Best Organized Labor Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Through experience you learn to see people not as sellouts and betrayers of moral principles, but as the result of ongoing processes. In the past I attacked labor leaders who started out lean, hungry, and idealistic and as they succeeded became fat-bellied, fat-headed, and cynical. I now see these people as having moved from the Have-Not's to the Have's, and that morality is largely a rationalization of the point you happen to occupy in the power pattern at a given time. If you're a Have-Not you're out to get, and your morality is an appeal to a law higher than man-made laws--the noblest ideals of justice and equality. When you become a Have then you are out to keep and your morality is one of law, order, and the rights of property over other rights.”

People Power Morality Labor Organized Labor Haves And Have Nots Rationalizations Haves Have Not S

Book:Reveille for Radicals

Source: Reveille for Radicals

“Organized labor is organized to take control of an asset away from its rightful owners without paying for it. Organized labor is organization of property by those who don't own it. Organized labor, by driving up the costs of production through coercive means, destroys industries. Organized labor is piracy without the boats and eye patches. Why would anybody want to celebrate organized labor?”

Work Labor Unions Labor Day Organized Labor

Author:Douglas Wilson

“If retail giants are claiming shortages on the first day of a strike, it's obvious they are using the situation as an opportunity to raise prices and increase profits.”

Labor Greed Strikes Organize Carlos Wallace Organized Labor Labor Unions Labor Strike Coperate America

Book:Why Sell Lies When The Truth Is Free

Source: Why Sell Lies When The Truth Is Free

“During his period of idleness and soft living, he had followed the news and opinion in the local daily press and confessed himself surprised at the antagonistic attitude of the newspapers toward Black-No-More, Incorporated. From the vantage point of having formerly been a Negro, he was able to see how the newspapers were fanning the color prejudice of the white people. Business men, he found, were also bitterly opposed to Dr. Crookman and his efforts to bring about chromatic democracy in the nation. The attitude of these people puzzled him. Was not Black-No-More getting rid of the Negroes upon whom all of the blame was placed for the backwardness of the South? Then he recalled what a Negro street speaker had said one night on the corner of 138th Street and Seventh Avenue in New York: that unorganized labor meant cheap labor; that the guarantee of cheap labor was an effective means of luring new industries into the South; that so long as the ignorant white masses could be kept thinking of the menace of the Negro to Caucasian race purity and political control, they would give little thought to labor organization. It suddenly dawned upon Matthew Fisher that this Black-No-More treatment was more of a menace to white business than to white labor.”

Business Racism Labor Prejudice African Americans Blacks Whites Organized Labor Divisions

Book:Black No More

Source: Black No More

“Labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission of emancipating the workers of the world from the thraldom of the ages is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun.”

Today Certain Known Sun Planets Labor Ultimate Missions Setting Settings Realization Historic Labor Movement Organized Labor Unionism Labour Movement

Author:Eugene V. Debs

“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.”

“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.”

Ifs Hands Class Labor Workers Organized Pockets Capitalist Organized Labor

Author:Bill Haywood

“We'll be competitive with organized labor, we're also competitive with regular, unorganized labor, working people who see their stakes and their future in the plans we're putting forward to move Massachusetts forward.”

People Moving Plans Labor Competition Organized Stakes Massachusetts Organized Labor

Author:Deval Patrick

“The organized labor movement as it is constituted today is as much a concomitant of a capitalist economy as is capital. Organized labor is predicated upon the basic premise of collective bargaining between employers and employees. This premise can obtain only for an employer-employee type of society. If the labor movement is to maintain its own identity and security, it must of necessity protect that kind of society.”

Source: Reveille for Radicals

“Collective bargaining has always been the bedrock of the American labor movement. I hope that you will continue to anchor your movement to this foundation. Free collective bargaining is good for the entire Nation. In my view, it is the only alternative to State regulation of wages and prices - a path which leads far down the grim road of totalitarianism. Those who would destroy or further limit the rights of organized labor - those who would cripple collective bargaining or prevent organization of the unorganized - do a disservice to the cause of democracy.”

