quotations about labor unions
The unions are the first feeble effort to conquer the industrial jungle for democratic life. They may not succeed, but if they don't their failure will be a tragedy for civilization, a loss of cooperative effort, a baulking of energy, and the fixing in American life of a class-structure.
WALTER LIPPMANN
Drift and Mastery
Unions still adhere to simple-minded philosophies like the famous "More!" of Samuel Gompers and the view of workers in society as an eternal war between Us and Them. Both kinds of view are anachronisms.
JENS O. PARSSON
Dying of Money
State employee unions, then, are in a bad place. Whatever they choose, it'll be the wrong choice. Their members will be furious, the public will be just as dismissive as ever, the labor movement will be weakened, and their legislative support will erode even further. In that situation, the least awful move may be to fight the cuts wholesale, even knowing they'll fail. Maybe it's better to go down fighting for what you believe in than the slow death of endless concessions and layoffs.
SUSAN BIGELOW
"Unions Have No Good Options", CT News Junkie, April 1, 2016
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
The Apple Cart
To remember the loneliness, the fear and the insecurity of men who once had to walk alone in huge factories, beside huge machines -- to realize that labor unions have meant new dignity and pride to millions of our countrymen -- human companionship on the job, and music in the home -- to be able to see what larger pay checks mean, not to a man as an employee, but as a husband and as a father -- to know these things is to understand what American labor means.
ADLAI STEVENSON
speech, Sep. 22, 1952
[Unions are] the biggest threat to 'organized money,' shall we say. So, there's all kinds of different policies that we fight for that are not necessarily just benefiting our members. They benefit the '99 percent'.
KIMBERLY CLAYTON
"Public Education Unions Cheer Supreme Court Decision on Fees", Public News Service, March 30, 2016
Not a penny off the pay, not a second on the day.
A. J. COOK
speech at York, Apr. 3, 1926
How many teamsters does it take to screw in a light bulb? Fifteen. You got a problem with that?
WILLIAM NOVAK & MOSHE WALDOKS
Big Books of Humor
Unions ... are just a group of highly-paid Trotskyites with a grievance.
JONATHAN SIMONS
"Teacher unions are 'highly-paid Trotskyites with a grievance'", The Telegraph, March 13, 2016
The benefits that unions win don't just go to the union members, they become the standard. When labor won the fight for an 8-hour day and 40-hour workweek with overtime pay, that became the standard. When labor fought for minimum wages, that became the standard, when labor fought for workplace safety, that became the standard. Labor's fight is a fight to set the standard for the rest of us.
DAVE JOHNSON
"Labor's Fight is OUR Fight", Campaign for America's Future
In contrast to the cutthroat competition and dog-eat-dog individualism that capitalism cherishes, unions are based on the idea that one's own well-being is bound up with the fate of others. Collective action depends on trust and a strong sense of shared interest, ideals that underlie democracy.
LOIS WEINER
"The CTU's Strike for Democracy", Jacobin, April 1, 2016
Join the union, girls, and together say, "Equal pay for equal work."
SUSAN B. ANTHONY
The Revolution, March 18, 1869
Labor unions are a complex and mixed subject. The institution of unions is not all good and certainly not all bad. Unions contributed mightily to the strengthening and perpetuation of American industry by equalizing the two equal partners, capital and labor. They still contribute a legitimate service as a kind of professional adviser to workers. Unions have earned an honest place for themselves, but they have not proved themselves any more fit to act as a fourth arm of the government than industrialists are.
JENS O. PARSSON
Dying of Money
Labor Unions are the leading force for democratization and progress.
NOAM CHOMSKY
attributed, 1001 Ideas That Changed the Way We Think
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. You have represented all the people, not just your members. You have been the voice of forgotten people everywhere.
JIMMY CARTER
Daily Labor Report, 1980
It is ever thus. Unions have been under attack by business moguls in the United States since their inception, for no other reason than that they deliver higher pay and benefits so working people can sustain a family.
JOHN PATRICK
AFL-CIO, March 10, 2016
Had the employers of past generations all of them dealt fairly with their men there would have been no unions.
STANLEY BALDWIN
speech in Birmingham, Jan. 14, 1931
In union there is strength.
OTHO III
attributed, Day's Collacon
Take out public sector workers like teachers and police officers, and only 6.7 percent of private sector workers are unionized. Eliminating the last few unions that protect a small slice of workers would hardly reverse job loss or have much effect on the cost of living, and it sure as hell won't "make America great again." It would serve to only further erode the ever dwindling chance for someone to achieve a small slice of the American Dream.
TOM KANARR
letter to the editor, "Don't Blame Unions", The Desert Sun, March 30, 2016
If unions can be broken in the public sector, this will further tilt the political playing field on behalf of corporate interests and their Republican allies. This will also silence one of the few remaining vehicles that advocate on behalf of ordinary people in this country.
KEN BERNSTEIN
"No unions: Government by the rich, for the rich", CNN, Feb. 24, 2011