Tracy Cozad

This episode features Tracy Cozad, Washington State President. Tracy is a member of Branch 2214, Longview, Washington.

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 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, Branch 1015. Today I am very honored to have a sister from Washington State. If you don't mind, go ahead and introduce yourself.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Well, thanks, Craig. My name's Tracy Kozad. I am out of Longview Branch 2214. I am currently the Washington State Association of Letter Carriers President. Was elected by acclamation last June, coming up to my first convention, which is going to be pretty exciting. I started in Longview as a PTF in March of 1999. And the day in Academy that the union uh gentleman came around and talked about it, I signed up from day one.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

All right.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

For me, it was a no-brainer.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

Good deal. Good deal. And so you've been around for a little bit. Um what brought you to the postal service in the first place?

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Well, actually, coming on the job was a little bit of a fluke. I wasn't looking for another job, but I had a friend of mine that wanted to go and take the test for the postal exam, but she didn't want to go by herself. And I'm like, yeah, I'll go with you. Went down, took the test. About three months later, I got a phone call. Well, back then it was a letter in the mail to bring in my driver's abstract and come in for a group interview. And I'm like, you know, I'm gonna look into this. This this could be something. And 27 years later, I do not regret one moment of it of saying yes to the job and and starting that career. I mean, 27 years and I still like the job.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

Yeah, yeah. It and it is, I mean, we all deal with days where it's bad, but this this is a good job. It really is. It's a career, and it it I get frustrated occasionally, I think we all do, but at the end of the day, I'm very fortunate and I'm very happy to be here. Um so what usually there's something that may have happened that caused you to decide to pursue a leadership role in the NALC. Is there anything with you?

SPEAKER_01 2:46

Well, yeah. So when I started in Longview, we had a supervisor. Um, and I had been warned about him in Academy by one of the instructors because this guy had come from his office and he was known as a bully. And he was, he was absolutely a hundred percent a bully to anybody he could possibly bully. Well, I mean, I'm I'm six feet tall. I'm not somebody who is easily bullied. Um, you know, I work hard, I do my job, and and I kind of just there are certain things they can and can't do as supervisors. Well, the girl in the case right next to me, she was not that lucky. The little thing, maybe about five, six, um, very timid, and he made her cry. And it was like, you know what? I've got to educate myself, and I gotta figure out how to stand up for her. And I looked around our office and realized there were a lot of people in our office that don't know how to stand up for themselves, and they need the advocates in the rest of us. And so the following year, I went to our um uh Washington state. We we do uh statewide training, and one of the classes that I knew was going to be there, it was called bully busting, and it was specifically talking about how to deal with the bullies, and I I knew from that moment uh I needed to be part of the union and I needed to be the strength that some of these other people didn't have. You know, I needed to be the one that could stand up to the supervisor and say, no, you can't talk to her that way. You can't do this. You know, the contract says, you know, this is the way it is, and you you're not doing this right. And I needed to have that education behind myself so that I could, you know, when they come at me and go, oh, well, where does it say that? I could pull up the contract and show them. It's like right here. It says you can't do this to them, you know, dignity and respect, and you know, and all of that kind of stuff. So it was like I knew I needed to be the voice for people who couldn't be the voice. And and that kind of started the whole thing down the road. You know, I I stepped in as a secretary in Longview, I did steward work and moved into being vice president and then president of the branch for quite a while. Uh all because there are people that need us to be their voice when they can't.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

Nice. Yes, that's exactly right. That is that's perfect. Um, well, and honestly, you just answered my next question I had for you, which is uh what you know, I was wondering what positions you had held, and it sounds like you've you pretty much hit them all.

SPEAKER_01 6:01

So uh you know, yeah, at at the at the branch level, I pretty much did um up until not this last year, yeah. This last year, um, I had been president um in Longview. Um and I've been a trustee and the secretary for the state of Washington. And then when I decided that I was going to run for Washington state president, I didn't want my branch to suffer because you know, everything that being the president of the state entailed, I wanted to make sure that you know I had the well that my branch was taken care of by somebody else so I could focus on the state. So I didn't I didn't run. So currently I do not hold a position in Longview. Um I'm still very much a resource for them when they need it, you know. They they most of them know that they can always come to me and ask me questions, especially. I mean, I am state president too, so that kind of you know, umbrellas over taking care of that of my own branch as well as the rest of the state. Um, but yeah, um that's kind of where I'm at right now.

SPEAKER_00 7:24

Well, and that leads me to my next question. And I'm no offense if I've had someone else on that was, but um, I don't think I have had another state president on before. So if you don't mind, could you kind of tell us what your duties are as state president?

