We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few; but we can't have both.

When employers in this country say labor costs are too high, what they're really saying to you is, you have it too good.  What they're really saying to you is, all you need is enough to get you into the plant and work.

All that serves labor serves the nation.  All that harms is treason.  If a man tells you he trust America, yet fears labor, he is a fool.  There is no America without labor, and to fleece the one is to rob the other.

The labor movement means just this:  It is the last noble protest of the American people against the power of incorporated wealth.

Only a fool would try to deprive working men and women of their right to join the union of their choice.

Speaking on right-to-work laws in 1961:

In our glorious fight for civil rights, we must guard against being fooled by false slogans, as 'right-to-work.'  It provides no 'rights' and no 'works.'  Its purpose is to destroy labor unions and the freedom of collective bargaining... We demand this fraud be stopped.

"All that benefits labor benefits the country."

"The only thing Corporate America has given to the worker is the pink slip."

"Every advance in this half-century for social security, civil rights, Medicare, aid to education, one after another came with the support and leadership of American Labor."

"Labor was the first price, the original purchase-money that was paid for all things.  It was not by gold or by silver, but by labor, that all the wealth of the world was originally purchased."