Organized Labor Quotes

• 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?.

  Joe Biden

  Jobs, Class, America

  AFF Presidential Forum in Washington DC, March 14, 2007.

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

  Wendell Phillips

  Mean, Labour Movement, People

  Wendell Phillips (1891). “Speeches, Lectures, and Letters: Second series”

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• 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. Philip Randolph

  Uplifting, Labour Movement, Essence

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• 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.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Teacher, Simple, Labour Movement

  Speech to the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL - CIO), December 11, 1961.

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• 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.

  John F. Kennedy

  Organization, Rights, Views

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• The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.

  Thomas R. Donahue

  Greed, Answers, Unions

  "When Unions are Strong, Americans Enjoy the Fruits of Their Labor" by David Morris, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 8, 2011.

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

  John L. Lewis

  Strong, Labour Movement, Principles

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• 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.

  Eugene V. Debs

  Labour Movement, Realization, Today

  "An Ideal Labor Press". The Metal Worker, May 1904.

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• 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.

  Eric Liu

  Race, Shapes, Unions

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• 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.

  Frank Lloyd Wright

  Country, Men, Ideas

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

  Dolores Huerta

  Way, Distribution Of Wealth, Fairs

  "It’s the Little Things: Obama Insults Poland, Awards Medal of Freedom to Socialist Icons". "The Rush Limbaugh Show", www.rushlimbaugh.com. May 30, 2012.

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• 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.

  Utah Phillips

  Country, Song, Brother

  Interview with David Kupfer, progressive.org. September 1, 2003.

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• 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.

  Pope Paul VI

  Responsibility, Organization, Important

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

  Molly Ivins

  Heart, Giving, Deregulation

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• 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

  Labour Movement, America, Presidential

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• 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

  Future, Thoughtful, America

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• 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.

  Warren Beatty

  Jobs, People, Rich

  Interview with Carla Marinucci, www.sfgate.com. October 9, 2005.

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• You can't do it unless you organize.

  Samuel Gompers

  Unions, Labor Union, Organize

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• 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.

  Eugene V. Debs

  People, Roles, World

  "You Railroad Men". Essay by Eugene V. Debs (February 3, 1906); published in Eugene V. Debs "Debs, His Life, Writings and Speeches: With a Department of Appreciations", 1908.

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

  Cesar Chavez

  Peace, Struggle, Fighting

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• 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

  Thug, Labour Movement, Political

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

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Work, Unions, Firsts

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• Labor cannot stand still. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under.

  Harry Bridges

  Goes On, Unions, Retreat

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

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Aquariums, Organization, Essentials

  Theodore Roosevelt, Eugene Thwing (1919). “Newer Roosevelt messages: speeches, letters and magazine articles dealing with the war, before and after, and other vital topics”

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• 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

  Inspirational, Attitude, Order

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