Leland Stanford Quotes

The rights and interests of the laboring man will be protected and cared for—not by the labor agitators, but by the Christian men to whom God in His infinite wisdom has given the control of the property interests of the country.

Until we can democratically control the wealth that is created from our labor, there isn't real democracy.

As we say we fight for working people, we have to make sure our policies reflect that.

Political Freedom without economic equality is a pretense, a fraud, a lie; and the workers want no lying.

I think organized labor is a necessary part of democracy. Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth.

I think unionization is good public policy. I think when families secure their economic future, that's good for everyone.

Wage theft, worker rights and workplace discrimination should not be swept under the rug. The United States cannot have a functional economy where all the gains go to the corporate class while all the pain goes to regular workers.

There can be no distress, there can be no hard times, when labor is well paid. The man who raises his hand against the progress of the workingman raises his hand against prosperity.

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

If you want to prevent communism in this country, if you want to do away with labor troubles, pass laws here which shall be equal in their bearing upon all classes. Repeal your class laws

Before there were unions, there was no middle class.

I stand with the working-class citizens.

I will stand with the working-class citizens over all else.

My sympathies have always been for working-class people.

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.

Workers have kept faith in American institutions. Most of the conflicts, which have occurred have been when labor's right to live has been challenged and denied.

If we are going to reverse the race to the bottom, workers must have the right to engage in collective bargaining.

I had watched for many years and seen how a few rich families held much of Argentina's wealth and power in their hands. So Peron and the government brought in an eight hour working day, sickness pay and fair wages to give poor workers a fair go .

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 focus of our public discourse has been on how American companies are competing with Japanese, German, and other foreign companies. What this allows us to ignore is how each of those American companies is really in competition with the families of the workers. That's the real competition.

We cannot run a democracy without a strong middle class.

The only thing that stands between corporate greed and poverty is the union.

The inequality of bargaining power between employees who do not possess full freedom of association or actual liberty of contract, and employers who are organized in the corporate or other forms of ownership association substantially burdens and affects the flow of commerce, and tends to aggravate recurrent business depressions, by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage earners.

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

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