George Meany Quotes

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.

All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service.

Workers organized and fought for worker rights and food safety, Social Security and Medicare - they fought to change government. And they won.

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 think someone in the union has the right to a private vote, and that's why I'm anti-card check. I grew up in a union family. My grandfather was a coal miner; he was in the union.

Government has a legitimate sphere of operation. The problem arises when that sphere continually expands, encompassing areas where government lacks legitimacy.

I'm a lifelong believer in trade unionism.

After contract negotiations and organizing, playing an active role in the political process is one of a union's most important functions. Gains won at the bargaining table or through sacrifice on the picketline can be wiped out by politicians on the state or federal level.

Union busting has become an art form.

The labor movement was a reaction to capitalism.

“Right to Work” is wrong for Kentucky. It’s just another word for union busting...

The right to organize is a fundamental right for American workers.

I will continue to do all that I can to ensure and enhance worker protections, including the right to bargain collectively.

There's a very good reason that governments aren't supposed to compete with private-enterprise companies. Governments have monopolies on certain things, like eminent domain and deadly force.

We should use this public sphere and redefine - beyond China's borders - what a government is allowed to do, where its powers end and where the realm of a citizen's privacy begins.

I was never presented with the details as far as the collective bargaining system is Greece. I am in favor of a normal system without giving the labour minister the right to extend the results to extend the result of the collective bargaining to the whole of the real economy. The government has to make sure that the results will not harm the situation of small and medium enterprises.

Has the center of gravity shifted such that all governments have greater powers and fewer restrictions than they ever had, and are empowered by technology in a way that no government ever was in the past?

It’s not about the budget; it’s about the power...So will the attack on unions succeed? I don’t know. But anyone who cares about retaining government of the people by the people should hope that it doesn’t.

Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.

You know the critical thing with the Communist countries is Communism, which by definition consists of control by the government.

Where government is impossible, politics is impossible.

As the old saying goes, 'money is power' and the more money the government takes, the more power it has over individuals.

How pale is the art of sorcerers, witches, and conjurors when compared with that of the government's Treasury Department!

Government is never more dangerous than when our desire to have it help us blinds us to its great power to harm us.

The origin of the labor movement lies in self-defense.