Thank you, Fred [Rolando], for welcoming me here to be with the men and women responsible for getting 176 billion pieces of mail last year to more than 148 million homes and businesses.  And I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to recognize you, my brother, here at your convention. 

I want to say to all of you what you already know—your president is a man to be proud of, a leader of integrity and a fighter for what's right; and Fred, I want to recognize all that you do to make life better, not only for Letter Carriers—but for all working men and women in this great country. 

I also want to acknowledge the leadership of Executive Vice President Gary Mullins and Secretary-Treasurer Jane Broendel.  It is an incredible honor to be here with all of you -- the most trusted workers in America -- heroes every day.  

And let me congratulate you for the incredible work you do in your annual food drive.  In these tough times—when hard-working people are jobless through no fault of their own—you make the entire union movement proud by collecting more than 1 billion pounds of food for families in need.  Thank you. 

Today I'm going to talk to you about how we're going to tackle the underlying reason why our neighbors are hungry.  I want to talk to you about creating jobs, about how we're going to lift up our whole economy, our entire nation. 

Remember John F. Kennedy's line about the rising tide that lifts all boats? He wasn't talking about a bubble economy. The truth is, working people are the tide. Good jobs are the tide.  When working people rise, so does our whole economy.  

So, I'm going to talk to you about jobs, and then we're all going to go out and rally for jobs! 

But first I want to remind you what we've won. This year we earned a historic victory by achieving the health care reform our unions have fought for for decades; and then we reformed our nation's financial institutions so Wall Street can't gamble our futures away.  Never again. 

Working families and the power of our union movement made those important changes possible.  You should be proud—we all should. But not so proud that we lose sight for a minute of the work we've still got to do. 

Think about this.  Last Friday the United States Senate left Washington for vacation – and although they finally passed a bill to give aid to struggling states and cities to avoid devastating lay-offs of teachers and firefighters and other public employees, it's far less than we need to close our 10 million jobs hole. 

Every time the Democrats have proposed jobs legislation, they've been blocked by crass maneuvers from the most politically motivated Republican minority we have ever seen – and I really do mean ever.  At every attempt to solve America's most urgent issues, their answers have been, No, No, No. 

I'll be honest with you.  They simply don't want the recovery to work because they don't want Obama to succeed – it's insane and it's disgusting.

Well, it's only 81 days until the first Tuesday in November -- election day. And if we do our jobs, I expect that some politicians of "No" are going to hear some "No" from voters. 

And speaking of unfinished business—people keep asking me if the Employee Free Choice Act is dead.  It's alive, and as essential as ever. 

How many times was health care reform "dead"? How many times was Wall Street reform "dead"?         

The Employee Free Choice Act isn't just a goal line in the game of pundit football. This is about basic human rights. This is about having a collective voice to turn bad jobs into good ones.  You know, jobs aren't just created "good" or "bad."  Good jobs are good because somebody worked to make them so.

But today, when working people try to join together to make their jobs good – to make their lives better — they're intimidated and even fired for trying to organize.  We're not going to quit until every working person has the freedom to bargain for a better life.  And we're going to win!  Just like we won health care.  Just like we won Wall Street reform. 

All across America, times are tough.  But nowhere is it more tough than in public service. The U.S. Postal Service had its worst three years since the Great Depression. 

Some people in the U.S. Postal Service think downsizing and a five-day week is the way to "fiscal health."  That's not the way to fiscal health!  That's the way to disaster! 

Cutting 80,000 jobs and Saturday delivery would drive away more business than it would save money.  Saturday delivery is one big reason why the Postal Service keeps its competitive edge.  Heck, that's why FedEx and UPS are the Postal Service's fastest-growing customers.

I've got a better idea.  It's called H.R. 5746.  It's called giving the Post Office a rational plan to fund pensions, and to break even.  With the pension surplus, the Post Office would have been profitable two of the past three years.

Give me a break. This isn't about money. This isn't about pension management.  This is about an excuse to take a knife to the letter carriers. 

This is a legacy of the Bush administration.  This is what happens when the people in charge at the post office conspire on ways to undercut the post office. 

