Raj Patel Quotes

We must ensure American workers get the long-overdue raise they deserve.

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.

The labor union in enforcing a high scale of wages brings about the distribution of wealth throughout the entire community.

Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie. Labor is fighting for a larger pie.

American workers deserve a raise. I fully support the push for $15 an hour and a union. We also must raise wages for low and middle income families.

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

I was at the forefront of the effort to pass $15 minimum wage in Seattle, and have been collaborating with the people who are trying to make that happen across the country.

Anti-union propaganda has been considerably more successful here [ in the U.S.] than in Europe, even among working people who would benefit [from] unions.

Strike not for a few cents more an hour, because the price of living will be raised faster still, but strike for all you earn, be content with nothing less.

Organized labor is the only way to have fair distribution of wealth...

The value of the minimum wage shouldn't be eroded, and it has been.

In the heart of the Great Depression, millions of American workers did something they'd never done before: they joined a union. Emboldened by the passage of the Wagner Act, which made collective bargaining easier, unions organized industries across the country, remaking the economy.

It is time this Congress listened to the American people and minimum-wage workers, and it is time that we act.

We have to raise the minimum wage.

Unions are about the collective leverage, the power of numbers versus the power of capital.

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?

We back Solidarity [the Polish trade union], and bust our unions.

Labor: a man coins himself into his labor,—turns his day, his strength, his thought, his affection into some product which remains as the visible sign of his power; and to protect that, to secure that to him, to secure his past self to his future self, is the object of all government. There is no interest in any country so imperative as that of labor; it covers all, and constitutions and governments exist for that,—to protect and insure it to the laborer.

Historically speaking, Socialism has already shown itself in England in the extension of State interference. It has produced the Factory Laws, and it is now beginning to advance further and interfere directly in the division of produce between the workmen and their employers.

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

Instead of focusing on attacking unions and the labor movement, we need to find ways to strengthen and empower workers so we can put more money in the pockets of middle class families.

It's time we had a president who stood up for American workers first.

Food service workers, home care workers, farm workers, and other low-wage workers log long hours. They come home tired after providing services and producing goods that make our country stronger. They deserve fair treatment from their employers, and they deserve a voice in collective bargaining.

We must put American workers first.

To improve the standard of living for working folks, we have to raise the minimum wage and empower workers to fight for their interests in an economic and political system that's stacked against them.