WEBVTT - The Lost Post Office Union Episode 0:00:01.720 --> 0:00:02.880 Alson media. 0:00:05.000 --> 0:00:07.680 Either snow nor rain, nor heat nor darkness can stop 0:00:07.720 --> 0:00:10.159 the Persian Courier Service. Welcome to dick it Out and 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.360 here a podcast about PUSSTAL Services, who reasked the question 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:18.599 can the American capitalist class finally stop the American Post Office? 0:00:18.920 --> 0:00:21.880 I'm your host, Mia Long and with me to talk 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:25.239 about what is going on with the post Office, what's 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.280 going on with the post office unions, and yeah, how 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.640 things are going downhill for the noble people who carry 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.040 your mail. Is Tommy Espinoza, who's a union steward for 0:00:36.080 --> 0:00:39.560 the National Association of Letter Carriers. Tommy, welcome to the show. 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:42.800 Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:46.520 much for giving us the mail care dollars, the male 0:00:46.600 --> 0:00:48.839 carriers a platform to stand on. 0:00:49.760 --> 0:00:51.720 Yeah, I'm really I'm really happy to you and I'm 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:53.440 really happy to get to talk to you about this. 0:00:54.400 --> 0:00:57.640 So I think the place we should start is with 0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:02.120 a bunch of very very weird stuff in how labor 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:06.399 law works. So okay, for like most people in the 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:08.839 United States, you have a fatally protected right to strike 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.440 if you have a union. That is not true for 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.680 federal employees. That is especially not true for members of 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:20.760 the post Office and that is a real issue because 0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.600 the government has decided that, like, yeah, I know, all 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:26.720 these people who do vital service are not allowed to 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:31.080 go on strike and it absolutely sucks. Yeah. So I 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:35.280 think this gets into sort of where I want to start, 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.080 which is with the sort of history of the National 0:01:38.120 --> 0:01:42.640 Association Letters Carriers, a union that is not allowed to strike, 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.360 and how sort of weird that is. So Yeah, I 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:46.759 was wondering if you could talk a bit about sort 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:49.800 of the origins of the union and what effect that 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:53.800 has had on how organizing works or it doesn't work. 0:01:55.080 --> 0:01:59.960 Yeah, the right to strike has been a rather divisive topic. 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:05.400 I'm sure you're familiar with unions and just generally people 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:09.120 on our side of our side of politics to be 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:16.800 infighting a lot. I shouldn't come to a surprise. So 0:02:16.960 --> 0:02:20.360 in nineteen sixty nine, just over fifty years ago, the 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:23.640 salary for postal workers was under two dollars an hour. 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.600 People were working months straight with no days off, and 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:32.760 those were close to twelve hour days, and so these 0:02:32.800 --> 0:02:38.040 postal workers at the time qualified for welfare and decided 0:02:38.320 --> 0:02:43.000 in nineteen seventy to go on strike despite it being illegal. 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:47.000 This conversation is not new it was illegal then, it's 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:50.600 illegal now. And I do want to be crystal clear here. 0:02:51.080 --> 0:02:55.280 I am not advocating for a strike that would also 0:02:55.360 --> 0:02:58.120 be against the law, and we don't advocate for anything 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:03.400 that's against the law. What I do want to advocate 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:08.400 for is the right to strike, because being quasi federal, 0:03:09.080 --> 0:03:12.640 there's a lot of limitations in what the NLC and 0:03:12.800 --> 0:03:17.800 the general postal unions are able to do. In total, 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:22.120 there are nine bargaining agreements and seven unions within the 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.240 Post Office, some of which are the manager's unions, so 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:31.880 take that as it is. Yet, on top of not 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.560 being able to strike, none of our money that we 0:03:34.639 --> 0:03:38.960 