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Speaker 1: Cool Zone Media.

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Speaker 2: Welcome Tock It Up and Hear, a podcast about things

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Speaker 2: falling apart and putting them back together again. I'm your host,

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Speaker 2: Bio long so long ago, in a galaxy far far away,

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Speaker 2: we talked about the collapse of the US Postal Service

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Speaker 2: and the absolute horror show that's been inflicted on postal workers.

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Speaker 2: When we last left our intrepid heroes, things were not great.

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Speaker 2: They have continued to be not great. And with us

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Speaker 2: to talk about this entire shit show is bad Mouth.

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Speaker 2: He's a letter carrier and for it Worth and Tommy Espinoza,

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Speaker 2: who is a former letter carrier and former union steward

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Speaker 2: for the Post Office Union. That one. Yeah, look, it's

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Speaker 2: like I got up at seven am this morning. It's

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Speaker 2: up and that as I got up, you're getting you're

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Speaker 2: getting tired. Via, But both of you two, welcome to

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Speaker 2: the show, and I'm excited to talk to you both.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's great to be back.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, thanks for having us.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So all right, let's start in a place where

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Speaker 2: many things start, which is to say, the nineteen seventies,

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Speaker 2: the full crow upon which history pivoted. So one of

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Speaker 2: the things that we talked about, listener sort of last

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Speaker 2: episode is that post office workers are not legally allowed

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Speaker 2: to go on strike. This is sort of nonsense, but

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Speaker 2: it also doesn't mean that it's never happened. Oh, by

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Speaker 2: the way, is this we're about to talk about wildcat

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Speaker 2: strike disclaimers? No one here represents a union, there speaking

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Speaker 2: of their individual capacity, et cetera, et cetera. None of

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Speaker 2: this is legal advice. I do I have any more

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Speaker 2: caveats that we usually say for these things. That's roughly

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Speaker 2: all of them. Yeah, but did you want to talk

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Speaker 2: about sort of the last time that things kind of

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Speaker 2: looked like this and what happens?

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Speaker 4: Yeah, tell me you want to take that one. Yeah.

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Speaker 5: So, just going back to the nineteen seventies, the working

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Speaker 5: conditions for a letter carriers were so bad that most

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Speaker 5: of them couldn't afford the cost of living. They found

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Speaker 5: themselves in a position where they are working for a

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Speaker 5: quasi federal position and are finding themselves on welfare, struggling

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Speaker 5: just to find the means to get to work, oftentimes

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Speaker 5: having to work a second job if they even have

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Speaker 5: time for a second job.

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Speaker 3: Because the Post Office has.

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Speaker 5: And still is very good at skipping around a lot

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Speaker 5: of labor laws. I think nowadays people probably work around

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Speaker 5: sixty hour weeks. I think probably at a minimal around

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Speaker 5: fifty hour weeks, especially around the holidays. And it's not

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Speaker 5: just letter carriers, this is people inside of the distribution centers,

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Speaker 5: inside of the warehouses.

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Speaker 3: Things were not good.

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Speaker 5: And on top of the actual working conditions themselves, the

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Speaker 5: environment was incredibly toxic. There was a long history of abuse.

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Speaker 5: You're dangling people's livelihood over their head. Think you're like

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Speaker 5: holding a carrot over them, know, and it really pushed

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Speaker 5: people to an edge. We saw a lot of violence

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Speaker 5: on the workroom floor, not only from supervisors but from

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Speaker 5: carriers that just snapped.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a time of great disparity.

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Speaker 6: Yeah. The thing with the post office is tom was

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Speaker 6: mentioned and they dangled a carrot, but there's never any

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Speaker 6: goddamn carrot. It's all stick. It's supposed to be carrot

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Speaker 6: and stick, it's all stick. There's no carrot there. Management

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Speaker 6: in the post office is just trying to get you

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Speaker 6: to move as fast as possible and cut corners, and

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Speaker 6: that erode safety, it erodes service, and it just a toxic, horrible,

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Speaker 6: horrible environment. And so back in the seventies before the

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Speaker 6: wildcat strike, it was illegal then, just like it's illegal now.

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Speaker 6: The NELC National Association of Letter Carriers Congress called all

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Speaker 6: the shots like we had some collective bargaining rights but

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Speaker 6: not full collective bargaining rights. But like back then, adjusted

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Speaker 6: for inflation, starting wage was fifty thousand a year around

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Speaker 6: about and it topped out at about sixty eight thousand

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Speaker 6: dollars adjusted for inflation, and that took twenty one years

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Speaker 6: to get to that point. Yeah, so it's pretty wild

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Speaker 6: and like very similar to today. Now starting wage adjusted

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Speaker 6: for inflation is just over forty thousand dollars before taxes.

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Speaker 6: So we're making even less money now than we were

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Speaker 6: before that wildcat strike, right, And a couple of other

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Speaker 6: real familiar things like you know, on popular wars, rampant inflation,

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Speaker 6: you know, Yeah, every time you turn on the radio

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Speaker 6: or TV, there's some lunatic politician that you can't stand

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Speaker 6: hearing about.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, time is a flat circle.

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Speaker 6: But Vince Sobrado, who was an organizer out of New

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Speaker 6: York City, the ANOC didn't strike all over the country.

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Speaker 6: It was New York and Chicago and San Francisco. It

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Speaker 6: was some major hubs, right, And Vince Sobrado came out

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Speaker 6: of that and we won in that strike one collective

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Speaker 6: bargaining rights. Now the thing we gave up, and it

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Speaker 6: was a trade off. So we have a no layoff clause,

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Speaker 6: so they can't lay us off, but we gave up

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Speaker 6: the right to strike, making sure that there wouldn't be.

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Speaker 4: Another wildcat strike. Yeah.

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Speaker 6: Right, So that's kind of why our hands are tied

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Speaker 6: in that sense. Now, if we have an impasse with

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Speaker 6: our with our negotiation, and like we get a tentative

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Speaker 6: agreement and we during the ratification process vote that down,

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Speaker 6: now we can either try and go back to the

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Speaker 6: bargaining table or it gets brought in front of an arbiter,

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Speaker 6: basically an impartial judge, and they'll have a panel. The

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Speaker 6: Post Office will pick two and the NELC will pick two,

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Speaker 6: and then I think there's one impartial that's supposed to

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Speaker 6: be impartial between that. I believe that's how the arbitration

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Speaker 6: process works. We got to prove our case in front

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Speaker 6: of impartial arbiters instead of going on strike.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so, as we sort of mentioned before, one

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Speaker 2: of the things about the Post Office is it's similar

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Speaker 2: if people remember the rail like the rail strike that

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Speaker 2: didn't happen where there's all of these troops you have

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Speaker 2: to jump, you'd be able to go on strike. And

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Speaker 2: that's because again, like rail workers, postal workers don't operate

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Speaker 2: under the normal sort of national labor relations board like framework.

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Speaker 2: Right now, admittedly there was a very good chance that

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Speaker 2: it like in like seven months, we don't even have that.

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Speaker 2: No one has that anymore. But you know, as we

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Speaker 2: are right now, yeah, it's I think things are going good.

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Speaker 2: But as things are going right now, let's get in

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Speaker 2: to the current tentative agreement, and I guess we should

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Speaker 2: actually we should roll this back a little tiny bit.

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Speaker 2: For people who haven't listened to these episodes before, can

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Speaker 2: you explain what a tentative agreement is?

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Speaker 5: Right, So, a tentative agreement is effectively the first draft.

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Speaker 5: When you are going through and negotiating, you will reach

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Speaker 5: a contract where management and the union kind of agree

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Speaker 5: and they put it before their union members. And the

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Speaker 5: idea is that your union members are able to vote

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Speaker 5: whether or not this tentative agreement. And again, like that

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Speaker 5: mouth was saying, if it gets rejected or if it

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Speaker 5: gets turned down, then it goes back to the drawing board,

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Speaker 5: or we get an arbitrator, and it goes through a

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Speaker 5: lengthy process. Our specific contract has been under negotiation since

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Speaker 5: before I was in the Post Office. The amount of

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Speaker 5: back pay that they're going to have to pay on

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Speaker 5: some of these races is kind of insane, and I

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Speaker 5: imagine that a lot of people won't see it for

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Speaker 5: a long time. But yeah, that's what an a tentative

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Speaker 5: agreement is. A lot of people think that it's a

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Speaker 5: bad thing to go back to the drawing board, or

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Speaker 5: a bad thing to renegotiate or be put before an arbitrator.

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Speaker 5: I largely think that is a myth. If you think

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Speaker 5: about any sort of negotiation, the first the first offer

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Speaker 5: is never the best one. I think a lot of

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Speaker 5: people are just afraid that somehow you would end up

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Speaker 5: giving more than you're getting. And I think that's just

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Speaker 5: the way that the rhetoric has gone for unions lately,

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Speaker 5: and I.

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Speaker 3: Guess I need to adjust that a little bit.

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Speaker 5: Because the Teamsters, they even like the Service Workers' Union,

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Speaker 5: they're all really doing well. The Communications Union, we're in

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Speaker 5: a little bit of a different age. But a lot

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Speaker 5: of the Post Office is old heads, military veterans, that

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Speaker 5: kind of sort who just come from a little bit

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Speaker 5: of an earlier time when the labor movement was really

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Speaker 5: starting to plant their feet on the ground.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, a lot of them are still dealing with I

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Speaker 6: like most of us are the hangover from the Reagan years, right,

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Speaker 6: So they're all terrified of union stuff. Even though they

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Speaker 6: love the union and they're in the union, they're very

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Speaker 6: distrustful of it. And they don't think that we can

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Speaker 6: ask for what we deserve. They think we need to

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Speaker 6: ask for what they think we can get based on

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Speaker 6: the shit that management is saying because they're again still

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Speaker 6: shell shocked from the Reagan years and all the anti

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Speaker 6: labor stuff.

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Speaker 2: And that's how a profound impact on most of the

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Speaker 2: unions that survived that period. A lot of them didn't, right,

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Speaker 2: Which is which is you know, part of part of

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Speaker 2: why you get people who behave like this. But on

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Speaker 2: the downside is it means that you get handed a

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Speaker 2: lot of deals that absolutely suck. But do you know

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Speaker 2: what else absolutely sucks? It's the roddicts and services. That's

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Speaker 2: for this podcast. They probably don't I don't know. We

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Speaker 2: are back, so let's talk about what the tentative agreements

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Speaker 2: that y'all are being asked to sign is right now.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, so it's been I think we're coming up on

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Speaker 6: six hundred days since our last contract expired.