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Um, well, honestly, I'm still figuring all of those out. Um, so the biggest thing is, you know, I make the decisions, you know, I'm kind of the final decision maker for what goes on with the state. Um, but a big part of it is the political side, you know, the legislative, um, making sure that I get all the information out of what's going on in in politics, where, you know, that are affecting us, making sure that, you know, my LCCLs and myself are talking to our, you know, representatives, our senators, our congresspeople. Um, you know, it's it's a lot of the business side of it. Um, it's making sure that at least for Washington State, I can't speak for other states, but um, I expect my officers to, you know, they have assigned branches. They're supposed to go to those branches and be the liaison, you know, to talk to them. What kind of issues do you have, um, you know, grievance-wise or you know, any anything going on in their in their branch, you know, do they need help with their LM reports? Um, and then I'm kind of the the go-between between like regional and the state. So it's like when we need training, and you know, I can reach out to the regional office and get trainers to to do things. If there's a big issue in a branch that we find out about, you know, I can reach out to the regional office there and say, hey, this is what's going on, so they know who where to send their NAAs in. Um, I organized so Washington State does a DC lobby trip every year. Um organizing that, making sure I have the right people, making sure that we have as many of the districts covered, um, and then going in and sitting and talking to those representatives. Um you know, my my phone rings a lot with questions of, and a lot of them are where do I go to get this information? Who do I need to talk to? How do I do this? You know, and a lot of it is making sure everybody knows where, you know, who their best resources are. Because I don't know everything. And but if I got somebody that's asking me something, it's like I'm I'm gonna figure out where to point them in the right direction. And I'll tell them I don't know everything, but I can find out who does. Um, you know, we're coming up to our convention the first weekend in June. Um, you know, we take care of the bylaws, we do a lot of resolutions to National, you know, and that's a big part of it, getting getting those put together so that National knows the kind of stuff that we want in the next contract and what we want them to negotiate for. And and you know, the again, a big part of it is the political side. Um other duties. Uh, well, um our Washington State Labor Council, I am a delegate to that, so you know, going and and meeting with our local representatives is a big deal too. Um goodness. And there's probably so much that I have forgotten about. Um generally I well in the past, all of our state presidents, myself included, have been trainers at our uh regional assembly, you know, for the the entire region. I s I teach I teach at our statewide training as well, help organize that. Um lots of little things, you know, making sure that everybody has what they need to do their their union jobs right within the state, you know, putting out some fires here and there. Um I I know I'm forgetting a lot of different things, but that's that that kind of summarizes a lot of it, I think.

SPEAKER_00 12:25

Well, I can definitely understand why you opted to step down from branch president because I don't think there's enough hours in the day to cover both of those gigs. So that that's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

And it's like, I mean, you know, and there's there's a lot of the like the committee of presidents, you know, they do the spring and the fall, and being there to, you know, to bring that information back, um, you know, to our local branches. My vice president and I we started doing Zoom meetings with all the branch presidents you know, about once a quarter. Just I know it may sound a little uh cheesy, but I want I want people to know me as the the the members president. You know, I I want to be I want to do what is best for everybody in Washington State, you know. I don't have my own agenda. I want it to be I I want to be well the people's president. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

So that's that sounds great. I mean, it sounds like you're definitely putting in the work for them. So I mean, I'm and um, you know, a lot of times I kind of told you this, uh a lot of times I mean I didn't know you before this, but I was just in leadership. One of my brothers from Washington came up to me and said, Hey, you gotta talk to this lady, she's be perfect for your podcast. And so shout out to James Fowler. He uh he brought me to you, and um the he was right. So we'll he's on it. So um anyway, well, we kind of uh you kind of touched on this earlier about your case mate being kind of bullied, but have you yourself had any experiences with uh any kind of discrimination bullying, anything like that in your career? And if you did, um do you feel how did you deal with it and do you feel like the situation was resolved?