Let's call it what it is. It's ugly. It's a shame. 

It's time Congress said yes to the Post Office -- to restore financial fairness, to stabilize the service, to keep the mail moving six days a week -- because it's right for America.  And it's right for the post office. 

Why do these guys keep thinking they can take you down? Why do they think they want to? 

Forty years ago, when post office employees defied Richard Nixon with a powerful strike, he ordered the military to New York to distribute mail. 

Well, Nixon discovered why America needs you: Because no one else can do the job letter carriers do!  There isn't another profession in America that puts its people on every single street, six days a week.  That's something special.

A letter carrier was in the news lately for saving three lives on his route. He got a lot of attention—and he deserves it; Keith McVey of Akron is a true hero—but you know better than anyone that it happens all the time. 

Last month in Long Island, a letter carrier extinguished a kitchen fire.   And two years ago just down the way in Santa Barbara, 17 letter carriers saved elderly residents from a nursing home fire. 

You've got so many feet on the ground, you're always in the right place at the right time. And letter carriers rise to the challenge, time and again. 

You see, we have to make the budget cutters understand what you already know—that letter carriers are more than just numbers on a sheet of paper. Each of you is important in every community where you live and work. 

As a nation, we've got to think about who we want to trust with our mail—our paychecks, our bills, our prescription pills. 

Do we want privatized part-timers with no benefits, earning the minimum wage, who are just holding the jobs until they can find something better? Or do we want professionals? 

We want you.      

Brothers and sisters, it's no secret that 2010 is the year of the angry American. 

We can see it in the Tea Party madness. We can see it in the decline of confidence in large institutions of all kinds—from government to corporate America, from Wall Street to the political parties. 

We can see it in the hateful anti-immigrant law in Arizona.  And we can see it when people attack public employees by claiming you're getting rich on tax dollars. 

Hey, if you want to be rich, you don't deliver mail.  Even in the worst days of the financial crisis, I don't think you found many hedge fund managers carrying catalogs and sorting postcards.  Because, when you come down to it, you don't become a public employee to become wealthy. You do it to be of service to your fellow citizens.   

Not so long ago in America, people took jobs in private industry and in public employment – good jobs with union representation, living wages, and stable benefits – not to become wealthy, but to become middle class. 

The basic bargain of American life was that, if you worked hard at your job, you could count on rising wages, secure health care, and a decent retirement, and the strongest support for that social contract was a union contract.

Well, that bargain's in danger. It's just about gone in the private sector, and it's under fire in the public.      

That's why we're going to Rally this afternoon for Jobs.    

And that's why we're going to give our all in one of the most important elections of our lives this November.  Because in race after race all over our country, we have stark choices: Between candidates who want to take us back to the Bush policies of greed and indifference, or forward to good jobs and an economy that works for everyone. 

Between saving and improving the public services that Americans need now more than ever, or telling our communities – Starve, you're on your own.   

Between building things again in America, or continuing to export jobs instead of goods.    

Between giving Americans back the confidence to dream, or condemning us to the future of our nightmares.  

Now it's our turn to say "No."  As the song said while I was coming up here: "No. We won't back down."   

We won't back down from the Party of No in Congress, and we're not going to let them roll over us this fall.  We won't back down from the job-killers, the privatizers, the low-roaders.  We won't back down from our dreams.  

And let me tell you this: When we win these elections on November 2, it'll strengthen us to fight on November 3, and the next day, and the day after that  for the jobs we need.     

But people who want better have to understand: If America is going to create new jobs with rising wages, stable benefits and promising futures, we've got to work for it.   

If you believe that keeping jobs in this country matters, and in returning America to a country that makes things again, work for it.  

If you believe that America must invest in transportation and technology, education and the environment, work for it.  

If you believe that Wall Street got us into this mess and now must pay its fair share of the costs of getting us out, work for it.  

Work for it. Stand for it. Stand together. March together.  Fight together.  Win together.  And don't let anyone—anyone—stand in our way.  

Thank you. And God bless you.