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Speaker 2: Jeez.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, there's people that just want their backpay. So even

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Speaker 6: if the back pay is dog shit, they're desperate because

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Speaker 6: inflation is eight percent across the country in some places, right,

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Speaker 6: and like people are just desperate for that chunk of money.

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Speaker 6: That delaying process feels very very intentional.

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Speaker 4: Yeah.

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Speaker 6: So the Tenet Agreement comes out around five hundred days

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Speaker 6: after negotiations were supposed to have started, and there's all

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Speaker 6: sorts of nonsense going on during then. But we're getting

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Speaker 6: promises like it's going to be a historic agreement, we're

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Speaker 6: going to get significant raises. We're going to go to

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Speaker 6: an all career workforce, which, by the way, we.

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Speaker 4: Don't have right now.

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Speaker 6: That is by the way, yeah uh okay. So in

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Speaker 6: every other trade, you have an apprenticeship program, right, so

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Speaker 6: when you get on the job, you're wet behind the ears,

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Speaker 6: you're brand new, you are automatically career, you are automatically

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Speaker 6: paying into your retirement, you're automatically getting the regular benefits

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Speaker 6: everyone else is. In most trades, you're paying half the

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Speaker 6: dues that the journeymen are paying, and you, you are

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Speaker 6: considered a full employee.

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Speaker 4: You're the new jack. You're getting all the shit jobs,

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Speaker 4: but you are a full employee.

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Speaker 6: The post Office has a position called the City Carrier Assistant,

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Speaker 6: which on paper and how they'll tell you, sounds like

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Speaker 6: an apprenticeship program, but it's really more like they took

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Speaker 6: an apprenticeship program and an unpaid internship and jammed them together.

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Speaker 6: Because these kids are coming in and I'm not even kids.

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Speaker 6: I'm forty years old. I started as a CCA at

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Speaker 6: forty years old. They're coming in making less than twenty

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Speaker 6: dollars an hour. They're not considered a career, so they're

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Speaker 6: not paying into the retirement. You haven't got all the

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Speaker 6: same union protections. Your benefits are super low. You get

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Speaker 6: five days of annual leave a year and no sick

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Speaker 6: time like it's it's yeah, it's a meat it's a

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Speaker 6: meat grinder. So that was a big thing, and it

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Speaker 6: creates a whole thirred tier because we already have two different,

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Speaker 6: two different tiered wage system, which sucks enough, and you

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Speaker 6: anyone that pays attention to labor.

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Speaker 4: That drives a huge wedge between.

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Speaker 6: Workers, and it crushes solidarity at kneecaps a union, and

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Speaker 6: now with the CCA position in this non career workforce,

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Speaker 6: it's created a whole third tier.

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Speaker 2: This is one of the things that the UAW is

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Speaker 2: fighting for. It's like, is eliminating tearing system all together,

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Speaker 2: because if you're actually trying to get a functional union

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Speaker 2: and make people's jobs better, that's the thing that you do.

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Speaker 2: And having a third tier yeah not good, extremely bad.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.

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Speaker 6: And it's because they've adopted sort of this Amazon model

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Speaker 6: of doing things where they just have this burn andsurn

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Speaker 6: situation where like Amazon Bezos said that he doesn't want

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Speaker 6: anyone working for Amazon for more than like two years. Yeah,

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Speaker 6: if they have these people constantly and they're constantly burning

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Speaker 6: through and they never have to pay full benefits, they

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Speaker 6: never have to pay into their retirement, they never have

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Speaker 6: to pay them more than twenty dollars an hour, and

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Speaker 6: they can just get you to work your ass off

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Speaker 6: and burn out and quit within two years. As people retire,

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Speaker 6: their labor costs go down. It's evil. It's absolutely it's

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Speaker 6: some jack welch hateful bullshit.

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Speaker 5: So touching on that, if people are really quitting before

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Speaker 5: they reach a point in their career where they're educated

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Speaker 5: and can stand up for themselves or stand up for

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Speaker 5: each other on the workroom floor. That's one of the

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Speaker 5: major reasons that our union is failing. And like you said,

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Speaker 5: you use the exact example that I would have. The

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Speaker 5: Amazon model is working really well if you can just

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Speaker 5: make it so that people are so miserable they quit

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Speaker 5: their job before they understand what their rights are, how

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Speaker 5: they can protect each other, what even the contract says

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Speaker 5: on the basics of when can you call out, when

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Speaker 5: are you required to come in? Can they send you

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Speaker 5: home early without your pay? That's massive And when we

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Speaker 5: were talking about the conditions of the nineteen seventies and

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Speaker 5: how long it takes you to get to the top

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Speaker 5: of the pay scale, this third tier actually increases that

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Speaker 5: time by sometimes three or four years. I've known people

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Speaker 5: who have been ccas for three or four years. I

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Speaker 5: don't think I've seen beyond that, but it wouldn't surprise me.

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Speaker 5: What this does is it means that before you go career,

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Speaker 5: you're spending all this time you're effectively a fully trained,

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Speaker 5: full employee, completely capable of doing everything that's required of you.

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Speaker 5: You're just not getting any of the career benefits making

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Speaker 5: a minimum wage, and on top of that, the way

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Speaker 5: our benefits work is it does come out of your paycheash.

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Speaker 5: Sheet's not like other jobs where it might be a

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Speaker 5: separate package or already calculated. In for instance, a lot

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Speaker 5: of the trades, they'll say, hey, you get twenty three

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Speaker 5: an hour, but the reality is you're making around twenty

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Speaker 5: nine or thirty. Because you're not paying into your health

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Speaker 5: insurance or your retirement or anything like that, you're effectively

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Speaker 5: making less than minimum wage. You're almost paying to go

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Speaker 5: to work as a CCA then just to be yelled

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Speaker 5: at and told that you're not going fast enough even

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Speaker 5: though there's no street standard. But that's getting into a

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Speaker 5: little bit of nipicky key contract stuff that language.

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Speaker 6: But yeah, so yeah, that's one thing that they're promising

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Speaker 6: is to get rid of that non career workforce. So

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Speaker 6: this TA comes out and after hearing that we're getting

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Speaker 6: rid of the non career significant raises, it's going to

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Speaker 6: be historic for us. What they offered us was one

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Speaker 6: point three percent.

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Speaker 2: Jesus Christy. Yeah, I mean this is some thing for

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Speaker 2: if you are in a union and you hear your

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Speaker 2: leadership say the words historic contract. You are screwed. That

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Speaker 2: agreement is going to suck. I remember on this show

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Speaker 2: literally live and recording right before they're supposed to be

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Speaker 2: the teamster's ups strike, right Like, I'm literally on the

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Speaker 2: episode with two of the union people and we get

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Speaker 2: the text of the contract in the middle of recording,

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Speaker 2: and we get the thing with it is this is

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Speaker 2: an historic contract and we're like reading it in the

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Speaker 2: middle of the episode. Was like, wait, this fucking sucks. Shit.

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Speaker 2: It's like, that's how you know you are duped when

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Speaker 2: you get the historic when they start pulling out the

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Speaker 2: historic contract thing.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, you think if you're making six figures a year,

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Speaker 6: you could understand how to buy a used car and

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Speaker 6: know that you promise low and deliver high. Like, I

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Speaker 6: don't understand how they exist figures of the year. They

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Speaker 6: haven't figured that out. But yeah, so in this contract,

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Speaker 6: one point three percent, and that's enough to piss anyone

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Speaker 6: off because that drops about the same time that we

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Speaker 6: all see the longshore men getting going back to the

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Speaker 6: table because they didn't get sixty percent, you know what

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Speaker 6: I mean. Yeah, I'm surprised more people just didn't call

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Speaker 6: in sick because we all got this news on the

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Speaker 6: worker and floor, and I was like, did you see

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Speaker 6: this shit? I know people that quit that day, you

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Speaker 6: know what I mean? Like, yeah, it's it's wild. So

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Speaker 6: one point three percent. They're keeping the city carrier assistance,

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Speaker 6: the n career workforce. They're removing some of our union

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Speaker 6: protections right like it used to be. You have a

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Speaker 6: twelve sixty hour rule. You don't have to work more

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Speaker 6: than twelve hours in a day or sixty hours in

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Speaker 6: a week. You can say I can't do this, I'm

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Speaker 6: going home, and the union could protect you. Now, if

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Speaker 6: you are a CCA, or if you have signed up

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Speaker 6: to do overtime and they tell you to stay sixteen hours,

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Speaker 6: you have you have no choice.

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Speaker 2: Jesus Christ. You gave up things for a one point

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Speaker 2: that's that's a one point three percent raise, is like,

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Speaker 2: like that that's the kind of thing that you get.

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Speaker 2: If like I don't know, say, like you got like

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Speaker 2: some unbelievable concession package somewhere else, maybe conceivably you would

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Speaker 2: take that, or maybe maybe it's a thing where like

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Speaker 2: you're you're you're like a nurse and your problem doesn't pay.

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Speaker 2: Your problem is you're working like two million hours a week,

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Speaker 2: But like that's that's a that's a you got concession

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Speaker 2: somewhere else kind of thing, not a we gave up

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Speaker 2: stuff for like the worst rays you've ever seen.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean it makes you think about, like what

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Speaker 6: was there? What was their first offer? Like, mind you

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Speaker 6: it's been it's been over five hundred days of negotiations.

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Speaker 6: What was the first offer? We got to put the

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Speaker 6: fuel in the mail trucks ourselves? Like what you know

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Speaker 6: what I mean, what Tom do you want? Do you

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Speaker 6: want to talk about? What the tone of agreement doesn't address?

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Speaker 5: So the tenetive agreement we spoke about the Post Office

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Speaker 5: is strategy for uh, dealing with our grievances or how

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Speaker 5: to combat the union last episode, and so for the

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Speaker 5: people that didn't listen to it or just need a refresher,

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Speaker 5: the Post Office has found this extremely effective strategy that

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Speaker 5: if they just don't agree at any point in our

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Speaker 5: in our grievance procedure, which is if they violate the

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Speaker 5: contract and we want to be made whole, whatever that

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Speaker 5: may look like, they can just keep on saying no

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Speaker 5: and push it up to arbitration, because there is a

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Speaker 5: grievance procedure that ends up with a third party intervening

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Speaker 5: as well, and if they push enough of those grievances up.

