Elaine Chao Quotes

We want to make sure that workers know their rights and that employers know their obligations. That is the best way to protect workers.

All we want the Labor Secretary to do is enforce the law and protect workers’ rights.

OSHA was created to regulate jobs that cause injury or illness to workers. Increasingly, though, OSHA sees its purpose as improving the general welfare of working Americans, whether work itself is hazardous or not.

I'm for anything that lets people come here to work legally. There are more protections for workers who are here legally than for those who are not. It's also safer for the workers and employers have a more consistent pool of workers.

We're going to be very strong with employers in all of our aspects, because I think there's been too much of this idea let's try and get along here, and we've eroded some of our standards.

Time after time we're told corporations should have freedom from pesky job safety regulations, environmental protections and labor standards - giving working people the freedom to be crushed in collapsing mines, choke on filthy air and get paid too little to live on.

Were the workers who sweated to put food on my table paid at least minimum wage? Did they get health benefits? Overtime? Were they unionized? Protected from pesticide exposure?

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

The internal market should be designed to benefit each and every citizen of the Community. It is therefore necessary to improve workers' living and working conditions, and to provide better protection for their health and safety at work ...

By cracking down on wage theft, we can make sure workers and taxpayers are not getting ripped off by crooked employers.

America has two clear tiers of workers: contractors and employees. The former have few regulatory protections; the latter have many.

South Carolina is a 'right to work' state - a misnomer of a phrase, as the laws limits union representation of workers. It does does not guarantee workers a job or fair wages and conditions.

Workers' rights should be a central focus of development.

We are just interested in dealing with the people we're paying every day. We know federal law allows them to vote in a union at anytime, but we think we can resist that by talking to our own people and giving them enough upside.

The so-called 'Employee Free Choice Act' envisions a world where workers would be denied privacy and forced to vote in an atmosphere of intimidation.

Today, currently, business owners can go out and find out if the person they are hiring is eligible to work here or if they are not. We need to think about how we are impacting workers.

I think that people need to stand up with their backbone and not go to places where they feel like the workers aren't taken care of.

All the legislation ever secured for the ventilation or safety of mines, factory or workshop is the result of the efforts of organized labor?

You should pay the laborer his wages before his sweat dries

The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for—not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country.

The priority of work over capital places an obligation in justice upon employers to consider the welfare of the workers before the increase of profits.

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

The global economy shall not run without the consent of the workers….We demand fair trade, not free trade.

Duty of the Catholic Worker to Join Organized Labor

Do not worry about the side agreements on labor. They are too full of loopholes to pose any threat.