John Wells Quotes

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

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?

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

I am a huge believer in organized labor. Period. Full stop.

I fight like a daggone wild man for labor unions.

I think we will see a united labor movement again. When workers unite they're stronger. The same goes for unions.

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.

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.

The labor movement has failed to capture the support of the public at large.

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

The methods by which a trade union can alone act are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical.

We back Solidarity [the Polish trade union], and bust our unions.

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

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.

While the men of the steel industry were going through blood and gas in defense of their rights and their homes and their families, elsewhere on the far-flung C.I.O. front the hosts of labor were advancing and intelligent and permanent progress was being made.

I sometimes think that unions don't understand that we live in a free society, and people have the right to not select union representation if they don't want it.

I believe in trade unionism, and I believe in democracy, in democratic trade unionism.

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

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 lifelong believer in trade unionism.

A divided labor movement hurts the prospects of union members and it makes me very angry.

Labor cannot on any terms surrender the right to strike.

The task is before us. We have a labor movement that is completely discouraged and demoralized. We have an organized labor movement that is unable on any front to put up an effective struggle against the drive of destruction organized by the masters….the labor unions of America are being broken up because there is not sufficient unified understanding, because there is not sufficient leadership to save them.

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