'll take that 1 -, 95.
1:14:05
No, 95 degrees positive in Alaska.
1:14:10
It's gotten there before. It's gotten there before I got
1:14:13
family in Alaska, I. Know it's it's it's constant
1:14:17
year round 95 degrees outside that's the property I have for
1:14:22
sale up there for you. So anything else you guys had in
1:14:33
mind? Or I know we can talk all night,
1:14:38
but I think we could let our I think we should let our fans.
1:14:43
Wait to see next week's episode. That's going to be a bombshell
1:14:46
of an episode. What's it about?
1:14:53
Didn't we just talk about it? If you're going to have to
1:14:56
listen to this episode to find out what it was for a second.
1:15:00
Time don't tell anybody. Let's keep them in suspense.
1:15:05
Yeah, although I'm sure they probably backed up and listened
1:15:09
to it on the podcast itself. No, I, I, I, I'm just at a point
1:15:19
where you know, bless you bless. Thank you.
1:15:23
I was trying to hit the mute but it wouldn't.
1:15:24
Work, I'm thinking. About you, I'm just, I'm just at
1:15:30
a point where I sit there and laugh and say, you know, you you
1:15:33
have people like Kristen, who's, you know, an RCA and been an RCA
1:15:39
for what, 8 1/2 years now? It's been 8 years, 10 months,
1:15:47
yesterday. So, you know, going out on on
1:15:51
our own dime, putting all this effort in, I know, I know we
1:15:55
have people in my office that, you know, I'm a single mom.
1:15:58
I can't do this. I can't do that.
1:16:00
And you know, there are circumstances that that there
1:16:02
would be. I have single moms who are
1:16:05
involved, OK, I am technically a single mom.
1:16:10
Well, technically I'm a nice guy.
1:16:12
OK, but. Yeah, but the the thing of it is
1:16:17
that, ladies and gentlemen, I mean, if you don't put the
1:16:21
effort in some effort 10 minutes a night going over to the
1:16:25
national website, observing what's new, what's in the
1:16:28
wrecked program, your your situation is not going to
1:16:33
improve, OK? If you don't stand up for
1:16:35
yourself, your situation is not going to improve.
1:16:39
Nobody's going to have your interest at heart as much as you
1:16:42
are, so you know it's time to shit or get off the pot and
1:16:47
stand up for yourself if you can stand up for others, help
1:16:52
others, educate others. But we're in this together.
1:16:57
All of us, even the non union paying members of the craft are
1:17:04
in this together. We just had one.
1:17:06
Where is. Is K Route dropped down to AJ
1:17:09
route? He's pissing and moaning and
1:17:11
everything. And I said, well, you were given
1:17:14
the same information to everybody else.
1:17:16
You Did you act on it? Well, no, because they're going
1:17:19
to do what they're going to do. Well, they did and this is what
1:17:21
happened to you. Now are you going to invest
1:17:27
anytime into improving your situation?
1:17:32
And he looked at me, Well, yeah, I said there's your answer.
1:17:35
So that's the problem. If you're not going to do it for
1:17:38
yourself, who the hell you going to do it for exactly?
1:17:44
I mean, I took a lot of time in my own office to help educate
1:17:49
everybody and it's, you know, if I'm not doing this for me, you
1:17:54
know, I'm trying to help you guys.
1:17:55
So far they for the most part have listened.
1:17:59
But you know, I can't force anybody still trying to figure
1:18:05
out how that one route stayed A45K.
1:18:08
But I don't know. He's done every day by 132
1:18:16
O'clock on a three on a heavier day.
1:18:20
Yeah, no clue. But you know, I'm right out on
1:18:25
evaluation on my 45 K it just you know.
1:18:32
Well, the same way. I'm, I'm.
1:18:33
I'm young. I'm a 48K at 62 hours, OK?
1:18:39
And I I'm done there every day. You know, between 4:30 and 6:00.
1:18:44
Yeah, you know, I'm a spot on what my route's calling for, but
1:18:48
the fact of the matter is that, you know, not all routes are
1:18:51
equal, Even in the same office. Exactly.
1:18:54
Oh, absolutely they are not. My numbers are close to Bill's
1:19:02
numbers. He's a little bit larger than I
1:19:05
am standard hours wise, but I do my route in 45 to 46 hours a
1:19:11
week on average. Yeah, it's been and then running
1:19:19
these two routes again this week.
1:19:21
Luckily I do have some relief and she found yet another RCA
1:19:26
willing to come and be tortured at our office.
1:19:32
I tortured RCA. Thank you.
1:19:38
I know one was listening. I didn't see if he's still on
1:19:41
there or not. But yeah, I hate poor tortured
1:19:43
soul. He's going to come and help me
1:19:45
split my route tomorrow so I can go to a funeral after work.
1:19:48
So. But now it's.
1:19:52
Me. I'm just a lowly 4142 K you
1:19:56
know, I don't have all the stories that you guys have, you
1:19:59
know, make you feel better. Hey, you know, it was one of
1:20:02
those weeks that, you know, throughout the course of.