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Speaker 5: We have a major backlog on this process because our

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Speaker 5: final resort is now just the standard of operation, and

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Speaker 5: what that means is that there's nothing to force the

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Speaker 5: post Office to comply with the contract if someone wasn't

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Speaker 5: paid correctly, or was missing a whole day of pay,

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Speaker 5: got sent home, or was put on emergency placement, which

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Speaker 5: is a process where they say you did something dangerous

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Speaker 5: and so they can take you off the clock.

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Speaker 3: It could be.

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Speaker 5: Months or even a year before your case is even

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Speaker 5: looked at. They do have a process, of course, where

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Speaker 5: they try and prioritize it, but it's obviously not working.

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Speaker 5: The other thing that the contract doesn't really touch on

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Speaker 5: is our uniform situation, where the companies that make and

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Speaker 5: manufacture the uniforms for our letter carriers and actually for

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Speaker 5: all the positions in the Post Office are effectively trying

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Speaker 5: to sell you a shirt for like eighty dollars or

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Speaker 5: correct The most egregious one is like your winter parka

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Speaker 5: is posed to four hundred dollars and your balance that

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Speaker 5: you're you're given is I think three eighty FM I

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Speaker 5: don't know it's been more.

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Speaker 4: It's up to four ninety nine.

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Speaker 6: But the rain trench coat, just the raincoat is four

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Speaker 6: hundred and sixty five dollars and you have to get

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Speaker 6: it through a vendor, so you can't even pay them

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Speaker 6: money to do that. A pair of polyester pants that's

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Speaker 6: going to fall apart in two months ninety.

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Speaker 4: Five dollars, Oh my god.

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Speaker 6: Oh yeah, no, it's it's wild. It's wild price gouging.

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Speaker 6: And they were going to address that. And what they

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Speaker 6: did was they increased are they increased our uniform allowance

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Speaker 6: by thirty five dollars, which is like three pairs of

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Speaker 6: socks from those magazines, right, incredible stuff.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's it's wild.

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Speaker 2: Someone should dig into who's running that company and like

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Speaker 2: who they're working with to get those contracts, because probably

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Speaker 2: a fun story there.

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Speaker 5: I think it's like four out of five of the

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Speaker 5: approved manufacturers where the distributors are owned by the same people.

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Speaker 2: So oh great, okay, yeah, I'm bequeathing this as a

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Speaker 2: gift to I know there's a bunch of journalists. You

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Speaker 2: listen to this, go go do that story. I guarantee

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Speaker 2: you'll find some unbelievably unhinged stuff.

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Speaker 5: And a quick shout out to any letter carriers that

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Speaker 5: are are listening to this. If you don't use your

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Speaker 5: entire allowance, look out for the ccas, look out for

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Speaker 5: the PTFs, the non career and the fresh faces on there.

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Speaker 5: If you don't use the entirety of your uniform allowance,

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Speaker 5: to the way that they view it is that they

400
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Speaker 5: can give us less money, So use all of it.

401
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Speaker 5: Don't protest by not spending that money. It's not even yours,

402
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Speaker 5: so suspend it, give it to someone.

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Speaker 6: Do something, you know, Yeah, get the new jack in

404
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Speaker 6: your office a fucking raincoat, because like I tried to

405
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Speaker 6: do the math on it. For winter gear, for a

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Speaker 6: place like Minnesota, to get all the winter gear and

407
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Speaker 6: your summer gear, it's going to take you four years

408
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Speaker 6: of uniform allowances to get all that gear.

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Speaker 4: Jesus right, it's ridiculous.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, And like it's Minnesota, right, Like I'm from Chicago,

411
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Speaker 2: so like it is, it is slightly warmer in Chicago

412
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Speaker 2: and you get wincheles in negative forty here, yeah, and

413
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Speaker 2: like Minnesota is much worse. So like that is that

414
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Speaker 2: that is not like optional stuff. That is the difference

415
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Speaker 2: between you having hypothermia and you notia.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, no exactly, and God forbid you want to buy

417
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Speaker 6: a pair of shorts as well, because Minnesota summers get

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Speaker 6: over one hundred index h.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, speaking speaking of ways to not die in Minnesota summers,

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Speaker 2: here are some product and services that will probably not

421
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Speaker 2: help you with that, but maybe they will and we

422
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Speaker 2: are back.

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Speaker 6: One of the other things that Tom touched on that

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Speaker 6: this agreement doesn't address is he talked about the non

425
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Speaker 6: compliance and the grievance backlog, but also just the toxic

426
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Speaker 6: work environment, which we've talked about, and it's so bad.

427
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Speaker 6: The whole reason we have the trope of someone going

428
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Speaker 6: postal is usually because someone's bullied to a point where

429
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Speaker 6: violence occurs. They either take it out on management or

430
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Speaker 6: my own manager in my first year got in a

431
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Speaker 6: fistfight with one of the clerks.

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Speaker 2: Jesus correct.

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Speaker 6: The post office has lost grievances because management was threatening

434
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Speaker 6: to shoot an employee. Any letter carrier would have been

435
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Speaker 6: fired for that immediately that manager got a letter of warning.

436
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Speaker 5: Yeah, we have a joint statement on violence in the workplace,

437
00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:13,400
Speaker 5: which I think you were about to get into the leg. Yeah,

438
00:23:13,440 --> 00:23:17,000
Speaker 5: they're just not complying. It's a very one sided thing. Effectively,

439
00:23:17,040 --> 00:23:18,720
Speaker 5: management has qualified immunity.

440
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:24,520
Speaker 2: Great, great, your managers are also cops that could attack you. Incredible,

441
00:23:24,600 --> 00:23:26,479
Speaker 2: incredible stuff from the post office.

442
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:29,560
Speaker 6: Yeah, and then and then there's a bunch of wage

443
00:23:29,560 --> 00:23:31,879
Speaker 6: stuff too. I mean personally, I caught my own manager

444
00:23:31,880 --> 00:23:34,920
Speaker 6: putting in all the ccas for two hour lunches because

445
00:23:34,920 --> 00:23:37,280
Speaker 6: the ccas are new and don't know what they're doing,

446
00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:39,680
Speaker 6: and they don't know to check their time all the time,

447
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:42,000
Speaker 6: putting us all in for two hour lunches and then

448
00:23:42,240 --> 00:23:44,399
Speaker 6: told me, tried to pretend to me, oh, that was

449
00:23:44,480 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 6: just an automatic computer error. Whereas if we take a

450
00:23:47,480 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 6: thirty one minute lunch, I have my phone blowing up

451
00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:52,960
Speaker 6: being asked why I'm not moving and delivering the mail.

452
00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,840
Speaker 6: But you guys managed to accidentally miss a two hour left.

453
00:23:56,960 --> 00:23:59,440
Speaker 4: Come on, don't lie. You don't got a lie. You

454
00:23:59,440 --> 00:24:01,480
Speaker 4: don't getta lie to be my friend, like, come on.

455
00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,040
Speaker 6: And then and then there's other places around the country

456
00:24:04,080 --> 00:24:07,960
Speaker 6: where we the anlc's one grievances where management was making

457
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:11,280
Speaker 6: CCA's work in the dark, delivering mail till like seven

458
00:24:11,359 --> 00:24:14,240
Speaker 6: thirty pm and clocking them out at.

459
00:24:14,080 --> 00:24:15,800
Speaker 4: Four o'clock in the absolu business.

460
00:24:15,960 --> 00:24:17,960
Speaker 6: All right, So they got people out there working for free.

461
00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:20,480
Speaker 6: It's it's and we have to catch we have to catch.

462
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:20,760
Speaker 4: Them doing that.

463
00:24:20,880 --> 00:24:22,840
Speaker 6: Yeah, they're never going to own up to it that

464
00:24:22,880 --> 00:24:26,760
Speaker 6: they all watch their payroll. The management structure at the

465
00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:30,560
Speaker 6: post office, it's like the TMU version of Game of Thrones.

466
00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 6: They're all nasty, they're all backstabbing each other, and like,

467
00:24:34,160 --> 00:24:36,400
Speaker 6: the nastier you are and the more willing you.

468
00:24:36,359 --> 00:24:39,560
Speaker 4: Are to screw people, the higher up you.

469
00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 6: Go in management at the post office, like it's it's disgusting.

470
00:24:44,840 --> 00:24:49,800
Speaker 5: So there's even more convoluted ways that the management finds

471
00:24:49,880 --> 00:24:53,239
Speaker 5: to effectively steal from the employees. And one of them

472
00:24:53,560 --> 00:24:59,399
Speaker 5: huge problem is changing the metrics on what a route

473
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,560
Speaker 5: looks like. And so they can alter the times of hey,

474
00:25:02,560 --> 00:25:04,720
Speaker 5: how long you were in the office packing your truck

475
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:08,040
Speaker 5: when you got back to the office and started unloading

476
00:25:08,080 --> 00:25:10,360
Speaker 5: and cleaning. And so what they do is they make

477
00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,120
Speaker 5: it look like the street time took you, let's call

478
00:25:13,160 --> 00:25:15,639
Speaker 5: it five hours, and you were in the office for

479
00:25:15,680 --> 00:25:18,200
Speaker 5: four hours. That way they can make a route look

480
00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:21,679
Speaker 5: smaller than it actually is and have an excuse not

481
00:25:21,800 --> 00:25:25,600
Speaker 5: to hire another person, which makes it so that this

482
00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,359
Speaker 5: poor carrier who was assigned to this route now has

483
00:25:29,480 --> 00:25:33,000
Speaker 5: a ten hour day, eleven hour day just by default

484
00:25:33,080 --> 00:25:36,679
Speaker 5: on a light day, on a regular day. This is

485
00:25:36,880 --> 00:25:40,360
Speaker 5: a really big problem for the rural carriers. Their contract

486
00:25:40,400 --> 00:25:43,000
Speaker 5: is a little bit different. Effectively, they get paid by

487
00:25:43,040 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 5: the job, not necessarily hourly, or that's the case for a.

488
00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 3: Lot of them.

489
00:25:47,400 --> 00:25:49,760
Speaker 5: And so if you're adjusting their times, they're going to

490
00:25:49,760 --> 00:25:52,840
Speaker 5: be paid out for an eight hour day. But the

491
00:25:53,240 --> 00:25:56,080
Speaker 5: route has just been stretched out through this method of

492
00:25:56,840 --> 00:26:01,760
Speaker 5: just dishonest scanning and disalmist entries and they get free labor.

