top of page
.png){kind=small}
Labor Quotes
"He that can work is a born king of something."
48
"Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne."
45
"It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses."
43
"If capital and labor ever do get together it's good night for the rest of us."
42
"I have read in Plato and Cicero sayings that are wise and very beautiful; but I have never read in either of them: Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden."
41
"So May 4th in the labor movement has always been an important date."
33
"We've always been in favor of improved wages for workers. When you have a strong middle class, they want to buy more stuff at Costco."
32
"In the steel industry the corporations generally have accepted collective bargaining and negotiated wage agreements with the Committee for Industrial Organization."
32
"Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable."
31
"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."
30
"There's a lot of labor involved in the birth of a new town."
30
"All labour is directed towards producing some effect."
29
"A labor strike will tear away a lot of the good things going for this league."
29
"What one state could not get alone, what one miner against a powerful corporation could not achieve, can be achieved by the union."
29
"If employment really cared about employees, people wouldn't have to work until retirement comes to their rescue."
29
"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."
28
"Climbing is unadulterated hard labor. The only real pleasure is the satisfaction of going where no man has been before and where few can follow."
27
"Well, we see an increasingly weaker labor movement as a result of the overall assault on the labor movement and as a result of the globalization of capital."
26
"Jobs are a part of life. Maybe you've heard of the concept. It's called work? See, what happens is that you suffer through doing annoying and humiliating things until you get paid not enough money. Like those Japanese game shows, only without all the glory."
26
"The organization and constant onward sweep of this movement exemplifies the resentment of the many toward the selfishness, greed and the neglect of the few."
25
"Labor can and will become its own employer through co-operative association."
25
"Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. The minimum wage is now at its lowest level in 50 years adjusted for inflation."
23
"There is no labor a person does that is undignified; if they do it right."
23
"The fruit derived from labor is the sweetest of pleasures."
23
"Working-class Americans have waited too long, close to a decade in fact, for an increase in the minimum wage. This has been the second longest period without a pay raise since the Federal minimum wage law was first enacted in 1938."
22
"I don't know where Bush is going - yet. But, Sharon obviously - I wrote somewhere in the last several months, that Sharon has adopted, essentially, the position of the Labor Party: that the Palestinians are here to stay."
22
"We are always in these days endeavoring to separate intellect and manual labor; we want one man to be always thinking, and another to be always working, and we call one a gentleman, and the other an operative; whereas the workman ought often to be thinking, and the thinker often to be working, and both should be gentlemen in the best sense."
22
"Just as invasion is the true and tried weapon in the hands of capital against the class struggle, so on the other hand the fearless pursuit of the class struggle has always proven the most effective preventative of foreign invasions."
21
"You don't have a very motivated working class, it starts to affect the dynamics of the economy. If workers are disenchanted and disenfranchised, productivity losses will go along with that."
21
"Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over."
21
"I would say I'd rather dig a ditch, you know, do hard, manual labor than write lyrics."
21
"I have always been fully persuaded that, through co-operation, labor could become its own employer."
21
"Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labor."
20
bottom of page