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On episode number 14 we speak the tentative agreement of the NALC contract for the postal carriers. Although it is difficult to put in words, you definitely need to listen to this episode to get all the information you can get. Make sure to share the information with any and everyone. The time to strike is now!
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Transcript
Introduction and Listener Engagement
00:00:12
Speaker
Welcome to another Amazing Studios session. Subscribe to the Postal Blue Podcast on all streaming platforms and check out Amazing Studios on YouTube for video content. Also follow the Postal Blue Podcast community on X, formerly known as Twitter. We appreciate all the support we're getting and thanks for listening.
Episode Kickoff and Main Topic Introduction
00:00:37
Speaker
What's going on everyone? It's your boy L.A. Styles. We here on episode 14. I know we've been gone for about three weeks. Right. A lot going on vacations, things of that nature. We've got the rally. You know, I i was going to chop that up. That was last Monday. That was a holiday. And that was supposed to be for
Criticism of Proposed Postal Contract
00:01:08
Speaker
um this episode but in the meantime in between times the contract the tentative contract or tentative agreement has come out and that's what we're gonna have to talk about unfortunate unfortunately
00:01:33
Speaker
We're going to start by saying this is a vote no out the gate. Everyone and the in the NALC, every carrier from the CCA's to PTF's to, um, to the regulars. This is a vote no. Right. This is, this is not, this is like a, like a.
00:01:57
Speaker
the emotion and pay, you know what I'm saying? Like this, to be honest, if you think about things in hindsight, bro, this is, we're losing money, right? And you're afraid to be losing more money. What y'all don't know is a lot of the things that's coming up, especially next year, prices of a lot of things is going up. So the money that we're even getting it's not even compared to what we're about to be losing to it's gonna look like next year that we didn't even get the raises and it would look like we're we're owing more money it's gonna be yo check is gonna be less i say that 2025 yo check is gonna be less if you agree on this right we're not even keeping up with with uh inflation and the cost of everything along with uniform allowances and
00:02:47
Speaker
This regular inflation cost, cost of living, you know what I'm saying, is way higher than what we're, the increments that they're trying to give us, right? That's where it comes from, that we're losing money. We're gonna be losing money. So I wanna say that first and foremost, I was on the USPS community. If you didn't know, there is a USPS community on Facebook, right? We do have one on Twitter as well called postalbluepodcast.
00:03:17
Speaker
Post a blue everybody every anybody in the post office that's on Twitter ah Now known as X alright postal blue podcast But there's a big community all as well on Facebook called USPS community and I see a lot of segregation in the USPS community from CCAs and PTFs, really CCAs, but I put them in the same group because they're both kind of on the newer side. CCAs and PTFs and um their understanding of what regulars are saying, right? Mind you, if you're a CCF, PTF, then you wouldn't even hear during COVID. So you don't even know or can't understand what we even went through during COVID.
00:03:57
Speaker
You don't even know what we went through during COVID and how bad it was during COVID. This is the first contract, new contract, would be new contract since COVID. We were supposed to be a lot of things that we was owed in this contract due to the work we already put in.
00:04:16
Speaker
right that ain't that's not in here there's no acknowledgement of it in here right so this is why a lot of regulars have problems along with a whole host of other things besides the back pay besides the 1.3 increases which are trash besides the colas that are in there. As overall, it's a bad contract. Decrease in certain times, um such as the vehicle check times and just various things like that. you If you go through and look, again, you can it's online. ah You go to the NAOC website and look at the tentative agreement. You can also go to the USPS community. It should be posted in there as well.
00:05:01
Speaker
And if you wanna communicate with other people in the post office, you can definitely go over there and share your opinion, right?
Reflecting on COVID and Postal Work Challenges
00:05:13
Speaker
Let me give like a little rundown, right? I came in right before COVID. I gave the gist before, but for those of you who might be new or or who don't know and never listened to that episode, keep it short, kind of short.
00:05:30
Speaker
COVID was bad. I came in in March of 2019. COVID was quote unquote official November, December of 2019.
00:05:39
Speaker
Right. And it was bad. Multiple people getting sick, multiple people out, people passing away. Post office went down. A lot of older people, a lot of more senior people slash older people slash people with medical issues. Right. Stayed at home.
00:06:04
Speaker
because they didn't want to risk the COVID again remember at a point in time even some broadcast on the news was saying if you have a certain age or you got these things going on you might be high risk you know I'm saying you might not survive COVID so a lot of our people didn't show up for work so then the people that showing up for work again we was not going by no 12-hour policy back then We was out here. I remember being out here from 6 a.m. As a CCA a from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Multiple times by multiple times, I mean like this is it was common, common to do.
00:06:45
Speaker
14, 15, 16 hour days was common. Imagine Amazon Sunday, right? Remember do also doing this time, they was allowing regulars to do Amazon Sunday and then they cut that, right? So now it's all CCAs and all the packages gotta go. So you out there 10 p.m. on a Sunday.
