State Convention pt3:
All right, this stuff take places on Saturday after the contract update from Secretary Treasurer Nicole Rhine. I’m going to hit this in a timeline style like it is in my hastily scrawled notes, but I’ll try to make it make more sense; these notes are a wreck. I’m going to use lines to help section things off a bit to help organize and so you don’t just have a wall of text. Here we go!
We’re all gathered in a long, rectangular conference room with rows of tables. Tables accommodate two people at a time and they have the place covered in tables to accommodate as many people as can show up. There’s water at the back, a bathroom nearby, and everyone has their notepads at the ready; we’re set to be here awhile while we drink from the fire hose.
NBA David Teegarden took over with the official introduction of our regional office members and their official job duties. This was great because I didn’t know these people or what their jobs were, so having it lined out made it feel like I knew who was on my team. There are a few newer people in your branch getting involved with Union biz too, so this helps us get to know folks as well.
Up next was Samantha Hartwig, our regional OWCP specialist. She went into detail on the CA-7 form for wage loss through the Ecomp portal for the Department of Labor. That OWCP stuff is confusing and dense, and there are a million things to know, so her presentation focused on this one thing that can be a little confusing to members. When you get injured on the job you want to make sure you’re still getting paid, and the CA-7 helps get that done in certain situations.
This was great because we’ve had a few members need this information previously, and now that we’re all a little more familiar with the process we can help more. This subject is something I’d like to learn more about because it is as transparent as a brick wall, and can be very confusing and intimidating working through. Any time there’s OWCP training it’s easy to say, “That’s it?” because there’s always so much more information before and after it, but we’re very thankful for one more piece of the puzzle studied.
The Emergency Response team came next to brief on who they are and what they do. When there is a traumatic event that happens in an office, this team comes in to help carriers cope with the trauma and get the office into a functioning place again. They come to provide emotional support and resources to help carriers get their mental health right. This program was inspired by something the Steelworkers’ Union has in place, and the NALC wanted to implement something similar. It’s a very new program, maybe six months old, and the people speaking there on its behalf wanted to illustrate that there is a program in development for letter carrier mental health. It’s good to see something like this in our Union, even if it is just starting out.
The Auxiliary Union local leader came to speak next! There were so many names and people coming and going I had a hard time keeping up, so I didn’t get her name down, but the Auxiliary Union is actually very rad. The Auxiliary Union is made of of the families of letter carriers who can do all the activism that letter carriers cannot.
Consider all the ways that letter carriers can’t publicly get active in politics, go door knocking, make calls, go to rallies, all that stuff: the Auxiliary Union can. They are made up of passionate members who serve their families along side the NALC with creative solutions to engage the public and legislative partners. The first time I learned of this was at the National Convention, and it was humbling to hear there were families out there representing letter carrier husbands and wives, friends and more. Check out more info here, it’s a beautiful thing.
Political Legislation with Anthony Mitchell came next. He was introduced as the man who “makes political legislation sexy,” and he didn’t disappoint, haha! During his presentation he broke down all the bills in the government related to letter carriers, how they affect, us, and how to get involved. Anthony made it very approachable and comprehensive, even making lists of political candidates this year and how they have or have not supported carriers.
Moreover, Anthony made it clear that politics aren’t an option for us. We are a government agency with many enemies on Capitol Hill that can erase our jobs with a pen stroke. Unfortunately for us, we have to play the political game, we can’t rely on public opinion alone, and he outlined how we do that. One of the best lines during his presentation went like this, “If you’re not seated at the bargaining table, you’re the meal.” Yeah, that goes for us too, so the NALC needs the money to have a seat at the table or our jobs could get eaten up, get it?
He spoke about the importance of getting educated on the scene this November and presented us with the opportunity to give to the Letter Carrier Political Fund. There’s a lot more to be said about that, but in essence, he have us a very powerful tool for the NALC to help legislation that positively affects us that doesn’t require us to do a ton of work. Nice trade if you ask me. I’ll try to get something written up about the Letter Carrier Political Fund when I get more information to share.
Crystal Quade came as a guest speaker next and made a great presentation. She represented her ideas well and spoke about her experiences that have informed her political goals and ideas. I highly recommend checking her platform and comparing it to other candidates and make the most informed decisions you can this political season.
Just remember: some people rely on reducing complex social issues into a single picture with snarky text over it to inform their political beliefs. Don’t let that be you. Get good information and education for the line-up this year and vote!
Next was a very dense segment about LMOU negotiations. Whenever a contract is settled there is an opportunity for local memorandums of understanding to be implemented for local operations. This was all stuff that was brand new to me and it went into the deep end quick. It was obvious the regional team has a ton of experience dealing with this, and actually had some wild stats to back it up.
Your local team has some things we want to address through the LMOU process, so we were scrawling notes like crazy and getting blasted in the face full force by the information fire hose. I could tell many of us were out of our element, but that was the whole point; the regional team wanted to empower us to take action and get to work on some LMOU provisions.
We’re fresh out of the convention, so I don’t have any info on the local stuff, only that that presentation was my first brush with it. This lesson was a long one, so we spent the rest of the day talking about this, strategies, and the process of how it all works.
There was a lunch break in there in which I got to hang with branch members and chat over a nice pizza, and after the day there was a long hang session over some cajun food! The restaurant at the waterfront had live music you could hear all around the resort, and the sunset was beautiful. It was a good day, and at long last we got some rest.
I don’t know how, but we all agreed sitting in a classroom setting studying all day was exhausting, haha.
That’s it for Saturday, there was a ton to cover and this article tried to touch on a little of all of it. Sunday is up next, and it was much shorter, so stay tuned.