Home > Work > A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy QUOTES

A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy QUOTES

1 " Futility, the tactic union busters use to subtly convince people nothing will change and they should just stay home and not bother voting, is best combatted by having lots of examples at the ready to describe the many real achievements ordinary people have made despite stiff odds. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

2 " To win big, we have to follow the methods of spending very little time engaging with people who already agree, and devote most of our time to the harder work of helping people who do not agree come to understand who is really to blame for the pain in their lives. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

3 " If the governance systems encourage participation by the best and most diverse workers, the union will reflect the best and most diverse workers’ values. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

4 " In the United States, we are stuck with a high court that will rule against workers and the planet for another thirty to forty years. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

5 " If you believe that lawsuits or legal tactics are the main platforms available for a positive change, stop reading this book and go play with your kids or grandkids. Resign their future and yours to one with more extreme storms and vast unemployment. But know that it is not inevitable—not by a long shot. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

6 " the bottom 60 percent of America not only doesn’t have any financial wealth; they are, on average, in debt. But 2016 is now ancient history. By 2017, a new study on inequality showed that just three people—Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffett—“have more wealth than the bottom half of the country combined.” Bezos’s wealth increases by $13 million per hour. In 2018, half of all people in the world experienced an 11 percent drop in their wealth; the billionaire class increased their riches by $2.5 billion each day. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

7 " The impact of economic, political, and social inequality in America is real and dangerous, and not up for debate. We are, however, in a hot debate about how to reverse course. Ironically, the billionaire class now dominates and frames the national discussion on inequality. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

8 " With the rise of Silicon Valley, we now argue over whether a worker is even a worker. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

9 " The legacy power players long associated with the Republican side of the aisle, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, argue without proof that further slashing taxes on themselves will create more jobs because they will invest their savings in job creation. The data wildly contradicts their assertions "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

10 " When it comes to political spending, the Party of Inequality leaves every other institution in the dust. To get a sense of this, consider that by the 2016 election cycle, the ratio of big business versus union donations to political candidates and the two main parties was 16:1. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

11 " while they talk a pro-immigration line in public, they are quietly aiding mass deportation schemes by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency by developing and selling high-tech facial recognition and tracking technology. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

12 " Disrupting the concept of a worker isn’t any better than disrupting democracy, and it has had a big hand in both, thanks to its creation of antisocial media. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

13 " Turns out, talking about the gig economy is a bit of a red herring; it avoids dealing with the vast majority of workers whose work is merely dull and doesn’t pay enough to live, let alone live well. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

14 " Democrats have been smashing teachers’ unions—the largest single segment of unionized workers remaining in America—as they zealously drive their corporate-backed, pro-charter-school agenda. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

15 " despite the tech elite’s rhetoric of building a new society, nothing much has changed, unless you count the creation of the new generation of Silicon Valley billionaires as progress. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

16 " Strikes are uniquely powerful under the capitalist system because employers need one thing, and one thing only, from workers: show up and make the employer money. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

17 " To gain the trust and support of those whose lives may be affected, smart unions work diligently to erase the line separating the workplace from society. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

18 " Unions’ track record of redistributing power—and therefore wealth—and changing how workplaces are governed is what led to a war waged against them by the business class. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

19 " Before workers decided to build power through collective action and form the United Auto Workers in 1935, conditions in auto plants essentially weren’t different from the abysmal ones in today’s average Amazon warehouse. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy

20 " WORKERS WHO FOUGHT TO BUILD STRONG UNIONS turned horrible jobs in the auto factories into the kind of employment that became the backbone of the American Dream. "

― Jane F. McAlevey , A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy