134 Labor Union Quotes

Following is our list of labor union quotations and slogans full of insightful wisdom and perspective about trade unions.

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Famous Labor Union Quotes

Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth... - Dolores Huerta

Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth... — Dolores Huerta

The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak. — John L. Lewis

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

What can Labor do for itself? The answer is not difficult. Labor can organize, it can unify; it can consolidate its forces. This done, it can demand and command. — Eugene V. Debs

Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work. - Susan B. Anthony

Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work. — Susan B. Anthony

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

The labor movement was the principal force that transforme­d misery and despair into hope and progress. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

You have got to unite in the same labor union and in the same political party and strike and vote together, and the hour you do that, the world is yours. — Eugene V. Debs

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

a labor victory must be economic and it must be revolutionizing. — Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor. — Thomas R. Donahue

Labor gives birth to ideas. - Jim Rohn

Labor gives birth to ideas. — Jim Rohn

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

Labor disgraces no man; unfortunately, you occasionally find men who disgrace labor. — Ulysses S. Grant

Short Labor Union Quotes

  • Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration — Abraham Lincoln
  • In union there is strength. — Aesop
  • Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected. — Samuel Gompers
  • Without labor nothing prospers. — Sophocles
  • Labor is the fabled magician's wand, the philosophers stone, and the cap of good fortune. — James Weldon Johnson
  • Labor is the true alchemist that beats out in patient transmutation the baser metals into gold. — William Morley Punshon

Labor Union Image Quotes

The people united will never be defeated. - Cesar Chavez quote

The people united will never be defeated. — Cesar Chavez

Labor union quote Dare to be honest and fear no labor.
Dare to be honest and fear no labor.

Labor Day Union Quotes

No business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country... By living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level - I mean the wages of decent living. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

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

Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior ofcapital, and deserves muchthe higher consideration. — Abraham Lincoln

Labor union quote There is no substitute for hard work.
There is no substitute for hard work.

If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool. — Abraham Lincoln

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

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

Any Hamas or Zionist type who tries to interfere with the labor unions and grab the money will be marched to the guillotines and subsequently beheaded. And isn't that easier and more productive than some endless, bloody conflict? So sayeth the gospel of common sense. Happy Mother's Day. — Roseanne Barr

Today, for many people, being a union member simply means paying dues, but in the early days there were so few of us that if a majority of the members were not active, the union ceased to exist. — Rose Schneiderman

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

The Berlin Wall wasn't the only barrier to fall after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. Traditional barriers to the flow of money, trade, people and ideas also fell. — Fareed Zakaria

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

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

The crisis in Ukraine is all the European Union's fault. Its leaders negotiated a trade deal with Ukraine, which essentially blackmailed the country to choose between Europe and Russia. — Marine Le Pen

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

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

We are the trade union for pensioners and children, the trade union for the disabled and the sick... the trade union for the nation as a whole. — Edward Heath

Our shared histories and common values make us natural trading partners and we will continue to work with both the United Kingdom and the European Union as we move forward with this new decision. — Justin Trudeau

Social Democratic and trade union organs have approved of the illegal invasion of Belgium, of the massacre of suspected guerrillas, as well as their wives and children, as well as the destruction of their homes in various towns and districts. — Clara Zetkin

Labor Movement Quotes

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

Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people. . . . There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish. — Samuel Gompers

Increased interest and participation by labor in the affairs of government should make for economic and political stability in the future. Labor has a constitutional and statutory right to participate. — John L. Lewis

The wage-earning class the world over are the victims of society. — Elizabeth Gurley Flynn

To me, the labor movement was never just a way of getting higher wages. What appealed to me was the spiritual side of a great cause that created fellowship. You wanted the girl or the man who worked beside you to be treated just as well as you were, and an injury to one was the concern of all. — Rose Schneiderman

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

If we don't have workers organized into labor unions, we're in great peril of losing our democracy. — Dolores Huerta

Slowly those who create the wealth of the world are permitted to share it. The future is in labor's strong, rough hands. — Mother Jones

I would be the last to condemn the thousands of sincere and dedicated people outside the churches who have labored unselfishly through various humanitarian movements to cure the world of social evils, for I would rather a man be a committed humanist than an uncommitted Christian. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

