Historical Quotes
Over the years many famous people as well as our own union rank and file have made quotes that validate the need for and the work of unions. If you need some inspiration out there on site, remember these...
"Dare to struggle, dare to win. If you don't fight you lose."John 'Cummo' Cummins
"Everything is produced by the workers, and the minute they try to get something by their unions they meet all the opposition that can be mustered by those who now get what they produce."
Harry Bridges
"Trade unions have done more for humanity than any other organisation of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men."
Clarence Darrow
"A working class hero is something to be."
John Lennon
"It is essential that there should be organisation of labor. This is an era of organisation. Capital organises and therefore labor must organise."
Theodore Roosevelt
"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration."
Abraham Lincoln
"If workers stand united, sooner or later, their success is guaranteed."
John 'Cummo' Cummins
"Genius begins great works; labor alone finishes them."
Joseph Jouber
"Progress is born of agitation. It is agitation or stagnation."
Eugene V. Debs
"If you can't stand up and say what you feel and believe, then you're a slave. And I ain't no slave."
Charlie Isaacs
"I often think that too little is known by the workers of the record of achievement of the trade union movement... too often we hear, 'Parliament gave', 'the Arbitration Court granted', and 'the employer conceded' some improvement. They did not give - they were compelled by the pressure of the Unions."
Jack Kilburn
"In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.' It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.' Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining... We demand this fraud be stopped."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Ten thousand times has the labor movement stumbled and bruised itself. We have been enjoined by the courts, assaulted by thugs, charged by the militia, traduced by the press, frowned upon in public opinion, and deceived by politicians. 'But notwithstanding all this and all these, labor is today the most vital and potential power this planet has ever known, and its historic mission is as certain of ultimate realization as is the setting of the sun."
Eugene V. Deb
"Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work."
Susan B. Anthony
"I think it is just stupid economics for a government to approach economic management from a strand of thinking regarding unions as enemies."
Bob Hawke
