Trade Unions Quotes

• 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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• 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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• Trade unions have been an essential force for social change, without which a semblance of a decent and humane society is impossible under capitalism.

  Pope Francis

  Essentials, Unions, Impossible

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• In a political struggle of class against class, organization of trade unions is the most important weapon.

  Friedrich Engels

  Struggle, Class, Organization

  39 Copy quote

• Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.

  Samuel Gompers

  Respect, Rights, Organization

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• The trade unions are a long-established and essential part of our national life. We take our stand by these pillars of our British society as it has gradually developed and evolved itself, of the right of individual labouring men to adjust their wages and conditions by collective bargaining, including the right to strike.

  Winston Churchill

  Men, Long, Unions

  Winston Churchill (1950). “Europe Unite: Speeches 1947 and 1948”, London, Cassell

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• The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers... It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.

  Samuel Gompers

  Reality, Organization, Movement

  "Not Even Compulsory Benevolence Will Do". The American Federationist, Volume 24, 1917.

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• 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

  Honesty, Character, Men

  The Railroad Trainman, November 1909.

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

  Clarence Darrow

  Men, Organization, Labor Day

  The Railroad Trainman, November 1909.

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• People must learn more and more that the strength of this country is the democratic power of the trade union movement.

  Michael Foot

  Country, People, Movement

  Morning Star, 1976.

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• I can't help to spit nails when just thinking about Trade Unions

  Margaret Thatcher

  Thinking, Nails, Unions

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• The history of all countries shows that the working class exclusively by its own effort is able to develop only trade-union consciousness.

  Vladimir Lenin

  Country, Class, History

  Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (2012). “Essential Works of Lenin: "What Is to Be Done?" and Other Writings”, p.74, Courier Corporation

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• Trade unions are islands of anarchy in a sea of chaos.

  Aneurin Bevan

  Fear, Islands, Sea

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• Without the presence of class warfare, trade unions would be hard put to justfy their existence.

  Karl Marx

  Class, Warfare, Would Be

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• All the evidence shows very clearly that if you are a member of a trade union you are likely to get better pay, more equal pay, better health and safety, more chance to get training, more chance to have conditions of work that help if you have caring responsibilities ... the list goes on!

  Frances O'Grady

  Responsibility, Caring, Equal Pay

  "The history woman". Interview with Hélène Mulholland, www.theguardian.com. September 6, 2006.

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• The history of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land. America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life. We ought to be proud of it!

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  School, Men, Land

  Address to the Minnesota State AFL-CIO Convention, 1977.

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• People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.

  Adam Smith

  Invisible Hand, People, Competition

  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations vol. 1, bk. 1, ch. 10 (1776)

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• If we want to make progress in key areas now, we have to build a multi-stakeholder process, harnessing the appropriate energies. So not only the politicians but also business, the wider civil society, and the trade union movement all have a contribution to make, whether it is at national or at international level.

  Mary Robinson

  Keys, Progress, Energy

  Source: www.egonzehnder.com

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• One cannot have a trade union or a democratic election without freedom of speech, freedom of association and assembly. Without a democratic election, whereby people choose and remove their rulers, there is no method of securing human rights against the state. No democracy without human rights, no human rights without democracy, and no trade union rights without either. That is our belief; that is our creed.

  George Meany

  Rights, People, Freedom Of Speech

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• Trade unions infringe upon the property rights of company owners.

  Barry Goldwater

  Rights, Unions, Owners

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• I know that strong trade unions and best supported by Labour Government actually protect worker's rights.

  Gisela Stuart

  Strong, Rights, Government

  Source: www.telegraph.co.uk

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• The strongest argument for free enterprise is that it prevents anybody from having too much power. Whether that person is a government official, a trade union official, or a business executive. If forces them to put up or shut up. They either have to deliver the goods, produce something that people are willing to pay for, are willing to buy, or else they have to go into a different business.

  Milton Friedman

  Government, People, Different

  "The Tyranny of Control". PBS "Free to Choose", episode 2, 1980.

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• The trouble with the Labour Party leadership and the trade union leadership, they're quite willing to applaud millions on the streets of the Philippines or in Eastern Europe, without understanding the need to also produce millions of people on the streets of Britain.

  Arthur Scargill

  Leadership, Party, Europe

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• The whole time I was a union leader, we had to put up with John Howard and Tony Abbott attacking workers' conditions. I'm proud of being a moderate trade union official, working co-operatively between employees and employers. I'm interested in better wages for workers, better safety, job security, and, profitable companies, because I understand that if you get co-operation in the workplace, everyone wins.

  Bill Shorten

  Jobs, Winning, Safety

  Source: www.abc.net.au

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• I do believe that not just the churches but strong communities, strong trade unions, strong families can make a difference in terms of producing persons much more virtuous than what one usually finds in a gangster culture.

  Cornel West

  Strong, Believe, Differences

  Source: www.pbs.org

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