Quotes about worker
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Ho Iat Seng photo

“It was a hard decision (to close casinos in Macau for two weeks after a hotel worker was infected by COVID-19), but we (Government of Macau) must make it for the health of Macau residents. Macau can still withstand economic losses.”

Ho Iat Seng (1957) Chief Executive of Macau

Ho Iat Seng (2020) cited in " Coronavirus: casinos to close in Macau for at least two weeks after hotel worker infected https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/3048904/coronavirus-casinos-close-macau-least-two-weeks" on South China Morning Post, 4 February 2020.

Diane Abbott photo

“I think that's what we were referencing when we talked about easy movement [of workers after the UK has left the EU's single market] - less bureaucracy; it's good for migrants but it's also good for business”

Diane Abbott (1953) British Labour Party politician

Diane Abbott: Listen to CBI and NHS' on Brexit migration https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-42384346 BBC News (17 December 2017)
2010s

Daniel Hannan photo
Richard D. Wolff photo

“When workers make the decisions, you stop outsourcing jobs, you stop the wealth gap, you stop inequality.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

Global Capitalism Monthly Update (12 March 2014)

Richard D. Wolff photo

“Now, do you think workers would vote to unequally redistribute profits? Of course not. They would vote for equitable distribution.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

Global Capitalism Monthly Update (12 March 2014)

Richard D. Wolff photo
Richard D. Wolff photo
Richard D. Wolff photo

“A worker-coop based economy—where workers democratically run enterprises, deciding what, how and where to produce, and what to do with any profits—could, and likely would, put social needs and goals (like proper preparation for pandemics) ahead of profits. Workers are the majority in all capitalist societies; their interests are those of the majority. Employers are always a small minority; theirs are the "special interests" of that minority. Capitalism gives that minority the position, profits and power to determine how the society as a whole lives or dies. That's why all employees now wonder and worry about how long our jobs, incomes, homes and bank accounts will last—if we still have them. A minority (employers) decides all those questions and excludes the majority (employees) from making those decisions, even though that majority must live with their results. Of course, the top priority now is to put public health and safety first. To that end, employees across the country are now thinking about refusing to obey orders to work in unsafe job conditions. U.S. capitalism has thus placed a general strike on today's social agenda. A close second priority is to learn from capitalism's failure in the face of the pandemic. We must not suffer such a dangerous and unnecessary social breakdown again. Thus system change is now also moving onto today's social agenda.”

Richard D. Wolff (1942) American economist

COVID-19 and the Failures of Capitalism (2020)

Richard D. Wolff photo
Masaaki Imai photo

“Be present with your co-workers and staff.”

Masaaki Imai (1930) Japanese business theorist and consultant
Taiichi Ohno photo
Taiichi Ohno photo
C. L. R. James photo
Hsu Ming-chun photo

“The labor ministry's position is to protect the right of workers to strike.”

Hsu Ming-chun Taiwanese politician

Hsu Ming-chun (2019) cited in " Transportation, labor ministers divided on issue of strike notice https://www.taiwannews.com.tw/en/news/3730012" on Taiwan News, 23 June 2019.

Alan Greenspan photo

“Thus, the willingness of workers in recent years to trade off smaller increases in wages for greater job security seems to be reasonably well documented.”

Alan Greenspan (1926) 13th Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the United States

Testimony Before the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate February 26, 1997 https://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/hh/1997/february/testimony.htm
1990s

Nikolai Bukharin photo
Luis Valdez photo

“History echoes. We mustn't ignore the past, because we're constantly reliving it. Just like the seasons that these farm workers organize their lives around, it's all a big cycle.”

Luis Valdez (1940) American film director

On the cyclical nature of American history in “A Japanese Family Relies on Mexican Neighbors in Luis Valdez's Valley of the Heart” https://www.theatermania.com/los-angeles-theater/news/a-japanese-family-relies-on-mexican-neighbors-to-s_86969.html in Theater Mania (2018 Nov 7)

Mick Mulvaney photo

“As a right-wing conservative and founding member of the Freedom Caucus, I never expected that the co-worker I would work closest, and best, with at the White House would be a "globalist."”

