James P. Hoffa Quotes
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.
Hoffa, James P. "Workers Deserve a Functional Economy." The Huffington Post, 2014.
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.
Two years later he was assassinated.
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.
At the time, industrialists could not even conceive of the notion of negotiating over wages must less collective bargaining.
McConnell had become very rich as a senator despite the relatively modest salary paid to members of Congress. As soon as Grimes announced her candidacy, McConnell launched a serious of negative attack ads to try and define her negatively for the voters. She then retaliated. This is one of her retaliations. The campaign was a good example of Congressional races then where candidates spend very little time and resources telling the voters what they were for. Instead they spend their resources and efforts on stating what is wrong with their opponent. Grimes lost to the incumbent who outspend her in their mutual attack campaign. McConnell never did explain how he had become so wealthy.
Ten cents a day was a very low wage—it was about the equivalent of a meal at a tavern at the time. Workers throughout the country were outraged and give him a derogatory nickname—see Quotation 643585.
James Phillip Hoffa is an American attorney and labor leader who is the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. He is the son of Jimmy Hoffa. James Hoffa was first elected in 1998, and subsequently re-elected in 2001, 2006, 2011, and 2016 to five-year terms. In 2018, Hoffa was elected chair of the Road Transport Section of the International Transport Workers' Federation at its quadrennial Congress in Singapore. Hoffa is the second-longest serving General President of the Teamsters Union, after Dan Tobin, who served from 1907 to 1952.