00:07:09
Speaker
things of that nature. um At the time also, they had to give us one day off, quote unquote, like every two weeks or something like that. So you could work 13 days straight and doing 16 hours a day when I came in during the time of COVID.
00:07:28
Speaker
so So in the midst of that, um we were labeled a first responder, right? When things got bad, they quote unquote told everybody stay in the house. Can anybody come out? Kind of like a curfew thing. Not unless it was like you go to the store or whatever the case is like that.
00:07:46
Speaker
um But that was supposed to be about it, you know what I'm saying? she Streets supposed to be pretty much clear. They okay certain people to be first responders. The delivery services was first responders. and The police was first first responders. Medical, so hospital personnel, along with your paramedics and things of that nature, you all first responders.
Management Manipulation and Systemic Issues
00:08:06
Speaker
Things like things like that, fire department stuff.
00:08:09
Speaker
you know, um the necessity people were first responders. As far as under my knowledge, as far as I'm concerned, and as far as I know, majority, if not every single other first responder besides us got hazard pay or an increase in wages to be outside or to be dealing with COVID consistently on a daily basis with everybody getting sick and being high risk. They paid everyone more money to stay out there and deal with it for the first responders. Right? Post office didn't get hazard pay. We didn't get a bump in increase during COVID. But we still expected to be out here with the other first responders every day, all day. You know what I'm saying? 12 to 16 hours a day. Right? Cool.
00:09:00
Speaker
Fast forward to current day, come to find out management has been tampering with people clock rings, right? They change your end tours, give you longer lunches, things of that nature to make the luck you did last time. Now, let me give you the rundown on that for somebody who been on both sides, right?
00:09:19
Speaker
upper management, which is like, uh, there'll be something different in, in different, in different, um, districts in different cities, states and things of that nature. So let me just say the person that will be above your manager.
00:09:36
Speaker
Starting there, the manager of your station. Now, again, some people have postmasters at their station because this district is way different, no way, smaller things of that nature. So those you yeah might be a couple of exceptions, you know what I'm saying? But typically it would be your supervisors and manager in the station. Above your manager, that you will have some type of CSOM or OIC. Then above them, which is only a few of them, you will have your postmaster and above your postmaster, you will be your district manager, right?
00:10:06
Speaker
So the people that's above your manager,
00:10:11
Speaker
they have conversations, right? With the managers and supervisors on people doing over this amount of hours, doing over this amount of hours. Now again, I haven't been currently privy to them telling managers to change or supervisors to change clock rings. But i've had I have heard things said in a way that if anybody go over 12, anybody do this, if anybody do that, you go out to come down and see me and I'm gonna put paperwork on you or discipline on you, just another, right? So, supervisor managers get they set for the position because they don't wanna stand up for themselves because they soft.
00:10:51
Speaker
they're gonna go mess with your your clock rings to make it look like you didn't go over 12 but you know that you went over 12 right so they don't have to answer for that tomorrow or the day after that we didn't talk too crazy or whatever the case is this is what's happening this is what rolled out this uh touching people clock rings and things like that mind you the better your station does in performance overall including making pivots or doing pivots your station manager, CSUN, postmaster, district manager get bonuses. So when the numbers look better, they make more money, which is almost like an incentive for them to do shady things. This is my opinion, my opinion, right? This is me being on both sides or being part of both sides, being in being in management and in craft, right? So,
00:11:44
Speaker
They look at at your pay they look at they have meetings on on how much carriers make You know I'm saying it like the top carriers in a district or in the nation this carrier made a hundred ten thousand This carry made a hundred twenty thousand look this carry made a hundred fifty thousand and and that's more money than what y'all making So this is why y'all need to be doing pivots and this that other song so on so so so implies it's getting that's gone That's gonna help you get your money Right? This is what it comes from. they They legitimately sit around and look at the money you all make as carriers and then think of ways how they can lower your money in a way that increases their money. This is facts. That's facts. I've heard those conversations. Say that exactly.
00:12:29
Speaker
um
00:12:32
Speaker
So when when that's going on, someone can't tell you because those same people in management, management is the one that's coming to the table, quote unquote, just a different part of management coming to the table for these negotiations. So for them to put out things or try to do things in their station,
00:12:51
Speaker
Right, unbeknownst to you, whether it's harassment, bullying, things of that nature, ah trying to overly force or break the contract in different ways, consistently, daily,
00:13:03
Speaker
and doing things in a way that helps them get more money, then come to the table after y'all have done the work to help them get more money, come to the table and then say that they don't have no money for you.
