What Great Men Think About Unions
"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of the right to join the union of their choice."
"If I went to work in a factory, the first thing I’d do
would be to join a union."
--Franklin D. Roosevelt
"If any man tells you he loves America, yet hates labor, he is a liar. If any man tells you he trusts America, yet fears labor, he is a fool."
--Abraham Lincoln
"The mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few (born) to ride them…"
--Thomas Jefferson
"The American Labor Movement has consistently demonstrated its devotion to the public interest. It is, and has been, good for all America."
--John F. Kennedy
The United States Government Wants You to Join A Union
"Long ago we stated the reason for labor organizations. We said that they were organized out of the necessities of the situation; that a single employee was helpless in dealing with an employer; that he was dependent ordinarily on his daily wage for the maintenance of himself and family; that if the employer refused to pay him the wages that he thought fair, he was nevertheless unable to leave the employer and resist arbitrary and unfair treatment; that the union was essential to give workers opportunity to deal on
equality with the employer. "
--Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughs, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in NLRB v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp., 301 U.S. 1 at 33.