Amity Shlaes Quotes

Trade unionism is not a discovery or a formula. It grew and evolved slowly out of the needs of human experience.

Labor unions are the worst thing that ever struck the earth because they take away a man's independence.

I fight like a daggone wild man for labor unions.

I was an organizer in the Food, Agricultural and Tobacco Workers Union down in North Carolina.

By the mid-1950s, more than a third of all America workers in the private sector were unionized. And the unions demanded and received a fair slice of the American pie.

I'm a big believer in the value of labor unions and with what collective effort gets people.

The trade union, which originated under the European system, destroys liberty.

The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions.

I will use the power of the government of the United States within my control to prevent the labor unions ... from destroying the open shop.

No strike is a loss or failure to the workers, even if the point sought is not gained for the time being. If naught else they teach the capitalists that they are expensive luxuries.

It is gratifying that societies of this kind [labor unions], composed either of workers alone or of workers and employers together, are being formed everywhere, and it is truly to be desired that they grow in number and in active vigor.

The picket line is the best place to train organizers. One day on the picket line is where a man makes his commitment. The longer on the picket line, the stronger the commitment. A lot of workers think they make their commitment by walking off the job when nobody sees them. But you get a guy to walk off the field when his boss is watching and, in front of the other guys, throw down his tools and march right to the picket line, that is the guy who makes our strike. The picket line is a beautiful thing because it makes a man more human.

Unquestionably unions and their leaders are not always wise and fair any more than any other human beings. There are only two ways to bring about protection of the workers, however, legislation and unionization. So far the majority of the people in this country seem to favor unions as a more democratic and elastic method, though certain things must be dealt with by legislation.

Modern trade unions understood that deciphering a balance sheet was more important than decoding Das Kapital.

While most American labor unions have struggled for the past several decades, professional baseball players comprise one of the strongest packs of organized workers in the world.

The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers... It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish.

Labor organizations are formed, not to employ combined effort for a common object, but to indulge in declamation and denunciation, and especially to furnish an easy living to some officers who do not want to work.

That's what unions do. They can get money, they can get support, they can get manpower.

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

My problem with unions is they breed mediocrity.

We were no experts in the field of labor organization, but we had something in common with our fellow workers -- we were all poor -- we were all overworked -- we were all victims of the 84 hour week. In fact, we were all so low down on the economic and social ladder that we had nowhere to go but up

The labor question is the same the world over, and laborers of the world should clasp hands for their common wealth.

Labor cannot on any terms surrender the right to strike.

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

Labor Unions are revolutionary and anarchistic and a menace to the entire social and industrial system of the United States.