Steve Gibson Quotes
The union in many cases is reduced to the level of a facilitator, an agent or a "party" in negotiations. As such, how can it be seen by its members to be an organized and dedicated instrument relentlessly pursuing their aspirations and resolutely protecting their wages, conditions and standards?
Steve Gibson, Australian Trade Unionist, Some experiences of a Party member active in the trade union movement, 1995
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The “bread box” was a metal box used in most homes to keep bread fresh before refrigerators were so large and prevalent.
He had squads of thugs that he would “rent” out to other gangsters for their enforcement activities and to unions to protect themselves from goons and intimidate non union workers. However, he would not let his men work as goons and strike busters or for companies—despite huge pay offers—to keep their workers in line, a common practice at the time.
Mencken had a genius for finding the weak and hypocritical aspects of all institutions and most people. As a result he is frequently quoted by one political side or another to attack something they want to diminish. His career is so prolific that it is usually easy to find something nasty he said about any group, idea or person. In this case, he also wrote scathingly against businessmen, corporations, capitalism and politicians favoring the wealthy.
Labor reform was a burning issue in most of the industrialized countries of the world. The two areas that legislation was under consideration all over were working hours and child labor. There were no overtime provisions, employers were free to require workers to work 7 days for as many hours as they wanted. There were no limitations on the use of child labor. This is one of the classic conservative oppositions to these reforms. Ironically to us today, those against reform argued that it was disrespectful of the working man to take away his freedom to work whatever hours he so chose, and it was disrespectful of the workers role as a head of family to decide for him when and under what conditions his children could work. Germany at the time was a very dramatic example of the struggle as the Chancellor was opposed to all labor reform and Kaiser Wilhelm II felt that reforms were needed. The two most powerful Germans were split on this issue as were people in most countries.
