Labor Unions Quotes

“We both had wanted to see a Mark Rothko exhibit at the Yale Art Gallery but, because of a labor dispute, some of the university's buildings, including the museum, were closed. As Bill and I walked by, he decided he could get us in if we offered to pick up the litter that had accumulated in the gallery's courtyard. Watching him talk our way in was the first time I saw his persuasiveness in action. We had the entire museum to ourselves. We wandered through the galleries talking about Rothko and twentieth-century art. I admit to being surprised at his interest in and knowledge of subjects that seemed, at first, unusual for a Viking from Arkansas. We ended up in the museum's courtyard, where I sat in the large lap of Henry Moore's sculpture Drape Seated Woman while we talked until dark.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, Living History

“...the hope that the day will not be far distant when it will be popularly considered that to lose life by accident in productive and distributive industry is just as noble and heroic as to lose it by accident on board a man of war. That to lose life by being drowned like a rat in as mine is just as worthy as being drowned like a rat in the hold of an ironclad. That to lose a limb by an exploding shell is no more worthy of national consideration than to lose one in a rolling mill. That to be blown up by a torpedo creates no more sorrow in the unfortunate's family than to be blown up by a boiler. That one should not be the hero of an apotheosis while the other goes to Eternity unhonored and unsung.”
― D. Douglas Wilson

“Ending poverty" sounds good, and so does "raising wages" - these are safe sound bites. They simply ignore the actual history of how any meaningful progress has been won in America or anywhere else - victories that required organization and power.... Mandela didn't change South Africa by being nice, despite the whitewashing of his story after his death. Mandela embraced armed struggle: his analysis of the power context of apartheid demanded it. Each power analysis is contextual, and no, please don't interpret that statement as a suggestion that armed struggle will work here. In the American progressive movement, including unions, there's virtually no discussion of power, the power required per fight, or the relationship between power and strategy.”
― Jane McAlevey

“I had a professional background in economic development and was fluent in the language of business - even while having fought and bled politically for organized labor in the auto industry.”
― Pete Buttigieg, Shortest Way Home: One Mayor's Challenge and a Model for America's Future

“IWW General Headquarters was collecting information regarding past free speech fights in response to a request from the U.S. Committee on Industrial Relations. Believing the “publicity to be worth the work it will entail,” Vincent St. John made an appeal in Solidarity one week before the September convention. Anyone who had first-hand experience was asked to submit personal narratives, pamphlets, bulletins, reports, and detailed histories regarding the various free speech fights. …. The committee determined that non-English-speaking workers had prevented development of better employer-employee relationships, especially with the “unreasonable prejudice of almost every class of Americans toward immigrants.” With rumblings of a European war, the committee recommended immediate legislation for restricting immigration except for those who were “likely to make the most desirable citizens.”
― Jane Little Botkin, Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family

“The horror of unemployment is the final undoing of the worker. When he sees this confronting him he sells himself regardless of the intrinsic worth of his ability. Labor unions and collective bargaining arose to give him some show of power and dignity.”
― Art Young, Art Young: His Life and Times

“If retail giants are claiming shortages on the first day of a strike, it's obvious they are using the situation as an opportunity to raise prices and increase profits.”
― Carlos Wallace, Why Sell Lies When The Truth Is Free