Workplace Democracy Quotes

Labor cannot on any terms surrender the right to strike.

Companies that are willing to share, to withhold in order to further the growth of the company, willing to try to get a better atmosphere through a demonstration of democratic principles, fairness and cooperation, a better product, those will win in the end.

To one who believes that really good industrial conditions are the hope for a machine civilization, nothing is more heartening than to watch conference methods and education replacing police methods.

I think unionization is good public policy. I think when families secure their economic future, that's good for everyone.

There is no other bargaining but collective bargaining.

At its best, management theory is part of the democratic promise of America. It aims to replace the despotism of the old bosses with the rule of scientific law. It offers economic power to all who have the talent and energy to attain it.

The labor union is a great scheme to interrupt work. It speeds up loafing

The right to organize is a fundamental right for American workers.

Neither the common law nor the Fourteenth Amendment confers the absolute right to strike.

If you're going to vote on a television contract, there is a certain rationality to saying that the same structures that are applied to Health Plan participation should be placed on the right to vote on a strike.

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.

Ours is a sort of corporate society with a democratic safety valve.

The unions do a really good job in standing up for workers' rights and business does a very good job advocating for opportunities in this state. I don't believe the two have to operate independently.

What labor is demanding all over the world today is not a few material things like more dollars and fewer hours of work, but the right to a voice in the conduct of industry.

So let me be clear, Collective bargaining isn't a right, it is an expensive entitlement. Once and for all, we are giving the taxpayers a voice in this debate. We put the power back in the hands of the people.

I believe if an individual wants to join organized labor and work under a union contract, they should have the legal right to do so. At the same token, a person who does not want to work under organized labor and wants to work should have the ability to do so without the threat of having to join and having to pay dues to organized labor.

There is nothing that says unions have a God-given right to be there. We have to work at it and make ourselves relevant to every section of the workforce.

Private unions, such as the UAW, is a choice between employees and employers. If that is what they want, then who am I to say you can't have it?

Union membership should not be a condition for employment, and workers should have the freedom to exercise their right to determine how their hard-earned money is spent.

Every individual should have both the right to join a union and the right to not join a union should they so choose. It's about basic human freedom.

There's not democracy in the workplace. I mean, through most of our daily lives, the idea of democracy is fairly nonexistent. And I think things work better when the people who have to work with whatever it is we're working with have a say in how it's working.

The industrial world would be a more peaceful place if workers were called in as collaborators in the process of establishing standards and defining shop practices, matters which surely affect their interests and well-being fully as much as they affect those of employers and consumers.

What we shouldn't be doing is trying to take away your rights to bargain for better wages or working conditions... These so-called "right to work" laws, they don't have to do with economics; they have everything to do with politics. What they're really talking about is giving you the right to work for less money.

Major efforts have to be undertaken to bring the general public to understand the real reasons for their plight, and the possibilities for radical social and political change to construct meaningful popular control of all institutions - in communities, in the workplace, in the larger society, and on to the international order.

I'm not going to ask for anything unless the workers want it. If they want it, they'll ask for it.