00:13:16
Speaker
but they still gonna expect you to continue what you've been doing the way you've been doing it so they can get another bonus just for next contract for them to come back to the table again and say, we still have nothing for you. So this is the circle that we're in of getting played. we don't You don't wanna give us back pay. You don't wanna get us what we're owed as far as the grievances and you messing with our clock rings and disallowed time and things of that nature. You don't wanna give us what we earned right which would be the current pay for for this contract and you still want to harass us you still want to do waste stuff you still want to attempt to bully us you still want to threaten our jobs you still want to do all of this along with not giving us none of the first three that i just said right which is the money you owe us you owe us
00:14:09
Speaker
The money weird that's due, which is, I'm saying money owed from doing COVID, hazard pay, things of that nature. Money that's due is grievances that they try to prolong the longest time of settling on, because they don't, I'm gonna give you that rundown too. If they don't pay grievances, right, grievances is another thing that comes out of your station's budget, right? Again, when you're saving your station money,
00:14:36
Speaker
And I'm not saying nobody should attempt to not save the station money or whatever the case is. If you can do it, let's say a pivot, if you could do a pivot and do the pivot, man, I got no problem with that, right? But I'm not gonna be forced to run or attempt to run to do a pivot or whatever the case is, no matter what your numbers say, right?
00:14:53
Speaker
So,
00:14:56
Speaker
grievances come out of your station's budget as as long as, along with ah everything is that the environment, clerks and carriers working together to save money or to make money, um goes into goes into or out of the station's budget, right? So, grievances comes out of your station's budget, your station's budget.
00:15:23
Speaker
So if your management is violating a lot, you would typically possibly, because I haven't been to every station at every district, whatever it is across the nation, right? So I know for a fact for certain stations and certain districts, but I don't know for a lot because I haven't been all around the USA.
00:15:41
Speaker
right Because they violate so often that they have a high, um not a high budget, but they know that they're gonna have a high high pay payments for grievances. So what they do is try to prolong grievances, paying them for a certain period of time, because they know that Monday's gonna come out their budget. Now, as long as they hit whatever that timeframe is, by the time that timeframe close, if they under abate their budget by a certain percent, they get another bonus.
00:16:11
Speaker
and get another bonus. So then typically after they get their bonuses is when you will see them pay their grievances.
00:16:19
Speaker
all together for what whatever's due, right? Which to me is them actually, in my personal opinion, stealing from the post office. Cause now you're accepting bonuses under false pretenses. Technically you wasn't under when you when you accepted your bonus, you was over, but you're hiding things from big brother man big brother management in order for y'all to get your bonuses. And then you say, go ahead, pay these off or whatever the case. When really they they shouldn't have earned the bonuses.
00:16:48
Speaker
because they they just shouldn't. It was over budget, right? They not gonna say this though. And this is why I say they doing a lot of shady things. They ain't just playing you, they playing the people above them as well.
00:17:00
Speaker
Right? So, again, this, oh, so going back to the money owed. So the money owed is from back in the day. The money due is from current grievances and things like that that's on the log and messing with people, clock rings and things of that nature that you haven't paid or that they haven't paid. And what's justice, the things that we earn. We done put in a lot of work since COVID to get here.
00:17:27
Speaker
A lot of us have stayed long-term getting through hardship, hard time, put in a lot of work, a lot of hours to make sure mail-in packages is covered. Just to get here and think that you're gonna get your just due and then to get played again. So how many times are we gonna turn the other cheek and let these people attempt to get over on us? Now, I'm gonna say this and I'm gonna bring this back up later. Right? So make sure y'all share this. There is things ah There's policies and rules that that will allow us to strike, that will allow us to strike. If you haven't heard of the biggest thing, it's called unfair labor practice, right? If you have a no strike clause in your contract, including the post office, if you do things that fall under the unfair labor practice,
00:18:18
Speaker
that will that will allow them to strike slash us to strike without consequence, meaning we couldn't get fired, we couldn't get disciplined for doing it, right? One of the things that falls under unfair labor practice is wage theft. I'll repeat that. One of the things that fall under unfair labor practice is wage theft. As long as we can prove wage theft, your branch could go on strike.
00:18:49
Speaker
I will believe it's by branches. Now there are like two or three other things that's under unfair labor practice. Go look it up. My job is to start putting out the information because at this point they clearly don't respect us and we gonna have to make them respect us.
Call for Action and Union Critique
00:19:04
Speaker
Right? Again, I don't know how many of y'all have dealt with or are going through or have went through tampering with clock rings. But if that's happened and you have things on the log and haven't been paid or they haven't met on it to so reconcile those, then technically they're still underway Steph and you can file a strike.
00:19:27
Speaker
My suggestion would be that we all vote no on this. Talk to your union president and vice president. Give them the information. If they don't hear this, share this with them, right? They can look it up theyself. We should be in touch with a federal lawyer, which I'd already consulted one to go over the information that I just said.
00:19:49
Speaker
and they they back up what I just said, right? But everybody got to learn themselves. So to your union vice president and president, they should contact a federal lawyer and give them the information. And they'll tell you the same thing that I just said.