SPEAKER_01 14:34

I th I think everybody deals with discrimination and bullying at some point in their life. Um, you know, when I in the local branch, when I first ran for president, um there was one of the carriers that just said, I I mean, he made the comment, he goes, you know, you'd probably do a really good job, but yeah, I just I I think it's more of a of a man's position, you know. And I looked at him and I just told him, I go, you know, you have the right to that opinion, but just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I can't do as good a job as a man. And I won that year's election, and I, you know, I proved to him that I did do a good job. And he actually came back to me before he retired and said, you know what, you really have done a better job than any of the guys that were in here. And I mean, that meant actually that meant a lot to me because I I wasn't upset with you know how he said it because there are old school people, you know, we still work with the old school that you know the man brought home the money, the woman took care of the house, and that kind of stuff, and that's just that's just their their belief system. Um I I don't let people bully me. And and maybe that sounds a little you know like I have a big ego on that, but my whole thing is you stand up with knowledge and they can't bully you because bullies for the most part, and I'm not talking about physical bullies, I'm talking about the ones that talk down to you, that that criticize you, that you know, the management that try and, you know, well, your T6 can do this faster than you can. Why can't you? You know, I don't I don't let them get to me because one, I know I'm doing the best job I can. And two, I've educated myself enough to know what they can and cannot do. And I know I can grab the contract and say, hey, you can't do this to me. Or it doesn't matter that my T6 can do this faster than me because I am doing it the right way. I'm not running, I'm not taking shortcuts, I'm being safe. Um and and but I think everybody at some point in time, and it doesn't matter whether you're a guy or a girl, either one, you're gonna get bullied, and it's it's hard if you don't have the knowledge and the confidence to use that knowledge. Um and like I said, that was my big thing from day one. I knew I needed that knowledge behind me so that I didn't have to worry about you know the bully saying something and and me going, oh, can he do that? So yeah, I I mean we all work in the post office, we all see how some managers are. Um I I'm I don't think there's anybody out there that hasn't been bullied, but get the knowledge, you know, learn learn how to stand up for yourself and others. I mean, that's yeah, that's about that's about all I can really pull up with that one.

SPEAKER_00 18:21

No, that's really that that's some very good advice, actually, you know, just knowledge is power, and it can be over bullies as well. So yeah, that's absolutely um touching on something that you were talking about a while ago, uh, as far as all of your duties with your state presidency, um obviously that's taking a lot of your time. Has that caused you any issues with like family or friends where you're having to kind of put them on the back burner because you have all of these other duties you're doing for the NALC?

SPEAKER_01 18:58

You know, right now where I am in my life, um, my husband and I are empty nesters. Uh, you know, we have we have an eight-year-old granddaughter that that you know hangs out with us when her dad's working. So we have a lot of flexibility. My husband doesn't work. Um, so it's like he's basically retired. Um so now no, he I mean, he travels with me to most everything that I go to. Um, and when our granddaughter can go with us, she thinks that's the greatest thing in the world. She's she's eight. So I mean, she she thinks it's wonderful. Um, at the beginning of my career, my my son wasn't quite three when I started working at the post office. Um it it was I missed out on a lot of things. Um it it was rough, but both of my kids, when they got a little bit older, they understood why I did what I did. Um and they're both very proud of who I am and what I've accomplished. Um, my son was a rural carrier uh for about six months in Vancouver, Washington. The only problem was he still lived up here, and that was a 45 minute to an hour commute, and he wasn't working full time, and it just his commute was too much, so you know, he didn't stick around with the post office. Um what what it was all about. And I mean, he he still he's probably one of my my greatest fans, you know, my biggest cheerleader. Uh when he found out I was I was running, you know, for state president, he was like, Yeah, mom, you go get him, you should you show him. And my I have to say, I've probably been a huge role model for my daughter because she does not take crap off of anybody, and that was something she told me. She, I mean, she's she'll be 23 this year. She told me she's like, mom, I'm a strong, independent, all because of you. And you know, um my husband and I definitely had some rocky times because I I was gone a lot, you know, with all the trainings and and everything. Um but he also understood this was important to me. And you know, it was never a criticism, it was just it was just rough because I mean, my daughter was born when I worked at the post office. I was at the time uh an unassigned regular and which was good because then I could pick the easier routes to do. I mean, you know, for a for a pregnant carrier, it's rough, you know, being out there carrying the mail and all of that kind of stuff. But my my daughter has some of the best surrogate aunts and uncles that she could ever imagine because she got to travel with me to national conventions and you know, the state conventions and stuff, and she got to meet these people and so sacrifices were definitely made, but my family they understood, and I'm not sure they could be any more proud of me than than they are, and they would sing my praises to embarrass the heck out of me for sure. So I I've been very lucky. I've always had a lot of support, you know, once the kids got old enough to really understand what what I do and and what yeah. Yeah, I've definitely been lucky.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

