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The Call
Never Changes Samuel
Gompers was one of the founders of the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
and the first President of that organization. He served in that
position for 38 years from 1886-1924. Over
100 years ago he spoke to labor union members stating his vision for
working men, women and their families.
Company
representatives from time to time choose to interpret that Gompers
quote as saying that "unions just want more." Of
course that is far from the truth.
The
following is the quote from Samuel Gompers and to this day you can see the
call never changes. It is particularly appropriate to reiterate his
message this Labor Day. Gompers
said, "Show me a country in which there are no strikes and I'll show
you that country in which there is no liberty."
"The
periods of unemployment accompanying depression in the business cycle . .
. present a challenge to all our claims to progress, humanity, and
civilization." "The
labor of a human being is not a commodity or article of commerce." "What
does labor want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and
less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed;
more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to
cultivate our better natures, to make manhood more noble, womanhood more
beautiful, and childhood more happy and bright." Reflecting
on what Gompers said, there are two more things that working men and women
need on this Labor Day. The
first one is jobs. Under the Bush administration we are losing 87 thousand
jobs per month and the The
2001 winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, George Akerloff, went even
further last week saying, “This is the worst government the US has ever
had in its more than 200 years of history…This is not normal government
policy.” In describing the
impact of the Bush policies on Clearly
current policies are most likely to benefit the highest income Americans,
who unfortunately are the least likely to spend money in ways that create
jobs during times when the economy is weak and unemployment is rising. Union
members are the backbone of this country and the foundation of this
nations middle class. We face the challenge of building a better We
take great pride in our nation. Despite our problems,
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