00:20:05
Speaker
All right, I feel like people will make better moves once they're comfortable with having the information. So let me go get the information themselves. I'm gonna start the ball rolling here, right? I also done posted this in the USPS a community on Facebook as well today multiple times and well in different areas. I'll be posting it again throughout the week. Our next meeting for our ah branch two is the 23rd, I believe, Wednesday.
00:20:30
Speaker
Right. So I'll definitely be there and I'm definitely going to bring this up to our vice president and our president. You should do the same. Right. With that said, way stuff is unfair labor practice and you can strike. We should be vote no on this together across the board as soon as possible. Talking to our vice president. Y'all should be at the next meeting or whatever branches. y'all All should be at your next meeting in whatever amount of numbers that you must.
00:21:03
Speaker
Some will probably be Monday, some Wednesday, some Friday. Y'all should be at those meetings. I'm not telling you to be at every meeting, because I definitely don't be at every meeting. This meeting I'm going to, because I need to see what's going on and find out what's going on. Excuse me. so um And we need to get on board after vote no. Hey man, we're going to give them to the first to get a better contract.
00:21:31
Speaker
Let your vice president know, hey man, y'all need to go back with ah with an out outstanding no on this as soon as possible and let them know. um The first will be my day, but I actually don't know when the ballots are going to come out for us to vote.
00:21:47
Speaker
Um, and that might not get done by the first. It might. If, if we get the balance this weekend, get them back, but I don't know if they're going to get them all counted or whatever the case. Again, we're talking about over in the nation, right? So, so I don't know. We get on the on board to have a timeframe of the first, but and in, in just right in general, um, the date, the date is, is important, but it's not that important that it can't get, get moved back or whatever the case and we don't get on, on the same page. Um,
00:22:15
Speaker
And we all don't have to have the same date. Let me put that out there too. You know what I'm saying? Somebody go to strike on the 30th, somebody on the first, somebody on the fifth, whatever the case is, whenever y'all get y'all, y'all balanced in to make sure that they got that clear, no. Now take this back to to them and we outta here. um So we definitely gon' speak about this on the 23rd at my branch. Get these ballots in for this, no. And then giving them the date, amen, on the first. If we don't get something settled by the first, my people going on strike.
00:22:46
Speaker
A lot of people going on strike. We already talked to a federal lawyer. If I was your, I would talk to a federal lawyer as well. um But yeah, we we get we got the okay and we got the just calls to go on strike. Right? And that's going to be it, right? We gonna show them if they want to test us. They don't give us a way better contract by the first. We out of here.
00:23:08
Speaker
we out of there on the first we on strike and that's that should be it and we ain't coming back until that contract is signed and better and I guarantee y'all that contract be signed and it be way better than what it is Before the election, if we go out on the first, I bet you still be done before the election, because they still want to get the rest of that election mail out, want to get them packages out, and they want to get that that mail out along with them checks and everything for the first of the month in the first week. You know how mail is doing the first week. Cool. I bet you it gets taken care of. Man, the disrespect these people are doing. Now, I'm going to say this.
00:23:48
Speaker
With the tentative agreement being the way it is, I'm starting to want to see what the union went to the table with. Because it's hard to believe that y'all went to the the table with anything substantial and came back with this. If you did, then that's management slapping y'all in the face.
00:24:08
Speaker
This the union. This the management slapping y'all in the face and playing y'all for fools. Clearly. Because you couldn't have got anything that you actually wanted. I don't know if it's if y'all working with management or y'all that far removed from carrying mail. I don't know what it is, but that's why I have to start to suspect.
00:24:29
Speaker
Either that, and they laughing in your face, playing in your face with that, thinking it's a joke, or you're laughing and playing in our face, the carriers, thinking it's a One of the two is happening.
00:24:46
Speaker
right Now, this is this is what it is. And I'm gonna put this out there as well. Again, I've talked to a lawyer myself already personally. If the union don't got the balls to do it, again, this is information. called Call a federal federal attorney. Ask them about um unfair labor practices. Ask them about wage stuff and unfair labor practices. Ask them if you have a no ah no strike clause, does that allow you to strike?
00:25:20
Speaker
Go get the information. When you say, cause y'all, cause I'm, again, I'm trying to give y'all the benefit of the doubt. So let's just say y'all went to the table and felt like y'all didn't have a winning hand. When really you should have talked to the carriers first, got what they wanted, but you didn't do that. At least I don't believe you do that. Cause I, I didn't see anything that asked me on my opinion on what y'all should be going to get. But that's, that's, and I asked a lot of other carriers. They said, they didn't get anything either. So I don't know what y'all went to the table with. That's neither here nor there right now.
00:25:46
Speaker
right So that's to say, for whatever reason, you don't have a winning hand. I'm giving you a winning hand. I'm giving you the Trump card. This is the big joker, right? We can strike, that's in the back pocket. Put management on notice. Hey man, this is what it is. If we don't get whatever, whatever, by then, by the first, we're going on strike. And because again, they done already violated it. We already got the the paperwork that they that they violated for way stuff.
