Andy Stern Quotes & Sayings

“The question is always 'What is the role of a labor movement?' How much is about collective bargaining, how much is about social change for all workers?”

“And I think we understand we cannot make social change for all workers until we have enough strength, membership strength, and at the same time having membership strength and only making change for a limited group of workers is not what our country really needs for people that work.”

“American workers won't be able to compete fairly for jobs until companies have to pay higher wages in countries like China and India.”

“Unions should not be lapdogs to a political party, they should be watchdogs for their members' interests.”

“The union is much more than me, and when you think the union is you and it's not about who you represent, I think you've sort of lost your morals and focus and the purpose of your leadership.”

“I would say the issue for the labor movement in the United States is not structural... there is no correlation between the success of workers and how the labor movement is structured.”

“I'm not running from any particular problems, I just want to take some time and figure out in my life where I can keep doing what I'm doing but in a way that I can also honor what I want to do for myself.”

“It has no enforceable standards to stop a union from conspiring with employers to keep another stronger union out or from negotiating contracts with lower pay and standards that members of another union have spent a lifetime establishing.”

“Manufacturing and other unskilled professions that were union jobs, that allowed people to live a middle-class life, are disappearing both because unions are disappearing and because of the global nature of the economy.”

“Republicans have been very successful. There are three things Americans don't like: big unions, big government and big corporations. So Republicans go after big government and big unions, and only talk about small businesses.”