Organized Labor Quotes

Wealth is not the fruit of labor but the result of organized protected robbery. — Frantz Fanon

Labor organizations are formed, not to employ combined effort for a common object, but to indulge in declamation and denunciation, and especially to furnish an easy living to some officers who do not want to work. — William Graham Sumner

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

Business, labor and civil society organizations have skills and resources that are vital in helping to build a more robust global community. — Kofi Annan

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

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

If the workers are organized, all they have to do is to put their hands in their pockets and they have got the capitalist class whipped. — Bill Haywood

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

Labor cannot stand still. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under. — Harry Bridges

New legislation has just been adopted by the International Labour Organization on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, such as bonded labour, prostitution and hazardous work. — Carol Bellamy

Teachers Unions Quotes

Instead of just giving lip service to improving our schools, I will actually put the kids first and the teachers union behind in giving our kids better teachers, better options and better choices for a better future. — Mitt Romney

We're not spending enough money, but probably we let the teachers unions set curriculas which don't teach them the right things. There's not emphasis on the ...the basic learning that you need if you're going to go on in a college and into post-graduate work. — Rupert Murdoch

They believe in teachers unions. We believe in teachers. — Chris Christie

So long as public schools are treated as places that exist to provide guaranteed jobs to members of the teachers' unions, do not be surprised to see American students continuing to score lower on international tests than students in countries that spend a lot less per pupil than we do. — Thomas Sowell

Teacher unions are an interest group that acts in defense of their own interests, which means the union bosses' interests, not the members. — Peter Brimelow

The unions are the worst thing that ever happened to education because it's not a meritocracy. It turns into a bureaucracy, which is exactly what has happened. The teachers can't teach and administrators run the place and nobody can be fired. It's terrible. — Steve Jobs

I want to work with the teachers' union. But as I said out there, we have to put the kids first and we are letting down a generation of California children. It's not acceptable. — Meg Whitman

I was my own teacher and pupil, in a comradeship so firm and persevering that the most trying incidents of my life served only to strengthen the union. — Andres Segovia

Low standards are a tactic that takes pressure off teachers unions by accepting mediocrity and failure for kids. — Jeb Bush

I am not going to make any commitments to the teachers union to do anything until they do something that's other than in their own self- interest. And everything they have done so far is in their self-interests, and that's it. — Chris Christie

Labour Movement Quotes

United we stand, divided we fall is one of the oldest and truest slogans of the Labour movement. — Jeremy Corbyn

Such a scheme.. the betrayal of the national democracy of Industrial Ulster, would mean a carnival of reaction both North and South, would set back the wheels of progress, would destroy the oncoming unity of the Irish labour movement and paralyse all advanced movements while it lasted. — James Connolly

In some ways, [the student anti-sweatshop movement] is like the anti-apartheid movement, except that in this case its striking at the core of the relations of exploitation. Much of this was initiated by Charlie Kernaghan of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights. — Sayings

We have a great objective - the light on the hill - which we aim to reach by working for the betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand. If it were not for that, the Labour movement would not be worth fighting for. — Ben Chifley

If a Labour movement, on a bourgeois basis, has hitherto existed in the country where the new movement is awakening it will certainly not disappear all at once. — Karl Radek

Arthur Scargill is the Labour movements nearest equivalent to a First World War General. — Neil Kinnock

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

In general, if signs of sectarianism do appear in a Socialist Party, these are only the products of the absence of a broad Labour movement in the country. — Karl Radek

In the United States of North America, every independent movement of the workers was paralysed so long as slavery disfigured a part of the Republic. Labour cannot emancipate itself in the white skin where in the black it is branded. — Karl Marx

In individual industries where female labour pays an important role, any movement advocating better wages, shorter working hours, etc., would not be doomed from the start because of the attitude of those women workers who are not organized. — Clara Zetkin

Labor Laws Quotes

Minimum wage law is the 'People's Fed.' Tie minimum wage to money supply. If there is pushback against this idea, then shut down the Fed and its ability to distort the economy, penalizing labor, or make the Fed's distortions available to all businesses and all workers. — Max Keiser

