Barack Obama Quotes About Labor

• 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.

• If we are going to solve the challenges we face, you need a President who will pursue genuine solutions day in and day out. And that is my commitment to you. We need immigration reform that will secure our borders, and punish employers who exploit immigrant labor; reform that finally brings the 12 million people who are here illegally out of the shadows by requiring them to take steps to become legal citizens. We must assert our values and reconcile our principles as a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws. That is a priority I will pursue from my very first day.

  Barack Obama

  Commitment, Law, People

  Barack Obama's Remarks to NALEO, www.realclearpolitics.com. June 28, 2008.

• In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of shortcuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.

  Barack Obama

  Greatness, Men, Journey

  First Presidential Inaugural Address, Delivered 20 January 2009

• That's what building a body of work is all about. It's about the daily labor, the many individual acts, the choices large and small that add up over time, over a lifetime to a lasting legacy. It's about not being satisfied with the latest achievement, the latest gold star, because the one thing I know about a body of work is that it's never finished. It's cumulative. It deepens and expands with each day you give your best. You may have setbacks and you may have failures, but you're not done.

  Barack Obama

  Stars, Giving, Choices

• Yes to trade, but trade that ensures that these other countries that trade with us aren't engaging in child labor.

  Barack Obama

  Country, Children, Child Labor

  "President Barack Obama Holds a News Conference". ye.usembassy.gov. November 14, 2016.

• I think that when it comes to issues of trade, I think it is important for us to be in favor of trade, but I also think it is important to make sure that we are putting in place the labor standards, the environmental standards, that are going to provide some of a fighting chance for American workers.

  Barack Obama

  Fighting, Thinking, Issues

  Source: www.politico.com

• The trade agreement itself does have labor and environmental protections, but we have to stand for human rights and we have to make sure that violence isn't being perpetrated against workers who are just trying to organize for their rights.

  Barack Obama

  Rights, Agreement, Environmental

  "McCain, Obama go head to head in last debate". www.cnn.com. October 15, 2008.

• And what would help minority workers are the same things that would help white workers: the opportunity to earn a living wage, the education and training that lead to such jobs, labor laws and tax laws that restore some balance to the distribution of the nation's wealth.

  Barack Obama

  Jobs, Opportunity, Law

  Barack Obama (2006). “The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream”, p.171, Crown

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