Industrial Relations Quotes

When huge factories were established there could no longer be a close tie between the master and his men; the workman hated his employer, and the employer looked on his workmen simply as hands.

Labor Unions are revolutionary and anarchistic and a menace to the entire social and industrial system of the United States.

… the struggle of men to outvie one another in production is beneficial to the community; their struggle over the division of the joint produce is not. The stronger side will dictate its own terms; and as a matter of fact, in the early days of competition, the capitalists used all their power to oppress the laborers, and drove down wages to starvation point. This kind of competition has to be checked; there is no historical instance of its having lasted long without being modified either by combination or legislation, or both. In England both remedies are in operation, the former through Trades Unions, the latter through factory legislation.

I believe in corporations. I believe in trade unions. Both have come to stay and are necessities in our present industrial system, But where, either one or the other, there develops corruption or mere brutal indifference to the rights of others … then the offender, whether union or corporation, must be fought.

I think we have to be fair in saying at this point that neither Roosevelt nor Lewis realized the peril to which they were exposing both the unions and the country.

The United Mine Workers and the CIO have paid cash on the barrel for every piece of legislation that we have gotten…

Machines were, it may be said, the weapon employed by the capitalists to quell the revolt of specialized labor.

To one who believes that really good industrial conditions are the hope for a machine civilization, nothing is more heartening than to watch conference methods and education replacing police methods.

It is impossible to bargain collectively with the government.

To want a job that exercises a man's capacities in an enterprise useful to society, is utopian anarcho-syndicalism; it is labor invading the domain of management. No labor leader has entertained such a thought in our generation. Management has the "sole prerogative" to determine the products.

No better strike leader than John N. Mitchell has ever emerged in any time of industrial strife.

No society can tolerate strikes that endanger the general welfare, such as a strike that shuts down an entire industry. Nor can any government tolerate a strike aimed at its authority. But the “right to strike” is absolutely necessary to the cohesion, if not indeed to the survival, of the union; without it it cannot discharge its function.

It would be possible to say without exaggeration that the miners' leaders were the stupidest men in England if we had not frequent occasion to meet the owners.

Union busting has become an art form.

There is no other bargaining but collective bargaining.

While these attitudes are more visible when directed at government, there is ample evidence that many working people distrust their own union as much as they do the corporation they work for.

There are three groups that no British Prime Minister should provoke: The Vatican, the Treasury and the miners.

Something may be done under Federal authority to prevent the disturbances which so often arise from disputes between employers and the employed.

I don't propose to let either the NAM [National Association of Manufacturers] or labor unions hand me a bill and say: "Take it or leave it.

We don't want a third party who may or may not have our best interests in mind or our crew members' best interests in mind because they may be serving a union of one of our competitors. They are trying to equalize us and take away our competitive advantage.

Where free unions and collective bargaining are forbidden, freedom is lost.

You cannot appeal from the classes to the masses. What the employer thinks, his workmen think. Of course I do not include questions specially relating to labour, in which there may be a direct conflict of interest.

No strike could ever be won with a Communist at its head since the employers would make victory impossible.

I will use the power of the government of the United States within my control to prevent the labor unions ... from destroying the open shop.

It was clear to many American working men and women that the Homestead Steel Strike of the early 1890s, when Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick broke the backs of the steel workers, that that was a watershed.