These union quotes will inspire you. Union, an act or instance of uniting or joining two or more things into one.
Below you will find a collection of motivating, knowledgeable, and encouraging union quotes, union sayings, and union proverbs.
Best Union Quotes
- “It is one of the characteristics of a free and democratic nation that it have free and independent labor unions.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt , Labor union quotes
- “We know what unions have done for other people. We have seen it and we have studied and we have cherished the idea of unionism. We have seen the history and development of unions in this country and we tell the growers that we want nothing more, but that we want our own union and we are going to fight for it as long as it takes.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.” ~ Molly Ivins
- “It’s not about the budget; it’s about the power…So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.” ~ Paul Krugman
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“The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “When you have people together who believe in something very strongly – whether it’s religion or politics or unions – things happen.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “Finally, it was about how people treat one another. It was about human dignity. We forced the employers to treat us as equals, to sit down and talk to us about the work we do, how we do it, and what we get paid for it. And I believe that the principles for which we fought in 1934 are still true and still useful. Whether your job is pushing a four-wheeler, or programming a computer, I don’t know of any way for working people to win basic economic justice and dignity except by being organized into a solid, democratic union.” ~ Harry Bridges
- “History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. , Union quotes strength
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“The best customer of American industry is the well paid worker.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “A basic assumption shapes most Americans’ mindset about labor: the belief that the death of unions isn’t my problem because I’m not in a union. That assumption is wrong. Even if you aren’t a member, your pay is influenced by the strength or weakness of organized labor. The presence of unions sets off a wage race to the top. Their absence sets off a race to the bottom.” ~ Eric Liu
- “No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn’t actually fall down.” ~ George Bernard Shaw
- “Every advance in this half-century-Social Security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another-came with the support and leadership of American Labor.” ~ Jimmy Carter
- “The strongest bond of human sympathy outside the family relation should be one uniting working people of all nations and tongues and kindreds.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
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“Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie-labor is fighting for a larger pie.” ~ Walter Reuther
- “Our labor unions are not narrow, self-seeking groups. They have raised wages, shortened hours, and provided supplemental benefits. Through collective bargaining and grievance procedures, they have brought justice and democracy to the shop floor.” ~ John F. Kennedy
- “The only thing workers have to bargain with is their skill or their labor. Denied the right to withhold it as a last resort, they become powerless. The strike is therefore not a breakdown of collective bargaining-it is the indispensable cornerstone of that process.” ~ Paul Clark
- “It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
- “There’s a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.” ~ Walter Reuther
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“Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.” ~ Samuel Gompers
- “In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right-to-work.’ It provides no ‘rights’ and no ‘works.’ Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining…. We demand this fraud be stopped.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
- “It was the labor movement that helped secure so much of what we take for granted today. The 40-hour workweek, the minimum wage, family leave, health insurance, Social Security, Medicare, retirement plans. The cornerstones of the middle-class security all bear the union label.” ~ Barack Obama
- “Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America.” ~ John L. Lewis
- “Gentlemen, comrades, do not be concerned about all you hear about Glasnost and Perestroika and democracy in the coming years. They are primarily for outward consumption. There will be no significant internal changes in the Soviet Union, other than for cosmetic purposes. Our purpose is to disarm the Americans and let them fall asleep.” ~ Mikhail Gorbachev
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“If I went to work in a factory the first thing I’d do is join a union.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “The shadow of crisis has passed, and the State of the Union is strong.” ~ Barack Obama
- “One of the great reasons for the popularity of strikes is that they give the suppressed self a sense of power. For once the human tool knows itself a man, able to stand up and speak a word or strike a blow.” ~ Charles Horton Cooley
- “The basic goal of labor will not change. It is – as it has always been, and I am sure always will be – to better the standards of life for all who work for wages and to seek decency and justice and dignity for all Americans.” ~ George Meany
- “If capitalism is fair then unionism must be. If men and women have a right to capitalize their ideas and the resources of their country, then that implies the right of men and women to capitalize their labor.” ~ Frank Lloyd Wright
