John H. Devereux Quotes

The denial by employers of the right of employees to organize and the refusal by employers to accept the procedure of collective bargaining lead to strikes and other forms of industrial strife or unrest, which have the intent or the necessary effect of burdening or obstructing commerce.

Actually, the Department of Transport were at one stage going to sack me.

You’ve got two people working for you – Warrick and (Meghan) O’Sullivan – that you need to get rid of.

Well, yes, I've fired a lot of people. Generally I like other people to fire, because it's always a lousy task. But I have fired many people.

The life of the village became more and more affected by strikes and lock-outs.

I don't even like firing people. I don't think I've ever said, 'You're fired' to anybody.

At first everyone predicted that it would be impossible to hold these divergent people together, but aside from the skilled men, some of whom belonged to craft unions, comparatively few went back to the mills. And as a whole, the strike was conducted with little violence.

It is not necessary, nor appropriate, to sow dissent and misrepresent employees or constantly to threaten industrial action.

Strikes always leave a bad taste with everyone.

But I would defy anyone to go back over the years and tell me anyone whose career I've ruined, anyone whom I've driven out of the service, anyone I've fired from a job.

Not too much, though there's a certain amount of rancour and bitterness when someone tries to fire you.

Some people called me a fascist. That's mostly over, but there will be more attacks from the unions.

If you don't have public hangings for bad culture in a company, if you don't take people out and let them say, they went home to spend more time with the family. It's crazy.

Economic disputes are rarely the real cause of a strike. We do not have a strike because negotiations break down; negotiations break down because the situation is a strike situation.

No matter what the motive of the employer, any strike aimed at him is in physical fact a strike against ourselves and our country. No matter if he claims or seems to be in non-essential production, no strike is proper, for strikes are infectious and damaging to morale.

The strike weapon is overboard, not only for the duration of the war, but after the war too.

Something may be done under Federal authority to prevent the disturbances which so often arise from disputes between employers and the employed.

A strike cannot be tolerated under any circumstances for it would be a stab at our armed might.

Union busting has become an art form.

The toilers have awakened to the new found power of organized effort.

Strikes are a crime ... the law of jungles and primitive societies.

I will never recognize the union, never, never!

Regardless of the degree of class consciousness of their members, the trade unions are, by their very nature, driven on to the revolutionary goal.

The strike is the weapon of the industrial jungle.

No labor strike will last more than 15 minutes.