00:26:15
Speaker
Waystep is ah unfair labor practice. If if any company that has a no strike clause does unfair labor practice, it allows that group to strike. These are facts. These are facts, not nothing I'm making up again. Everybody look this up on your own. Everybody who's listening to this episode should be looking this up, getting the information, go down a rabbit hole. And then when your union meeting come up,
00:26:45
Speaker
Everybody should be bringing this information to their vice president and their president. Because at that point, if y'all don't use the information, because again, I'm under something. Maybe y'all don't got no winning hand. That's why you came back with this bull crap. We giving y'all a winning hand. We you the help that you need to to get us as a whole what we need. If you don't, then I got to assume that you with management.
00:27:10
Speaker
After that, again, me personally, I'm gonna go ahead and and pull the trigger on the lawyer stuff myself and I'm just gonna do a class action. Myself, I ah so i started if if it needs to happen and let it wipe across the country in the class action. We can do that. But then after I do that, I will have to put paper on the union for y'all not doing your job as well. Again, y'all represent us and you have to represent us to the best of your abilities.
00:27:39
Speaker
Not the best so management abilities. And I feel like if y'all don't use the information to help us, again, we trying to help you help us, to help us, then there's no way that you're for us. There's no way that you're for us. That's how I feel. That's how I feel. Y'all let management get away with way too much.
00:28:02
Speaker
to come back to the table with this. And I don't know if y'all thought management respect y'all for letting them get away with things or whatever the case. So y'all got some type of brotherhood or brothership or you and whoever you meeting with on these or friends or schoolmates, fraternity brothers or something, but that's not gonna fly.
00:28:23
Speaker
It's not gonna fly. You're playing with people's money. You're playing with people's livelihood. You're playing with people's careers who've got 10, 15, 20 plus years in already. That shouldn't have to go nowhere where to start over because they should be properly paid for the work that they do. right We let the management get away with breaking the contract daily. We let them get away with not paying us our money. We let them get away with messing with our clock rings and taking money from us.
00:28:48
Speaker
Weekly. Now again, and that's and I'm not saying they do it every day or they do it to every single body every day. But we got proof, at least in my district, that they've been doing it to people for the past two years.
00:29:01
Speaker
Two years. From two years ago to current day that it's been done. To current day. Some people clicks that they take in, some people 30 minutes or an hour that they take in.
00:29:15
Speaker
Now imagine them them doing it to multiple people for weeks, for months, for two years in your entire district. Now our district is 20 stations, 20 stations. None of our stations are actual small. I mean, the smallest station we the smallest three stations we have is, one I believe is 15 routes, one is 16 and a half routes, and the other one is 19 routes.
00:29:38
Speaker
I think then we jumped to like 23 and up. Our biggest station has 88 routes. We got two that's in the 40s and multiple that's in the 30s.
00:29:49
Speaker
Okay, that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. And then I see the frustration on why people want their 1188 forms, if I'm not mistaken, the 1188 form. That's the council union, dude. If you knew people see that and don't know what that is, that's the people frustrated. They want a council union, dude. So if I can't ba get my raises the way I should and I keep getting violated and ain't nobody doing nothing about that either, then I ain't getting the money that I'm owed. I ain't getting the money that I'm due. i ain't get a't I'm not getting the money that I'm earned.
00:30:19
Speaker
And then I'm still got to go through the headaches as well. Then what good is the union? OK, cool. You know, you know what? Ain't no need to pay the union there because they ain't working for me. Take my money back. That's one. Two. I know how I can get more money to use in my household. And since I ain't getting the money from the company, my union dues take that back. That's two. That's how the union. That's how you all got to look at it. That just is what it is.
00:30:45
Speaker
It says what it is. Ain't nobody saying that they need more money so they can be rich. Clearly they need the money that they feel like they need the money for, whatever they need the money for. You know what I'm saying? So that just, it is what it is, man. Again, we go over some things of the contract. The 1.3% is trash. Again, most management across the nation just got a 10 to 20% raise. And again, the lowest person on the totem pole is a supervisor and they start off making 79,000 a year where they can make anywhere between 79,000 and 91,000 starting. Typically management don't always work. The companies are gonna always give them the 79,000. Right?
00:31:34
Speaker
Cause he'll do on always low ball everybody. So the lowest person on total poll is 79,000. That's the lowest, right? Then your managers get into on the lowest, 85,000 on the lowest. That's not to count their bonuses and things. We talked about just what they make annually.
00:31:52
Speaker
Then you see signs probably more in in the 90s or just over the 100,000, your postmasters, 100 plus thousand, your district manager, 100 plus thousand, maybe 120, 130,000, something like that. They just all got a 10 to 20% raise. So let's just go on the low end with a 10%.