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. — Dwight D. Eisenhower

You must obey this now for a law, that he that will not work shall not eat (except by sickness he be disabled). For the labors of thirty or forty honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain a hundred and fifty idle loiterers. — John Smith

The laws should be rigidly enforced which prohibit the immigration of a servile class to compete with American labor, with no intention of acquiring citizenship, and bringing with them and retaining habits and customs repugnant to our civilization. — Grover Cleveland

Since the Fall, man had accepted labor as a penance and for its power to work redemption. It was not a law of nature which forced man to work, but the effect of a curse. — Michel Foucault

Not the labors of my hands Can fulfill thy Law's demands: Could my zeal no respite know, Could my tears forever flow, All for Sin could not atone: Thou must save, and Thou alone! — Augustus Toplady

As labor creates the wealth of the country, we demand the passage of such laws as may be necessary to protect it in all its rights. — John Peter Altgeld

According to the law that governs the universe,all sufferings are your labor of love to unveil your real self. — Meher Baba

The first law of the market is to make the largest possible profit from other people's labor or go out of business. Profitability rather than human need is the determining condition of private investment. — Michael Parenti

As President, my father will change the labor laws that were put into place at a time when women were not a significant portion of the workforce. And he will focus on making quality child care affordable and accessible for all. — Ivanka Trump

People Writing About Labor Union

Name Quotes Likes
Read quotes by Eugene V. Debs

Eugene V. Debs
quotes on education, eugene v debs and constitution

68 1886
Read quotes by Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers
quotes on imperialism

37 626
Read quotes by Dolores Huerta

Dolores Huerta
quotes on education

71 3167
Read quotes by John L. Lewis

John L. Lewis
quotes on leadership, john l lewis and life

16 272
Read quotes by Franklin D. Roosevelt

Franklin D. Roosevelt
quotes on freedom, social security and haiti

488 9998
Read quotes by Dwight D. Eisenhower

Dwight D. Eisenhower
quotes on leadership, planning and d-day

495 12151

More Labor Union Quotes

Equality is the heart and essence of democracy, freedom, and justice, equality of opportunity in industry, in labor unions, schools and colleges, government, politics, and before the law. There must be no dual standards of justice, no dual rights, privileges, duties, or responsibilities of citizenship. No dual forms of freedom. — A. Philip Randolph

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

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them." - Franklin D. Roosevelt — Franklin D. Roosevelt

Labor never quits. We never give up the fight - no matter how tough the odds, no matter how long it takes. — George Meany

The best customer of American industry is the well paid worker. — Franklin D. Roosevelt

In the ten years I was president of the Teamsters, I had raised the membership from eight hundred thousand to more than 2 million and made it the largest single labor union the world. — Jimmy Hoffa

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

The basic goal of labor will not change. It is - as it has always been, and I am sure always will be - to better the standards of life for all who work for wages and to seek decency and justice and dignity for all Americans. — George Meany

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

I'm a lobbyist and had a career lobbying. The guy who gets elected or the lady who gets elected president of the United States will immediately be lobbying. They would be advocating to the Congress, they'll be lobbying our allies and our adversaries overseas. They'll be asking the business community and labor unions. — Haley Barbour

The same old caveman feeling-greed, envy, violence, and mutual hate, which along the way assumed respectable pseudonyms like class struggle, racial struggle, mass struggle, labor-union struggle-are tearing our world to pieces. — Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

a great deal of the wealth at the top is built on the low-wage labor of the poor. Take Wal-Mart, our largest private employer and premiere exploiter of the working class. ... You think it's a coincidence that this union-busting low-wage retail empire happens to have generated a $65 billion family fortune? — Barbara Ehrenreich

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

Whenever you are engaged in work that serves humanity and is for the building of humanity, it has dignity and it has worth. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

It's incredible to see labor unions and environmentalists getting together to stop the corporate mentality that destroys both jobs and the environment. — Bonnie Raitt

You can't do it unless you organize. — Samuel Gompers

The biggest myth about labor unions is that unions are for the workers. Unions are for unions, just as corporations are for corporations and politicians are for politicians. — Thomas Sowell

To a right-winger, unions are awful. Why do right-wingers hate unions? Because collective bargaining is the power that a worker has against the corporation. Right-wingers hate that. — Janeane Garofalo

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