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“All that harms labor is treason to America.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
- “The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.” ~ Henry George
- “Today in America, unions have a secure place in our industrial life. Only a handful of reactionaries harbor the ugly thought of breaking unions and depriving working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice. I have no use for those – regardless of their political party – who hold some vain and foolish dream of spinning the clock back to days when organized labor was huddled, almost as a hapless mass. Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of the right to join the union of their choice.” ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
- “It is to the real advantage of every producer, every manufacturer, and every merchant to cooperate in the improvement of working conditions because the best customer of American industry is the well-paid worker.” ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
- “Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
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“The gap between the rich and poor is widening fast.” ~ Richard Rogers
- “Labor is prior to and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
- “The unions say ‘last hired – first fired,’, we say hire and fire based on merit. We want the best and brightest in the classroom.” ~ Scott Walker
- “If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
- “The labor movement means just this: It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.” ~ Wendell Phillips
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“When fewer workers have unions, the standard of living falls for everyone and the gap between the rich and poor grows.” ~ John Sweeney
- “Our movement is of the working people, for the working people, by the working people. . . . There is not a right too long denied to which we do not aspire in order to achieve; there is not a wrong too long endured that we are not determined to abolish.” ~ Samuel Gompers
- “If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich would have kept it all to themselves.” ~ Lane Kirkland
- “The most conservative man in this world is the British trade unionist when you want to change him.” ~ Ernest Bevin
- “Labor cannot standstill. It must not retreat. It must go on, or go under.” ~ Harry Bridges
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“Strong, responsible unions are essential to industrial fair play. Without them, the labor bargain is wholly one-sided.” ~ Louis D. Brandeis
- “You can’t do it unless you organize.” ~ Samuel Gompers
- “The best of wages will not compensate for excessively long working hours which undermine health.” ~ Louis D. Brandeis
- “Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.” ~ Ronald Reagan
- “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.” ~ A. Philip Randolph
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“The only effective answer to organized greed is organized labor.” ~ Thomas R. Donahue
- “With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed.” ~ Clarence Darrow
- “The history of the labor movement needs to be taught in every school in this land. America is a living testimonial to what free men and women, organized in free democratic trade unions can do to make a better life. We ought to be proud of it!” ~ Hubert H. Humphrey
- “Without the power of the Industrial Union behind it, Democracy can only enter the State as the victim enters the gullet of the Serpent.” ~ James Connolly
- “Men don’t and can’t live by exchanging articles, but by producing them. They don’t live by trade, but by work. Give up that foolish and vain title of Trades Unions, and take that of laborers Unions.” ~ John Ruskin
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“Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work.” ~ Susan B. Anthony
- “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.” ~ Adam Smith
- “With all their faults, trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in men, than any other association of men.” ~ Clarence Darrow
- “I remember with strong feelings the families who joined our movement and paid dues long before there was any hope of winning contracts. Sometimes, fathers and mothers would take money out of their meager food budgets just because they believed that farmworkers could and must build their own union. I remember thinking then that with spirit like that… we had to win. No force on earth could stop us.” ~ Cesar Chavez
- “The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America.” ~ John F. Kennedy
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“Labor # Unions are the leading force for # democratization and # progress .” ~ Noam Chomsky
- “The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good.” ~ Pope Paul VI
- “Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits, and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.” ~ Molly Ivins
- “As it has over the decades, the union movement stands for the fundamental moral values that make America strong: quality education for our children, affordable health care for every person-not just some-an end to poverty, secure pensions and wages that enable families to sustain the middle-class life that has fueled this nation’s prosperity and strength. Union members and other working family activists don’t just vote our moral values-we live them. We fight for them, day in, day out. Our commitment to economic and social justice propels us and everything we do.” ~ John Sweeney
- “The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak.” ~ John L. Lewis
- “The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old-age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and, above all, new wage levels that meant not mere survival but a tolerable life.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