00:32:09
Speaker
So if somebody is at 79, it's actually like 79,400, whatever the case is, 500, whatever. So they're going to say 80,000. 10% bonus is $8,000. $8,000. So your clothes are just got $8,000. We put them all on the low end. Your opener just got $8,000. That's 16,000 total. And your manager probably just got about $10,000.
00:32:32
Speaker
OK, that's twenty six thousand dollars just in three people in management in your office and your station didn't even get a fraction of that with a one point three percent raise. And who did the work? Now, I've seen someone in the USPS comments, I mean, in a USPS ah community comments and some about why we count management pockets or how much they make. I had to clarify to him. Right. But shout out to him.
00:33:00
Speaker
Management counts your pockets on a daily, without a daily, but consistently. Again, I said earlier, on how much money carriers make, on who making the most, and then use that use that information to then try to turn the people in the stations against their floor. Hey, look, supervisor, you got a person, you got a carrier in your station making more money than you. That ain't right.
00:33:23
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? They not even respecting the fact that that person probably had to work 12s all week, come in on the off day, probably went over some 12s or whatever the case is, this and the other, to even get that money. They just looking at the fact that there was a carry to make more than you. You should be doing this. You should be owning about this. You should be... this Listen, I've been in these conversations.
00:33:45
Speaker
i've been I've been privy to these conversations so much that they started taking them off the floor now and putting them back in the offices where they belong.
00:33:56
Speaker
So I'm definitely out here making the difference that I can. I got got I got a lot more to do um because I've been in part management in different ways. I'm kind of not allowed in the union.
00:34:10
Speaker
that I know of, we definitely need to change that, because I definitely need to see in there somewhere where I can make some noise. Because again, I'm a person that likes, that ah that loves knowledge. I love knowledge. I love looking up stuff, going down a rabbit hole, making these calls, making these, you know what I'm saying? Plenty.
00:34:29
Speaker
I'm a former military myself. I got a lot of contacts, still in the military. ah My family on my mom's side, big military. My ah my auntie, um who I'm close with. She was a lawyer in JAG, which is the Navy. ah She retired, but she still did consulting work after after the case, where I get a lot of information from when it comes to ah federal contracts and federal practices. and his and Man, listen, I be making calls. This is where I get a lot of information from. I make calls. I ask questions.
00:34:59
Speaker
I'm going, I'm going, I'm going to take, excuse me, take the information back, give it to who I need to give it to, and hopefully we can make something happen with that. But again, this is the knowledge that I have for y'all this week.
Workload and Financial Disparity Concerns
00:35:11
Speaker
That contract ain't it. And if you don't understand why it ain't it, that's fine. If you don't have enough time in to understand why people saying it ain't it, that's fine. If you're a CCA, this is probably your first time even seeing one of the contracts.
00:35:25
Speaker
Second time if you see if if you saw the contract before then. But again, if you were CCA, you wouldn't even end when the contract was active. But for the majority of y'all, because we've been negotiating since the contract ended 20 months ago, if you were CCA, you most likely ain't ain't been a CCA for no 20 months. Y'all been converting them six months to a year. So that means since you've been in, we didn't even have a contract. So this most likely is the first contract you've seen. So you don't know how this goes. You don't know how it goes.
00:35:55
Speaker
when listen to your records. I'm not saying that let somebody tell you what to do or whatever the case is, but someone say, Hey man, this is a bad contract. Then say, okay, that's a bad contract. You know what I'm saying? Ask what, why is it a bad contract? Can you explain, you know what I'm saying? I'm a CCA or whatever the case is. I ain't never, whatever the case, if you want to get the knowledge right now is right now is the biggest moment. And it could be in postal history with the strike movement that we need to put forth.
00:36:24
Speaker
This can change the tide of the post office right now. And we got everything that lined up to do it. If we don't do it now, I'm telling you, we'll probably never do it or the window would never be open again. This is like the most, as I've been in five and a half years, it's like the most harassment, bullying tactics, job threatening environments at the time period since I've been in the post office.
00:36:54
Speaker
to the point where people just come to work, either sad or depressed, or start calling in consistently, because they don't want to be bothered. Now, I don't gee for calling in though, you know what I'm saying? Ain't for that, no constant calling and stuff, but I can see why some might. Still not cool, but I can see, you know what I'm saying? Why it might happen.
00:37:15
Speaker
So we we definitely got to make a change. We got to make a change. We got to make a change. We got to make a stand. We got to make it now. We have to make it now. We need to strike now. Again, everything lies up for us to strike at no consequence due to research. Again, it's called unfair labor practice. Right. You can look up no strike clause.
00:37:42
Speaker
or how to get out of a noseri claw look up no Look up strike clause and unfair labor practice together. However you wanna do it to get to where you gotta to get to. You know what I'm saying? I ain't trying to coerce nothing. I'm trying to give y'all the information to start somewhere, because everybody need a place to start.