collect as uniondes can be used for lobbying purposes, so 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.480 they can't support a single candidate or any of the 0:03:42.480 --> 0:03:46.280 parties involved. We have a separate fund for that with 0:03:46.400 --> 0:03:50.000 the NLC, called the Letter Carrier's Political Fund, to try 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.840 and circumvent the restrictions that are put on there. And 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.240 as a result of that, it's like we're fighting with 0:03:57.280 --> 0:04:01.760 our hands tied behind our back. We are unable to 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:06.760 organize effectively. Our union leadership seems to be afraid of 0:04:07.480 --> 0:04:13.360 protests and picketing for fear that it'll be misconstrued or 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:17.640 labeled as a strike, and they're I think generally afraid 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:19.000 of public opinion. 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:23.040 Yeah, that's a debilitating set of conditions because you've effectively 0:04:23.080 --> 0:04:27.120 taken away sort of the two major tools that you know, 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:31.400 I mean unions of basically across all political strikes US. Right, 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:34.240 You've taken away the ability to strike. You've taken away 0:04:34.279 --> 0:04:39.240 the ability to use your due's money to influence elections. 0:04:39.360 --> 0:04:42.359 So this immediately means you've taken away the tool that 0:04:42.440 --> 0:04:44.960 sort of militant unions use, which is strikes, and you've 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.360 taken away the tools that more conservative unions use, which 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:51.520 is buying attempting to buy politicians. And then also your 0:04:51.600 --> 0:04:54.360 leadership is like, we can't strike, I mean, we can't 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:56.840 protest because someone might think it's a strike, the public 0:04:56.920 --> 0:04:59.920 might commanditusen. It's like that that doesn't seem I don't 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.039 it really seems like it's like it's not only have 0:05:02.080 --> 0:05:04.200 you tied both hands behind your back, you've like tied 0:05:04.200 --> 0:05:06.640 them behind your back to your legs. You're now rolling 0:05:06.680 --> 0:05:07.960 around on the ground. 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:11.960 Right, And to talk about what happens when we pushed 0:05:12.000 --> 0:05:15.640 past all of these barriers and just do it Anyways, 0:05:16.200 --> 0:05:18.960 you know, in March nineteen seventy, two hundred and ten 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:23.839 thousand postal workers defied law, defied the general leadership of 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.840 the time. And it all started in New York where 0:05:29.000 --> 0:05:35.320 people clocked in and at nine o'clock they just walked out. Soon, 0:05:35.880 --> 0:05:40.599 let's see, it was Cleveland, Chicago, Los Angeles. The nation 0:05:41.080 --> 0:05:44.479 joined very shortly after. Once it broke the news that 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:50.160 they were calling for a national strike. Nixon called in 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.760 the National Guard to try and deliver mail, and the 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:56.760 National Guard had no idea what they were doing. There's 0:05:56.800 --> 0:06:01.520 an amazing video that I'll try and send you afterwards. 0:06:01.720 --> 0:06:06.359 It's just the National Guard at our cases where we 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:10.600 sort the mail. An interviewer is asking him, do you 0:06:10.640 --> 0:06:13.719 think that you're doing a good job. It's just like, no, 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.720 it's just some kid, you know. And don't get me wrong, 0:06:17.800 --> 0:06:22.080 I'm just some guy. But you need the training, you 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.200 need to know what you're doing. And it's not something 0:06:25.240 --> 0:06:27.880 that anyone can pick up in a day, but it's 0:06:27.920 --> 0:06:30.760 a job that anyone can do. But yeah, for the 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.839 first time, the mail had stopped, and that won us 0:06:35.000 --> 0:06:40.080 collective bargaining binding arbitration, which is a process that I 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.359 think most people within unions know what they mean, but 0:06:43.400 --> 0:06:48.240 to explain it, arbitration is what happens when our parties 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:53.680 cannot agree on a settlement for a grievance and eventually 0:06:53.720 --> 0:06:58.120 we call in a third party, an arbitrator to decide 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:01.080 for us, and those are generally lawyers. On top of 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.000 binding arbitration, it gave us a new pay scale and 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:10.120 set in motion. I think over it's got to be 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:13.760 hundreds of raises between the colas and the new pay table. 