If you're not big enough to lose, you're not big enough to win.
Walter ReutherRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Political and economic power are interconnected, and gains achieved through union efforts can be lost through legislation.
This quote by Walter Reuther highlights the essential relationship between political influence and economic security. It suggests that while labor unions work hard at the bargaining table to secure rights and benefits for workers, those achievements can be vulnerable to changes in laws and legislation, emphasizing the need for continuous political engagement to protect what has been gained.
Themes
PoliticsUnionLegislationWorkers' RightsPower
In practice
Example use cases
During a discussion on labor rights at a community meeting.
More from Walter Reuther
All quotes →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.
Walter ReutherRead
Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie-labor is fighting for a larger pie.
Walter ReutherRead
Similar quotes
Whensoever the General Government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.
Thomas JeffersonRead
The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.
Woodrow WilsonRead
I do not want two classes of citizens in this country. I want everybody to prosper. That's going to be a top priority.
Barack ObamaRead
The Stamp Act imposed on the colonies by the Parliament of Great Britain is an ill-judged measure. Parliament has no right to put its hands into our pockets without our consent.
George WashingtonRead
Nobody should have any illusions. The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party.
Noam ChomskyRead
The politician and the government expert receive their revenues, not from service voluntarily purchased on the market, but from a compulsory levy on the populace. These officials, therefore, wholly lack the pecuniary incentive to care about serving the public properly and competently.
Murray RothbardRead