Kurt Vonnegut Quotes

I have no use for those- regardless of their political party- who hold some foolish dream of spinning the clock back to days when unorganized labor was a huddled, almost helpless mass.

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 labor movement has a great role to play in our country today.

Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.

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

You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too.

I'm a passionate trade unionist.

Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America.

The Labor Department's Hall of Honor recognizes men and women - like Cesar Chavez, Helen Keller and the Workers of the Memphis Sanitation Strike - who have made invaluable contributions to the welfare of American workers.

This is true only because the purposes and objectives of the Committee for Industrial Organization find economic, social, political and moral justification in the hearts of the millions who are its members and the millions more who support it.

I come from labor country. My mom was a teacher and was very involved in the teachers' union.

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

The Labor Community is carrying on … a very significant and instructive struggle.

The Lincoln of Labor

The United Mine Workers and the CIO have paid cash on the barrel for every piece of legislation that we have gotten…

Duty of the Catholic Worker to Join Organized Labor

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

The formation of the smallest worker’s organization will for the history writers of the future be more important than the battle of Sadova

Unions have long championed measures to reduce social and economic inequality, and efforts to weaken the labor movement at both the state and federal level have successfully stalled any progress.

The labor movement is our brother's keeper! The labor movement is our sister's keeper!

Historians have often censored civil rights activists' commitment to economic issues and misrepresented the labor and civil rights movements as two separate, sometimes adversarial efforts. But civil rights and workers' rights are two sides of the same coin.

I always wondered why there weren't any films about Cesar Chavez. There are movies about other civil rights leaders in this country, but why not Chavez?

The modern labor movement that began around the mid-19th century has given us many of the basic working rights that we now take for granted.

If change is to come, it must come from the working class. That's why telling their story is important. That's why knowing our history is important.

People think that we're engaged with identity politics. The truth is that we're doing what the labor movement has always done - organizing people who are at the bottom.