493
00:26:02,000 --> 00:26:04,520
Speaker 5: And I'm not even well versed on the RCAA contract.

494
00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:07,480
Speaker 5: That's a whole other You know, there's only nine unions

495
00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 5: that go into the post office, which means there's probably

496
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:12,520
Speaker 5: nine different contracts.

497
00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:15,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, and in every single one of these contracts, they're

498
00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,800
Speaker 2: inventing new, different and unique ways to do wage theft

499
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:23,560
Speaker 2: just steal people's money, which and it's worth noting again

500
00:26:23,720 --> 00:26:26,560
Speaker 2: like if a post carrier like broke into an office

501
00:26:26,680 --> 00:26:29,080
Speaker 2: and stole the amount of money that is being stolen

502
00:26:29,080 --> 00:26:31,760
Speaker 2: from them, they would go to prison forever, right, But

503
00:26:32,160 --> 00:26:35,000
Speaker 2: because it's your boss doing this, Like, the worst thing

504
00:26:35,040 --> 00:26:36,479
Speaker 2: that happens to them is they have to go through

505
00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:39,359
Speaker 2: a grievance procedure even though they are just literally robbing you.

506
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:42,719
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, and yeah, you do not fuck with the

507
00:26:42,720 --> 00:26:46,080
Speaker 6: mail cops. But the mail cops the postal inspectors work

508
00:26:46,119 --> 00:26:51,480
Speaker 6: for management. Yeah so yeah, and management does nothing but

509
00:26:51,640 --> 00:26:54,440
Speaker 6: sit in their chair all day, sniffing their own farts,

510
00:26:54,640 --> 00:26:57,240
Speaker 6: watching tiktoks and trying to figure out how to screw

511
00:26:57,280 --> 00:27:01,000
Speaker 6: people through the virtue of spreadsheets while we are all

512
00:27:01,040 --> 00:27:06,640
Speaker 6: out working our asses off. It's a very demoralizing and abusive,

513
00:27:07,240 --> 00:27:10,840
Speaker 6: abusive situation. So we were hoping that shit would get

514
00:27:10,840 --> 00:27:13,040
Speaker 6: addressed in the tenetive agreement, and none of it was.

515
00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:17,399
Speaker 6: So there's all sorts of problems with that. I'm with

516
00:27:17,760 --> 00:27:21,480
Speaker 6: building a fighting an elc and we are basically a

517
00:27:21,520 --> 00:27:25,320
Speaker 6: bottom up more of a radical reform caucus. I am

518
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 6: out of Fort Worth, but like it's started in Minneapolis,

519
00:27:28,320 --> 00:27:31,720
Speaker 6: and you've got people in Chicago and New York and Naples, Florida,

520
00:27:31,720 --> 00:27:35,120
Speaker 6: and San Antonio, Hawaii, all over the country who are basically,

521
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:36,040
Speaker 6: we are tired.

522
00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,240
Speaker 4: Of we are tired of our.

523
00:27:39,119 --> 00:27:42,640
Speaker 6: Leadership being in bed with management or at least doing

524
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:44,800
Speaker 6: things where they look like they're in bed with management.

525
00:27:45,119 --> 00:27:47,640
Speaker 6: We've been putting on vote no rallies all over the country.

526
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:49,440
Speaker 6: You've probably seen some of the news.

527
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,239
Speaker 2: And this is vote no for the tin devisse. Yes,

528
00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:52,960
Speaker 2: this is this is this is a vote to send

529
00:27:52,960 --> 00:27:55,479
Speaker 2: your bargaining reps back to the table with the demand

530
00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:57,680
Speaker 2: that we can't take a deal that sucks this much.

531
00:27:58,040 --> 00:27:59,320
Speaker 2: That's what a vote no thing is.

532
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:00,000
Speaker 4: Yeah.

533
00:28:00,119 --> 00:28:02,000
Speaker 6: So yeah, we've been trying to get letter carriers to

534
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:03,680
Speaker 6: vote no on it. That's so we've been doing the

535
00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:06,080
Speaker 6: vote no campaigns so we can vote this shit down

536
00:28:06,359 --> 00:28:08,480
Speaker 6: and get it in front of a judge, because once

537
00:28:08,480 --> 00:28:10,800
Speaker 6: it goes into arbitration, there's a lot of fear mongering things,

538
00:28:10,800 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 6: Oh we could lose this, Oh we could lose that.

539
00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:14,679
Speaker 6: Oh we could lose this. But like Mia, you you

540
00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:17,119
Speaker 6: said it yourself. These are all concessions. We're not getting

541
00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 6: anything for giving up all these things. One point three

542
00:28:19,320 --> 00:28:20,320
Speaker 6: percent is what we're getting.

543
00:28:20,920 --> 00:28:24,840
Speaker 2: Like, yeah, like one point three percent is the kind

544
00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 2: of raise that like in a normal functioning union is

545
00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 2: like that, that's like a company's opening agreement that both

546
00:28:31,920 --> 00:28:34,160
Speaker 2: you and the company knows you're not going to take

547
00:28:34,320 --> 00:28:37,200
Speaker 2: Yeah like that, it's a.

548
00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,479
Speaker 6: Joke, Like that in and of itself would be a

549
00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,600
Speaker 6: major concession to get something else. But we're doing all

550
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:47,880
Speaker 6: these concessions to get that. Yeah, that's the win quote unquote.

551
00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:48,280
Speaker 4: Yeah.

552
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,680
Speaker 6: So the thing is the Postal Reform Act says that

553
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:56,320
Speaker 6: we are supposed to get paid comparatively to a comparable

554
00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:59,840
Speaker 6: company in the private sector. So an arbiter is going

555
00:28:59,880 --> 00:29:02,840
Speaker 6: to look at that and try and look at UPS,

556
00:29:03,200 --> 00:29:05,760
Speaker 6: UPS or Amazon, and the Post Office is really trying

557
00:29:05,800 --> 00:29:08,520
Speaker 6: to push it towards Amazon, which is why I try

558
00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 6: to talk to every letter carrier I know to support

559
00:29:11,720 --> 00:29:16,320
Speaker 6: and get some crosscraft solidarity with Amazon, because without going

560
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:18,080
Speaker 6: on too much of a rabbit trail, the whole you know,

561
00:29:18,120 --> 00:29:22,680
Speaker 6: a rising tide lifts all ships, and one union in

562
00:29:22,840 --> 00:29:26,560
Speaker 6: another industry helps everyone in every other industry.

563
00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:28,000
Speaker 4: And trying to get people to understand that.

564
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:31,880
Speaker 6: But like you compare our contract to UPS and UPS

565
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,040
Speaker 6: they top out with I think their benefits package tops

566
00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:36,760
Speaker 6: out one hundred and twenty four thousand a year, and

567
00:29:36,840 --> 00:29:39,560
Speaker 6: it's about you know, five or eight years to reach

568
00:29:39,640 --> 00:29:44,080
Speaker 6: top scale. Ours tops out with this tentative agreement at

569
00:29:44,200 --> 00:29:46,640
Speaker 6: ninety three thousand a year. And it still takes us

570
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,400
Speaker 6: thirteen years to get to top steps. Christ, that's not comparable, right,

571
00:29:51,960 --> 00:29:54,600
Speaker 6: So I'm not afraid of arbitration. I'm hoping we get

572
00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:57,160
Speaker 6: this in front of an arbiter, because unless that arbiter

573
00:29:57,240 --> 00:30:00,560
Speaker 6: is completely crooked, I can't see him saying, well, you

574
00:30:00,600 --> 00:30:02,600
Speaker 6: guys deserve one point three percent.

575
00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:04,040
Speaker 2: Yeah.

576
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:04,800
Speaker 4: Yeah.

577
00:30:04,840 --> 00:30:09,280
Speaker 5: So when I first saw bad Mouth talking and what

578
00:30:09,480 --> 00:30:11,280
Speaker 5: his posts were on Reddit and stuff like that, I

579
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:14,600
Speaker 5: got really excited because I remember when I was speaking

580
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:17,680
Speaker 5: to my local president and talking to the stewards in

581
00:30:17,680 --> 00:30:20,640
Speaker 5: my area across like a couple of different stations. The

582
00:30:20,760 --> 00:30:23,720
Speaker 5: kind of big question was what do you do when

583
00:30:23,840 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 5: the union breaks your heart? And I guess the answer

584
00:30:27,680 --> 00:30:31,320
Speaker 5: is everything that Badmouth has just talked about, You build

585
00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,360
Speaker 5: a better one. You remind people that there is an alternative,

586
00:30:35,400 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 5: that everything started somewhere.

587
00:30:37,080 --> 00:30:40,360
Speaker 3: And if you go to his first.

588
00:30:40,120 --> 00:30:43,200
Speaker 5: Episode on the From Aid to Arbitration podcasts, he has

589
00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:46,920
Speaker 5: something called the CCA Corner where he's educating the newcomers

590
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,440
Speaker 5: the fresh spaces. He's just talking about horizontal power and

591
00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 5: I was listening to that episode before we had spoken.

592
00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:57,680
Speaker 5: I got so excited just to hear what this person

593
00:30:57,840 --> 00:30:58,760
Speaker 5: was up to You know.

594
00:30:59,480 --> 00:31:01,960
Speaker 6: I tried to say sneak in as many anarchist ship

595
00:31:02,200 --> 00:31:04,880
Speaker 6: without saying I'm an anarchist. I try and sneak as

596
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,680
Speaker 6: much of that ship in as I can. I get

597
00:31:07,680 --> 00:31:10,000
Speaker 6: old heads who have a Trump hat on talking about

598
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:11,240
Speaker 6: anarchist docking points.

599
00:31:11,240 --> 00:31:14,040
Speaker 4: It's it's funny as fuck to me, you.

600
00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:18,760
Speaker 5: Know, who won't break your heart frogs that support this

601
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 5: podcast if you don't buy them, but therefore cannot be.

602
00:31:33,560 --> 00:31:34,880
Speaker 2: Is there anything else you want to talk about with

603
00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:40,480
Speaker 2: arbitration or should we move on to the impending doom

604
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:42,520
Speaker 2: of the post listeners? Yeah?

