The Stand’s favorite quote of the event:

“It’s a tough year out there. It’s tough for the people in our community, and the state, and the country,” Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown tells the crowd. “The governor has called us back to Olympia for a special session, and I gotta tell you, I can’t vote for another all-cuts budget.“

The public has been largely misinformed about the financial status of the Postal Service. Over the past four fiscal years, despite the worst recession in decades, the Postal Service had a net surplus of $611 million delivering the mail. It has tens of billions of dollars in surplus funds in its accounts. It uses no taxpayer money and hasn’t for 30 years; it derives its revenue from the sale of stamps and services.

There are financial problems at the USPS, but they have little to do with the mail. Rather, they were caused by congressional actions that lawmakers can easily fix — without using a dime of taxpayer money. Congress passed a 2006 law requiring the Postal Service to pre-fund future retiree health care costs in a way no other public or private entity does; moreover, it lacks access to billions of dollars of its own money.

Tuesday’s informational rallies were in support of H.R. 1351, legislation now before Congress that addresses the primary cause of the financial crisis by correcting the unfair pre-funding mandate imposed by Congress.

Proposed cuts in delivery days, the shutting of post offices and mail processing facilities and the degradation of services are unnecessary — and destructive. They would particularly hurt small businesses, the elderly, rural areas, communities around the country — and they would begin the dismantling of one of America’s oldest and most trusted institutions, one that provides Americans with the most efficient and inexpensive mail system in the world.

They would damage the U.S. economy at a time we can least afford it. The Postal Service is the heart of a $1.3 trillion mailing industry that supports 9 million jobs and that has had job stability even during the recession. Weakening the Postal Service will jeopardize hundreds of thousands of jobs, unnecessarily. If Congress acts responsibly, the Postal Service can continue to adapt to an evolving society, as it always has. The Internet offers opportunities as well as challenges.

TAKE A STAND! — Click here to sign a petition urging your U.S. Representative in Congress to support H.R. 1351.

SEATTLE — Hundreds of citizens gathered outside President Barack Obama’s fundraiser Sunday at the Paramount Theater to urge the president to prioritize job creation, fair taxes on corporations and the wealthy, and protecting social safety nets as the economy continues to struggle. Waving signs urging Obama to “Protect Social Security and Medicare,” “Create Good Jobs – Tax the Rich,” and “Support Good Jobs – Legalize Immigrant Workers,” the crowd wasn’t protesting the president, but rather urging him to do even more on these issues, many of which are included in his recently proposed jobs bill.

“We applaud President Obama’s focus on jobs, taxing the rich, and recognizing the dire straits of state and local governments,” said Jeff Johnson, President of the Washington State Labor Council, one of several organizations participating in the demonstration. ”We would only suggest that working people have an appetite and a need for more: a significantly larger jobs package, federal funding to close recession-induced state budget deficits, improvements to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits, and a revenue system that requires the rich and corporate America to pay at least as much as they did during President Reagan’s administration to fund the common good.”

Other community and labor organizations participating in Sunday’s demonstration included the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans, Casa Latina, Washington CAN!, UNITE HERE Local 8, UFCW Local 21, OneAmerica, and Washington YELL (Young Emerging Labor Leaders).

“In these very difficult economic times, the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans want to communicate our support for the president’s efforts to create good jobs and the necessity to be even more ambitious in this effort,” said PSARA President Robby Stern. ”We call for tax fairness with the rich paying their fair share, no cuts, but instead improvements to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and the fair and compassionate treatment of immigrants to this country who are fleeing desperate economic conditions in their countries of origin.”

By large margins, Americans have told pollsters that job creation is more important than budget cuts. Yet Republican leaders in Congress have pursued an agenda to cut government programs, raise the retirement age for Social Security and Medicare, and force austerity measures onto states by defunding Medicaid and other important programs.

Demonstrators at Sunday’s event in Seattle wanted to applaud the president’s recent efforts to resist that agenda and instead focus on jobs and protecting social safety nets. They also urged that the White House continue to press — but more aggressively — for comprehensive immigration reform, one of Obama’s 2008 campaign promises.

For decades, the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) has been fighting to find alternatives to such plant closures. But when such closures and layoffs can’t be avoided, the WSLC helps the affected workers have access to job retraining and reemployment opportunities available through the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).

“The important thing is to start immediately and to work collaboratively to make sure everything possible is done, first to avoid the closure and then to make sure families have access to the help they need,” said Chelsea Orvella, WIA Labor Liaison for the WSLC. “That may ultimately include petitioning for TAA certification so these folks get the best training and unemployment benefits available, if at all possible.”

TAA is Trade Adjustment Assistance, a federal program that can provide up to 2-3 years of fully funded training, a 65% health coverage subsidy, extended income support, and other benefits to dislocated workers whose companies move production or outsource to another country, or are forced to lay off workers or close plants due to increased imports and foreign competition. The WSLC recently assisted in securing TAA certification for dislocated workers at Grays Harbor Paper in Hoquiam and Nalley’s Fine Foods in Tacoma.

Check out this video, produced by the WSLC, to explain TAA:

Of course, the first priority is to avoid plant closures. As The (Everett) Herald reminds us all in its Sept. 4 Sunday editorial, “Pull out the stops to save jobs:”

The closure of a plant that supplies the area with 750 family-wage jobs would rip through the already wobbly local economy like a chainsaw through scrawny trees. The negative impact would reach far beyond K-C workers and their families — some of whom have had multiple generations make their living there.

But for trade-impacted businesses that can’t survive, TAA provides a substantial safety net to help such dislocated workers and their families get the help they need to survive and find new jobs.

Here’s a video coverage of the event produced by Kathy Cummings, Communications Director of the Washington State Labor Council.