1:20:04
The week I had, somebody got a new computer and printer,
1:20:09
somebody got a new two new two people got office chairs,
1:20:12
somebody got a queen size bed platform, another one got a crib
1:20:19
to double size bed transformation kit that took up
1:20:26
the whole length of the LLV. Just about.
1:20:31
Mattress. Gaming chair, Couple office
1:20:35
chairs. Yeah, it's been one of those
1:20:37
weeks for me. All in furniture, Yeah.
1:20:43
And. And you want to talk about RC as
1:20:46
I I had a good RCA do my round on Saturday, Friday going in the
1:20:51
day. After I had a day off, I cleaned
1:20:52
up the entire mess there and I had awss like 5 bundles of radar
1:21:01
flats and another box holder of sorts.
1:21:06
And I asked him what he want me to do and he says well can you
1:21:08
Taco to WSS and throw up the bundle flats and I'll take care
1:21:13
of the rest. And you know that's how I treat
1:21:16
my RC. As I talk to him, I find out
1:21:18
what they want me to do, how they want me to do it.
1:21:20
Some of them like to stand it up, some don't, you know, But I
1:21:24
take care of them. So when I come back to the
1:21:26
office tomorrow, my route with all confidence will be 100%
1:21:30
clean. Because I treat them the same
1:21:33
way. I expect to be treated exactly
1:21:37
exactly I. Was never one.
1:21:40
I always cleaned up a case as an RCA running multiple routes.
1:21:45
You know, I and if time permitted and I thought about
1:21:48
it, I would pull the holds for the next day too.
1:21:51
Just thought as a courtesy. Because I know a lot of times
1:21:55
that they would do the same for me when I would be covering for
1:21:58
them. Yes, the question there, yes, it
1:22:03
was all ordered from Amazon. I just saw that.
1:22:05
Sorry, but you didn't have a kitchen sink?
1:22:10
No, that was a couple. Weeks ago, actually.
1:22:13
I. Did have a kitchen sink a couple
1:22:14
weeks ago. Not this week.
1:22:17
It's packing 'cause you had everything else, so I figured
1:22:20
you had to throw in the. Kitchen sink there somewhere?
1:22:21
No, no. Like I said, that was a couple
1:22:23
weeks ago, yeah. Seriously was I had to go on
1:22:28
Amazon and look it up and see how much that sucker cost,
1:22:31
'cause it was a fancy one too. I I I did leave a notice for one
1:22:37
customer who had a 12 foot rug ordered and supervisor wanted me
1:22:42
to squeeze it in the truck. I says you know what the, the,
1:22:45
the, the length is that you know I can accept it As far as
1:22:48
uniform inches, she goes, no, I said 130 and she goes, yeah and
1:22:54
I said well 12. Times 12 is what you know.
1:22:57
She got her phone out and went to the calculator.
1:23:02
Really. It's 144 without even looking.
1:23:05
At a calculator, I I just walked away.
1:23:10
Wow. To the roof, Yeah, I initially
1:23:19
was going to try and take out that.
1:23:21
That toddler bed conversion kit and I had put it up on top of
1:23:28
stuff, but it was hanging too far out over the tray that if I
1:23:33
had had to, Lord forbid, hit the brakes quickly, it would have
1:23:36
went flying through the windshield.
1:23:38
So. I decided that was going on the
1:23:43
second load, so. I could put it on the.
1:23:45
Because it did extend probably about good.
1:23:48
Two feet past the tray. Almost.
1:23:52
Yeah. It was almost to that first.
1:23:57
Yeah. But I was thinking I was looking
1:24:01
at going, huh, Yeah, that's kind of dangerous.
1:24:03
I don't need that to fly through the windshield if something
1:24:05
happens out there, you know? Oh.
1:24:10
Boss wasn't going to let me leave a notice for it either.
1:24:12
She's like, can you second trip it?
1:24:14
And I'm like, really? Like, well, if I'm going to do a
1:24:18
second trip and I'm going to make it count, can you read my
1:24:22
can you read my lips? Speaking of which, speaking, you
1:24:29
know my lip. Attached to my hand.
1:24:31
Yeah. All right.
1:24:34
Now I am just. I don't know.
1:24:37
Work has been interesting the last couple weeks.
1:24:41
The cleaning person that I talked about last week did in
1:24:45
fact call the OI GS office. She did find out the next day
1:24:56
and it went and had words with her where he then told her to
1:24:59
her face that she was a miserable bitch.
1:25:07
Uh huh. His last day's the third.
1:25:09
We have a clerk that's ready to walk out, too.
1:25:14
Yep, Yep, we're trying to tell her.
1:25:17
Just save money. Just get rid of that postmaster.
1:25:21
I'll save him 100,000 a year, right?
1:25:24
I know. But then we we we've.