That's awesome. That is really that is so cool that you've were taking them on the just taking your granddaughter now to the conventions and stuff. And uh I'm sure she's uh she's probably like, wow, grandma is awesome. Look at all the people coming up talking to her. So that that's that's awesome. Uh that's really cool. Um, it's definitely sounds like you got an NALC family. Like they're they're totally understanding and and are all about it. So that that and it definitely helps you out. I mean, that would be one thing that would be on the back of your mind if they weren't supportive. So that kind of helps your focus, I'm sure. So that that's great. Well, and I have a feeling that also my next question will probably have something to do with an eight-year-old, and that is how do you what do you like to do when you're not doing the NALC's bidding and you uh are now phone off, laptop turned off. What do you like to do? What are your hobbies? Stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Yeah, absolutely. My granddaughter, because I'm lucky enough, my son and my granddaughter live right next door to me. Wow. Um and our yards connect, and so I'll get a little phone call and it'll be Grammy, can I come see you? And next thing I know, there's a knock on my front door, and she's coming in the front door. Um, you know, uh my my husband and I love to travel when we can, which is really good with him now being retired. You know, he he does, he gets to go with me to these these things. And so I have, yeah, I mean, I I have my partner, you know, my my best friend, really. I mean, my husband and I this year we celebrated 32 years of marriage. Congratulations. You know, it's like he's he's there with me, he's supportive, and and we love to travel. We can't wait to retire, you know, so that when I retire, we can do a lot of traveling. Um we we like anything outdoors, you know. Um we I mean it's for us, it's family. You know, our daughter lives in Long Beach, Washington, and we'll travel down there. It's just it's live in life. A long time ago, my husband and I made an agreement. It's not about the things in life, it's about the memories you can make and the experiences you can have. Um, and I think that is something that everybody should think about. It's like when you're old and you can't do anything, are you ever gonna think about the things you didn't have? Or are you gonna think about the memories and the experiences you have? So yeah, I love my granddaughter. She is she is the biggest character, my biggest fan, you know, and she definitely keeps me young and on my toes.

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Well, you definitely glow when you talk about your granddaughter. So I I think that uh she seems to have a pretty good, a pretty big fan in you as well. So uh that that you can tell that you guys are buddies big time.

SPEAKER_01 26:45

Yeah, she is my second mini me. My my daughter, of course, is my first mini me, and now I have my granddaughter, which is I mean, she's she's a lot like me, and I'm I'm really glad because she's she's seeing the me that doesn't take crap off of people. And you know, in the world that we live in, everybody needs to to learn that. It's like don't be mean, you know, be be kind and be gentle, but don't let people walk all over you. And and I I really hope that she sees that in me and and and by inbuads that in herself. So yeah, I she means the world to me.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

I can tell. Um, so I don't even know why I'm gonna ask you this because you have filled this whole episode full of amazing advice, uh, just things to words to live by, I guess you'd almost say. But is there a piece of advice that you could think of? And it probably has been already said, but uh a piece of advice for someone that you know is kind of on the outskirts thinking about, you know, maybe getting involved in the union, would you have a piece of advice for that person?

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Involvement in the union doesn't mean you have to become state president. You know, involvement in the union doesn't mean that you have to become an officer at all. Involvement in the union just means, at least for me, even from the very beginning, get involved by learning. You know, there are there's apps out there that will read the contract to you. So it's like if if you don't want to read it yourself, you know, listen to it. Learn learn Article 8, you know, protect yourself, um you know, and and being involved in the union may be as simple as organizing a picnic, you know, doing the food drive. Um, you know, for and I didn't even mention this earlier, but there was a few years that I did Santa letters for my branch, you know. I mean, there are so many little things that are actually huge that that you can do to be involved. And you don't have to be me, you don't have to be the steward. But there's there's a place in the union for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 29:43

That's that's it right there. That is it. There's a place for everybody, and you know that that sums it up perfectly. That is absolutely perfect. Um I'm out of questions. You've answered everything, and uh you uh like I said, I'm just basking in all this advice. I mean, you this has been uh I'm ready to run through a wall with all the I feel inspired now. Um, but is there anything that I forgot? Anything you would like to add? Uh the floor is yours.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

I you know, I can't think of anything else to add. I just I listening to this even takes away a tiny little bit. Like I just said, that there is a place in this union for everybody, and in life, don't let it slip away. Make the most of everything that you do, do the best of everything, make the memories, make the experience, learn everything that you can because that's that's what makes our lives great, you know, more knowledge, more experiences, more memories, and just live life.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

I don't even know what to say to that. That is amazing. Great, great. I I've really enjoyed talking to you. This was the first time we've actually seen each other face to face, and I've really, really enjoyed our conversation this evening. Um I definitely owe James a thank you for introducing us. And uh he he, like I said, he had said that you were an amazing lady, and he was dead on. He was very, very right. So thank you so much for joining me tonight. I know that you've had a long day and you're ready to, you know, probably chill out and enjoy your evening. But thank you for taking some time with me. Uh, I appreciate you, and thank everybody else for listening. And be safe out there and before.