On the third day of the APWU National Convention, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told delegates that: “Dependable mail delivery is a core function of any national government. The mail should not be political — not any more than highways or bridges or schools.”

“But somebody forgot to tell Rep. Darrell Issa and the Republican leadership,” he said.

“Issa doesn’t care that our Postal Service is part of the glue that holds our national community together. He doesn’t care that a post office can keep a small town alive. He doesn’t even care about the businesses — the pharmaceutical companies, the printers and magazine publishers — and so many others who rely on dependable mail delivery six days a week. And he sure doesn’t care about you!”

“America needs to understand — at the gut level — that the single most effective long-term American economic stimulus is a union contract. Collective bargaining can and will set regional and national standards for good wages, good benefits and secure retirements.

“If Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and the right-wing say we can’t pay for better schools and safe highways… if we can’t afford teachers and postal workers… if we can’t keep our promises to public workers… if we can’t afford six-day mail service — we sure as hell can’t afford more tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

“But the Romney-Ryan budget would gut the post office; gut education, training, research and development, and everything else we need to grow; and it would end Medicare as we know it — all to give more tax breaks to the super-rich!

“The last thing America needs is a self-serving, privatizing outsourcer like Mitt Romney who talks out of both sides of his mouth. He even outsources his bank accounts.

“This political season we have every reason to go the extra mile. We’re reaching past the walls of our union halls. We’re reaching out to non-union workers and community allies and building a grassroots movement like America hasn’t seen in generations.

“United, we cannot and will not be turned aside.”