Rene Eberhardt

This episode features state president, Rene Eberhardt. She is a member of Branch 1681, Casper, Wyoming.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to the History of Female Leadership in the NALC podcast. I'm Craig Schaefer. I'm a city carrier from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, branch 1015. Today I am honored to have a sister from Wyoming. If you don't mind, go ahead and introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:37

Hello, I'm Renee Eberhardt. I am in Casper, Wyoming, branch 1681, and I'm state president for Wyoming for the National Association of Letter Carriers here in Wyoming.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

So all righty. Um and how long have you been a member of the NALC?

SPEAKER_01 0:55

I've been with the post office since February 14th of 99, and I signed on day one.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Nice. All right. Well, um, that kind of leads me to my next question. Is and that is, what brought you to the postal service in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 1:10

I feel like I was meant to be at the post office. It's really weird. When I was in fifth grade, we had a stamp collecting contest, and I tend to get a little competitive. And the prize was the Postal Service through the years, the old stamps with the people sorting in the machines and letter carriers out delivering mail and stuff. And and of course, I won that. And I thought then how cool it'd be to work at the post office. Um, maybe I should have aimed a little higher, but you know, and that was fifth grade, and life kind of got in the way. I um had kids. I was traveling an hour and a half each direction to finish my college, and I was, you know, waiting tables, and I the postmaster came in and I thought I asked him if they were hiring because I was gone, I'd still like to work at the post office and they weren't doing any hiring. And I'd actually finished my schooling, came um back up to Wyoming, and I was working at a party store, and I absolutely loved it. I'm a certified airhead, um, a certified balloon artist and party planner. And they were there was an ad in the paper offering to take the postal exam. And I absolutely loved my job and what I was doing. And I started to not even go take the exam. And I'm going, no, Renee, you have thought about working at the post office for years. You're gonna kick yourself if you don't. So I went and took the exam. And I really should have been off the rolls when I got the call. At that time, they keep you on the rolls for like three years. And I should have probably, it was like right at the time that I should have been dropping off the rolls. And I actually got an offer to do an interview over in Newcastle, which is about three hours from here. And I went over there and moved to get on at the post office. When they offered me the job, they, you know, they were going, oh, we can only we can only get you part-time. They were hiring PTFs at that time. And it was so I was going, um, I don't know if I can do 20 hours a week, you know, single mom with kids. And and so I sat down and did the the pros and cons and and going, okay, 20 hours a week. And I'm they were starting at 13 something an hour, and I was making eight something an hour. I was going, okay, so it's not quite this, you know, but 20 hours is gonna be close to what I'm so I the my concern at that time was you had your probationary period, you know. Everybody worries about that probationary period, even the CCA is walking in the door today, and I'm going, well, if it doesn't work out, I'll open my own party store. Because back then I was pretty invincible, you know. Oh yeah. Um but so I started at the post office and I knew if I was gonna work at any union job, I was gonna be union. Um, my uncle, who I always looked up to, was steward for his uh in the railroad. He was steward for his division. And so if I'm paying my dues, I'm gonna show up at the meetings and and you're gonna hear from me because if if I don't like the way something's running or or I've got questions, I'm gonna ask. And it's kind of got me where I'm at today. I tend to open my mouth too much.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

No, definitely not enough. You're you're perfect the way you're doing. Um, so you've already mentioned that you're the president of the state of Wyoming. Um, and then I'm pretty sure you've probably had a few roles in your branch. Uh, what caused you to decide to kind of pursue a leadership role in in your branch in the NALC in general?

