This is a test.
This is an interview at a normal tone of voice from about four inches away.
This is a test.
Interview at a normal tone of voice from about four inches away.
This is a test.
This is a test at a normal tone of voice from about six inches away using the shotgun mic.
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test.
This is a test.
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This is a toast.
This is Upon you.
No, he doesn't.
He's a good man.
All right, let's get out of here, boy.
We're going up with him.
Hang on.
What's up, Mike? Well, we'd like to meet you.
I bet you're all in tonight, but...
Unfortunately, we don't have no family.
You can come get me, so we can remember you.
Hey, Tommy, man, I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
I love you.
Where are they going to get a good parent -type of work? The only job that you can get in a post -war society.
They're better off with a good parent -type of work.
That's true.
My purpose for being out here is that I'm concerned about my job, which is normal.
I feel that management is not going to be able to do that.
Management is beginning to put too much pressure on me.
I'm a willing worker.
I'm concerned about productivity.
But for what's happening under the work conditions, I can't take it anymore.
Inflation is threatening me.
I'm making a living wage at the moment, and yet management is questioning that.
Management says I should make less.
I should do more and make less.
Well, no, no.
Inflation is jumping 4, 6 % a year, and I get a 7 % raise increase? No, no.
At the moment, I'm making $15 ,000.
Gross, gross.
All right, that's a living wage in the city of Chicago with the rent situation, the transportation situation, food costs? No, no.
I do want anything for nothing.
I'm willing to work for it, but I feel that I should be giving equal return for my efforts.
Other than that, I have nothing more to say.
Would you like to say a few words about working conditions at the post office? They're grubby.
They're physical.
They're sweaty.
Many times there's a personal degrading situation where you're considered as a nothing.
Management deals with me as a zero.
My opinion, my experience, my knowledge of the particular work situation is never taken into consideration.
Too many times I'm given orders that are stupid, stupid.
I have to fulfill them.
I have to do it.
Otherwise, I'm given labor suspension.
No, no, that's not right.
Especially when it's snowing, snows up to your hips, and they come along and tell you to do something out in the street while they are sitting indoors, indoors.
What else can I say? This is just not acceptable.
Do you think we'll have a contract by July 20th? No, no, no, no.
It may have an extension.
They may go to August.
I think that they'll bring a contract into the national convention, but the membership won't vote on it.
The clerks, we, I'm a letter carrier.
I belong to the Letter Carriers Union.
We're having our national convention July 30th, August 4th.
The clerks are having their national convention in Denver in mid -August.
We all have to vote on it.
I don't think any action, any contract will be resolved until maybe Labor Day.
That's my own personal views, what I would call logical, other than that.
So what's going to happen July 20th when we have no contract? If there's a walkout, it won't be until, it will be a Wildcat walkout, and it probably won't be until first week of August, because people will him and ha, there'll be all types of decision making.
It's not easy to stop work, give up your paycheck, and go out on your own.
A lot of us live day to day, unfortunately.
A lot of us have responsibilities, mortgages, children, car payments, and we haven't had the foresight perhaps to score away resources.
So there'll be him and ha, and then probably maybe in August we'll say, hey, enough is enough.
They're not listening to us.
They're not taking us serious, and then we'll put our foot down.
But it will be sporadic, that I'm sure of.
I think it'll make a difference.
Nationwide, no.
In urban centers, yes, if we do it.
We have to do it in urban centers, because that's our strength.
All mail nowadays comes through major distribution centers that are located in urban areas, and that's what's going to make the difference.
And if we can get the clerks together with the mail handlers and the letter carriers to say, no, no more work, then it will have an effect, because it will put strangleholds on the mail.
It will bottleneck it.
Urban centers at the moment are like funnels.
All the mail comes into a certain location and then is redistributed through regional distribution systems.
Okay, thank you.
My pleasure.
We're out here because we want some respect from the President of the United States, okay? We want him to treat us like he treated the mine workers.
The mine workers ended up with over 40 percent as far as their benefit package is concerned, and the President is telling postal workers that we're supposed to be satisfied with 5 .5, and that's somewhat ridiculous.
We have the, I would say, the worst grievance procedure in the country, okay? We have people who are being, we have career employees with 10, 15 years of service who are being forced to work overtime, forced to work the holidays, and well, now is the time to voice those complaints, and we just can't take that anymore.
You know, we don't want no three -year contract, and we want our negotiators to know that if they come up with a bad contract, we're going to turn thumbs down on it.
Simple as that.
Do you think there will be a contract by July 20th? No.
I really don't.
I really don't.
I definitely do not think there will be.
Now, they may come up and attempt to extend the old contract, which I hope they don't do.
They may end up saying that we have initialed a package, which I still won't believe, you know, but for the most part, I really don't expect a contract by the 20th, primarily because the postal negotiators have been stalling for the last two months, and they have been, well, my local president and I, excuse me, we went to Washington three weeks ago, come to find out they were only negotiating one day a week, you know, and how can you get a contract negotiating one day a week? Now we're down to the nitty -gritty time, and they're saying that, well, we have a mediated end on it.
They think that's going to help, you know.
For the most part, they're bargaining in bad faith, and it's up to the rank and file to let them know that, you know, we don't want no crap.
Simple as that, you know, and hopefully all of the rank and file, they have to put their bodies on the line now and stand up.
We want to continue to have that bad, that natrocious, grievous procedure.
Sit on your hands.
If you don't, get out here with the rest of the people, you know.
Come out and let you put your feet out here in the street, you know.
So what do you think is going to happen when there's no contract July 20th? I think, well, I hate to really second -guess our president, the national president, or the negotiators, but whatever it is that they come up with, I hope it's worthwhile.
Just don't give us, don't expect us to turn over and play dead, because if nothing else, I would like to see the postal workers vote a contract down once, and this may be the very one to do it.
Because as people have been saying on the line, postal management think that we are machines, and we're not machines.
And if they take us for granted like that, the main thing that we have is the right to turn that contract down and to send a message to Mr.
Carter that there's a Jerry Brown in California.
And I take it for granted that Jerry Brown would love to have the support of postal workers at the national level and all the locals that we represent, because Mr.
Carter could have a fight come 1980.
Now, I'm not saying that it will happen, but, well, I like the way Jerry Brown talks.
He has not turned against postal workers.
He has not been throwing out propaganda against postal workers, propaganda like what was in the media yesterday saying that postal workers, how high they are paid and this type of thing.
But I still would tell Mr.
Carter, he didn't tell the coal miners that.
He did not tell the mine workers that.
So don't make us scapegoats.
Don't take advantage of us like that.
Don't disrespect us like that.
Labor went all out in voting for Carter.
I think that, I hope he hasn't forgotten where he came from.
Because if he has, I'm sure a lot of people will be willing to send him back.
What issues do you think people are going to look at besides the money when they're deciding on the contract? Well, I think they will be concerned about a security package.
I have seen five women at my facility that were fired and told that they had to go through the grievance procedure.
I've heard about instances at the BMC and down here at the main where people have been put off the clock.
So I think as a whole, I think all of the workers are concerned about a security package.
Yes, they're concerned about money.
They're concerned also about that coal rolling.
They're concerned about that grievance procedure.
We have got to correct that grievance procedure.
Too many people, they're tired of being told what to do with no recourse.
And mandatory overtime, that's crazy.
We have teenagers out here that need jobs.
We have women out here that need jobs.
We have men who are still with their families that need jobs.
And we in the post office are seeing forced overtime, mandatory? No, let's do some hiring.
And I think if we do some serious hiring, we can take care of the unemployment problem.
Anything else you want to say? The problem is...
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