Frances O'Grady Quotes

Working people are under the worst attack in 80 years. Never has there been a stronger need for a stronger union movement.

We must defend the rights of working people to bargain collectively for fair wages and safe working conditions.

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

I will strengthen our unions and our middle-class families so that no longer will they be pushed around by employers but will finally have a seat at the table.

Even in Britain, the trade unions tell me that employment contracts have less protection than in the past.

A man’s right to his job transcends the right of private property.

Unions go hand-in-hand with a strong middle class.

I'm going to lead a revolution for working people in America. This includes all workers: white, black and brown, men and women, gay and straight, urban and rural.

Employers will work you longer for less money and under questionable safety conditions because it is their duty to prioritize the bottom line. As individuals, we cannot complain. That's why we need a union to speak for us, certainly when our safety, our health, and our very lives are at stake!

Countries that want to achieve sustainable growth must cater for diverse forms of work and consider the rights of all workers.

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.

Legislation has been and is still directed towards the protection of wealth, rather than towards the far more important interests of labor on which everything of value to mankind depends.

If we turn our back on the people of this country who need to work for a living, we shouldn't be here, to be honest, because that has to be an essential part of what we do to protect the country, from the standpoint of defense, protect workers and make sure they have jobs.

We have to get very militant with some of these employers to say there's no shortcuts, our people have a right to a fair day's wage for a fair day's pay, and we've got to get that done. And that's going to happen.

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.

People have to be reminded that unions played a very historic role in our economy.

I have had the view that cutting wages is not the path to prosperity, and one of the great myths propagated about my attitude to industrial relations is that I believe in lower wages. I've never believed in lower wages. Never. Never believed in lower wages, I've never believed in lower wages as an economic instrument.

So I will stand more steadfastly for the things I stand up for, like people who work for a living. I'd like to be able to stand that way when I go to Congress.

Organized labor, if they're doing a responsible job, is going to organize the pooling of small amounts of money to protect the interests of the people who are not rich.

They only ask for a fair day’s wages for a fair day’s work.

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.

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

We want nothing about what is said about abolishing property rights, rather we respect them. But work is the only property of workers, and therefore we want laws to protect the only property of workers, his manpower

When labor is strong, America is strong.