Labor Leaders Quotes

This was praise indeed as Wellman was generally very conservative.

Bear was the classic icon of the wealthy, insensitive, powerful, prejudiced snob. He even made other capitalists somewhat sympathetic to the complaints about corporations. See {593878} and {593879}.

The act gave unions rights of organization which they had not had before in America, but few critics ever characterized it in the over the top rhetoric which was characteristic of Nixon in his early political years.

The younger Kennedy, as Counsel to a Senate Investigating Committee, had made it his mission to show the infiltration and connection of Hoffa and his Teamsters' Union and organized crime. Despite his relentless questioning and investigation, Robert Kennedy was unable to prove and criminal connections and Hoffa denied that the ever existed. But with RFK as Attorney General, many thought Hoffa would be relentlessly persecuted and that he would be worried. But he never appeared so, and the Attorney General was not able to pin anything on Hoffa.

The notion that President Theodore Roosevelt could be terrorized was absurd on its face. He faced down everyone; one of the reasons he was so popular. But Van Cleave and his organization was paranoid about organized labor. It is they who were terrorized. Van Cleave was rabidly opposed to any anti-trust government “interference” with business and he was also virulently opposed to labor unions. See {638612}, {638615}, {638614}, and {638613}.

Even before the Russian Revolution there was a Red Scare in America based on the writings of Marks and Engels. Labor Unions were automatically viewed by ultra-conservatives as Communistic and revolutionary. Ironically, the greatest offence that the President committed in many eyes was to have labor leaders to the White House for lunch or dinner or, as he did with the coal strike crisis, have labor negotiators in the White House for mediation. The symbolism of accepting these “radicals” as worthy citizens, in some conservative views, elevated the labor movement to a much higher status than they deserved and to treat them with the same dignity and respect as corporate executives was very offensive. Roosevelt had been made an honorary member of the Locomotive Engineers Union, and this enabled the Sun and other critics to say that Roosevelt joined labor organizations.

Labor leadership has been mostly male and white. At the time, there were few labor leaders of color.

At the time, most company owners and managers refused to bargain collectively with employee elected organizations. Hoover was then an exceptionally modern business person who realized the importance of good working relations between management and labor and advocated collective bargaining. However, as he got deeper into partisan politics, he backed off urging this. Nationally, in the 1960s collective bargaining had become an instrument of basic sound management, but more and more managements returned to simply refusing to bargain with employee organizations and instead strengthened their managers and supervisors and adopted (by choice and by government regulation) more and more modern, healthy, safe, efficient and attractive working conditions and policies. By the 21st century, labor unions and employee organizations had lost their attractiveness while managers were more attentive to workers and there were very few private companies engaged in collective bargaining.

This quotation is extremely subtle. Vidal tells us that he has always hated organized labor. He also tells us that the media has always given us one monolithic view of organized labor. He is silent as to whether that view was accurate and justified or in his mind or whether he was just going along with the image created by the media. There is no answer, but it is a quotation that is food for thought. Numerous studies found that at the beginning of the 21st century, the public view of labor union crooked and/or communist leaders was much worse than reality.

Ms. Jones seemed to turn up wherever there was a major strike or labor dispute throughout the country. She literally had no home but went from one labor dispute to another. Most people on the management side did not know how to cope with this little old homeless lady who was a passionate labor orator and organizer.