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Well, I, you know, when I transferred back to Casper, when I stayed over in Newcastle for three years, and I Newcastle was actually part of Casper's branch. So I've been in the same branch my whole career. But transferring back over to Casper, they immediately got me active. They said, okay, Renee, we need to why don't you just be a trustee? So I started out with a trustee, moved me into vice president. Um, I started going to some of the classes and the trainings and the steward colleges and stuff. And I found out that there was the leadership that the NALC was starting that leadership academy class. And I was actually accepted into class four. Um, I had my first uh rap session I went to, I paid my own way because I wanted to learn more about what the union was and and what I could do. Um, so I went down to Colorado to a rap session, and then I applied for leadership academy and I wasn't accepted. And so I went to the business agents. I'm going, hey, what do I need to do to be accepted into this leadership class? I want to take this class, and and you know, pretty much just opening my mouth and and challenging them some and saying, hey, what do I need to do? And and I think sometimes we don't realize how much people are looking for others to mentor and and take over the leadership roles. Um, but it you've got to put yourself out there and let people know that you want that too. Um so I did, and I went through, I was selected for class four. I was actually at leadership class when my branch president stepped down. He had been in Casper at the branch level, we had had the same two running the branch. Randy Maxwell was um our state president at the time, and he had been our branch steward for 18 years. And uh Mike Sutter was our branch president. Randy had been diagnosed with ALS and uh the neuromuscular disease um and muscular dystrophy, uh, but he had always had my back and stuff and was definitely one of my mentors. And so when I got over to Casper and I found out they weren't doing anything, this was before Randy was diagnosed with ALS, weren't doing anything for MDA. And I was like, one of the really funny because, like I said, I feel like I was meant to work at the post office. I watched Jerry's kids from little on up and the telethon every year. And and I was actually in Newcastle that Labor Day weekend watching the telethon and saw them coming on with the letter carriers and the different uniforms and presenting the checks. And I was going, I had no clue that we were the first national sponsor for muscular dystrophy. And and so that's one of the things I'm super proud of that our union for. And so when we got to Casper, I got us involved in answering phones for the telethon. And and so got involved in that, got involved in the food drive. Now I state organizer for the food drive. Um actually, it was after I became branch president when when Randy got sick and Mike stepped down that I actually started doing the grievance work. And I still, it's not my favorite part of the part of being a union officer, doing the grievance work and representing um the contract. But it is probably uh it is the most important job as any officer, um, whether you like it or not, is to make sure that that contract is followed. So I've I've done that, I've started out at the state level as a director of education and then into the vice president and now the uh president of the state. And my job in the in that is legislative. And so I've been out to DC several times. Um, you know, when we first started going to DC and talking about the five-day delivery was the big thing at the time, um, and the prefunding mandate and the windfall elimination. And I've actually been in DC when they when they voted to repeal the prefunding mandate and um then to get the windfall elimination through and finally, I mean, 20 years that I, you know, because it was at my first convention that I heard about windfall elimination, and 20 years later to see that finally taken care of so that our uh CSRS employees don't get penalized with the the double charges for Social Security and stuff. Um I never thought I'd be doing legislative, you know, if you'd have told me that. I I know that we mentioned earlier, um one of the things that I have been working on is is trying to mentor those coming forward. Um I was actually setting up with our, we've got a women of the face, uh women of the Satchel Facebook group and setting up some stuff for the uh women in the history. And uh I was thinking about doing some interviews and and then I found out that you were doing these, and I'm just so excited to see this being done.

SPEAKER_00 10:27

Well, thank you. I um you mentioned that you sent me a message on Facebook saying that you would were set sharing it to that group. Obviously, I had no clue that group even existed. So, you know, it's it's awesome that you're able to put it in there and uh hopefully, you know, the whole point of it is to make sure that the the ladies that are coming up, and I mean it's not only for ladies, it's anybody, but this and my my main intention was to make sure that the ladies understand when they're first starting out that there have been a lot of ladies that came before them and all the struggles that you guys have faced to kind of you know kind of break those glass ceilings a little bit, pull your hammers out and bust them up for them to help them out. And so thank you for all of that. Um you uh pretty much covered my normal questions as far as what positions you've held uh in the current position, what are your duties, which you laid out that you know, as a state president, that is your biggest thing is getting the legislation out there to the members of your state association. Um, do you have anything else that you would like to add to that?

