"I consider it important, indeed urgently necessary, for intellectual workers to get together, both to protect their own economic status and, also, generally speaking, to secure their influence in the political field."
-- Albert Einstein, Patent Examiner, Nobel Laureate, on why he joined American Federation of Teachers, Local 552, as a charter member.
"What does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures."
-- Samuel Gompers.
"History is a great teacher. Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it. By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production. Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them."
-- Martin Luther King Jr., Speaking to the AFL-CIO on December 11, 1961.
"Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice."
"Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work."
-- Susan B. Anthony.
Fun Links:
- Labor Day Wiki!
- Eleven Fun Facts about Labor Day
- NLRB
- Mary Harris Jones
- Labor and Working-Class History Association (LAWCHA)
- Wikipedia's Organized Labor Portal
- Department of Labor History of Labor Day
- Labor history of the United States