0:07:14.640 --> 0:07:17.680 It used to be twenty one years for you to 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.960 reach the top pay scale, which is absolutely ridiculous, and 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:27.520 I think it's eight. Yeah. So the Post Office was 0:07:27.560 --> 0:07:30.760 forced to reorganize, and so is the union. This is 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:34.760 where the American Postal Workers Union was born. And from 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:38.640 this strike we were able to settle on the National Agreement. 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:42.760 So there's the National Agreement, which is our binding contract. 0:07:43.520 --> 0:07:48.000 There's the JCAM, which is the Joint Contract Administration Manual, 0:07:48.480 --> 0:07:51.440 which is what the Post Office and the union use 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:55.600 as the interpretation of the contract. That way we are 0:07:55.640 --> 0:08:01.080 not arguing and spending time about the contract could mean 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.360 we can just focus on whether or not someone broke 0:08:04.400 --> 0:08:10.480 our agreement. So after this one would imagine that a 0:08:10.600 --> 0:08:15.520 quasi federal institution would honor the contract that was created, 0:08:16.120 --> 0:08:19.720 argain in good faith and treat their employees. Isn't that right? 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:24.040 Yeah, I know it's spoken like someone who has never 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:25.840 watched the Federal co action. 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:32.719 Yeah. Absolutely not. Before we get into issues that we 0:08:32.920 --> 0:08:35.960 face today, I do want to say that one of 0:08:35.960 --> 0:08:40.840 the main goals of our contract negotiations, or of this 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:47.199 episode really is to create public knowledge of how our 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:50.719 contract is not being adhered to. If there was one 0:08:50.840 --> 0:08:53.679 main goal that I'd have in mind, is just to 0:08:53.720 --> 0:08:57.480 have the Post Office honor what they signed and agreed 0:08:57.600 --> 0:08:59.680 to do. Yeah. 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:03.840 And this is something that that it's a part of 0:09:04.080 --> 0:09:06.560 being in a union that doesn't get talked about very much, 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:09.240 which is that the contract doesn't mean anything unless the 0:09:09.360 --> 0:09:12.520 union enforces it. Because the moment the contract happens, the 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.040 bosses will attempt to not abide by it. And this 0:09:16.120 --> 0:09:18.600 is what a lot of union militancy back in the 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.000 sort of heyday of militancy was. I mean, like, you know, 0:09:21.040 --> 0:09:24.320 if you look at like how the UAW worked in 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.280 like the sixties, right, they'd have a guy with a 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:29.800 whistle standing on the line, and if someone did a 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:32.200 contract violation. He would blow the whistle and everyone would 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:35.040 just sit down and you'd immediately have a strike, right, 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:38.320 and it wor you know, and like that level of miltancy. 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.440 You don't need to get like be at that level 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.840 to enforce a contract, but you have to actually be 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:47.280 willing to do stuff and to fight management over it. 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:49.360 And if you're not willing to do that, your contract 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:53.840 is effectively meaningless. And that's a real issue with a 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:55.240 lot of unions. 0:09:55.559 --> 0:09:57.840 Which just kind of circles back to one of the 0:09:57.840 --> 0:10:00.640 big issues that we face is that if we were to 0:10:00.679 --> 0:10:03.240 do that, that would be a willing for delay of mail, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:08.079 and we could be charged for it just for trying 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:09.720 to enforce the contract. 0:10:10.120 --> 0:10:10.360 Yep. 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.400 Yeah. Which the thing I think is really interesting, just 0:10:15.440 --> 0:10:18.200 to circle back to the nineteen seventy strike, is that 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.920 so the strike was illegal, right, Nixon brings in the 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.200 army and the National Guard to break it, and the 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.560 strike still wins. And not only does it, you know, 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:30.800 I mean you could argue whether it achieved total victory, 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.079 but not a single person who walked off the line 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.559 got arrested, even though all of them technically committed a crime. 