Bill Shorten Quotes

What I care about is whether or not a leader will work with America's working people, whether or not a leader cares about responsibility and honest work and whether or not a leader will fight to keep the American Dream alive.

There can be no distress, there can be no hard times, when labor is well paid. The man who raises his hand against the progress of the workingman raises his hand against prosperity.

What the labor movement did in this country is to make sure that capitalism worked.

When minimum living wages, bargaining for fair wages, pensions, and job security are denied in too many countries, it is not rocket science to understand the drivers of inequality.

Only with the tools of production in their own hands could the workers ever hope to control their own lives and receive the fruits of their labor.

Unions did in fact build the middle class. And here's what that did. That built the United States of America as we know it.

The union movement has been the best middle class job creating program that America has ever had, and it doesn't cost the government a dime.

If we are going to reverse the race to the bottom, workers must have the right to engage in collective bargaining.

I think you'll see if you look at 'Up', we've focused a lot on labor (and the forces trying to keep labor down) and have featured everything from Wal Mart workers, to on-the-ground organizers, to union presidents to restaurant workers sitting at the table sharing their experience and expertise.

During three decades from 1947 to 1977, the nation implemented what might be called a basic bargain with American workers. Employers paid them enough to buy what they produced.

The focus of our public discourse has been on how American companies are competing with Japanese, German, and other foreign companies. What this allows us to ignore is how each of those American companies is really in competition with the families of the workers. That's the real competition.

They only ask for a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work.

Affirm the priority of work over capital and the fact that material goods are meant for all … 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.

The future of Labor is the future of America.

We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; in the rights to property as a trust from God; in collective bargaining and responsible consumption; and in the elimination of economic and social distress.

The labor union in enforcing a high scale of wages brings about the distribution of wealth throughout the entire community.

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

We've got to get everything we want—a works program, social security, wages and hours, everything—now or never.

The workers who harvest our food have been systematically denied the basic rights that are granted to all other American workers. They can be fired for trying to form a union or for attempting to improve their working conditions. They are not eligible for overtime pay, disability, or even unemployment insurance.

Instead of focusing on attacking unions and the labor movement, we need to find ways to strengthen and empower workers so we can put more money in the pockets of middle class families.

For TPP to get my vote, it must benefit America's middle class, raise wages, and safeguard the consumer and environmental protections that we rely upon.

I stand with the working-class citizens.

I absolutely believe that we're the workers' party. We are the party that has always been at the forefront of the big social changes that have promoted women and working people.

For years, leaders in Columbus have launched an ideological attack on the working men and women of Ohio and their ability to collectively bargain for good wages and safe workplace conditions. That's wrong, and it has to stop.

I am on the side of the working person across the country.