Mick Mulvaney (1967) Director of the Office of Management and Budget

Gary Cohn is one of the smartest people I’ve ever worked with. Having the chance to collaborate with him will remain one of the highlights of my career in public service.”

6 March 2018 https://twitter.com/OMBPress/status/971171732454129664

Cory Booker photo
Rosa Luxemburg photo
Dorothy Thompson photo
Dorothy Thompson photo

“It is intolerable that a whole race should be indicted and banned— each individual, good, bad and indifferent, lumped into one category—as the Jews are in Germany. It is intolerable that we should accept the principle that there is a permanent, irreconcilable and even necessary hostility between workers and the men who employ them—as is positively implied in this country, in the National Labor Relations Act.”

Dorothy Thompson (1893–1961) American journalist and radio broadcaster

As quoted in "The best quotes from Ralph Klein’s colourful public life" http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/the-best-quotes-from-ralph-kleins-colourful-public-life/article10577310/, The Globe and Mail
p. 95
Dorothy Thompson’s Political Guide: A Study of American Liberalism and its Relationship to Modern Totalitarian States (1938)

John F. Kennedy photo
Neil Kinnock photo

“We live in a country afflicted by a senile and selfish capitalist system...where families are homeless, sick people unattended, children untaught whilst building workers, nurses and teachers are unemployed”

Neil Kinnock (1942) British politician

Source: ‘Introduction’, in Why Vote Labour? (1979), p. 2, quoted in Tudor Jones, ‘Neil Kinnock's socialist journey’, Contemporary Record, Volume 8, Issue 3 (1994), p. pp. 568–569

Doug Ford photo

“We have a bunch of yahoos out in the front of Queen’s Park sitting there protesting that the place isn’t open, as they are breaking the law. And putting everyone in jeopardy, putting themselves in jeopardy, putting workers in jeopardy and god forbid one of them ends up in the hospital down the street.”

Doug Ford (1964) 26th Premier of Ontario

On anti-lockdown protestors in Queen's Park https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/a-bunch-of-yahoos-ont-premier-says-of-people-protesting-covid-19-emergency-measures-1.4911861 (25 April 2020)
2020

David Cay Johnston photo

“Old gods sometimes do that in their retirement. They become galactic social workers, self-appointed do-gooders.”

Sheri S. Tepper (1929–2016) American fiction writer

Source: The Margarets (2007), Chapter 53, “We Margarets Walk” (p. 502)

Robert B. Reich photo

“Every company in America should require all workers to be vaccinated, period.”

Robert B. Reich (1946) American political economist

29 July 2021 https://twitter.com/rbreich/status/1420781860066582529

Emma Goldman photo
Albert I of Belgium photo

“The negro workers are still unaware of the force that can give them union organization; happy industrialists.”

Albert I of Belgium (1875–1934) third King of the Belgians

The visit of King Albert I to the Belgian Congo in 1928. Between propaganda and reality. https://www.congoforum.be/Upldocs/Het_bezoek_van_koning_Albert_I_aan_Belgi.compressed.pdf

“Optimism with regard to labour as an agency of social progress has been replaced by pessimism that sees little prospect of workers acting on their own behalf.”

Neethi Padmanabhan Indian academic

Globalisation Lived Locally: A Labour Geography Perspective on Control, Conflict and Response among Workers in Kerala https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263155852_Globalisation_Lived_Locally_A_Labour_Geography_Perspective_on_Control_Conflict_and_Response_among_Workers_in_Kerala, 2012, at ResearchGate

Ramsay MacDonald photo

“We want no injustice done to other people. I do not appeal to you merely as a class, but I do appeal to you workers to form yourselves into an organisation which will use political power in order to protect our human conditions and give you fair play in life.”

Ramsay MacDonald (1866–1937) British statesman; prime minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in the Hippodrome, Darlington (25 May 1929), quoted in The Times (27 May 1929), p. 9
1920s

Joseph Goebbels photo

“Speech in the evening. Almost exclusively port workers. One proper communist. I am almost at one with him.”

Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister

14 November 1925, The Early Goebbels Diaries 1925-1926, Helmut Heiber, edit. Oliver Watson, trans. Frederick A. Praeger, New York, (1963)
Diary excerpts

Sheyene Gerardi photo

“Workers who don’t share ownership of the robots will be reduced to political powerlessness far worse than their conditions today. We have the opportunity to solve this problem during the bootstrapping period while human labor is still needed for space industry.”