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:46.920 And that's something that like you know, I think, okay, 0:10:46.760 --> 0:10:53.280 the enforcements of laws depends on sort of depends on 0:10:53.320 --> 0:10:57.040 a set of relative balance of forces and whether people 0:10:57.120 --> 0:11:00.280 care about enforcing the law, which is how like for example, 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.960 like if you pirate like seven movies and you get 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.760 you get three copyright strike, you go to prison. But 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:11.280 you know, like the sam Altman or whatever like AI 0:11:11.360 --> 0:11:14.560 company can literally steal everything on the entire Internet and 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:16.240 get money for it, and no one will love to 0:11:16.280 --> 0:11:20.920 prosecute him, right, And so so you know, whether or 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:24.520 not something is illegal is to a large extent or 0:11:24.800 --> 0:11:27.320 the difference between something being illegal and you going to 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.720 prison for it largely has to do with the balance 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:33.959 of forces involved. And that's something that you should keep 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:36.400 in mind when and this is this is the thing, 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:38.680 this is the thing that that cuts the other way 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.280 a lot too write like a lot like employers just 0:11:42.400 --> 0:11:45.120 do illegal actions literally all the time, and it doesn't 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:46.680 matter because the state doesn't care. 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.520 Yeah, By and large, labor laws in America are set 0:11:51.559 --> 0:11:56.959 up in favor of the businesses of the employers. If 0:11:57.000 --> 0:12:01.360 you're familiar with workers comp or any of the systems 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:07.440 involved in the Federal Employees Compensation Act, it's not enforced. 0:12:07.760 --> 0:12:13.400 We have cases that are pending arbitration where someone's been 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:17.880 run over by a worker has been run over by 0:12:17.960 --> 0:12:23.199 a postal vehicle while they were working. The post Office 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.920 effectively takes them off of payroll to increase the damage 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:33.480 done to the individual. Eventually, the Department of Labor says, yes, 0:12:33.720 --> 0:12:36.760 we will pay this individual, and the post Office is 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:39.960 liable to pay them. But now they are off the rolls, 0:12:40.000 --> 0:12:43.920 which means there's a greater period of time before this 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:48.440 individual gets their money. And there's a certain form that 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:51.600 within the post Office the managers need to fill out. 0:12:51.640 --> 0:12:54.520 I believe it's an eighty one thirty or you know. 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:57.480 All these forms have some numbers associated with them that 0:12:57.520 --> 0:13:00.760 they just refuse to fill out. And there's no recourse, 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:06.480 there's no cheez path for us to take to make 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:09.679 them hurry or make them get this individual the money 0:13:09.679 --> 0:13:14.240 that they're owed. And some people this doesn't ruin their 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.199 lives and they've already paid off their house or whatever. 0:13:17.360 --> 0:13:24.120 But I imagine for many many working Americans that's that's their 0:13:24.160 --> 0:13:26.560 livelihood immediately down the drain. 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:31.079 Yeah, unfortunately, we need to go to ads for a 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:37.880 little bit because unfortunately my boss's boss's boss's livelihood depends 0:13:37.920 --> 0:13:40.680 on these ads. Buying technically does too, but like Lord knows, 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:58.200 I don't see that money. So ads, we are back, 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:01.360 And yeah, I guess that leads into the next place 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.120 you want to go to, which is talking about what 0:14:03.800 --> 0:14:08.120 are the specific grievances today that y'all are dealing with 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:10.280 and the union is not dealing with. 0:14:12.160 --> 0:14:16.360 Right So, in terms of grievances within the union and 0:14:16.600 --> 0:14:19.160 our negotiation, a lot of it does have to do 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:24.360 with the aforementioned workers' compensation. Employees are just simply not 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:30.880 getting paid. I think the biggest problem with the union 0:14:30.920 --> 0:14:34.480 and the grievance procedure today is that management has figured 0:14:34.480 --> 0:14:39.040 out this really effective strategy. If they don't settle on 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.360 the lower levels and it gets pushed up to arbitration, 0:14:43.080 --> 0:14:49.480 then we have a massive backlog of cases appending arbitration, 0:14:50.320 --> 0:14:54.480 which could be scheduled years out. I think if you 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:58.480 do the math for our current rate of handling these 0:14:58.560 --> 0:15:03.520 cases and how many cases we have, it'll take around 0:15:03.520 --> 0:15:05.080 fifteen years to get through the. 0:15:05.040 --> 0:15:07.360 Long christ not assuming there's no new ones. 