Andrew Cuomo Quotes

Public employee unions, in their defense, say politicians have unfairly made them into simplistic bogeymen, responsible for problems that have myriad causes. Not all government workers receive generous pensions, they note.

Several unions have agreed to larger employee contributions for their members. Taxpayers are living with cuts and making sacrifices to deal with the reality of California's budget crisis, state workers are going to have to do the same.

Although unions may be good for a worker, singular, they are not always good for workers, plural. Especially when it comes to finding a job.

I recognize that as governor, my job is to sit on the other side of the table from the public sector unions and negotiate effectively on behalf of all the taxpayers of the state, including all of you.

… employers, many of whom would like to be fair, are in a competitive business and they cannot afford to meet the demands of the union unless everyone in their line of business is forced to do so too

Unions do have a proper role in negotiating for employees and advising employees, but they have to engage with the employer.

I think it is just stupid economics for a government to approach economic management from a strand of thinking regarding unions as enemies.

I am not going to make any commitments to the teachers union to do anything until they do something that's other than in their own self- interest. And everything they have done so far is in their self-interests, and that's it.

The employers cannot carry on industry nor accumulate profits if they have not got the good will of the workers or their acquiescence in carrying on such industry.

Over the next decade, cities and states across America will be compelled to tighten their belts as the really big bills - the pension bills they cannot afford - come due. They'll have to go after existing contracts with current workers.

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.

Raising the traditional and early retirement ages will mean extending workers' taxable earning years, fueling economic growth and putting a dent in our unfunded-liabilities crisis by delaying payouts.

The unions claim the deck is stacked against them when it comes to labor laws, but the truth is many private and public sector workers are forced to pay union dues as a condition of their employment, yet they have little say in how the unions spend their money.

If you don't have collective agreements between unions and employers, governments have to legislate more.

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

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.

He is used to dealing with estate workers. I cannot see how anyone can say he is out of touch.

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

There is no other bargaining but collective bargaining.

We can’t afford the promises we have already made much less pile more on top of them.

Everyone has the right to fair labor practices. Every worker has the right to form and join a trade union; to participate in the activities and programs of a trade union; and to strike. Every employer has the right to form and join an employers' organization; and to participate in the activities and programs of an employers' organization. Every trade union and every employers' organization has the right to determine its own administration, programs and activities; to organize; and to form and join a federation. Every trade union, employers' organization and employer has the right to engage in collective bargaining.

A little capital or a new idea was enough to start a man in business for himself, workingmen were constantly becoming employers and there was no hard and fast line between the two classes. Labor unions were needless then

As long as Detroit [the auto companies] was making money, it was always easy for us to accept union demands and recoup them later in the form of price increases. The alternative was to take a strike and risk ruining the company.

Workers should not be prevented from bargaining with the companies that help set their wages, benefits, schedules, and workplace conditions.

There are established processes of consultation between the Government, the parastatals and the trade unions, which have worked in the past. And I don't see any particular reason why they shouldn't work.