SPEAKER_01 11:37

Well, uh, I think I had always been focused on federal because as state chair, my job is legislation, and we've got always working with our our federal or our national representatives and stuff. And this last year I was invited to to the state AFL CIO convention and to talk to them about the post office and what was going on with the post office at that time, and I think it opened up to my eyes. I'm two years from retirement and I'm trying to step back at the branch level as far as doing steward work and that. I want to concentrate more on mentoring and training for people. Um, I want to, I found I want to do more public speaking, and I think that that it needs to be there needs to be somebody with with a voice like mine that's not afraid to go out and talk about the the way the country is going right now, whether you you like it or you don't. Um pros of why why you you know some of the issues that the Democrats are supporting are are valid, and some of the issues that the Republicans are supporting are valid, and and trying to work at creating win-win solutions and stuff. And I think part of that has come from my leadership training in in negotiating skills and stuff, and learning that just because I always win the argument doesn't mean I always advanced my cause the most effectively, that you need to work on win-win solutions. Um, but I found I really like going out in the community and and speaking on some of the state issues, and that when I went to the AFL CIO, they had some state representatives there talking about, you know, why the politic political stuff is different from the state than the national, and and how you're asking what what we think about Trump isn't isn't solving any state problems and maybe some better questions to ask are these. Um so I've been also trying to educate the public in the state to be asking the better questions and getting better local leaders. We just defeated the um through AFL CIO and some other big labor leaders in the state, defeated the uh they were they were coming after the public, the teachers and stuff in all of the dues, automatic dues deductions that we're seeing at the national level. They're trying to backdoor it into some of the states. And we just just got the veto from the governor this last week on that here in Wyoming. Um, so I think we don't realize how important some of the state issues are, and we need to be watching both state and federal. Um, I know one of your questions was uh discrimination and and problems that you've had with have you if you've run into any discrimination or anything like that. And I I gotta tell you, as a woman, you're gonna run into um some people that are definitely there to try to put you down. Um discouraging sometimes. You know, you you see the deal if a guy is if he speaks his mind, he's determined if this woman speaks her mind, she's the bitch, whatever, you know. And it it really is is true. But I I remember one of the guys not liking something that I was doing, and he was, you know, behind my back, but making sure I could hear him talking about the bitch, and I turned around to him and I said, Hey, if you're gonna call me a bitch, it better be Ms. Bitch or Queen Bitch. And uh that kind of was the turning point for me with respect from the guys in the office, um, just finally speaking up and shutting it down. And also picking my moments. If one, I learned early on, if all I could do was research my answers the best I could as far as contractual issues and make my best educated decision. And you're not gonna make everybody happy. But if you if they had a problem with my decision, they were welcome to research it themselves. And if they could find a different answer, they could bring it to me and I would reconsider it at that point. But otherwise, this is my decision, I'm gonna own it and and we're gonna go with this. And um so those were kind of things that that I've had to deal with and and struggled first. I learned early on that the best thing you could do is learn the contract, research and make that educated decision. Um don't be afraid to ask for help if I didn't know. That's a lot of people are going, you know the contract, you know all this, you know all that. I don't. I still have to look things up all the time or call somebody else that I trust to get answers or go over my stuff. Um, but I've really been lucky. We don't see the politics in Wyoming as much as as some of these other areas, you know, and and the the fighting amongst each other. Um and I do appreciate that in my state. I don't know how far I would be if I was in some of these other states and all the politics that go on and stuff. And even at the national level, when when I first started going to meetings and and Jane Brundell had come out to one of our uh state conventions, and Randy was saying something to me, and I said, you know, maybe someday I'd like to be there. And he says, Renee, it's very political. And I've seen that now. I really am happy at the level I'm at. You know, they've asked, you want to run for office, you want to do this, you want to, you know. No, I don't. I'm really happy where I am, and I can can uh give them a peace of my mind when I feel I need to, and and then there's times they take the time to educate me.

SPEAKER_00 17:51

So well I mean, frankly, I think you would be an awesome national leader. I mean, we talked a little bit before the episode, and just listening to you talk, I I mean, you you know what you're talking about, and you uh you're a straight shooter. I can tell that 100% that you don't you no one has to guess what you think about them. You can tell that, and that's a good thing. I mean, I would much rather deal with someone that is going to talk to me straightforward rather than say something to my face and then go around my back and say something different. And I feel like from talking to you, there's none of the going around the back. This is uh what you see is what you get with you, and that is really refreshing, honestly. What's that?