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.320 Yeah, yeah, that's like you know when you go to 0:15:11.360 --> 0:15:13.600 a restaurant and there's that little stanchion out there that 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.200 says it's a five hour wait from this point. That's 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:21.280 the point that we're at. Anything beyond today, we'll be 0:15:21.400 --> 0:15:28.360 further along Jesus Christ. And so I think that is 0:15:29.760 --> 0:15:36.320 just a major problem for us. Clearly. Yeah, management is 0:15:36.400 --> 0:15:40.080 not complying with any of this, and it makes us 0:15:40.080 --> 0:15:44.560 so that our employees have to wait. Something I do 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:47.320 want to talk about that's outside of the grievance procedure 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:50.320 if we can, is just what's going on with the 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:56.640 post Office and the Postmaster General. Yeah, all right, So 0:15:57.720 --> 0:15:59.880 I want to go at this from the customer perspective first. 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:01.880 I think that's the best way to relate to people. 0:16:02.240 --> 0:16:04.400 I think by and large, people are losing faith in 0:16:04.440 --> 0:16:07.520 the post Office. Either you have no idea what's going on, 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:11.360 or you don't care. And that's fine, I'd say. Before 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:15.040 I joined, I didn't think of them at all. You know, 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:17.120 they're just the guy that shows up at my house 0:16:17.160 --> 0:16:19.760 every morning. A lot of people seem to think that 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.320 the post Office is going out of business, and our 0:16:23.360 --> 0:16:29.480 customers are facing increasingly long lines, misdelivered or lost mail, 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:32.480 and an increase in postage for a service that is 0:16:32.520 --> 0:16:37.640 getting worse. People are paying more for worse service, and 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:41.000 it's easy to point out those issues from the outside 0:16:41.040 --> 0:16:44.320 and be rightfully upset at them. I do feel like 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.480 we're doing a disservice to our customers, and I'm not 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:50.280 really not trying to attack them when I say that 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:55.320 they're uninformed or clueless to the inner workings of the 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:59.880 Post Office. I do directly want to attack Congress and 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:05.359 say that, yeah, when they posted, they had pushed forward 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.919 a bill called the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act in 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.439 two thousand and six, which required the Post Office to 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:15.399 prefund one hundred percent of its retiree health benefits and 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:20.960 liabilities seventy five years into the future. What so, overnight, 0:17:21.760 --> 0:17:24.840 the Post Office was handed a five point five billion 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.879 dollar burden. And that's where the whole I don't know 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.119 if you remember, I certainly wasn't conscious of it at 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.920 the time, to save our post office stickers that were 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:38.719 being sold and trying to fund the post Office, and 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:41.800 really that's where the rhetoric of the Post Office is 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:44.960 going under comes from. The Other thing I want to 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.720 point out is that we are quasi federal. We actually 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:51.520 accept nothing from tax payer monies. It says it's a service, 0:17:51.560 --> 0:17:55.359 but really the post officees ran as a business. We 0:17:55.400 --> 0:18:00.080 don't even get subsidized because they don't need to. My 0:18:00.520 --> 0:18:03.600 local union president loves to remind us that the post 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:05.919 Office is a business that has a revenue of seventy 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:09.280 eight point two billion dollars, and he'll want me to 0:18:09.320 --> 0:18:12.600 stress that the point two is extremely important because point 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:15.840 two of a billion is twenty million. They are not 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:21.400 in jeopardy. We are not going out of business. And 0:18:22.320 --> 0:18:26.800 the Postmaster General, Louis de Joy, he's the second highest 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:31.080 paid public servant in America, just underneath the President of 0:18:31.119 --> 0:18:33.080 the United States. 