There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.
Walter ReutherRead
Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie-labor is fighting for a larger pie.
Interpretation
Labor advocates for the creation of more opportunities rather than just a bigger share of existing ones.
This quote emphasizes that the role of labor is not merely to negotiate for a larger portion of the wealth that already exists, but rather to strive for an expansion of the overall economy and opportunities available. It highlights the importance of growth and development in the workforce, advocating for initiatives that increase prosperity for all rather than just redistributing current resources.
In practice
This quote can be used in a labor union meeting to motivate members to advocate for economic growth.
There's a direct relationship between the ballot box and the bread box, and what the union fights for and wins at the bargaining table can be taken away in the legislative halls.
If you're not big enough to lose, you're not big enough to win.
There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.
Safe working conditions, fair wages, protection from forced labor, and freedom from harassment and discrimination - these must become standard global operating conditions.
Speaking of myself, I was made to realize long ago that the old trade union was utterly incompetent to deal successfully with the exploiting corporations in this struggle. I was made to see that in craft unionism the capitalist class have it within their power to keep the workers divided, to use one part of them to conquer and crush another part of them. Indeed, I was made to see that the old form of unionism separates the workers and keeps them helpless at the mercy of their masters.
The union miner cannot agree to the acceptance of a wage principle which will permit his annual earnings and his living standards to be determined by the hungriest unfortunates whom the non-union operators can employ.
In all the history of organized labor, from the earliest times to the present day, no body of union workingmen ever served in a more humiliating and debasing role than that in which the railway unions appear at this very hour before the American people and the world.
Workers do not strike every day, they cannot do that the way they function in the capitalist economy. The way they have to live by selling their labor power makes that impossible.
There is nothing a worker resents more than to see some man taking his job. A factory can be closed down, its chimneys smokeless, waiting for the worker to come back to his job, and all will be peaceful. But the moment workers are imported, and the striker sees his own place usurped, there is bound to be trouble.
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