Samuel Gompers Quotes

There has been a huge attack against private sector unions. Actually, that's been going on since the Second World War.

I believe if an individual wants to join organized labor and work under a union contract, they should have the legal right to do so. At the same token, a person who does not want to work under organized labor and wants to work should have the ability to do so without the threat of having to join and having to pay dues to organized labor.

Private sector labors unions continue to suffer losses in their membership while public sector and service unions grow.

I'm a lifelong believer in trade unionism.

Republicans are always much more supportive of unions in Poland than they are of unions in the United States.

The Church fully supports the right of workers to form unions or other associations to secure their rights to fair wages and working conditions.

Unquestionably unions and their leaders are not always wise and fair any more than any other human beings. There are only two ways to bring about protection of the workers, however, legislation and unionization. So far the majority of the people in this country seem to favor unions as a more democratic and elastic method, though certain things must be dealt with by legislation.

Many people have mixed views about unions, but unions used to give people some measure of control at work. They gave them a social life and political representation in Washington, which doesn't really exist anymore.

Right to work doesn't eliminate unions. It makes them more responsible and accountable to their members on the front lines.

Unions and their supporters in Congress claim that when employees vote on whether to unionize, the elections are tainted by employer intimidation. They're wrong.

We don't have unions in South Carolina because we don't need unions in South Carolina.

I'm pro Union.

I sometimes think that unions don't understand that we live in a free society, and people have the right to not select union representation if they don't want it.

I believe in trade unionism, and I believe in democracy, in democratic trade unionism.

Well, I'm not trying to get rid of the unions, but I am saying that they appear to be an antiquated concept in today's economy.

Less than 8 percent of private sector workers belonged to a union in 2004, and, overall, only 12.5 percent of American workers carry a union card - down from about one-third of workers in labor's heydays in the 1950s.

It is essential that there should be organization of labor. This is an era of organization. Capital organizes and therefore labor must organize.

There is nothing that says unions have a God-given right to be there. We have to work at it and make ourselves relevant to every section of the workforce.

The so-called 'Employee Free Choice Act' envisions a world where workers would be denied privacy and forced to vote in an atmosphere of intimidation.

The unions claim the deck is stacked against them when it comes to labor laws, but the truth is many private and public sector workers are forced to pay union dues as a condition of their employment, yet they have little say in how the unions spend their money.

There's a feeling that strength is determined by the size of a union. That clearly is nonsense.

I'm a big believer in the value of labor unions and with what collective effort gets people.

A divided labor movement hurts the prospects of union members and it makes me very angry.

Trade unionism is not a discovery or a formula. It grew and evolved slowly out of the needs of human experience.

The trade union, which originated under the European system, destroys liberty.