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:34.920 He's played Ward and Clarence Thomas. 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:38.320 Wow. Yeah, I think it was like three hundred and 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:42.359 eighty thousand a year or something like that. The Joy 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:46.920 was appointed by Donald Trump. I'm assuming this is kind 0:18:46.920 --> 0:18:49.840 of a baseless assumption, So forgive me. I'm not doing 0:18:49.880 --> 0:18:53.320 my research here, but I'm assuming that they're buddies because 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:54.479 d Joy has no idea. 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:57.160 Yeah, it wasn't she the guy that Trump brought in, 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:00.399 like specifically to destroy the post Office as part of 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:02.320 the campaign to steal the election. 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:07.320 Yeah, so there's been a lot about the Joy defrauding 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:11.879 the election process. I wasn't part of the post office 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.480 to see the inner workings of it, so it's kind 0:19:14.480 --> 0:19:16.280 of hard for me to say if it was hearsay 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:18.920 or not, but I believe it because de Joy has 0:19:18.960 --> 0:19:21.600 no idea how to run a post office. He's never 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.000 been involved with this kind of business. He is, in 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:29.320 the same way that Trump is a businessman, a horrible businessman, 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:34.240 and his Delivering for America plan could really be redefined 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:38.440 as consolidation efforts for a business. So what they're doing 0:19:38.600 --> 0:19:43.200 is they're consolidating infrastructure and the workforce, which means closing 0:19:43.240 --> 0:19:46.720 post offices in order to save money and shoving three 0:19:46.760 --> 0:19:52.000 installations into one building. That's why the lines are getting longer. 0:19:52.480 --> 0:19:56.199 It also means that from dispatch the employees have to 0:19:56.280 --> 0:20:00.560 drive an extra mile or two into their working zone, 0:20:01.320 --> 0:20:03.720 which of course means that we're going to go into overtime. 0:20:04.600 --> 0:20:08.040 And this just throws a wrench in the mail handling process. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.960 He has single handedly made the service a lot more reliable, 0:20:13.000 --> 0:20:17.400 and I do think that you're right. Irreliable, yeah, sorry, 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:21.800 more unreliable, And I do think that you're right. He 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:25.280 wants to destroy the post office, not only for the election, 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:29.040 but to the point where it makes more sense to 0:20:29.119 --> 0:20:31.880 go private. Now is the time to point out that 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:35.919 the Joy is a major shareholder in FedEx, which is 0:20:36.119 --> 0:20:42.080 christ which is a subcontractor for the USPS, and he 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:46.200 has millions of dollars in equity involved. He's got skin 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:46.720 in the game. 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:50.280 Love open corruption so great. 0:20:51.200 --> 0:20:54.800 And so on the local level, on what's going on 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:58.440 in my office, I actually have one of the better 0:20:58.480 --> 0:21:01.679 offices that I've seen are heard about. I have been 0:21:01.720 --> 0:21:05.359 sent to other offices, and I have experience firsthand the 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:11.159 bullying and harassment from management pushing us to go faster. 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:16.000 But even at one of the better offices, I work 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.040 sixty hour weeks. I don't have set days off. It's 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:23.520 not even a rotation. When I get home, I'm spent. 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.600 And my commute isn't that bad. I think I'm about 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:30.840 fifteen minutes each way. And I really can't imagine driving 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:34.760 two hours after an eleven hour shift just to eat 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:36.560 and come back and do it again. 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:38.760 I mean, that's just unsafe. 