Robert Reich Quotes

Unions continue to be important for raising the standard of living for working Americans, whether or not they happen to be in a union.

The organized workers of America, free in their industrial life, conscious partners in production, secure in their homes and enjoying a decent standard of living, will prove the finest bulwark against the intrusion of alien doctrines of government.

We used to have food picked and used to have houses built and we used to have chicken properly processed and it was Americans that did it. If we are going to continue to utilize those goods, then what's going to have to happen is that the employers are going to have to elevate the wages in order to attract American workers to do those jobs.

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.

The labor movement has lifted more people out of poverty than all the programs in the country.

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

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.

When union membership goes down, so do wages.

Unions have been under attack for quite some time, and I think a lot of the jobs that we need to create in this country need to be union jobs. People want to be able to get a job that they can rely on to feed their family and pay their bills.

Legislation has been and is still directed towards the protection of wealth, rather than towards the far more important interests of labor on which everything of value to mankind depends.

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

I think it's a little insulting, a bit insulting to American workers when Rand Paul says that unemployment insurance is a disservice.

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 progress of society is mainly the improvement in the condition of the workingmen of the world.

Many of my students assume that government protection is the only thing ensuring decent wages for most American workers. But basic economics shows that competition between employers for workers can be very effective at preventing businesses from misbehaving.

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.

A mutual arrangement, I repeat, is the only satisfactory medium whereby the present system can be carried on with any degree of satisfaction, and in such an arrangement the employers have more to gain than the workers.

In Finland, where 80 percent of workers belong to unions, all employees enjoy at least 30 days paid vacation, and the gap between the rich and poor is far more equitable than in the United States.

If every other store in town is paying workers $9 an hour, one offering $8 will find it hard to hire anyone - perhaps not when unemployment is high, but certainly in normal times. Robust competition is a powerful force helping to ensure that workers are paid what they contribute to their employers' bottom lines.

I have had the view that cutting wages is not the path to prosperity, and one of the great myths propagated about my attitude to industrial relations is that I believe in lower wages. I've never believed in lower wages. Never. Never believed in lower wages, I've never believed in lower wages as an economic instrument.

Any reasonable economist will tell you that it's nearly impossible to isolate the impact of right-to-work laws on a state's job growth. A multitude of other factors intervene. However, one thing the numbers can show is that right-to-work laws have a negative effect on the wages of workers in that state.

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.

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.

The future of Labor is the future of America.

When labor is strong, America is strong.