The balancing of the budget will not in itself place a teaspoonful of milk in a hungry baby's stomach, or remove the rags from its mother's back.
John L. LewisRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the importance of fair wages and working conditions for union miners, highlighting the need to resist competition that drives down earnings.
John L. Lewis articulates a core principle of labor unions: that workers should not have their wages and living standards dictated by those who are willing to accept lower pay just to secure employment. This reflects the struggle for dignity and fair compensation in the context of a competitive labor market where exploitation can undermine the rights and livelihoods of workers.
Themes
UnionMinersWageLaborStandardsEmploymentExploitation
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be shared during a labor rights rally to emphasize the importance of union solidarity.
More from John L. Lewis
All quotes →The labor movement is organized upon a principle that the strong shall help the weak.
John L. LewisRead
The workers of the nation were tired of waiting for corporate industry to right their economic wrongs, to alleviate their social agony and to grant them their political rights. Despairing of fair treatment, they resolved to do something for themselves.
John L. LewisRead
The organized workers of America, free in their industrial life, conscious partners in production, secure in their homes and enjoying a decent standard of living, will prove the finest bulwark against the intrusion of alien doctrines of government.
John L. LewisRead
Courage is not how a man stands or falls, but how he gets back up again
John L. LewisRead
Similar quotes
Labor is not fighting for a larger slice of the national pie-labor is fighting for a larger pie.
Walter ReutherRead
Out of labor's struggle in Arizona came better conditions for the workers, who must everywhere, at all times, under advantage and disadvantage work out their own salvation
Mother JonesRead
Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.
Molly IvinsRead
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.
Charles M. SchwabRead
The important role of union organizations must be admitted: their object is the representation of the various categories of workers, their lawful collaboration in the economic advance of society, and the development of the sense of their responsibility for the realization of the common good.
Pope Paul ViRead
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.
Ernest MandelRead