605
00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:45,120
Speaker 6: I think I think the arbitration there's a whole lot

606
00:31:45,120 --> 00:31:47,719
Speaker 6: of fear mongering and ship I think anyone paying attention

607
00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,600
Speaker 6: to things. We can't get a worse deal is the

608
00:31:50,640 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 6: main point there, and that's that's the whole point of

609
00:31:53,560 --> 00:31:56,000
Speaker 6: the vote no campaign is to just tell people, hey, dude,

610
00:31:56,040 --> 00:31:58,200
Speaker 6: we might as well go down swinging like we're not

611
00:31:58,200 --> 00:31:59,280
Speaker 6: going to get a worse deal than this.

612
00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:01,240
Speaker 4: But that's that's pretty much it for arbitration.

613
00:32:01,600 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, so let's let let's let's move on to the

614
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:05,640
Speaker 2: future of the post office, which I want to take

615
00:32:05,640 --> 00:32:08,600
Speaker 2: a second to mention that like, Okay, look like I

616
00:32:09,120 --> 00:32:11,600
Speaker 2: am not someone who has any respect for the people

617
00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:13,800
Speaker 2: who built the US government. However, if you want the

618
00:32:13,920 --> 00:32:18,800
Speaker 2: US government to like exist, right, the postal service is

619
00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:21,600
Speaker 2: something that was deemed so important that it is like

620
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:23,960
Speaker 2: establishing the postal service is in the main body of

621
00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:28,200
Speaker 2: the constitution. Now freedom of speech right, and like the

622
00:32:28,320 --> 00:32:31,720
Speaker 2: right to free association that is not in the main

623
00:32:31,720 --> 00:32:34,720
Speaker 2: body of the constitution. That is a fucking amendment. Right.

624
00:32:35,120 --> 00:32:37,880
Speaker 2: The people who built the American system thought that the

625
00:32:37,960 --> 00:32:40,960
Speaker 2: postal service was a more important thing to make sure

626
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,000
Speaker 2: to have in the main body of the constitution that

627
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,600
Speaker 2: set up the modern version of the government. Right, they

628
00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:49,840
Speaker 2: thought that shit was more important than like you're right

629
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,280
Speaker 2: to have freedom of assembly, like you're right to not

630
00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:54,920
Speaker 2: literally be grabbed off the street and tortured, which is

631
00:32:54,920 --> 00:32:58,120
Speaker 2: like the Fourth Amendment. Right, So, like you know, in

632
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,560
Speaker 2: the scale of priorities of like how how important is

633
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,240
Speaker 2: the postal service? Like that's how important people who set

634
00:33:03,240 --> 00:33:07,200
Speaker 2: it up thought it was. And those people were not

635
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,560
Speaker 2: very smart and like a bunch of racist slave voters.

636
00:33:10,720 --> 00:33:12,920
Speaker 2: So I would argue it's actually more important than they

637
00:33:12,920 --> 00:33:15,480
Speaker 2: thought it was because they're you know, I mean, like

638
00:33:15,520 --> 00:33:17,960
Speaker 2: obviously their priorities are completely out of whack.

639
00:33:18,080 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 6: But like, I am not a founding father, stand but

640
00:33:21,840 --> 00:33:24,920
Speaker 6: the post office was actually invented by Benjamin Franklin, who

641
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:27,880
Speaker 6: I don't believe owned any slaves, and yeah he was

642
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,040
Speaker 6: really racist, but yeah, oh yeah, I mean, like I know,

643
00:33:32,080 --> 00:33:35,560
Speaker 6: I know that, I know that part. I'm I just

644
00:33:35,720 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 6: I don't think he actually owned anybody, but like that's

645
00:33:38,960 --> 00:33:42,320
Speaker 6: it's a yeah, yeah, and it was started I think

646
00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 6: fifteen years before the Constitution was even written.

647
00:33:45,640 --> 00:33:48,400
Speaker 2: Oh no, he did. He He did own a slave

648
00:33:48,480 --> 00:33:53,440
Speaker 2: as a young man, and I think freed him.

649
00:33:53,880 --> 00:33:54,840
Speaker 4: You know, I was trying to.

650
00:33:54,760 --> 00:33:56,680
Speaker 6: Get the racist bastard a little bit of a win.

651
00:33:56,960 --> 00:34:01,040
Speaker 2: But like we're finding this out live on the so yeah,

652
00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:02,880
Speaker 2: he did for his early life and then became an

653
00:34:02,920 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 2: abolitionist later, which is still bad.

654
00:34:08,920 --> 00:34:14,399
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, that's uh. You know, I'm glad you came

655
00:34:14,440 --> 00:34:16,239
Speaker 4: around eventually, I guess. I don't know.

656
00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,160
Speaker 2: Look, we're finding this out live on the show. Oh

657
00:34:20,160 --> 00:34:22,000
Speaker 2: my god, that was a lot of time of him

658
00:34:22,040 --> 00:34:25,560
Speaker 2: owning slaves. That absolutely, I take that.

659
00:34:26,320 --> 00:34:31,120
Speaker 6: I take back my critical support, uncritical opposition.

660
00:34:34,440 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 3: To help with Brent Franklin teach us that in school.

661
00:34:38,440 --> 00:34:39,919
Speaker 4: To hell with Bent Franklin too.

662
00:34:40,760 --> 00:34:44,920
Speaker 6: Yeah, we're coming in this Trump administration and stuff. And

663
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:47,000
Speaker 6: let me tell you that the situation wasn't really great

664
00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:51,080
Speaker 6: under Biden either, because we have a Postmaster Lewis Dickhead

665
00:34:51,080 --> 00:34:54,640
Speaker 6: to Joy. He was put into place by Donald Trump.

666
00:34:55,040 --> 00:34:58,560
Speaker 6: And you've seen they wanted to slow walk the post

667
00:34:58,560 --> 00:35:02,040
Speaker 6: Office into privatization since the Reagan years, right, and they're

668
00:35:02,080 --> 00:35:07,480
Speaker 6: just slowly chipping away at service and quality. D Joy

669
00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,359
Speaker 6: was connected to XPO, the giant logistics company. He had

670
00:35:11,400 --> 00:35:13,960
Speaker 6: stock and I can't remember what position he held. He

671
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:17,279
Speaker 6: apparently detangled himself from that when he became postmaster.

672
00:35:17,360 --> 00:35:19,040
Speaker 4: But you know, they all say that I don't know

673
00:35:19,160 --> 00:35:22,400
Speaker 4: for sure. I am not an accountant, so I can't.

674
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:23,920
Speaker 2: Do that well and like and like, also I want

675
00:35:23,960 --> 00:35:26,160
Speaker 2: to point out the president of the United States is

676
00:35:26,160 --> 00:35:29,160
Speaker 2: issuing a cryptocurrency like that shit that shit is that

677
00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:30,520
Speaker 2: she is so fake now?

678
00:35:30,840 --> 00:35:33,400
Speaker 4: Like oh god, yeah.

679
00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:35,799
Speaker 6: So like Joy's also got a reputations of just being

680
00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:38,600
Speaker 6: a massive job killer besides looking like a low rent

681
00:35:38,640 --> 00:35:44,480
Speaker 6: spider Man villain. So under his tenure, we've seen service

682
00:35:44,480 --> 00:35:45,640
Speaker 6: take quality.

683
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:46,080
Speaker 4: Take a nose dive.

684
00:35:46,440 --> 00:35:48,040
Speaker 6: And I want to talk about this stuff and this

685
00:35:48,120 --> 00:35:50,359
Speaker 6: might get my ass in trouble, But like I am

686
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:53,640
Speaker 6: tired as a as a letter carrier who loves my job,

687
00:35:54,040 --> 00:35:56,880
Speaker 6: loves saying hi to people in the neighborhood, loves walking

688
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:59,120
Speaker 6: three yards and knowing the names of all the dogs

689
00:35:59,160 --> 00:36:02,839
Speaker 6: on my route, and being the face of the post office.

690
00:36:02,880 --> 00:36:08,280
Speaker 6: It is so frustrating to have people blame the mail

691
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:12,440
Speaker 6: man and the letter carrier for the decline in service

692
00:36:12,600 --> 00:36:15,520
Speaker 6: because we are out there being brutalized by the Post Office,

693
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:20,840
Speaker 6: doing our best and fighting against the degradation of service.

694
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:26,200
Speaker 6: That is a top down problem with leadership in the

695
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:29,320
Speaker 6: post Office. I wanted to outline some of the stuff

696
00:36:29,360 --> 00:36:33,080
Speaker 6: that I have evidence of and have seen firsthand of

697
00:36:33,239 --> 00:36:39,200
Speaker 6: management undercutting the service of the post Office. They willfully

698
00:36:39,200 --> 00:36:42,239
Speaker 6: delay the mail all the time. There's pictures of racks

699
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:45,040
Speaker 6: and racks of DPS. It's assorted letters and they come

700
00:36:45,040 --> 00:36:49,240
Speaker 6: in trays just sitting in a warehouse somewhere, and management

701
00:36:49,800 --> 00:36:52,480
Speaker 6: they will order you on a regular basis to prioritize

702
00:36:52,560 --> 00:36:56,120
Speaker 6: delivering packages over the mail. If it's a big, heavy

703
00:36:56,160 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 6: day and they're looking at labor hours, they will sometimes

704
00:36:58,920 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 6: tell you to not deliver the mail and just.

705
00:37:00,560 --> 00:37:03,280
Speaker 4: Deliver the packages because the packages.

706
00:37:02,840 --> 00:37:04,920
Speaker 6: Have a tracking number, and their boss can get in

707
00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 6: They can get in trouble for that, but they can

708
00:37:07,200 --> 00:37:09,399
Speaker 6: lie and hide the mail for another day.

709
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:11,800
Speaker 4: Like that shit happens all the time.

710
00:37:12,080 --> 00:37:13,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's like can just be like they can

711
00:37:13,640 --> 00:37:15,960
Speaker 2: just be like hiding like your bills.

712
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:19,520
Speaker 6: Yep, or like social Security check yeah yeah, also your

713
00:37:19,600 --> 00:37:22,440
Speaker 6: junk mail. Have you ever have you ever ordered something

714
00:37:22,800 --> 00:37:26,000
Speaker 6: and it says it was delivered but you didn't get it,

715
00:37:26,040 --> 00:37:29,040
Speaker 6: and then it shows up the next day, or it

716
00:37:29,120 --> 00:37:31,359
Speaker 6: says that, oh there's a vacation hold, I didn't put

717
00:37:31,360 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 6: this on hold and then it shows up the next day,

718
00:37:33,160 --> 00:37:34,480
Speaker 6: or you got to go down to the post office

719
00:37:34,480 --> 00:37:35,000
Speaker 6: to get it.

