Samuel Gompers Quotes

Some say politics means destruction to labor organizations, but the reverse is the fact.

It is essential that there be organization of labor…. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.

We are the only industrial democracy that does not have one political party that is labor based.

There are only two ways to bring about protection of the workers, however, legislation and unionization. So far the majority of the people in this country seem to favor unions as a more democratic and elastic method, though certain things must be dealt with by legislation

I am a huge believer in organized labor. Period. Full stop.

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.

I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

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

I'm a lifelong believer in trade unionism.

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.

I'm a big believer in the value of labor unions and with what collective effort gets people.

After contract negotiations and organizing, playing an active role in the political process is one of a union's most important functions. Gains won at the bargaining table or through sacrifice on the picketline can be wiped out by politicians on the state or federal level.

I am always on the side of labor when there is any compromise to be made.

The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions.

Unions may also legitimately resort to strikes where this is the only available means to the justice owed to workers

When wage controls and other legal restrictions on Canadian workers of the government's only answer to that country's deepening economic problems, the labor movement's response has to be fundamentally political.

I will only stop defending the rights of workers when I die.

The history of all countries shows that, by its own efforts, the working class can develop only a trade-union consciousness—that is, the realization of the need of getting together in unions in order to fight employers and to demand from the government the passing of laws necessary for the workers.

Duty of the Catholic Worker to Join Organized Labor

We know that the organized workers of the country are our friends. As for the rest, they don't matter a tinker's cuss.

If there is to be peace in our industrial life, let the employer recognize his obligation to his employees

Power? Nine workers out of ten still unorganized, and union dues going to bribe middle class politicians. You call that power?

Labor: a man coins himself into his labor,—turns his day, his strength, his thought, his affection into some product which remains as the visible sign of his power; and to protect that, to secure that to him, to secure his past self to his future self, is the object of all government. There is no interest in any country so imperative as that of labor; it covers all, and constitutions and governments exist for that,—to protect and insure it to the laborer.

Unquestionably unions and their leaders are not always wise and fair any more than any other human beings. There are only two ways to bring about protection of the workers, however, legislation and unionization. So far the majority of the people in this country seem to favor unions as a more democratic and elastic method, though certain things must be dealt with by legislation.

“Right to Work” is wrong for Kentucky. It’s just another word for union busting...