Sheyene Gerardi Venezuelan actor and model

[NASA CLASS Announces Collaboration With Actress Sheyene Gerardi, http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=38c46884-5abc-491a-89aa-c9bb0b71195c]

Thokozani Khuphe photo
Denis Healey photo

“We are spending 6 per cent more than we are earning... You can also bankrupt a nation by excessive wage demands... That is why I said that it is better to have a lower standard of life for all workers than for some of them to be unemployed.”

Denis Healey (1917–2015) British Labour Party politician and Life peer

1970s
Source: Remarks to the Liaison Committee with the Trades Union Congress at Congress House (20 January 1975), quoted in Barbara Castle, The Castle Diaries, 1974–76 (1980), pp. 284-285

Mary Harris Jones photo
Joe Biden photo

“When I talk to the American people about climate change, I tell them it’s about jobs. It’s about workers and the communities that will revitalize themselves around new industries and opportunities.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2021, November 2021, US President's Statement on Day 2 of the 2021 UN Climate Conference

Samuel Oton Sidin photo

“We ask for prayers and support for our seminarians so that they can recover soon, and for the medical workers looking after them.”

Samuel Oton Sidin (1954) 21st-century Indonesian Catholic bishop

Source: Covid-19 infects 30 Indonesian seminarians https://www.ucanews.com/news/covid-19-infects-30-indonesian-seminarians/89566 (17 September 2020)

João Goulart photo

“...Our motto, Brazilian workers, is progress with justice, and development with equality...”

João Goulart (1918–1976) 24th President of Brazil

Source: João Goulart. Discursos Selecionados do Presidente João Goulart, 2010, FUNAG, 978-85-7631-193-5, 82, pt-br http://funag.gov.br/loja/download/641-Discursos_joao_goulart.pdf,

Adolf Hitler photo

“The hammer will once more become the symbol of the German worker and the sickle the sign of the German peasant,...”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Source: May Day Speech at Tempelhof Air Field, Berlin http://www.nommeraadio.ee/meedia/pdf/RRS/Adolf%20Hitler%20-%20Collection%20of%20Speeches%20-%201922-1945.pdf (1 May 1934), Adolf Hitler: Collection of Speeches 1922-1945, ReichsMilitariaCom; 1st edition (2016), p. 184

Jay Samit photo

“Remote Workers are Your New Competitive Advantage.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

Xiomara Castro photo

“Absolute Evil exists. As kids we geriatrics learned all about it, and no damn social worker had better come along and blame “evil” on “conditions.””

Jack Cady (1932–2004) American writer

Evil is a force in the universe, a force using any weakness it finds to do its dirt; and with Evil, Hell is just a sideline.
Source: Kilroy Was Here (1996), p. 134

Joe Biden photo

“[W]hen we invest in strengthening workers and the middle class, the poor have a ladder up, and those at the top do just fine. That’s how we can increase opportunity and decrease persistent inequity.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks by President Biden at the Inaugural Ceremony of the Ninth Summit of the Americas

Dolores Huerta photo

“The social and economic revolution of the farm workers is well under way and will not be stopped until they receive equality.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1966 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub

Dolores Huerta photo

“The workers are on the rise. There will be strikes all over the state and throughout the country because Delano has shown what can be done, and the workers know now they are no longer alone.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1966 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub

Dolores Huerta photo

“Do you know that we were amazed to find out you can get all kinds of information about what's harmful to a pet, but you can't get any information about what's harmful to a farm worker?”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1974 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub

Dolores Huerta photo

“Once we got the medical plan, we found that that really didn't stop the abuses, because the doctors were still not giving the workers good health care. So the next step was then to build a clinic. So the workers started to build their clinics.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1974 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub

Dolores Huerta photo

“It is no accident that farm workers have an average life span of forty-nine years of age.”

Dolores Huerta (1930) American labor leader

1974 speech, in Voices of Multicultural America: Notable Speeches Delivered by African, Asian, Hispanic and Native Americans, 1790-1995 by Deborah Gillan Straub