00:38:02
Speaker
right Look up strike clause, how to strike with a no strike clause. Can you strike with a no strike clause? It's going to say no, you cannot strike with a no strike clause even with a high style work environment ah or harassment or whatever the case is. That's what EEOs are for. right You can do EEOs. That's what EEOs are for. um But then if you as you go down, it's going to say less or whatever whatever unfair labor practices.
00:38:27
Speaker
Oh, I can strike with unfair labor practice, then go look up what's unfair labor practices, what falls under unfair labor practices. Then you would, there's going to be like a list of like six or seven things under unfair labor practices. And when I last looked it up, it was actually like three things in the list that we can use for unfair labor practices to strike. Waist if it's not the only one.
00:38:49
Speaker
right So again, know what those things are. Your district might not have wage theft. I'm not saying everybody supervise the same or manage the same or I don't know what's going on for every station or every district across America. So maybe your district runs the way it should run to that degree that y'all don't have wage theft. So look at whatever else you can use.
00:39:14
Speaker
but we definitely need to get on board with the, but it but again, also, that don't matter. If y'all don't got none to use because your district runs smooth, then cool. Y'all just keep your head slow, keep doing what y'all doing, because everybody else that's going through it, we gonna fight for all of us.
00:39:30
Speaker
Because no matter what, when this stuff changed, we all gonna get what we deserve. You know what I'm saying? Which is a should be a positive, I'm hoping. Right? So, it is what it is, man. Again, that 1.3%, I think the other raise was 1.3%. One of the colas is in like the 900 and some dollars, or no, one is like in the 700 some dollars, another one is like 300 some dollars. And maybe the third one is the 900 some dollar one.
00:40:01
Speaker
or whatever the case is. But it's like over the time span, it it's like less than $2,000 or like just the under 2000 or around $2,000 or whatever. Thanks for those three colors. That's for three years, about three years about. That's not nothing with the inflation that's going on. And again, we haven't gotten any of those because we haven't had a new contract. So that's money that has been held up. But again, it's petty money anyway, because we deserve way better than that.
00:40:34
Speaker
So there is no accepting what's in that paperwork right now, especially getting the fact of how much money that the post office keeps spending, but they always come up short when it comes to carriers or attempt to come up short when it comes to carriers. Post off deciding another contract.
00:40:56
Speaker
not too long ago to get those new duck looking vehicles. Contract worth billions to get that vehicle, right? That's not a bad thing. I'm not saying that's a horrible thing by any means, but they just signed a contract a few years before that to get the Mercedes metrics for some billions of dollars. We all don't even have the mattresses that we supposed to have. That contract was in billions. Before that contract, they had the Pro Masters.
00:41:26
Speaker
For that contract, we all don't have promises, but the the post office had to honor those contracts. They had to pay those billions regardless. So you can't say that you don't have the millions to give us, but you have billions to waste on contracts that you're not even fulfilling because you can't even make your mind up on vehicles. This is just things I'm throwing out there. Again, I'm just throwing out information.
00:41:51
Speaker
When the polls are, oh man, we lost nine billion. Y'all, they spend so much money. They spend so much money. That is crazy. That is crazy. But don't give it to the main workers to make sure the mail and the packages get out at all times. Right? Everybody's job is to assist us.
00:42:17
Speaker
Everybody's job is to get them into the stations. We the one that got to get it to where it got to get to. Right? Carriers is the only people in this in in in the post office that I've seen pretty much do everybody else's job. I've seen carriers do clerk work. I've seen carriers do custodian work. I've seen carriers do supervisor work. I've seen carriers do manager work. I've seen carriers do a multitude of different things.
00:42:50
Speaker
I've never seen the clerk go carry no mail. super Supervisor ain't carry no mail. No manager ain't carry no mail. Ain't no truck driver carry no mail. Ain't no mail handler carry no mail. Now let's say it was a previous craft. A carrier can come into a station with nobody here. And carriers, for the most part, gonna get majority of that stuff out of there.
00:43:09
Speaker
I don't know if all, because depending on how many of us that are that day, but they they gonna start putting mail up, they gonna start putting the DPS up. they They can go over the routes, see who here, see who not here. All right, they can throw packages. Probably ain't gonna do the hot case, but we know how to do the hot case, right? And divvy up majority of the overtime and gone about our business. And mail them and majority of the mail packages to still get done today. I'ma say majority, because again, I don't know how many of us will be at work that day.
00:43:37
Speaker
Right? So, on any given day, if we had a full style, it would still be straight. If carriers don't come in and just managers, supervisors, and clerks come in, ain't no mail moving. Ain't no mail moving, because they ain't going to go carry it. Carriers, when the station is short, will fall in and do other people's work. But don't nobody that's not in the carrier craft want to do our job. That says a lot about our job. Clearly, it ain't easy if don't nobody want to do it.
00:44:10
Speaker
But we do all y'alls just to help us get out the office. Like they don't make sense, but we shouldn't get paid. We should be the last people to get paid. No, we should be the very first people to get paid. We should be the first to get paid.
