- "Labor Unions are the leading force for democratization and progress."
--Noam Chomsky - "The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds."
--Abraham Lincoln -"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
- "In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, 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. - "If I were an employee, a working man ... or a wage- earner of any sort, I undoubtedly would join a union of my trade... I believe in the union and I believe that all men are morally bound to help to the extent of their powers in the common interests advanced by the union.
--Theodore Roosevelt - " 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 - "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 - "Labor can have no effective voice as long as it is unorganized. To protect its rights it must be free to bargain collectively through its own chosen representatives."
--Catholic Church - "The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America."
--John F. Kennedy - "Together in Union we will fight, carry on. Together in Union we are strong"
--Lyrics from the Song; Communiqué by the band: The Strike! - "I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. Corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed."
--Abraham Lincoln 1864 (Letter to Col. William F. Elkins) - "A woman's place is in her union"
--Coalition of Labor Union Women - "I believe now, as I have all my life, in the right of workers to join unions and to protect their unions.
--Franklin. D. Roosevelt (from radio address, May 2, 1943) - "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 - "Take not from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned."
--Thomas Jefferson, Inaugural Address, March 4, 1801 - "United we bargain, divided we beg."
--SEIU Health Care Workers Union Local 250 button - "The government of an exclusive company of merchants is, perhaps, the worst of all governments for any country whatsoever.
--Adam Smith, from The Wealth of Nations - "I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week. If you go to the city of Washington, you will find that almost all of those corporation lawyers…and mis-representatives of the masses you will find that almost all of them claim, in glowing terms, that they have risen from the ranks to places of eminence and distinction. I am very glad I cannot make that claim for myself. I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks."
--Eugene Debs - "Why should workers agree to be slaves in a basically authoritarian structure? They should have control over it themselves. Why shouldn't communities have a dominant voice in running the institutions that affect their lives?
--Noam Chomsky - "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."
--Abraham Lincoln - "I would guarantee by every means in my power the right of laboring men to join a union, and their right to work as union without illegal interference from either capitalists or nonunion men.
--Theodore Roosevelt - "We believe that the denial of the right of workers to organize and to form group associations so that they may treat as economic equals with their employers is tantamount to a curtailment of human freedom. For that reason, we favor the unionization of all who labor.
--Jewish Church - "There's a direct relationship between the bread box and the ballot box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls."
--Walter Reuther, UAW President 1946-1970 - "It is the right of every man to organize with his fellow workers for collective bargaining through representatives of his own free choice.
--Lutheran Church - "Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work."
--Susan B. Anthony - "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 of 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 helpless mass. --Dwight D. Eisenhower - "All that serves labor serves the nation. All that harms is treason. If a man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar!"
--Abraham Lincoln - "I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and, also generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field." --Albert Einstein - "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 omission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun".
--Eugene V. Debs (1894) - "If capitalism is fair then unionism must be. If men have a right to capitalize their ideas and the resources of their country, then that implies the right of men to capitalize their labor."
--Frank Lloyd Wright - "If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I'd do would be to join a union."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt - "We were born to unite with our fellow men, and to join in community with the human race."
--Cicero - "The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak. The strength of a strong man is a prideful thing, but the unfortunate thing in life is that strong men do not remain strong. And it is just as true of unions and labor organizations as is true of men and individuals. And whereas today the craft unions of this country may be able to stand upon their own feet and like mighty oaks stand before the gale, defy the lightning, yet the day may come when those organizations will not be able to withstand the lightning and the gale. Now, prepare yourselves by making a contribution to your less fortunate brethren... Organize the unorganized!
--John L. Lewis - "I thank God that we have a system of labor where there can be a strike."
--Abraham Lincoln - "It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that is have free and independent labor unions". --Franklin D. Roosevelt - "Whereas, the churches, in the statement of 'The Social Ideals' have stood for 'The right of employees and employers alike to organize for collective bargaining'. Resolved: that the National Council record its conviction that not only has labor a right to organize, but also that it is socially desirable that is do so because of the need for collective action in the maintenance of standards of living."
--National Council of Churches (Representing 33 million Protestants) - "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 |
