Labor Quotes - Page 6

• The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.

  Wendell Phillips

  Mean, Labour Movement, People

  Wendell Phillips (1891). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters: Second series”

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• If I went to work in a factory the first thing I'd do is join a union.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Work, Organized Labor, Unions

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• No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country... By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Country, Mean, Labor Day

  Franklin Roosevelt's Statement on the National Industrial Recovery Act, June 16, 1933.

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• The directing motive, the end and aim of capitalist production, is to extract the greatest possible amount of surplus value, and consequently to exploit labor-power to the greatest possible extent.

  Karl Marx

  Ends, Motive, Aim

  Karl Marx (2012). “Das Kapital: A Critique of Political Economy”, p.178, Regnery Publishing

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• Solidarity is not a matter of sentiment but a fact, cold and impassive as the granite foundations of a skyscraper. If the basic elements, identity of interest, clarity of vision, honesty of intent, and oneness of purpose, or any of these is lacking, all sentimental pleas for solidarity, and all other efforts to achieve it will be barren of results.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Honesty, Oneness, Effort

  "A Plea for Solidarity". The International Socialist Review, Vplume XIV, No. 9, March 1914.

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• Labour itself is but a sorrowful song,The protest of the weak against the strong.

  Frederick William Faber

  Song, Strong, Weak

  Frederick William Faber (1875). “Hymns”, p.199

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• The people united will never be defeated.

  Cesar Chavez

  People, Defeated, United

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• Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Thug, Labour Movement, Political

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• And I am glad to know that there is a system of labor - where the laborer can strike if he wants to! I would to God that such a system prevailed all over the world.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Hard Work, World, Want

  Speech, Hartford, Conn., 5 Mar. 1860

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• A truly American sentiment recognizes the dignity of labor and the fact that honor lies in honest toil.

  Grover Cleveland

  Inspirational Life, Lying, Patriotic

  Grover Cleveland (1909). “Addresses, State Papers and Letters”

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• In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Fighting, Rights, Labor Laws

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• The only thing workers have to bargain with is their skill or their labor. Denied the right to withhold it as a last resort, they become powerless. The strike is therefore not a breakdown of collective bargaining-it is the indispensable cornerstone of that process.

  Paul Clark

  Struggle, Skills, Unions

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• Today in America, unions have a secure place in our industrial life. Only a handful of reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions and depriving working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice. I have no use for those - regardless of their political party - who hold some vain and foolish dream of spinning the clock back to days when organized labor was huddled, almost as a hapless mass. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice.

  Dwight D. Eisenhower

  Dream, Party, Men

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• The essence of trade unionism is social uplift. The labor movement has been the haven for the dispossessed, the despised, the neglected, the downtrodden, the poor.

  A. Philip Randolph

  Uplifting, Labour Movement, Essence

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• We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Life, Motivational, Respect

  Speech at St. Louis, 22 Mar. 1964, in St Louis Post-Dispatch 23 Mar. 1964

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• There is no labor a person does that is undignified; if they do it right.

  Bill Cosby

  Work, Labor Day, Quality

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• 

  The end of labor is to gain leisure.

  Aristotle

  Philosophy, Work, Tunnels

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• Labor wants pride and joy in doing good work, a sense of making or doing something beautiful or useful - to be treated with dignity and respect as brother and sister.

  Thorstein Veblen

  Inspirational, Beautiful, Respect

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• In Unity there is strength;
  We can move mountains when we're united and enjoy life -
  Without unity we are victims. Stay united.

  Bill Bailey

  Strength, Moving, Enjoy Life

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• Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.

  Confucius

  Love, Inspirational, Life

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• He that hath a Trade, hath an Estate.

  Benjamin Franklin

  4th Of July, Estates, Trade

  Benjamin Franklin (1848). “The Way to Wealth”, p.2

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• He that hath a calling, hath an office of profit and honor.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Motivational, Office, Honor

  Benjamin Franklin (1848). “The Way to Wealth”, p.2

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• Capital is dead labor, which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labor, and lives the more, the more labor it sucks.

  Karl Marx

  Ghouls, Division Of Labor, Vampire

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• 

  Keep working hard and you can get anything that you want. If God gave you the talent, you should go for it. But don't think it's going to be easy. It's hard!

  Aaliyah

  Happiness, Inspiring, Success

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• ...So they are trying to do something about it. They are not doing it by seeking charity. They are not begging at the welfare office. They are not, like many of their employers, lobbying the halls of Congress with their gold plated tin cups asking to be paid for not growing crops. They are trying to do it in the way that millions of other Americans have shown is the right way-organization, unionism, collective bargaining.

  Cesar Chavez

  Organization, Office, Trying

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