“I think it is a wise course for laborers to unite to defend their interests.... I think the employer who declines to deal with organized labor and to recognize it as a proper element in the settlement of wage controversies is behind the times.... Of course, when organized labor permits itself to sympathize with violent methods or undue duress, it is not entitled to our sympathy.”

Thinking Courses Interest Deals Behinds Wise Elements Labor Method Violent Organized Permit Decline Entitled Controversy Employers Settlement Laborers Organized Labor Duress

Author:William Howard Taft

“Black Friday, in reality, is a symptom of the plight that 30 years of Reaganomics has brought to working people in America. Right along with the frenzied rise of shoppers willing to fight each other at retail outlets across America, we've been steadily, for the last 30 years, watching the destruction of organized labor ... of decent pay and wages and conditions for working people. ... We have Black Friday today because the wealthy elite have strangled their workers for 32 years, ever since Ronald Reagan's election.”

“And I've always been very close to my friends and allies in the black community, the Latino community and organized labor.”

Black Community My Friends Labor Organized Allies Latino Black Community Organized Labor

Author:Tom Hayden

“Our society is connecting workers with the products people consume and recognizing workers for their contributions. It is important to do that, and to have organized labor - a middle class - to preserve our democracy.”

People Important Class Democracy Middle Products Labor Workers Preserves Organized Contribution Middle Class Our Society Recognizing Connecting Organized Labor

Author:Dolores Huerta

“Make no mistake about it! There is an organized movement against organized labor and it's called the Bush Administration.”

Mistake Movement Labor Administration Organized Labor Day Organized Labor

Author:Edward Kennedy

“Labor unions have a long history of benefitting all workers, even those who are not members of unions, because everyone's wages go up. If we don't increase membership - and membership in labor unions is going down because of the attacks against organized labor - it's something every single American, whether they're officially in a union or not, should be concerned about. It's a spiral. It's a weakening of the middle class and our economy can't sustain that.”

Ifs Should Long Class Economy Middle Members Concerned Labor Increase Unions Workers Organized Middle Class Wages Spirals Membership Weakening Labor Union Organized Labor

Author:Nina Turner

“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.”

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”

“Organized labor, if they're doing a responsible job, is going to organize the pooling of small amounts of money to protect the interests of the people who are not rich.”

People Ifs Jobs Interest Rich Amount Protect Labor Responsible Organized Organize Small Amounts Beatty Organized Labor

Author:Warren Beatty

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

Ifs Firsts Work Labor Unions Factories Organize Labor Union Organized Labor Unionism Factory Workers Union Solidarity

Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt

“It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.”

Should Essentials Labor Organization Unions Eras Organize Aquariums Labor Union Trade Unions Organized Labor

Book:Newer Roosevelt messages: speeches, letters and magazine articles dealing with the war, before and after, and other vital topics

Source: Newer Roosevelt messages: speeches, letters and magazine articles dealing with the war, before and after, and other vital topics

“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.”

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

People Mean Lasts Evil Wealth Movement Labor Unions Noble Protest Disobedience Labor Union Labor Movement Organized Labor Union Solidarity Labour Movement

Book:Speeches, Lectures, and Letters: Second series

Source: Speeches, Lectures, and Letters: Second series

“Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.”

Social Half Support Rights Century Security Labor Unions Aids Civil Rights Presidential Organize Social Security Medicare Labor Union Organized Labor Unionism Union Solidarity

Book:Jimmy Carter

Source: Jimmy Carter

“The fight is never about grapes or lettuce. It is always about people.”

People Fighting Peace Struggle Labor Social Justice Philanthropy Grapes Lettuce Organized Labor

Author:Cesar Chavez

“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.”

“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.”

“If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.”

