Sidney Hillman Quotes

I even believe in helping an employer function more productively. For then, we will have a claim to higher wages, shorter hours, and greater participation in the benefits of running a smooth industrial machine.

The shorter working day is the most essential thing in the lives of industrial workers. It means opportunities for life and self-development which are shut out by the whir of the machinery and the routine of the factory job at which the day is spent. It means also more efficiency on the job and better service to the employer.

I'm the first secretary of labor in the 21st century, and the competitiveness of the American work force and the modernization of decades-old regulations have been among our top priorities.

I believe in workers' rights when people are doing a good job.

I am glad to see that a system of labor prevails under which laborers can strike when they want to...I like the system which lets a man quit when he wants to and wish it might prevail everywhere.

The workers, before all else.

It is right and necessary that all should have work to do which shall be worth doing and be of itself pleasant to do, and which should be done under such conditions as would make it neither over-wearisome nor over-anxious.

If there is to be peace in our industrial life let the employer recognize his obligation to his employees - at least to the degree set forth in existing statutes.

Only liberals know how to make you freer on the job, which is where most of us suffer the gravest indignities in our lives.

The U.S. Congress can do a lot to support America's workplaces and the family. By working together in a bipartisan fashion, we can ensure our constituents get jobs they need while helping employers make smart decisions about their workforce.

Public employees should have the right to bargain for better wages and working conditions, just like all employees do.

America's work ethic is non-stop; it's not even enshrined in law that workers have to get their two weeks holiday money. But Americans work harder than everyone else I can think of.

All the evidence shows very clearly that if you are a member of a trade union you are likely to get better pay, more equal pay, better health and safety, more chance to get training, more chance to have conditions of work that help if you have caring responsibilities... the list goes on!

The French 35 hour work week is a bribe given to the French people by a grateful government

We need to give workers more control over their training, health care, and their pensions.

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

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

We must have modern conditions to meet modern machinery. As labor-saving devices are installed and used for production we must necessarily shorten the number of hours per day, and we are now at the state where we will necessarily have to come to a five day week because, gentlemen, you cannot have prosperity unless you have employment.

I am glad to see a system of labor ... under which laborers can strike when they want to.

When labor is strong, America is strong.

We’ve got to end the 3 day work week.

If there is to be peace in our industrial life, let the employer recognize his obligation to his employees

A reform in the relations of the employer and employed, by which shall be secured the practice of the great natural law, of one-third of time to labour, one-third to recreation, and one-third to rest, that by this, intellectual improvement and physical development may go on to that perfection which the Almighty Creator designed.

I've proven myself a champion of workers' rights, particularly teachers.

Our party feels that we need to have fair compensation, living wage, good benefits, and decent treatment of workers, and that we can do that and still be competitive on a global basis.