720
00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,640
Speaker 3: Or recently, severe weather delay.

721
00:37:37,880 --> 00:37:40,920
Speaker 6: Yeah, well I mean the severe the severe weather delay

722
00:37:40,920 --> 00:37:43,440
Speaker 6: can happen, but I'm talking What I'm talking about is

723
00:37:43,440 --> 00:37:45,840
Speaker 6: ones where the package didn't make it to the letter

724
00:37:45,880 --> 00:37:48,520
Speaker 6: carrier who's out there delivering. Because this has happened to

725
00:37:48,560 --> 00:37:51,800
Speaker 6: me multiple times, and it didn't make it to me

726
00:37:52,000 --> 00:37:54,400
Speaker 6: before I left the station. But because they want to

727
00:37:54,400 --> 00:37:56,640
Speaker 6: make their numbers look good for their boss, they will

728
00:37:56,680 --> 00:37:59,040
Speaker 6: scan it at the station as if it was delivered

729
00:37:59,280 --> 00:38:01,560
Speaker 6: or as if it's a Jesus yeah.

730
00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:02,440
Speaker 4: So because they.

731
00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:04,680
Speaker 6: Want their numbers to look good, because their entire job

732
00:38:04,800 --> 00:38:08,040
Speaker 6: is life on a spreadsheet. And so then I have

733
00:38:08,120 --> 00:38:10,759
Speaker 6: to I have to talk to my customers the following day.

734
00:38:10,960 --> 00:38:12,919
Speaker 4: But like it said, it is delivered. I didn't.

735
00:38:13,080 --> 00:38:14,759
Speaker 6: I saw you, and you didn't drop it off. I

736
00:38:14,800 --> 00:38:16,920
Speaker 6: was worried someone stole it. What happened. I was like,

737
00:38:16,960 --> 00:38:19,040
Speaker 6: I know exactly what happened. I know what their name is.

738
00:38:19,640 --> 00:38:22,960
Speaker 6: That's some of the service degradation. We've had people in

739
00:38:23,040 --> 00:38:25,239
Speaker 6: other areas catch management throwing.

740
00:38:24,920 --> 00:38:26,440
Speaker 4: Away mail Jesus Christ.

741
00:38:26,520 --> 00:38:29,760
Speaker 6: Yeah, oh yeah, management reprimanding carriers who follow the manual

742
00:38:29,800 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 6: and provide good customer service. Like I've been on the

743
00:38:32,239 --> 00:38:35,319
Speaker 6: phone where I've had my manager call me because I

744
00:38:35,440 --> 00:38:39,319
Speaker 6: was standing in one place for five minutes because I

745
00:38:39,400 --> 00:38:43,319
Speaker 6: was helping an elderly woman move her garbage cans and

746
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:45,799
Speaker 6: helped her get some groceries out of her car to

747
00:38:45,840 --> 00:38:47,880
Speaker 6: bring in. You know, all the stuff that you see

748
00:38:48,160 --> 00:38:50,160
Speaker 6: the good mail man, the reason why people loved the

749
00:38:50,160 --> 00:38:50,840
Speaker 6: post office.

750
00:38:51,120 --> 00:38:51,839
Speaker 4: Shit like that.

751
00:38:52,520 --> 00:38:54,799
Speaker 6: I got told no, you're not doing that, and I

752
00:38:54,840 --> 00:38:56,799
Speaker 6: had another customer come up to say hi to me

753
00:38:57,200 --> 00:38:59,520
Speaker 6: while I was on the phone, and I just stopped

754
00:38:59,520 --> 00:39:02,560
Speaker 6: to say hi as I'm walking by, and my manager

755
00:39:02,760 --> 00:39:05,880
Speaker 6: chewed me out for even talking to the person. They

756
00:39:05,920 --> 00:39:08,080
Speaker 6: don't care about us, and they throw us all under

757
00:39:08,080 --> 00:39:10,239
Speaker 6: the bus all the time. Because if I don't deliver

758
00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:12,839
Speaker 6: a package because they never made it to me and

759
00:39:13,040 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 6: it says delivered, the customer will come and complain at

760
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:16,480
Speaker 6: the post office.

761
00:39:16,640 --> 00:39:19,160
Speaker 4: Management will tell them, Oh, I'll talk to the carrier.

762
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:22,759
Speaker 6: That carrier made a mistake, and it's no carriers do

763
00:39:22,840 --> 00:39:26,719
Speaker 6: make mistakes, but like this intentional degradation of service to

764
00:39:26,800 --> 00:39:30,480
Speaker 6: make the numbers, that blame always goes on the letter carrier,

765
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:34,720
Speaker 6: and it is we love our job. We love our jobs,

766
00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:36,040
Speaker 6: We love our communities.

767
00:39:36,320 --> 00:39:38,400
Speaker 4: I got like I might. I'm gonna start crying if

768
00:39:38,400 --> 00:39:39,279
Speaker 4: I talk about this too much.

769
00:39:39,360 --> 00:39:41,759
Speaker 6: Like I love bringing treats to dogs, like I get

770
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:44,319
Speaker 6: Christmas cards from old folk on my route, like I.

771
00:39:44,960 --> 00:39:49,040
Speaker 4: Know, like I know when the people's birthdays are.

772
00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,040
Speaker 6: And I had an old timer on my route, sat

773
00:39:52,080 --> 00:39:54,239
Speaker 6: outside to say ah to be every day. Suddenly he

774
00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:56,360
Speaker 6: wasn't and his wife was out in the garden and

775
00:39:56,400 --> 00:39:58,839
Speaker 6: I said, where is he? Oh, he passed last night,

776
00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:02,520
Speaker 6: And she starts crying are crying and like I get

777
00:40:02,560 --> 00:40:05,120
Speaker 6: in trouble for taking five minutes to give her a

778
00:40:05,200 --> 00:40:07,040
Speaker 6: hug and talk things through for.

779
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:12,080
Speaker 4: A second, Like it's yeah, sorry.

780
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,160
Speaker 2: This is one of these areas where like delivering the

781
00:40:16,200 --> 00:40:18,480
Speaker 2: mail is a social thing, but the thing is like

782
00:40:18,560 --> 00:40:22,520
Speaker 2: sociality is the enemy of capital, and that's that's the

783
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:24,799
Speaker 2: people who are running the post office that they don't

784
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:27,880
Speaker 2: give a shit about, you know, like the actual social

785
00:40:27,920 --> 00:40:30,360
Speaker 2: bonds and ties that you know, that that are the

786
00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:33,000
Speaker 2: thing that society is supposed to be composed of. Like

787
00:40:33,120 --> 00:40:36,840
Speaker 2: they care about their metrics and them being able to

788
00:40:36,840 --> 00:40:39,200
Speaker 2: make more money in them, you know, being able to

789
00:40:39,239 --> 00:40:42,520
Speaker 2: advance higher in their career ladder. Yes, it reminds me

790
00:40:42,600 --> 00:40:45,120
Speaker 2: a lot of the campaign against the school system, where

791
00:40:45,200 --> 00:40:47,480
Speaker 2: you deliberately other fund things and then you blame the

792
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:49,759
Speaker 2: teachers for why the service is bad, and it's like, well,

793
00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:51,600
Speaker 2: it is not the teacher's fault that there's like forty

794
00:40:51,640 --> 00:40:54,960
Speaker 2: eight kids in a classroom, right, like yeah, you know,

795
00:40:55,040 --> 00:40:57,800
Speaker 2: and there's there's also a very very similar prepatization campaign

796
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,359
Speaker 2: run by a bunch of Australia powerful forces. So let's

797
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:02,719
Speaker 2: go back and talk a bit about like who the

798
00:41:02,880 --> 00:41:06,719
Speaker 2: people are who are doing this and what their sort

799
00:41:06,760 --> 00:41:07,399
Speaker 2: of plans are.

800
00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:10,319
Speaker 6: Yeah, so you have to Joy he's doing that, and

801
00:41:10,360 --> 00:41:12,920
Speaker 6: we have all of these they're starting to some of

802
00:41:12,920 --> 00:41:15,640
Speaker 6: the stuff they're building these I think they're called sdncs.

803
00:41:15,880 --> 00:41:19,800
Speaker 6: It's basically they take a bunch of post offices from

804
00:41:19,960 --> 00:41:22,920
Speaker 6: a metro area and then they make one big distribution

805
00:41:23,040 --> 00:41:27,440
Speaker 6: hub like Amazon. Well that is adding an hour commute

806
00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:30,600
Speaker 6: onto some of these letter carriers. They come in, they

807
00:41:30,640 --> 00:41:32,279
Speaker 6: get to their mail truck, and then they have to

808
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:35,879
Speaker 6: drive their mail truck for an hour to even start delivering. Right.

809
00:41:36,520 --> 00:41:37,480
Speaker 4: It's a huge message.

810
00:41:37,480 --> 00:41:40,520
Speaker 6: It's a huge fiasco, and it feels very intentional because

811
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:43,560
Speaker 6: what's going to happen when they close those facilities built

812
00:41:43,600 --> 00:41:47,279
Speaker 6: by the government down and it starts to privatize. Well,

813
00:41:47,320 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 6: what do you know, Amazon just got a new hub

814
00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:52,040
Speaker 6: or whoever ends up trying to step in. That's a

815
00:41:52,040 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 6: little conspiracy brain But like certain fiascos done by the

816
00:41:56,760 --> 00:42:03,160
Speaker 6: Joys delivering for America, Plane Taylor made to fail for

817
00:42:03,239 --> 00:42:06,879
Speaker 6: the Post Office but work for someone else. And then

818
00:42:06,960 --> 00:42:10,360
Speaker 6: also you have Brian Renfrow, who is the current president

819
00:42:10,440 --> 00:42:13,120
Speaker 6: of the NLC, the one who was telling us that

820
00:42:13,160 --> 00:42:16,439
Speaker 6: our tentative agreement was going to be historic, when all

821
00:42:16,480 --> 00:42:20,200
Speaker 6: it does is help management. He has gone on speaking

822
00:42:20,200 --> 00:42:24,400
Speaker 6: tours lying about this tentative agreement, and everything he says

823
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:27,920
Speaker 6: sounds like management gave him a script. And there's a

824
00:42:27,960 --> 00:42:30,080
Speaker 6: whole lot of theories on that and how when he

825
00:42:30,360 --> 00:42:32,839
Speaker 6: you know, when he loses his position, people have running

826
00:42:32,880 --> 00:42:35,400
Speaker 6: bets on what position he's going to take in the

827
00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:37,160
Speaker 6: Post Office the second he's voted out.