00:44:25
Speaker
We should begin hours off the top and then whatever's left y'all can fight for. You know what I'm saying? That's my personal opinion.
00:44:35
Speaker
That's my personal opinion. um With that, again, stand up. Find out when your next union meeting is. Make sure you go to a union meeting. Add information. Management cannot hold you, but I don't think, I don't know about CCS and PTA.
00:44:55
Speaker
But management cannot stop you from going to the meet. I don't care how much overtime they got. You just tell me I'm going to my union meet at so and so time. So I got to be out of here by this time. Right. And then that just is what it is. They can't stop from going.
00:45:14
Speaker
And it's no consequence. That's if you up for anybody that didn't know, right? We got to go. We got to go with the information.
Final Push for Unity and Action
00:45:22
Speaker
So I definitely have. I'm going to try to get this up and going to be in the most professional manner as the other previous episodes. But I'm going to get this up because I got to get as soon as possible. And it's already like almost 10 p.m. And I got to go to work tomorrow.
00:45:37
Speaker
Right. So again, I got to get this out because my district meeting is Wednesday. So I definitely got to get this out. Right. And I don't know if anybody else probably have meetings tomorrow. So again, I'm going to get this out.
00:45:51
Speaker
um But yeah, there's definitely a time we got to stick together. All for one, one for all. And the better the better a contract is going to benefit all of us. All of us. That's why it shouldn't be no division in it. We all got to be on the same plate page. All got to be on one accord.
00:46:11
Speaker
Right. So to that, my brothers and sisters, y'all make sure to stay safe, stay safe, stay safe. Keep your head on the swivel, depending on what area you're in. Maybe it don't matter where you're in. Keep your head on the swivel, watch your back. Everybody needs to go home the way they came. um With that,
00:46:31
Speaker
We don't tolerate harassment. We don't tolerate hostile work environments. They got EEOs for that. ah Talk to your steward. Get the information. We got episodes on that as well. Get the information. Put your paperwork in. Get to your next union meeting. Voice your opinion. Make sure we're voting no on this contract. We're voting no on this contract. That's not an option. This contract is not an option and it's not negotiable.
00:46:59
Speaker
which is why we have to strike under the given clauses that's available. We are able to strike when one of the things is way stiff. We can strike with way stiff. Okay, we need to get on board. Let's go, let's go, let's go, get it moving. um And all also with that, we know that we're not gonna be out long time along with that.
00:47:26
Speaker
We know we go't we're not going to be out long term. UPS s threatened to go on strike and had a whatever five or six dollar increase before the strike even happened. They never even had to strike. right cause They Because they knew what would happen with all that stuff on the floor and not getting done. Same thing with us. You know how how much mail and packages not going to get done?
00:47:49
Speaker
But let's say even they test us. Cool, strike anyway. Everybody, we on strike, we on strike, we on strike. And if you need to, get your side hustles ready, go into your little driving apps, things like that. um And we on the driving hustle and and until they fall in line. But they gonna fall in line because again, it's also political season. So they gonna have plenty of political mail just sitting there, sitting there.
00:48:18
Speaker
along with the mailing packages, right? So this is the time, man. This is the time, this time. It is what it is, man. I'm not going to keep you all too long. yeah yo Get the information, start doing your research, look up everything that I said now. Again, look up a no strike, no strike clause and strike clause. Look up um unfair label practices.
00:48:41
Speaker
um And then again, talk to your people, talk to your coworkers. Hey man, did you read this? You look up this. Hey, when you read it, talk to you your steward, talk to your safety captain, ah and then make sure you're at your meeting. Y'all should be asking your vice president and president, man, we got to get on board. What is this? Is this information true? I heard this on the podcast. Then I looked it up.
00:49:04
Speaker
It's true. That's what it says. It's true. Is we going to do this? Can we use this? What's, what's going on? You often take this to the table. What, what do we need to do to do this? We need to be our next move with that. I am your boy LA styles. This has been episode 14. And again, sorry for the wait on the postal blue podcast.
00:49:23
Speaker
Okay. Post the blue podcast. Y'all make sure to check out the USPS ah community. That's what it's called. USPS community on Facebook. Your branch might have a Facebook page as well because our branch does, which is branch two. I think it's called NAOC branch two, which is ours for Milwaukee district.
00:49:44
Speaker
Um, so you might have a, uh, your branch you might have a Facebook page where they post things up there. Um, and then you can also look at the postal blue community, um, called the postal blue podcast. It's a community on X formerly known as Twitter.
00:49:59
Speaker
All right with that we'll get about it here ah Again, you catch us on all streaming services You also catch us on Facebook things that nature my camera not on right now because I want to get this up it's connected to another area and I was running out of time and Yeah, I for all future episodes and make sure to share with someone we appreciate everyone and there's a lot more to come and