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:43.399 Like let's say, oh, yeah, it would be illegal, but 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:47.359 since it's in the contract, it's not illegal. Oh my god. 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.199 So the sacrifice that you make when you're joining the 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.199 post Office. Well, I guess I should explain. When you 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:58.119 join as a letter carrier, the first ninety days, they 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:02.680 can fire you for any reason, and you're something called 0:22:02.720 --> 0:22:06.440 either a CCA or a PTF, and that means part 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.080 time flexible or a city carrier assistant. You are only 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:14.199 guaranteed four hours for showing up for work. You're not 0:22:14.240 --> 0:22:17.680 guaranteed to be scheduled. So if they don't like you, 0:22:17.720 --> 0:22:21.840 they just will schedule schedule you once a week for 0:22:22.080 --> 0:22:24.920 an unknown amount of time until you quit. And if 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:26.800 you're in a busy place, then that just means that 0:22:26.840 --> 0:22:29.159 they're going to work you to death. So when you 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:33.359 join the workforce, immediately you lose time with your family. 0:22:33.480 --> 0:22:35.879 You lose time with your loved ones and your friends. 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:39.880 And I myself, am so fortunate that all my loved 0:22:39.920 --> 0:22:43.560 ones have been beyond understanding. But every time I talk 0:22:43.600 --> 0:22:48.200 about it, I get asked the same thing, why don't 0:22:48.200 --> 0:22:54.160 you quit? And the truth is this job is awesome. 0:22:54.320 --> 0:22:56.800 I love it, I want to work it. I just 0:22:56.840 --> 0:22:59.800 want it to make sense and be livable, and I'm 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:04.280 not gonna give up just because we haven't reached the 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:06.960 point where it is. You know, if you walk away. 0:23:07.040 --> 0:23:09.240 Now it doesn't get better. I'm sure someone would take 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:13.480 my place, but it helps to have people stick around. 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:25.679 That's actually a pretty commedy. I mean, this is one 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.119 of the amazons shredch right for from their warehouses. They 0:23:29.320 --> 0:23:32.399 intentionally want to cycle through people because the more the 0:23:32.400 --> 0:23:35.160 more new people you have continuously cycling through, the less 0:23:35.240 --> 0:23:38.199 organized and the less sort of like must knowledge, they 0:23:38.240 --> 0:23:39.960 have less you have to pay them, et cetera, et cetera, 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.600 et cetera. And so if you can just cause high 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:46.800 turn off rates on purpose, that's that's the thing that 0:23:46.840 --> 0:23:50.880 a lot of these sort of business google like Nightmare 0:23:51.080 --> 0:23:57.000 factory people love in their workforces and makes everyone else's 0:23:57.040 --> 0:24:01.200 life just a living hell. But you know, they're still 0:24:01.200 --> 0:24:02.040 getting paid. 0:24:04.040 --> 0:24:07.200 Right, And so I try and hold that in mind. 0:24:07.400 --> 0:24:10.320 When I've been overworked and I'm at the end of 0:24:10.359 --> 0:24:14.000 one of my major shifts because I had to carry 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:17.880 part of another route because someone else called out, I 0:24:17.880 --> 0:24:20.679 really have to stop and think to myself that this 0:24:20.760 --> 0:24:24.920 other person who called out is just as exhausted as 0:24:24.960 --> 0:24:29.080 I am is probably going to get a letter of 0:24:29.080 --> 0:24:32.240 warning for calling out. That's another issue. They don't want 0:24:32.240 --> 0:24:36.040 you to use your leave Jesus Christ. I'm going to 0:24:36.119 --> 0:24:39.080 file an unfair labor practice because they've been doing that 0:24:39.119 --> 0:24:40.200 a lot at my office. 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:40.920 Oh my god. 0:24:40.920 --> 0:24:45.000 As well. It reminds me a lot are issues of 0:24:45.280 --> 0:24:48.560 your recent episode. I think it was you about the 0:24:48.640 --> 0:24:53.520 nurses Union, the shift change episode. Their members are dealing 0:24:53.560 --> 0:24:56.119 with a lot of the same things, where the unions 0:24:56.160 --> 0:25:00.560 are so big that they become detached from the me membership, 0:25:00.720 --> 0:25:06.480 and we are finding out afterwards what our bargaining agreements are, 0:25:06.600 --> 0:25:11.960 what our strategy was. Everything's after the contract has been signed, 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:15.399 and that's just not how unions were meant to be. 0:25:15.560 --> 0:25:19.120 They're meant to be from the bottom up, by the workers, 0:25:19.160 --> 0:25:22.800 for the workers. But it really does feel like it's 0:25:23.520 --> 0:25:26.840 like national is its own entity. And so I guess 0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:30.240 that would bring us to talking about the union and 0:25:30.800 --> 0:25:31.879