“I usually lump organized religion, organized labor, and organized crime together. The Mafia gets points for having the best restaurants”

Funny Together Crime Humorous Labor Witty Organized Restaurants Mafia Lumps Organized Religion Organized Crime Organized Labor

Author:Dave Beard

“Kids don't have a little brother working in the coal mine, they don't have a little sister coughing her lungs out in the looms of the big mill towns of the Northeast. Why? Because we organized; we broke the back of the sweatshops in this country; we have child labor laws. Those were not benevolent gifts from enlightened management. They were fought for, they were bled for, they were died for by working people, by people like us. Kids ought to know that.”

“Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.”

Men Trying Choices Democracy Fool Labor Unions Labor Union Working Man Working Women Organized Labor Unionism Union Solidarity

Book:The papers: The chief of staff

Source: The papers: The chief of staff

“If capitalism is fair then unionism must be. If men and women have a right to capitalize their ideas and the resources of their country, then that implies the right of men and women to capitalize their labor.”

Ifs Men Ideas Country Men And Women Capitalism Resources Fairs Labor Unions Labor Union Organized Labor Unionism Union Solidarity Labor And Capital

Author:Frank Lloyd Wright

“In all the history of organized labor, from the earliest times to the present day, no body of union workingmen ever served in a more humiliating and debasing role than that in which the railway unions appear at this very hour before the American people and the world.”

People World Body Hours Roles Labor Unions Organized Present Day Humiliating Railway Organized Labor

Author:Eugene V. Debs

“The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.”

Answers Labor Unions Greed Organized Labor Union Labor Movement Organized Labor

Author:Thomas R. Donahue

“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.”

“The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.”

Has Beens America Interest Movement Labor Unions Devotion Presidential Consistently Organize Public Interest Labor Union Labor Movement Organized Labor Unionism Union Solidarity Labour Movement

Author:John F. Kennedy

“There is a middle class in America for only one reason: organized labor. If not for organized labor, where would you find a job where you had some sense that you had a shot of leaving behind something better than you inherited?.”

Ifs Reason Jobs America Behinds Class Middle Shots Labor Leaving Organized Middle Class Something Better Better Than You Organized Labor

Author:Joe Biden

“The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good.”

“Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth...”

Way Wealth Fairs Labor Organized Distribution Distribution Of Wealth Organized Labor

Author:Dolores Huerta

“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 small group is powerful in matters relating to a particular industry, because then it is normally the only organized force, but it is less formidable when questions which divide the entire nation are involved, for then it must take on organized labor and other large organized groups. The business community in the aggregate is for this reason not uniquely effective as a pressure group.”

Matter Reason Force Nations Community Powerful Groups Particular Industry Involved Labor Pressure Organized Divides Formidable Small Groups Organized Labor Pressure Groups

Book:THE LOGIC OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

Source: THE LOGIC OF COLLECTIVE ACTION

“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.”

“Organized labor still has privileges and legal immunities that even kings and governments lost years ago.”

Years Stills Government Lost Work Kings Years Ago Labor Privilege Organized Immunity Organized Labor Lost Years

Author:Roscoe Pound

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

Giving Heart One Thing Goodness Labor Unions Corporations Organize Labor Union Deregulation Organized Labor Unionism Union Solidarity Working Conditions

Author:Molly Ivins

“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.”

Ifs Problem Belief Pay Race Shapes Members Weakness Labor Unions Bottom Mindset Absence Assumption Organized Organized Labor

Author:Eric Liu

“With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed.”

Men Done Humanity Labor Organization Trade Unions Faults Betterment Labor Union Labor Day Trade Unions Organized Labor Union Solidarity

Author:Clarence Darrow

“History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.”

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

Nations Labor Independent Unions Democratic Characteristics Labor Union Organized Labor Union Solidarity

Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt

“The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak.”

Helping Strong Principles Movement Labor Weak Unions Organized Labor Union Labor Movement Organized Labor Labour Movement

Author:John L. Lewis

“You can't do it unless you organize.”

Labor Unions Organize Labor Union Organized Labor

Author:Samuel Gompers

Organized Labor Quotes

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Organized Labor Quotes