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Well, I have grown through that. Used to I I've gotten much more direct than I used to be. Um, I've always you've always really known where you stand because my face is very um expression. You you'll know where you stand with me if if I've got an issue with you, I've got a death stare. Um, but I definitely don't mince words anymore. Um, I still pick my words wisely and I pick my time wisely. But uh I haven't, I I've made mistakes, we all do, and all you can do is learn from them and grow from them and move forward.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Um I know that I don't remember what one of your questions was, but it uh was something about family and friends. And I gotta tell you, my my family has always been a hundred percent. I have had the most supportive family. My mom and dad helped, you know, as a single parent. I wouldn't have been able to go to all the trainings and stuff that I did. Um, I know you mentioned something about what do you do to unwind and relax. Um, I tend to do too much union stuff, period. Uh, I'm pretty serious as far as that goes. Sometimes I find myself drifting in conversations and because I don't know if my mind is going and doing other things or what I had to deal with my mom with um dementia and stuff. And and I know that I find myself sometimes drifting in conversations is or having to pull myself back. But I like to read. Um, you know, the one thing that I never thought I'd do more is more public speaking. But I find that's kind of where I want to go now. That's one of the new challenges that I'm looking at. And part of the reason I keep doing so much union work is I'm always looking for a new challenge. You know, there's we've I've challenged the branch and we've won for our category for MDA fundraising. I've challenged the state. Now I've been working on getting bags for the food drive for the whole state the last few years instead of just my branch. Um, how I can grow Wyoming to be a better and do better, you know, all the way around. How the union can be stronger. One of the things I'm working on now is is more mentoring um and guidance. And I think what I wanted to try to let everybody know is one, you're only as good as your last grievance. Um I learned that early on. It doesn't matter how many grievances you do and and settle and how successful you are in getting members paid, the one grievance they're gonna remember is the one that you don't get seventh and taken care of. Um to don't be a what I one of the things I wanted to tell other women is don't be afraid to try. Don't be uh second guessing yourself. Take the time to learn the contract and make the best educated decision you can make, own it and quit second guessing yourself. And that was one of the things that was really hard for me to do. Um and And it was actually um Anita Lewall and said, Renee, why are you keeping second guessing yourself? You know the answer. But I was always calling and looking for that validation and stuff, and I don't do that anymore. Um, I still have a core group that I talk to and stuff, but uh learning to be self be confident in yourself and the decisions that you make. Um I think the four things I wanted to say was learn the contract, see something wrong, say something about it and speak up. And then find mentors and become a mentor and remember why we fight. And we fight. I get so tired of dealing with management because in my office they think that the contract is garbage. It doesn't matter that their boss and our boss have signed on to that contract. There's never gonna be you're you're gonna have pros and cons with everything. I cannot say I believe everything that the NALC says and does 100%. But my job is to be there and question them when I disagree with it and to either, you know, explain why I have an issue with it, and they can explain why if I'm wrong or whatever. But um just to keep growing and keep keep learning.

SPEAKER_00 23:21

It's perfect. And what you were saying, you know, about finding a mentor and then paying it forward and being a mentor to someone else, I think that's one of the most important things, you know. I personally am trying to do that. Um, and it's because I've had some amazing mentors, and uh I just I I I feel like I owe it to them to try to do that for someone else. Just be that friendly person that you can call when you're very frustrated. You know, I have I have a couple people that listen to me complain more than they probably they they probably regret it at this point, but they never tell me. They may they may say it when they get off the phone, but they'll sit there and listen to me. But you know, I I want to do that as well. And that and and you're a perfect example of doing that, you know, paying it forward, trying to find who's gonna take over for you next. And I uh I I I'm just sitting here listening to you. I'm just so enjoying listening to you. Um and I I you pretty much covered everything I have. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?

SPEAKER_01 24:29

Oh, I'm sure I'll think of 500 things afterwards, but well, you're welcome anytime.

