Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, one of the things that's been troubling to me and to many of the people that I represent back home in Brooklyn and parts of Queens has been to witness the attack on organized labor, on unions all across the country. Particularly in 2011, 2012, we witnessed it in Wisconsin, we witnessed it in Ohio, taking place in other parts of the country. And I think that it's unfortunate that there are some forces out here in the country determined to crush the ability of the American worker to organize and fight collectively for a decent way of life. And I think it's important to point out some of the reasons why all Americans should be thankful for unions and for the organized labor movement. I'm just going to highlight quickly 10. We should be thankful to organized labor because of overtime pay. We should be thankful because of child labor laws. We should be thankful because we now have the 40-hour workweek. We should be thankful because of workers' compensation, there to provide a safety net for folks who are injured on the job. We should be thankful because we now have the presence, as a result, in significant part, of the organized labor movement, for unemployment insurance. We should of course be thankful because many Americans, as a result of the efforts of organized labor, enjoy pensions, increasingly under assault, increasingly being taken away, but pensions have provided a vehicle for retirement security important to the American way of life and standard of living.…”