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
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Well,
we see an increasingly weaker labor movement
as a result of the overall assault on the labor
movement and as a result of the globalization
of capital.
-- Angela
Davis
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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
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
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You
have got to unite in the same labor union and in the
same political party and strike and vote together,
and the hour you do that, the world is yours.
-- Eugene V. Debs
What
can Labor do for itself? The answer is not difficult.
Labor can organize, it can unify; it can consolidate
its forces. This done, it can demand and command.
-- Eugene V. Debs
If
CEOs insist that middle class Americans compete with
cheap foreign labor, why not outsource the jobs of
CEOs? If business is all about cost, they should be
the first to volunteer.
-- Lou Dobbs
The
fact is whether one looks at this [outsourcing] in
terms of men and women, working men and women in this
country who are simply being screwed, or whether one
looks at this in terms of corporations who are benefiting,
the fact is it is certainly not helping the American
economy.
-- Lou Dobbs
The
only effective answer to organized greed is organized
labor.
--Thomas Donahue
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People
might not get all that they work for in this
world, but they must certainly work for all
that they get.
-- Frederick
Douglass
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Business
knows no pity, and cares for justice only when justice
is seen to be better policy. If it had power to control
the elements, it would grasp in its iron clutches
the waters, sunshine and air and resell them by measure,
and at exorbitant prices to the millions of famished
men, women and children.
-- W.A. Duncan, in the Cherokee Advocate, 1892
Labor
rights are as fundamental as human rights and the
job of a democratic country is to protect both.
-- Tony Ehreneich
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Only
a fool would try to deprive working men and
working women of their right to join the union
of their choice.
-- Dwight
D. Eisenhower
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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
To
the fervent proponents of ruthless corporate capitalism
I say: make a millionaire CEO live as a poor sweatshop
worker in Indonesia for one month and then ask him
about the merits of the world economic system.
-- Vassilis Epaminondou
If
the workers of the world want to win, all they have
to do is recognize their own solidarity. They have
nothing to do but fold their arms and the world will
stop. The workers are more powerful with their hands
in their pockets than all the property of the capitalists.
. . .
-- Joseph Ettor, IWW organizer
What
is a labour victory? I maintain that it is a twofold
thing. Workers must gain economic advantage, but they
must also gain revolutionary spirit, in order to achieve
a complete victory. For workers to gain a few cents
more a day, a few minutes less a day, and go back
to work with the same psychology, the same attitude
toward society is to achieve a temporary gain and
not a lasting victory.
-- Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
History
has a long-range perspective. It ultimately passes
stern judgment on tyrants and vindicates those who
fought, suffered, were imprisoned, and died for human
freedom, against political oppression and economic
slavery.
-- Elizabeth Gurley Flynn
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There
are two kinds of people, those who do the work
and those who take the credit. Try to be in
the first group; there is less competition there.
-- Indira Gandhi
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To
a right-winger, unions are awful. Why do right-wingers
hate unions? Because collective bargaining is
the power that a worker has against the corporation.
Right-wingers hate that.
-- Janeane
Garofalo
Without
liberals we wouldn't have unions. We wouldn't
have environmental protections. We wouldn't
have seat belts or birth control or the ACLU!
Any of these things!
-- Janeane
Garofalo
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"Poorly
paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over"
-- Henry George
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"What
does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and
less jails; more books and less arsenals; more
learning and less vice; more leisure and less
greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact,
more of the opportunities to cultivate our better
natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood
more beautiful, and childhood more happy and
bright."
-- Samuel Gompers
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You
can't do it unless you organize.
-- Samuel Gompers
The
man who has his millions will want everything he can
lay his hands on and then raise his voice against
the poor devil who wants ten cents more a day. . .
. We do want more, and when it becomes more, we shall
still want more. And we shall never cease to demand
more until we have received the results of our labor.
-- Samuel Gompers
Our
movement is of the working people, for the working
people, by the working people. . . . There is not
a right too long denied to which we do not aspire
in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long
endured that we are not determined to abolish.
-- Samuel Gompers
Where
trade unions are most firmly organized, there are
the rights of the people most respected.
-- Samuel Gompers
Never
forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday.
-- Rebecca Gordon
If
the workers are organized, all they have to do is
to put their hands in their pockets and they have
got the capitalist class whipped.
-- William Dudley "Big Bill" Haywood
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Don't
waste any time in mourning - organize.
-- Joe Hill
If
the workers took a notion they could stop
all speeding trains; Every ship upon the ocean
they can tie with mighty chains. Every wheel
in the creation, every mine and every mill;
Fleets and armies of the nation, will at their
command stand still.
-- Joe Hill
I
have nothing to say for myself, only that
I have always tried to make this earth a little
bit better.
-- Joe Hill
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We
want a better America, an America that will give its
citizens, first of all, a higher and higher standard
of living so that no child will cry for food in the
midst of plenty.
-- Sidney Hillman
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Every
man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of
others, no matter if he occupies a throne.
~ Robert G.
Ingersoll
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Although
it is true that only about 20 percent of American
workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets
the standards across the board in salaries,
benefits and working conditions. If you are
making a decent salary in a non-union company,
you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations
do not do is give out money out of the goodness
of their hearts.
-- Molly
Ivins
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Labor
Quotes