The following video — produced by Washington State Labor Council Communications Director Kathy Cummings on behalf of Machinists District 751 and SPEEA/IFPTE 2011 — is being featured in the Washington State booth at the 2011 Paris Air Show to show the world why Washington has the key advantage necessary for their success: a skilled, experienced and passionate aerospace workforce.

Meanwhile, today at IAM 751′s blog:

► Machinists promise support for Project Pegasus — Machinists Union leaders applauded the appointment of Tayloe Washburn to head up the campaign to ensure Boeing’s next new airplane is manufactured within Washington state. Machinists Union District Lodge 751 President Tom Wroblewski also vowed the support of all 28,000 of his members in backing Gov. Chris Gregoire’s “Project Pegaus,” which Washburn will lead.

► Boeing honors Machinists for outstanding quality — The Boeing Co. has honored a group of nearly 300 Machinists Union members at the company’s Everett site for their outstanding performance in improving the quality of the aircraft components they produce.

This following report was originally posted at IAM 751′s blog.

RENTON — The leader of Machinists Union members in Puget Sound praised a $3 million state investment in aerospace job training programs, and pledged the union’s support in helping Boeing to ensure the state of Washington remains the world leader in aerospace manufacturing.

“We are working diligently with our partners at Boeing to ensure that we have the most skilled workers in the world today and into the future,” said Tom Wroblewski, the president of Machinists Union District Lodge 751 in Seattle. “We have been meeting with the company and are excited at the partnerships we have formed to reach our workforce-training goals.”

Wroblewski was one of the speakers at a Tuesday press conference inside Boeing’s Renton plant where Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire announced she is committing $3 million in federal workforce training funds to the aerospace industry. The money will be enough to train about 500 Washington state residents for aerospace careers, she said.

“This investment is a double win for Washington state,” Gregoire said. “It helps those individuals negatively impacted by the national recession receive training to move toward a stable and good-paying career. And it ensures our aerospace workers have the cutting-edge skills needed to design, build and maintain the aircraft of tomorrow – helping our 650 aerospace companies grow and create new jobs.”

Wroblewski agreed. “We at the Machinists Union know that workforce training and education are key to retaining and growing our industry,” he said. ”A highly skilled workforce is a key competitive advantage. The announcement today enhances our chances those jobs will remain here, in the state of Washington.”

Wroblewski thanked the governor for investing scarce public money into the aerospace industry, and praised the state’s community and technical colleges for their “willingness to respond to our industry in innovative and timely ways.”

“These workforce investment dollars are the kind of public/private partnerships we need for the aerospace industry to continue to thrive in Washington state,” Wroblewski said. “We are excited to be a partner in this venture going forward with Boeing, the governor, our education system and our community.”

Boeing announced Tuesday that it plans to expand its Renton facilities to handle planned increases in 737 production over the next two years. Once completed, Boeing expects to add 1,200 workers to the Renton said, although a spokeswoman couldn’t say if those would be new hires or workers transferred from other programs.

District 751 is committed to working with Boeing to make the Renton expansion and ramp-up successful, Wroblewski said. “History has shown when we work together, as we did on the Air Force tanker, our team cannot be beat.”

Originally formed in 1935 to represent hourly workers at the Boeing Co., Machinists Union District Lodge 751 now represents more than 27,000 working men and women at 44 employers across Washington, Oregon and California. In 2010, members used collective bargaining to ratify new contracts with 22 of them, without a single day lost to strikes.

In other words, the Senate’s hardball tactics on legislation not related to the budget are increasingly likely to force a second overtime session.

Meanwhile, negotiators on the workers’ compensation issue recently got a gentle reminder of the real-life consequences of legalizing lump-sum buyouts for less that what injured workers would otherwise receive. Gov. Chris Gregoire recently called a stakeholders meeting that included two folks from Boeing, two from the Association of Washington Business, two from the trial lawyers, and two from the Washington State Labor Council to be briefed on her latest ideas.

As public radio reporter Austin Jenkins blogged on Friday, one of the WSLC representatives sitting in for WSLC President Jeff Johnson turned out to be an “unexpected guest:” Steve Marquardt, who was paralyzed from the waist down in a 1987 logging accident.

“The problem with voluntary settlements is somebody who has had a catastrophic injury doesn’t know the road ahead,” says Marquardt. “They are in no position to negotiate the terms under which they’re going to live the rest of their life.” In an open letter to lawmakers Marquardt writes: “If my employer or his attorney had pressed me to settle for a lump sum, I would very likely have taken it.”

Marquardt’s participation was a gentle reminder that the decision legislators could soon make in the haste of concluding the first (or second?) special session will have a dramatic effect on real people’s lives, and is not simply a program that needs to be cut so employers can pay less for it.

Jenkins, however, seemed more interested in the question of whether protocol had been broken in inviting a wheelchair-bound injured worker to the governor’s meeting.

Was it appropriate for the Labor Council to send an injured worker in place of its president?

The WSLC makes the case that not only was it appropriate given Marquardt’s experience doing policy work for the Laborers union, it was downright necessary in the context of the direction the debate has turned in Olympia. Says WSLC Communications Director Kathy Cummings: “Everybody in that room needed to hear (from) someone … who has been through a huge injury that totally changed his life and was helped immensely by the system as it stands now.”

Watch Marquardt tell his own story here, and then ask yourself, “Is this momentous decision on workers’ compensation one that should be made in haste at the end of special extended session, as the entire state budget is held hostage?

“Union Town” will be available digitally on May 17th and on CD/vinyl on July 19th. But you can download the never-before-heard title track NOW at SaveWorkers.org. Here’s is its video:

Says Morello: “Unions are a crucial counterweight to the raw corporate greed that torpedoed our economy, threatens our environment and wants to strip away decades of social progress.”