SPEAKER_00 24:34

If you if you call me and say, hey, I got something else to add, we'll have Renee part two. I'm I'm good with that. I have no problems with that at all. I just like I said, I have been so fortunate to be able to talk to so many amazing ladies, you included, that have taken time out to talk to me about just what you've gone through and what you're doing. And one of the honestly, the favorite part is like listening to what you did before you even came to the post office. I mean, now I know if I need balloon animals, I know who to go to.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

You that that's and I do like the the big decorations for weddings and proms and cowboy state games. We did the um 5,000 balloon drop and stuff that we had actually stuffed money in the balloons and everything, and and opening ceremonies for the cowboy state games. And and yeah, and it's really funny because my email is Wyoming Airhead, and I'm a certified airhead, so I I earned that. Um, one of the things that I, you know, we we as women are always talking about it, is that glass ceiling. Um, we've had some national officers, you know, we've Jane Brundell was was um national secretary treasure, was the first woman to do national secretary treasure. We've had several women that have have been in the NBA's office or the NBA have have run the uh business agent's office. Um director of uh health benefits, the director of mutual benefits, myra Warren and Stephanie. Um so we're starting to see women hold some of those higher offices. We have a lot of wonderful women out there, sisters out there that are so much more knowledgeable than I am. Um but we're always working at trying to help each other. Um and the women in the satchel group was kind of was was started with that in mind, you know, there's some of the issues that women have to face, having babies and breastfeeding out on the routes and and the pushback from postmasters and in even getting the rights to take care of and and do the the pumping and stuff, um, having rooms to pump. It's amazing how far behind some of the Postal Service is, even with federal regulations that you still have to, we're still having women fighting for those issues. Um maternity clothes you can't find in the women in women's sizes in any of the uniform catalogs. Not that you can afford a uniform anyway, but um, so there's some different issues along those lines. And then I mentioned it to you earlier, and I didn't really think about it until Pam Donato had had talked to me about it at one point in time when she was up at National. Was you know, women when they retire, we get the same benefits as the guys do because of the union and stuff. But women are are majority of the time using more of their sick leave and stuff to take care of a family still. And so when you retire, your your time and the benefits that you've saved and stuff to be able to have the retirement is oftentimes less than the guys still today. And that's one of the big things because I had waited tables for years and you know, working side by side with the guys and making less money than them. So that was one of the big things that I knew I was gonna join the union when I got into. Um, I'm kind of bouncing around right now. Um but just uh there's still a long way to go to get women to where they are actually equal. We're seeing uh you know, the the voting suppression stuff that's out there right now and uh having to go through and get get your paperwork changed when if you get married or whatever. I mean, that's some of that is back and forth, but there's still a lot of it that's designed to keep keep um keep us down, you know. Um, and part of that's because of the good old boy system that's alive and well in the government, and there's still a lot of the good old boy system alive and well in the NALC. Uh I think a couple of things that have been some of the highlights in my career. One would be at Philadelphia Convention when we were talking about um at that time the CCAs were not we were not hiring CCAs even, we were still hiring the TEs. TEs couldn't be union members. And the post the NALC was looking at and having the conversation on how do we save money because the membership is declining. And that was also addressed when we um got the DOS awards and had the CCA position added and finally a career back a career path back. But um one of the conversations at that time, of course, legislatively, I was state president, and we were talking about the five-day delivery and why five day delivery was was bad and and how losing Saturday delivery could, you know, it was it would save the postal service money, yeah. But if you go to five-day delivery, what's gonna stop four days will save you more, three days will save even more, and pretty soon you're out of a job. And one of the conversations at the convention was how we could save money. And they had had a committee, you know, come up with ideas and put them out there, and then they want a discussion on it. And I got up at the mic, and that mic is very intimidating when you get in front of the five to seven thousand people there, you know. And I was not intimidated at all that day. I was mad. And I was mad because they were going, you know, we should take convention down to maybe four days or three days, we could save money. And I and so I started out at the mic, you know, we're talking five-day delivery, or let's take this convention from five days down to four days or three days because we could save money. I said, where the hell have we heard that before? And um, you know, so I I I went through and I laid out, yeah, cost cutting is important. Um, how can we save money? And even even then, you know, at that time they had the bands that came in and played before the convention and any intermissions and stuff. And I didn't realize the history behind the bands that had come in. But there's community bands in every community that are struggling to to make ends meet that we could hire to do some of that. Um you know, so I gave several different suggestions and they weren't all popular. I did mention that they could close the open bar and maybe give tickets out or something like that. And I did get a few booze from that. But it was really weird because at the beginning of that conversation, uh, you know, everybody was getting up and leaving and it was getting loud in there. And by the time I finished, it was you could have heard uh something drop on the floor because everybody had been coming back in and it was quiet. And it took me five or ten minutes to get back to my chair. And then the whole the whole convention that week, uh people were coming up to me all week saying, Hey, we appreciate what you said about this and that. And then the other thing was actually at the Philadelphia convention too, and that was when we first started with the Women of the Satchel. We did a meeting for the Women of the Satchel. Um, we've grown, but we're a few thousand carriers now in the Women of the Satchel group. I don't even know our exact numbers, but uh we had made a t-shirt and several of the ladies bought t-shirts and we had showed up they were doing a class and honoring women, and Jane Brundell was gonna be retiring and stuff, and so we showed up in our pink shirts and it caused quite the stir on the convention floor. And I think it was the first that the the guys had really realized in that good old boys club had really realized that there are a lot of women in the with uh National Association of Letter Carriers, and they tend to pay a little more attention to us now, I think, because of that. But those are two of my favorite things.

