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Labor Quotes
"So May 4th in the labor movement has always been an important date."
17
"It is more noble to give yourself completely to one individual than to labor diligently for the salvation of the masses."
13
"Labor is still, and ever will be, the inevitable price set upon everything which is valuable."
12
"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."
11
"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."
10
"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."
10
"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."
10
"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."
9
"Every man is dishonest who lives upon the labor of others, no matter if he occupies a throne."
9
"I have always been fully persuaded that, through co-operation, labor could become its own employer."
9
"If employment really cared about employees, people wouldn't have to work until retirement comes to their rescue."
9
"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."
8
"All labour is directed towards producing some effect."
8
"If capital and labor ever do get together it's good night for the rest of us."
8
"Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labor is the future of America."
8
"Poorly paid labor is inefficient labor, the world over."
8
"The necessity of every one paying in his own labor for what he consumes, affords the only legitimate and effectual check to excessive luxury, which has so often ruined individuals, states and empires; and which has now brought almost universal bankruptcy upon us."
8
"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."
8
"Laissez Faire was very good sauce for the goose, labor, but was very poor sauce for the gander, capital."
7
"Labor can and will become its own employer through co-operative association."
7
"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."
7
"There is no labor a person does that is undignified; if they do it right."
7
"Large fortunes are all founded either on the occupation of land, or lending or the taxation of labor."
7
"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."
7
"I would say I'd rather dig a ditch, you know, do hard, manual labor than write lyrics."
7
"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."
7
"What one state could not get alone, what one miner against a powerful corporation could not achieve, can be achieved by the union."
7
"In the steel industry the corporations generally have accepted collective bargaining and negotiated wage agreements with the Committee for Industrial Organization."
7
"Congress has not raised the minimum wage since 1997. The minimum wage is now at its lowest level in 50 years adjusted for inflation."
6
"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."
6
"The Bush administration staunchly opposed legislation which would preserve overtime pay for all workers."
6
"Every job from the heart is, ultimately, of equal value. The nurse injects the syringe; the writer slides the pen; the farmer plows the dirt; the comedian draws the laughter. Monetary income is the perfect deceiver of a man's true worth."
5
"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."
5
"Man cannot live by incompetence alone."
5
"Only Socrates knew, after a lifetime of unceasing labor, that he was ignorant. Now every high-school student knows that. How did it become so easy?"
5
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