828
00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:39,800
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, he's.

829
00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,160
Speaker 6: The one who's negotiated this whole contract. He used his

830
00:42:42,200 --> 00:42:46,040
Speaker 6: position as president. He iced out everyone from the union.

831
00:42:46,080 --> 00:42:48,280
Speaker 6: He's the only one who talked to the Post Office.

832
00:42:48,920 --> 00:42:52,919
Speaker 6: So this, this tentative agreement is his baby. Wait what yep,

833
00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:56,640
Speaker 6: the executive council What yeah, he didn't tell the executive council.

834
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:57,879
Speaker 2: Well, he didn't have like a bargaining team.

835
00:42:58,000 --> 00:42:59,880
Speaker 6: No, he had a bargaining team that were all of

836
00:43:00,040 --> 00:43:03,319
Speaker 6: outside contractors. He had no one from the union with him.

837
00:43:03,400 --> 00:43:05,680
Speaker 6: What yeah, because he wanted it to be his baby.

838
00:43:06,040 --> 00:43:08,680
Speaker 2: That's so unhiddh. That's like I need to stop here

839
00:43:08,719 --> 00:43:11,400
Speaker 2: for a second because that's like, if your union is

840
00:43:11,440 --> 00:43:14,880
Speaker 2: doing that to you, you need to understand, like, dear listener,

841
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:16,880
Speaker 2: that is not how any of this shit is supposed

842
00:43:16,920 --> 00:43:20,160
Speaker 2: to work. Yep, Like, even even a normal corrupt union

843
00:43:20,680 --> 00:43:23,680
Speaker 2: will have a bargaining team that is composed of like

844
00:43:23,920 --> 00:43:25,840
Speaker 2: it will have a bargaining team that isn't outside contractors.

845
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:27,399
Speaker 2: So there'll be people from inside the union who are

846
00:43:27,400 --> 00:43:29,600
Speaker 2: like the stooges of like whatever sort of management click

847
00:43:29,800 --> 00:43:33,279
Speaker 2: is in power. Like having them all be outside contractors

848
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:36,280
Speaker 2: is one of the most ludicrous things I've ever heard.

849
00:43:37,000 --> 00:43:41,520
Speaker 2: You need to negotiation cutting out. That's so wild, Oh

850
00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:42,000
Speaker 2: my god.

851
00:43:42,080 --> 00:43:42,640
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, no.

852
00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:44,760
Speaker 6: And the thing is, we're coming up on six hundred

853
00:43:44,800 --> 00:43:48,080
Speaker 6: days without a con without a ratified contract, Like he

854
00:43:48,160 --> 00:43:50,040
Speaker 6: has been the only one doing it this whole time.

855
00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,479
Speaker 6: And there's a bunch of shady shit. Okay, So he's

856
00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:56,680
Speaker 6: struggled with alcoholism. I have dealt with addiction. I have

857
00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:00,440
Speaker 6: lost friends to addiction. I have family members struggle with addiction.

858
00:44:01,040 --> 00:44:05,560
Speaker 6: I respect anybody who is going to take care themselves.

859
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:10,120
Speaker 6: But he disappeared for something like fifty days or something.

860
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:16,080
Speaker 6: Didn't tell anybody, He ghosted everybody. He ghosted everybody, And

861
00:44:16,440 --> 00:44:19,160
Speaker 6: this is the early days of negotiation. People stepped in

862
00:44:19,400 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 6: to start negotiating without him. It turns out he had

863
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,799
Speaker 6: gone and checked himself into rehab. But the thing is,

864
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:30,040
Speaker 6: the NLC has two fucking vice presidents. I have all

865
00:44:30,080 --> 00:44:32,279
Speaker 6: the respect in the world for someone to take care

866
00:44:32,280 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 6: of themselves. But when you got two hundred and seventy

867
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:40,960
Speaker 6: seven thousand employees livelihood you're responsible for, and you got

868
00:44:41,120 --> 00:44:43,120
Speaker 6: I don't care if you got cancer, if you got

869
00:44:43,760 --> 00:44:46,440
Speaker 6: an addiction problem, or I don't care what it is.

870
00:44:46,520 --> 00:44:48,640
Speaker 6: If you got to step away to take care of yourself,

871
00:44:48,840 --> 00:44:51,560
Speaker 6: please do that. But put your vice, one of your

872
00:44:51,600 --> 00:44:54,480
Speaker 6: two fucking vice presidents in charge. So what happens is

873
00:44:54,520 --> 00:44:57,800
Speaker 6: someone steps in while he's gone, he comes back, gets

874
00:44:57,880 --> 00:45:02,440
Speaker 6: mad that at them, strips them of their responsibilities, blackballs

875
00:45:02,440 --> 00:45:05,200
Speaker 6: them from the union, and goes back into negotiations all

876
00:45:05,200 --> 00:45:08,240
Speaker 6: by himself, Which is why getting to the next point

877
00:45:08,239 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 6: on this. At the most generous, he is in ept

878
00:45:11,040 --> 00:45:13,360
Speaker 6: as hell. He is in ept as hell and just

879
00:45:13,719 --> 00:45:16,160
Speaker 6: the worst sort of person to be in there. At

880
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:19,480
Speaker 6: the worst, he has corrupt as hell and just DeJoy's stooge.

881
00:45:20,080 --> 00:45:22,480
Speaker 6: And the thing is, we work for the federal government.

882
00:45:22,840 --> 00:45:26,040
Speaker 6: Whether it's malice or incompetence with a federal government, it's

883
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:30,920
Speaker 6: usually both, and it doesn't matter which one it is

884
00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,759
Speaker 6: to me, Whether he's corrupt or just an idiot, it's

885
00:45:33,840 --> 00:45:35,719
Speaker 6: all the same to me because I can't make my

886
00:45:35,760 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 6: fucking rent. So we expect de Joy and the Post

887
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:43,000
Speaker 6: Office to do us dirty. That's their job as management.

888
00:45:43,440 --> 00:45:46,600
Speaker 6: But to have the president of our own union doing

889
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:53,080
Speaker 6: this to us is unacceptable and like it's yeah, yeah, yeah.

890
00:45:53,239 --> 00:45:56,160
Speaker 5: So on that note, that's one of the big pushes

891
00:45:56,280 --> 00:46:01,920
Speaker 5: for the union recently has been to reach open bargaining

892
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,319
Speaker 5: where the membership is actually a part of it. And

893
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:08,520
Speaker 5: that's what to my knowledge, it's one of the major

894
00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:11,840
Speaker 5: issues that the building and fighting an IOC or the

895
00:46:11,920 --> 00:46:15,320
Speaker 5: building better union talks are going towards.

896
00:46:15,880 --> 00:46:18,080
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can you talk about what open bargaining is.

897
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:20,480
Speaker 2: It's a thing that should be the standard for all unions.

898
00:46:20,520 --> 00:46:24,520
Speaker 5: But yeah, I mean, open bargaining is effectively the bottom

899
00:46:24,640 --> 00:46:30,560
Speaker 5: up structure of having your members or even the representatives

900
00:46:30,600 --> 00:46:34,440
Speaker 5: put forward motions that are open to the public and

901
00:46:34,520 --> 00:46:39,040
Speaker 5: open to the membership so that you can effectively ask

902
00:46:39,160 --> 00:46:44,160
Speaker 5: for more or get a different variety of opinions and strategies,

903
00:46:44,360 --> 00:46:47,840
Speaker 5: you know, the duality of power kind of structure. But

904
00:46:47,920 --> 00:46:50,600
Speaker 5: what the Post Office currently has, it's not open bargaining

905
00:46:51,080 --> 00:46:53,759
Speaker 5: or what postal union has. It's not open bargaining. They

906
00:46:53,760 --> 00:46:55,759
Speaker 5: have their own team that they send in. They don't

907
00:46:55,760 --> 00:46:58,759
Speaker 5: talk to the membership. You kind of just elect your

908
00:46:58,760 --> 00:47:02,279
Speaker 5: officials and then they come back with whatever they ended

909
00:47:02,360 --> 00:47:04,560
Speaker 5: up with, and they don't consult with any of their

910
00:47:04,600 --> 00:47:08,600
Speaker 5: bottom line, which is problematic for obvious reasons, including this

911
00:47:08,640 --> 00:47:12,000
Speaker 5: one where someone can go missing for fifty days and

912
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:15,960
Speaker 5: most of the membership has no idea. I've even talked

913
00:47:16,000 --> 00:47:18,839
Speaker 5: to people. I think it was like two or three

914
00:47:18,880 --> 00:47:21,279
Speaker 5: weeks ago. I went to a bar and I ran

915
00:47:21,320 --> 00:47:24,480
Speaker 5: into a letter carrier from the next city over as

916
00:47:24,520 --> 00:47:25,319
Speaker 5: a go did you vote?

917
00:47:25,360 --> 00:47:25,440
Speaker 4: Know?

918
00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:28,600
Speaker 5: And it's like, what are you talking about? He doesn't

919
00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:30,319
Speaker 5: know that there's a vote going on.

920
00:47:31,840 --> 00:47:32,319
Speaker 4: Is out there?

921
00:47:32,600 --> 00:47:33,880
Speaker 2: Yeah? Yeah?

922
00:47:33,920 --> 00:47:35,760
Speaker 4: But yeah, yeah, I guess.

923
00:47:36,360 --> 00:47:39,080
Speaker 6: I mean, like the main objective we want to I'm

924
00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:40,160
Speaker 6: sure we're running at a time.

925
00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:41,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, sorry.

926
00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,520
Speaker 4: I could talk about this shit for days. I mean

927
00:47:44,560 --> 00:47:46,320
Speaker 4: I do. That's pretty much all I do anymore.