SPEAKER_00 33:17

That's awesome. Um, I'm glad you mentioned it again, the um women of the Satchel Facebook group. Uh I I hope that more people go join that. I think I'm going to look it up and just try to share it. Is that something that I can share the group on like my branch page and my uh Missouri State page?

SPEAKER_01 33:36

Because I think it would be good for we we try to to gear right now, it's still geared towards just towards the women. Sure. As far as becoming a member. But yes, definitely we'd love to have you share us.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

I will I will share it on both my branch page and my uh Missouri State Association page, just so the ladies in those groups can maybe jump in there with you guys because I I think that it would be a very probably a very safe space for them to kind of air some grievances that they have with uh things going on and you know, build some support in there, and maybe you know, they'll feel a little more heard than they might be just talking to a group of guys or something.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

So sometimes we'll have a lot of issues coming up and sometimes we don't, but definitely we are geared towards promoting and positive and safe space for the for ladies with the women of the satchel. Um, and there's response from all over the country, so and it's just another resource.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Well, good deal. Okay, well, we will uh I'll definitely get that out there as much as I can. Thank you for mentioning it again. Hopefully that'll jog some people as well. Um, and if if I do you have anything else? I mean, if uh the it's it's yours.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

No, I appreciate it. I I think I've covered the main things that I had had down on my list.

SPEAKER_00 35:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Um well and I hope I answered the questions.

SPEAKER_00 35:08

You did. I I appreciated it. It was just like I I got to you had looked at the questions, you already knew the answers, and so I just got to sit here and listen. So you didn't uh have to carry me along, like I always say to everybody, that the ladies always carry me through these uh episodes. So thank you so much for that. Um well, other than that, I uh just want to say thank you again for joining me. Um, I we've been texting and messaging back and forth for a while, and finally we're able to pull this one off. Um I I thank you for taking some time with me and I hope that you have a great night. And I like I said, I just appreciate everything you do for your carriers out there and carriers everywhere with your Facebook group and everything.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

So well, enjoy your next week of Leadership Academy. Um, you know, that's 30 brothers and sisters across, 29 other brothers and sisters across the country that you're gonna have that are gonna have your back for everything. I think it's one of the best trainings the NALC offers.

SPEAKER_00 36:09

It is it's wild. Yeah, I'm uh my flight. I'm leaving my house here in about eight hours, heading to the airport. So it's gonna be in quite an early morning, but definitely worth it. And I mean, it's not like I'm gonna be sleeping out there anyway. There's not much sleep to be had during that week. So no big deal. We'll fight through. Well, thank you again. I really appreciate you jumping on here with me. And uh thank you for listening to my podcast. Be safe and be kind of a little bit more than a little bit.