Classes of Mail

On this episode, recorded in my hotel room at the convention in Boston, I got to talk to John Murphy. He's something of a legend in these parts, because as a CCA, he and a handful of others WALKED OUT on an Amazon Sunday and didn't get fired. You'll hear his story, hear about his union roots, and about the labor movement more broadly.

To read the story of John's walkout, follow the link below:

https://labornotes.org/2022/09/florida-letter-carriers-won-back-our-sunday-breaks-direct-action

In this episode, the candidates for president, executive vice president, and vice president (THAT'S ME!), get together to go over our platform for the upcoming Branch 2502 election. If you're a carrier in our branch, I would urge you to listen to the ways we want to transform the branch, bringing transparency and accountability back to the hall. If you're outside of the branch, I'm sure you'll still find the topics and issues from Branch 2502 relevant and interesting to your own branch.

We're back to normal episodes. This week will kick off Season 4's objective of making sure we treat each other well. The NALC Constitution governs the way our union will run, from the national level down to the branch level. In this episode, we'll read through the first four articles, which cover the basic setup of the union, and the rules surrounding the biennial convention.

Some of the best minds in the NALC are at the national convention, and I was lucky enough to have two of them on the podcast. In this episode, we will learn A TON about handling grievances, making good arguments, and making yourself discipline proof. This conversation was truly one of the highlights of the convention for me.

A very tired Michael Brasaemle and I sit down to decompress after the conclusion of the NALC convention in Boston. We'll give our general take-aways, we'll talk about what the experience was like for a first-timer (me) and a second-timer (Michael), and we discuss the social aspects of being here.

Tyler Vasseur and I got a chance to sit down on Thursday morning at the NALC convention. We talked about the driving issues of the Build a Fighting NALC (BFN) movement, chief of which is "Open Bargaining." On this episode, we'll learn how the movement started, what it's accomplished, and where it's going.

Fred is a branch president from Ohio, and he's the host of the Delivering Solidarity podcast. We'll talk about what it's like to be a union president, and we talk about the importance of communicating with your members. As a nice bonus, we talk a bit about podcasting itself.

Holy crap, I got to have Corey Walton on Classes of Mail! We talk about the value of educating our fellow carriers, and the need to have a union that's ready to fight management. And, starting at the 5:30 mark, Corey endorsed me for vice president of Branch 2502. Not too shabby!

The convention is awesome! I finally got to meet Marcie Miller, a master facilitator, Carrier Academy instructor, and an on-the-job instructor. We had a great discussion about the academy, our shared passion for teaching, and how to do right by our new employees.

I got to talk to David Grosskopf! He's a fantastic president who fights for his fellow carriers, and fights for his community. In this episode, we talk about his resistance to the plan to move mail processing from Buffalo to Rochester. He engaged his own members, the APWU, politicians, the media, and the public, AND HE WON! We finish by talking about the lessons the NALC can learn on a national level.