1:25:29
You know we've got the. Narcissistic, bipolar,
1:25:32
postmaster. And the absent minded professor
1:25:36
as a supervisor, so yeah, would you know if those rule carriers
1:25:42
would be much. Nicer, and we'd give everyone a
1:25:46
hard time. Maybe there wouldn't be so much
1:25:49
conflict in your office. Yeah, if we weren't so.
1:25:54
Yeah, it's sticking to the contract, right.
1:25:57
We just did what they said instead of.
1:25:59
Sticking to the contract, it wouldn't be.
1:26:00
So bad? Yeah, well.
1:26:04
Or or as. Our postmaster said to one time
1:26:06
he says come on, help me out, do me a solid.
1:26:09
And I looked at him. I said, When's the last time you
1:26:11
did anything for us? Uh huh.
1:26:15
That was like, her whole. Little you guys need to help me
1:26:18
out. And all I could say from my
1:26:19
inside my case was some of us have been helping you out for
1:26:23
the last two years. I left it at that.
1:26:27
I didn't know. Yeah, it's, you know.
1:26:31
But then as soon as she's like, Oh well, I I had to cut my
1:26:35
vacation short so you could have your day off.
1:26:38
She's telling the other carrier, pretty much guilt tripping for
1:26:41
him for not working his J day Saturday because his kid was
1:26:47
getting married. So don't worry, he'll be married
1:26:52
again. Actually, it was his daughter.
1:26:58
Based on national averages, but you know she.
1:27:02
Basically, was guilt tripping him.
1:27:04
I'm on. Well, if the wedding doesn't
1:27:05
start till four, why can't you? That's not the whole point.
1:27:09
Oh, my God. Yeah.
1:27:10
Yeah, she there's a whole there's a whole day of prep.
1:27:14
Pictures and everything else before the wedding even starts.
1:27:17
Shut the hell up. Oh, yeah, she So she had to run.
1:27:21
The route yesterday because you know there's nobody else in my
1:27:26
office anymore and. I you know, I ran my double
1:27:31
before she was back. That route's A46H.
1:27:37
It wasn't drink a double before she got back.
1:27:41
Oh. Yeah, I ran A45K and an Ox
1:27:43
route. And and she actually departed
1:27:46
for the route before I did, probably about half hour before
1:27:49
I did, and I beat her back by about 45 minutes.
1:27:59
All right. How about winding this thing
1:28:01
down? Yeah, my dinner's going to be
1:28:04
here. A hour and a half.
1:28:08
Yeah. All right, Josh, what's?
1:28:09
Your final thoughts and commentary for this evening.
1:28:15
Don't get overwhelmed. If you do, take a step.
1:28:19
Take a deep breath. Step back in.
1:28:23
Have a good week. Everyone.
1:28:26
Hopefully this week won't be as ugly as this past week.
1:28:33
James the. Biggest thing about anything in
1:28:39
this craft? Is knowledge.
1:28:43
Knowledge is power. Knowing your job, knowing what
1:28:47
to. Do and knowing how.
1:28:49
To keep management from stepping all over you is the biggest
1:28:53
thing. You can ever do in this craft,
1:28:56
just remember. We talked about the events.
1:28:59
Going on, if you can attend them, I highly recommend them
1:29:04
because the biggest thing is we're all in this together,
1:29:08
Bill. With that in mind, Gee, I think
1:29:13
I'll take a run down to Georgia in A10SEC.
1:29:17
If I can stir up a little something, something down there.
1:29:21
If I can get a sub, I may. Join you.
1:29:26
Yeah. With everything going on in in
1:29:29
that conference there, things may be getting interesting for
1:29:33
this upcoming year. Everybody you know, watch out
1:29:39
for yourselves. Teach yourselves.
1:29:42
Learn. Ask questions, challenge.
1:29:45
Stand up for yourself and you help others.
1:29:50
I I think that's the most important message I can say in
1:29:53
in regards to my sign off is that help others because there's
1:29:57
plenty of people out there that are willing to learn.
1:30:02
They just don't know where to go.
1:30:04
Tell them tell them to listen to us on the United we Scan
1:30:07
podcast. Get on the national website.
1:30:11
Check out Rule Info Net. Check out many of the the
1:30:16
different websites that are out there that you can garner
1:30:18
information from. The the better improve your
1:30:21
situation in your office. We're here for you.
1:30:25
We do this every week. We do it free of charge.
1:30:29
I hate, hate to say it, but from the goodness of our hearts
1:30:31
because we care. And with that, everybody go out.
1:30:36
Do your job best. Do your ability.
1:30:39
Be professional about it, be courteous and make sure you get
1:30:44
home safe every day 'cause you're the most important
1:30:46
delivery. And I mean that.
1:30:48
Your family's more important than this job?
1:30:52
Absolutely, guys. I appreciate it was nice to.
1:30:56
Have everybody back this week since Bill was gone last week
1:31:01
and me the week before. So next week we will be back and
1:31:07
until then, have a safe week everyone.