928
00:47:47,280 --> 00:47:50,080
Speaker 6: Like Tom was saying, the building of fighting ALC and

929
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:53,000
Speaker 6: pushing for the vote, no thing. The main thing that

930
00:47:53,000 --> 00:47:55,319
Speaker 6: we're wanting is coming on too shows like this and

931
00:47:55,360 --> 00:47:58,320
Speaker 6: getting the public perception of what the letter carrier deals

932
00:47:58,360 --> 00:48:01,120
Speaker 6: with what's going on. Because this Trump's coming in, they're

933
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:03,120
Speaker 6: going to be trying to privatize it like they always do.

934
00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:04,880
Speaker 4: That's already been in the works.

935
00:48:05,080 --> 00:48:08,720
Speaker 6: It's important that the public knows this degradation of service

936
00:48:09,080 --> 00:48:12,600
Speaker 6: is the point of it, and how can the public

937
00:48:12,640 --> 00:48:14,920
Speaker 6: sort of support our fight so we can keep the

938
00:48:14,960 --> 00:48:18,239
Speaker 6: post office. So I wanted to just share a couple

939
00:48:18,360 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 6: of links. If you're a letter carrier and you want

940
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:24,839
Speaker 6: to get involved with reforming things from an electoral end,

941
00:48:25,440 --> 00:48:27,799
Speaker 6: there's the Concern Letter Carriers and you can go to

942
00:48:27,840 --> 00:48:30,840
Speaker 6: Concern Lettercarriers dot com. They're going to be running in

943
00:48:30,880 --> 00:48:33,600
Speaker 6: twenty twenty six to get rid of Renfro if you

944
00:48:33,640 --> 00:48:36,640
Speaker 6: are impatient like me and you can't fucking wait that long.

945
00:48:37,280 --> 00:48:39,600
Speaker 6: And even if you're not a letter carrier, you can

946
00:48:39,880 --> 00:48:42,680
Speaker 6: see how we're fighting with the building of Fighting ANLC,

947
00:48:43,080 --> 00:48:46,160
Speaker 6: which is more of a radical bottom up reform caucus.

948
00:48:46,200 --> 00:48:47,840
Speaker 6: If you want to get involved in that, or you

949
00:48:47,920 --> 00:48:50,040
Speaker 6: just want to kind of get updates from people who

950
00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:53,920
Speaker 6: aren't going to bullshit you, you can go to Fighting

951
00:48:54,200 --> 00:48:57,839
Speaker 6: NLC dot com to check that out. Oh, Tom, did

952
00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:00,720
Speaker 6: you want to talk about the NLC Legislative Action Center.

953
00:49:01,400 --> 00:49:06,000
Speaker 5: Yeah, so we touched briefly on last episode. The NLC

954
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:08,799
Speaker 5: actually can't really use a lot of the money and

955
00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:11,399
Speaker 5: funds from the union itself to lobby or to push

956
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:15,120
Speaker 5: Congress or anything like that, so there are separate organizations.

957
00:49:15,120 --> 00:49:18,000
Speaker 5: There are facets of our organization that do that. You

958
00:49:18,040 --> 00:49:21,759
Speaker 5: can find that at NLC dot org. Specifically, they do

959
00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:24,040
Speaker 5: have a link where you put in new zip code

960
00:49:24,080 --> 00:49:27,120
Speaker 5: and it gives you the appropriate congress member to write

961
00:49:27,120 --> 00:49:30,640
Speaker 5: a letter to and really push them on what to do.

962
00:49:30,719 --> 00:49:30,959
Speaker 3: There.

963
00:49:31,760 --> 00:49:34,640
Speaker 5: You can also donate to their fund if you see

964
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,000
Speaker 5: so fit and are able to do so.

965
00:49:37,560 --> 00:49:40,560
Speaker 6: Yeah, and at that Legislative Action thing is actually pretty

966
00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:43,200
Speaker 6: cool because you don't even have to call. They'll have

967
00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:45,520
Speaker 6: pre filled out things that you can just click, enter

968
00:49:45,560 --> 00:49:47,480
Speaker 6: your email and it'll do it for you. So it's

969
00:49:47,520 --> 00:49:51,040
Speaker 6: a real quick snap. It's the easiest way to harass

970
00:49:51,400 --> 00:49:54,040
Speaker 6: for your congress person aside from drunk dialing Ted Cruz,

971
00:49:54,040 --> 00:49:56,120
Speaker 6: which is my favorite.

972
00:49:56,600 --> 00:49:59,880
Speaker 2: Yeah, we'll have links to all that well, linked to

973
00:49:59,880 --> 00:50:00,840
Speaker 2: all that in the Discover.

974
00:50:00,960 --> 00:50:03,759
Speaker 6: There's one more plug I wanted to make because all

975
00:50:03,760 --> 00:50:06,160
Speaker 6: the fires out in LA right now, because you have

976
00:50:06,239 --> 00:50:09,040
Speaker 6: letter carriers where the post office burned down, and so

977
00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:11,920
Speaker 6: did their house, and now they're they're reporting to duty

978
00:50:12,040 --> 00:50:14,719
Speaker 6: at another post office twenty minutes away to go and

979
00:50:14,719 --> 00:50:19,680
Speaker 6: deliver deliver mail to a devastated neighborhood. Because the thing is,

980
00:50:20,440 --> 00:50:23,760
Speaker 6: when shit happens, whether it's a hurricane or a fire

981
00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:27,920
Speaker 6: or you know, the first people who show up are

982
00:50:27,960 --> 00:50:32,080
Speaker 6: your neighbors or the punks or the punks and mutual

983
00:50:32,120 --> 00:50:35,040
Speaker 6: aid in your neighbors show up, the first person you

984
00:50:35,080 --> 00:50:36,040
Speaker 6: see from the government.

985
00:50:36,040 --> 00:50:38,000
Speaker 4: We're federal employees, were not federal allies.

986
00:50:38,719 --> 00:50:42,040
Speaker 6: But the first hint of normalcy that a lot of

987
00:50:42,080 --> 00:50:46,400
Speaker 6: people get is trying to just hide out and be safe,

988
00:50:46,480 --> 00:50:48,560
Speaker 6: and then they see their mail man walking through their

989
00:50:48,600 --> 00:50:51,000
Speaker 6: fucking lawn trying to deliver to their shit, you know

990
00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:53,839
Speaker 6: what I mean. Like that's important. And we all love

991
00:50:53,920 --> 00:50:55,760
Speaker 6: what we do. We love being a part of the community,

992
00:50:55,800 --> 00:50:59,080
Speaker 6: and we love helping. And sorry, I knew I was

993
00:50:59,080 --> 00:51:00,360
Speaker 6: gonna cry at some fucker point.

994
00:51:00,920 --> 00:51:01,280
Speaker 4: Okay.

995
00:51:01,600 --> 00:51:04,960
Speaker 6: So the NELC is an NLC disaster relief fund. The

996
00:51:05,000 --> 00:51:07,960
Speaker 6: public can donate to it. It's usually letter carriers. We

997
00:51:08,000 --> 00:51:10,440
Speaker 6: all donate to it. And what happens is if your

998
00:51:10,440 --> 00:51:12,879
Speaker 6: house burns down like in LA right now, or if

999
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:16,400
Speaker 6: like you were devastating the fires in in in Hawaii

1000
00:51:16,560 --> 00:51:19,880
Speaker 6: or whatever. When that happens, a letter carrier can apply

1001
00:51:20,440 --> 00:51:22,680
Speaker 6: and as soon as they're approved, which can happen within

1002
00:51:22,719 --> 00:51:24,960
Speaker 6: a day or two, they automatically get sent like a

1003
00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:28,760
Speaker 6: thousand dollars from the fund to just pay for their

1004
00:51:28,800 --> 00:51:31,400
Speaker 6: pay for their hotel or pay for their rent a.

1005
00:51:31,440 --> 00:51:33,320
Speaker 4: Car, and then they get approved.

1006
00:51:33,480 --> 00:51:36,399
Speaker 6: It's not a fix all, but they'll get like they'll

1007
00:51:36,400 --> 00:51:38,680
Speaker 6: get another check after a little bit to help with

1008
00:51:38,680 --> 00:51:41,520
Speaker 6: some of their damages after they make their claim. That's

1009
00:51:41,520 --> 00:51:45,000
Speaker 6: something that normally it's just letter carriers giving to letter

1010
00:51:45,040 --> 00:51:46,960
Speaker 6: carriers so we can all take care of each other.

1011
00:51:46,960 --> 00:51:49,080
Speaker 6: But like the public is allowed to donate to that too.

1012
00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:51,160
Speaker 6: I know there's a lot of you guys have already

1013
00:51:51,160 --> 00:51:53,359
Speaker 6: been talking about a lot of mutual aid stuff at

1014
00:51:53,400 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 6: the beginning of your episodes lately. I just want to

1015
00:51:56,040 --> 00:51:58,480
Speaker 6: plug that one as a mailman specific one. Yeah, I'm

1016
00:51:58,480 --> 00:51:59,120
Speaker 6: sorry for crying.

1017
00:52:00,360 --> 00:52:03,160
Speaker 2: No, No, Yeah, I mean it's emotional.

1018
00:52:04,280 --> 00:52:07,239
Speaker 4: Yeah, that shit sucks, bro, Yeah.

1019
00:52:07,080 --> 00:52:10,480
Speaker 2: It really does. Yeah. Is there anything else that you

1020
00:52:10,480 --> 00:52:12,520
Speaker 2: want to make sure people know before we head off?

1021
00:52:13,040 --> 00:52:16,160
Speaker 5: If I have one thing, it's just help your co workers.

1022
00:52:16,320 --> 00:52:18,040
Speaker 5: You don't have to be a steward. You don't have

1023
00:52:18,120 --> 00:52:21,680
Speaker 5: to be anything. Just find somebody who don't think deserves it.

1024
00:52:21,760 --> 00:52:23,440
Speaker 3: Help them too. I guarantee you.

1025
00:52:23,360 --> 00:52:23,920
Speaker 4: That did he do.

1026
00:52:27,840 --> 00:52:30,320
Speaker 1: It could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.

1027
00:52:30,480 --> 00:52:33,560
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website

1028
00:52:33,640 --> 00:52:37,200
Speaker 1: Coolzonemedia dot com, or check us out on the iHeartRadio app,

1029
00:52:37,280 --> 00:52:39,279
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever.

1030
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:40,279
Speaker 2: You listen to podcasts.

1031
00:52:40,600 --> 00:52:42,520
Speaker 1: You can now find sources for it could Happen Here

1032
00:52:42,560 --> 00:52:45,520
Speaker 1: listed directly in episode descriptions. Thanks for listening.