Dolores Huerta Quotes

Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth...

Trade unions are a force for good - a force for a more equal society.

I am always on the side of labor when there is any compromise to be made.

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.

Only with the tools of production in their own hands could the workers ever hope to control their own lives and receive the fruits of their labor.

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.

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

All the legislation ever secured for the ventilation or safety of mines, factory or workshop is the result of the efforts of organized labor?

I will only stop defending the rights of workers when I die.

Let him who will, be he economic tyrant or sordid mercenary, pit his strength against this mighty upsurge of human sentiment now being crystallized in the hearts of thirty million workers who clamor for the establishment of industrial democracy and for participation in its tangible fruits. He is a madman of a fool who believes that this river of human sentiment can be damned.

Duty of the Catholic Worker to Join Organized Labor

What the labor movement did in this country is to make sure that capitalism worked.

We are the only industrial democracy that does not have one political party that is labor based.

The labor union in enforcing a high scale of wages brings about the distribution of wealth throughout the entire community.

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.

If I were the president of the United States, I would make unions illegal. They no longer serve a functional purpose in democracy, in my view.

Collective bargaining, and the fundamental human right, freedom of association, is seen as an anathema to American business, and people just - it doesn't seem to register that there's no universal social safety net that people can touch.

My parents were both union members, and I grew up hearing how important it was to empower workers and have fair labor practices.

And I think we understand we cannot make social change for all workers until we have enough strength, membership strength, and at the same time having membership strength and only making change for a limited group of workers is not what our country really needs for people that work.

The production of wealth is the result of agreement between labor and capital, between employer and employed. Its distribution, therefore, will follow the law of its creation, or great injustice will be done.

Unions are about the collective leverage, the power of numbers versus the power of capital.

To fulfill the promise of economic opportunity, we must remain true to the principle that collective bargaining is a cornerstone of a free society and indispensable to a strong middle class.

The question is always 'What is the role of a labor movement?' How much is about collective bargaining, how much is about social change for all workers?

I'm a lifelong believer in trade unionism.