Unions Quotes

• It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Independent, Organized Labor, Characteristics

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• The labor movement was the principal force that transforme­d misery and despair into hope and progress.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Progress, Despair, Movement

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Michael K. Honey (2011). “All Labor Has Dignity”, p.101, Beacon Press

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• One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.

  Molly Ivins

  Heart, Giving, Deregulation

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• It’s not about the budget; it’s about the power...So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.

  Paul Krugman

  Government, People, Who Cares

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• We know what unions have done for other people. We have seen it and we have studied and we have cherished the idea of unionism. We have seen the history and development of unions in this country and we tell the growers that we want nothing more, but that we want our own union and we are going to fight for it as long as it takes.

  Cesar Chavez

  Country, Fighting, Ideas

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• No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn't actually fall down.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Kings, Jobs, Fall

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• The best customer of American industry is the well paid worker.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Working Conditions, Labor Union, Wells

  Roosevelt, Franklin D. (1938). “Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: F.D. Roosevelt, 1936, Volume 5”, p.504, Best Books on

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• Finally, it was about how people treat one another. It was about human dignity. We forced the employers to treat us as equals, to sit down and talk to us about the work we do, how we do it, and what we get paid for it. And I believe that the principles for which we fought in 1934 are still true and still useful. Whether your job is pushing a four-wheeler, or programming a computer, I don't know of any way for working people to win basic economic justice and dignity except by being organized into a solid, democratic union.

  Harry Bridges

  Jobs, Work, Believe

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• There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.

  Walter Reuther

  Taken, Fighting, Winning

  Proceedings of the Constitutional Convention of the United Auto Workers, Vol. 22, 1970.

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• Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America.

  John L. Lewis

  Future, Thoughtful, America

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• A basic assumption shapes most Americans’ mindset about labor: the belief that the death of unions isn’t my problem because I’m not in a union. That assumption is wrong. Even if you aren’t a member, your pay is influenced by the strength or weakness of organized labor. The presence of unions sets off a wage race to the top. Their absence sets off a race to the bottom.

  Eric Liu

  Race, Shapes, Organized Labor

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• You can't do it unless you organize.

  Samuel Gompers

  Organized Labor, Labor Union, Organize

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• The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Struggle, Government, Survival

  Martin Luther King (Jr.), Michael K. Honey (2011). “All Labor Has Dignity”, p.101, Beacon Press

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• Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior ofcapital, and deserves muchthe higher consideration.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Independent Women, Dignity Of Work, Labor Day

  "Leadership Lessons of Abraham Lincoln: Apply the Principles of the Sixteenth President to Your Own Work and Life".

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• The best of wages will not compensate for excessively long working hours which undermine heath.

  Louis D. Brandeis

  Long, Wages, Hours

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• The gap between the rich and poor is widening fast.

  Richard Rogers

  Gaps, Rich, Poor

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• It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour work week, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.

  Barack Obama

  Inspirational, Family, Retirement

  Daily Labor Report, Issues 169-189, Bureau of National Affairs, 2010.

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• The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.

  Henry George

  Philosophy, Organization, Political

  Henry George (1911). “perplexed philosopher [Herbert Spencer”

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• The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.

  Barack Obama

  Strong, Shadow, States

  Sixth Presidential State of the Union Address, delivered 20 January 2015

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• One of the great reasons for the popularity of strikes is that they give the suppressed self a sense of power. For once the human tool knows itself a man, able to stand up and speak a word or strike a blow.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Blow, Men, Self

  Charles Horton Cooley (1964). “Human Nature and the Social Order”, p.261, Transaction Publishers

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• All that harms labor is treason to America.

  Abraham Lincoln

  America, Presidential, Harm

  Martin D. Tullai, Abraham Lincoln (1998). “Speaking of Abraham Lincoln”

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• Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.

  Mikhail Gorbachev

  Fall, Years, Nwo

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• Men don't and can't live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don't live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions; and take that of laborers Unions.

  John Ruskin

  Giving Up, Men, Titles

  1880 Open letter to EnglishTrades Unions, 29 Sep.

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• People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

  Adam Smith

  Invisible Hand, People, Competition

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)

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• With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.

  Clarence Darrow

  Honesty, Character, Men

  The Railroad Trainman, November 1909.

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