Union Solidarity Quotes:

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 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 hapless mass. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

topic: Dream, Party, Men, Labor Union, Working Man

The people united will never be defeated.

- Cesar Chavez

topic: People, Defeated, United, Union Solidarity

Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor.

- John F. Kennedy

topic: Self, Justice, Presidential, Labor Union, Bargaining

My friends, it is solidarity of labor we want. We do not want to find fault with each other, but to solidify our forces and say to each other: We must be together; our masters are joined together and we must do the same thing.

- Mother Jones

source: Mother Jones (1988). “The speeches and writings of Mother Jones”

topic: Labor Force, Together, Want, Union Solidarity

There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.

- Walter Reuther

topic: Freedom, Men, Brotherhood, Strength In Numbers, Civil Rights Movement

When fewer workers have unions, the standard of living falls for everyone and the gap between the rich and poor grows.

- John Sweeney

topic: Fall, Unions, Gaps, Labor Union, Union Solidarity

Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.

- Jimmy Carter

topic: Rights, Support, Half, Organized Labor, Union Solidarity

Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.

- Molly Ivins

topic: Heart, Giving, Boards, Labor Union, Organized Labor

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

topic: Uplifting, Essence, Movement, Social Movements, Labor Movement

If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.

- Lane Kirkland

topic: Money, Hard Work, Wonderful, Work Humor, Organized Labor

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

topic: School, Men, Land, Labor Movement, Labor Union

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

- Wendell Phillips

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

topic: Mean, People, Noble, Labor Movement, Organized Labor

Finally, it was about how people treat one another. It was about human dignity. We forced the employers to treat us as equals, to sit down and talk to us about the work we do, how we do it, and what we get paid for it. And I believe that the principles for which we fought in 1934 are still true and still useful. Whether your job is pushing a four-wheeler, or programming a computer, I don't know of any way for working people to win basic economic justice and dignity except by being organized into a solid, democratic union.

- Harry Bridges

topic: Jobs, Believe, Winning, Four Wheelers, Economic Justice

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

- Samuel Gompers

topic: Rights, Organization, People, Labor Union, Trade Unions

It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

topic: Independent, Organized Labor, Unions, Union Solidarity

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

topic: America, Presidential, Movement, Labor Movement, Labor Union

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

- Clarence Darrow

source: The Railroad Trainman, November 1909.

topic: Men, Organization, Labor Day, Labor Union, Organized Labor

Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie-labor is fighting for a larger pie.

- Walter Reuther

source: The New Republic, Vol. 114, 1946.

topic: Struggle, Fighting, Pie, Union Solidarity

The labor movement is people. Our unions have brought millions of men and women together, made them members one of another, and given them common tools for common goals. Their goals are goals for all America - and their enemies are the enemies for progress. The two cannot be separated.

- John F. Kennedy

topic: Men, Two, America, Labor Movement, Labor Union

Labor #‎ Unions are the leading force for #‎ democratization and #‎ progress .

- Noam Chomsky

topic: Progress, Unions, Force, Labor Union, Democratization

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

topic: Country, Men, Ideas, Labor And Capital, Labor Union

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

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

topic: Reality, Movement, Unions, Labor Union, Economic Power

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.

- Elizabeth Cady Stanton

topic: Inspiring, Women, Equality, Social Equality, Social Groups

As it has over the decades, the union movement stands for the fundamental moral values that make America strong: quality education for our children, affordable health care for every person-not just some-an end to poverty, secure pensions and wages that enable families to sustain the middle-class life that has fueled this nation's prosperity and strength. Union members and other working family activists don't just vote our moral values-we live them. We fight for them, day in, day out. Our commitment to economic and social justice propels us and everything we do.

- John Sweeney

topic: Strong, Children, Commitment, Middle Class Life, Labor Movement

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

topic: Responsibility, Organization, Important, Labor Union, Bargaining

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

topic: Rights, People, Freedom Of Speech, Democratic Elections, Trade Unions

There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.

- Walter Reuther

topic: Taken, Fighting, Winning, Bargaining, Ballots

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

- Franklin D. Roosevelt

topic: Work, Unions, Firsts, Labor Union, Organized Labor

There was no one left to speak for me

- Martin Niemoller

topic: Speak, Speaking Out, Democracy And Human Rights, Price Of Freedom, Freedom And Liberty

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

source: The Railroad Trainman, November 1909.

topic: Honesty, Character, Men, Betterment, Organized Labor

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

topic: Work, Independent, Civil War, Labor And Capital, Labor Day Wishes

Every piece of progressive social legislation passed by Congress in the 20th century bears a union label.

- George Meany

topic: Struggle, Labels, Pieces, Labor Union, Union Solidarity

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

- Thomas Jefferson

source: Declaration of Independence (1776).

topic: Life, Change, Happiness, Social Equality, Inaugural Speech

Labor Day is devoted to no man, living or dead, to no sect, race or nation.

- Samuel Gompers

topic: Men, Race, Labor Day, May Day, Labor Day Wishes