Organise the unorganised. With organisation you have the aid of your fellow men; without organisation you are a lone individual, without influence and without recognition of any kind. And exploitation of you and your family when it pleases some industrialist to make money out of your misery. ibid. John L Lewis, president UMW, televised address
They used to abuse us actually ... If you stuck together in solidarity you can defeat them. Besides that, I learned that the politicians worked with the coal companies. I found out that the union officials were working with the coal companies. I also found out that the Catholic hierarchy was working with the officials. ibid. old miner
The government is acting as their muscle man. ibid.
We have to fight for our rights. ibid. miner’s wife at meeting
We didn’t give them any resistance whatever. We just lay down in the road. ibid.
It’s a feudal system. ibid. Houston Elmore, UMW organiser
Which side are you on, boys?
Which side are you on? ibid. folk song
Consolidated Coal’s Mannington Mine in Farmington W. Va. was inspected by the Federal Bureau of Mines sixteen times in 1968. Extensions were granted to the company sixteen times. On November 20th 1968 the mine exploded. Four men survived, 78 men were trapped in the mine. ibid. caption
It’s not true that the inhalation and retention of coal dust in the lungs necessarily results in any impairment of the pulmonary function. ibid. Attorney, Bitumous Coal Operators Association, televised address
If a company kills a man, the company gets let off. ibid. miner
Three months after the contract was signed at Brookside, the national coal contract expired. For the first time in UMW history the rank and file has the right to ratify the contract. ibid. caption
July – August 1975: 100,000 strike to protest company abuse of grievance procedures. ibid.
There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time. Calvin Coolidge, 1919
The trade unions and the Labour Party ... failed miserably. Instead of giving concrete support, and calling upon workers to take industrial action, they did nothing. Arthur Scargill
But OILC never achieved across-the-board union recognition. The cost of the industrial action was high, around 1,000 contract workers were sacked and blacklisted. The strikes cost the operations £200,000,000. Crude Britannia: The Story of North Sea Oil 2/3, BBC 2009
6,000 SACKED PRINT WORKERS: SOGAT AUEW HGA NUJ UNITED WE WILL WIN. Wapping Union protest banner
In my time we was beaten, rotten egged, cussed, threatened, tarred and feathered and blackballed from other jobs. Hurt in so many different ways. But at our meetings our advice to the men and women that was hurt, we would just say to them what the good book says – the Lord will not put more upon you than you can bear, at least none of us lost our lives like some did in the early 30s. Thank God! W M Jack Anderson, first local president, UAW local 645 TX
We’ll hold this line until Hell freezes over. Then we’ll hold it on ice skates. Anonymous, picket sign
Those unions that enjoy the right to strike have no guarantee that sacrificing their jobs and their livelihood will result in victory but they nevertheless engage in lengthy strikes, not because they are assured of winning but because they are determined to fight. William Burrus, 1998
The first principle of non-violent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating. Cesar Chavez
When a man or woman, young, or old, takes a place on the picket line for even a day or two, he will never be the same again. Cesar Chavez
We shall Strike. We shall pursue the revolution we have proposed. We are sons of the Mexican Revolution, a revolution of the poor seeking, bread and justice. Our revolution will not be armed, but we want the existing social order to dissolve, we want a new social order. We are poor, we are humble, and our only choices is to Strike in those ranchers where we are not treated with the respect we deserve as working men, where our rights as free and sovereign men are not recognized. We do not want the paternalism of the rancher; we do not want the contractor; we do not want charity at the price of our dignity. We want to be equal with all the working men in the nation; we want just wage, better working conditions, a decent future for our children. To those who oppose us, be they ranchers, police, politicians, or speculators, we say that we are going to continue fighting until we die, or we win. We shall overcome. Cesar Chavez, The Plan of Delano, 1965
The only thing workers have to bargain with is their skill or their labor. Denied the right to withhold it as a last resort, they become powerless. The strike is therefore not a breakdown of collective bargaining – it is the indispensable cornerstone of that process. Paul Clark, 1989
If you object to unfair treatment, you’re an ingrate. If you seek equity and fair consideration, you’re uppity. If you demand union security, you’re un-American. If you rebel against repressive management tactics, they will lynch and scalp you. But if you are passive and patient, they will take advantage of both. William Clay senior, congressman to AFL-CIO Federation of Government Employees 1975
What precipitated the big strike in 1912, which is one of the great historical struggles in our country, was a political act on the part of the State. The hours of labor were reduced to 54 hours. You can imagine what they were before. That was only for women and children, but it affected something like 75% of the workers in the mills. On the first pay after the law went into effect, the employers cut the wages proportionately to the cut in hours and the wages were on the average of $7 and $8 a week at that time, and the highest pay to loom fixers and more highly skilled were getting possibly, $15 and $20. It was a margin between mere subsistence and starvation and so there was a spontaneous strike. Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, 1962 re Bread & Roses Strike
Never forget, people DIED for the eight hour workday. Rebecca Gordon
Really what we would like to see is to take these unions out at the knees so they don’t have the resources to fight these battles. Scott Hagerstrom, February 2011 Michigan executive director Koch Brothers’ Americans for Prosperity before Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s supposed fiscal crisis
Remember that you are fighting more than your own fight. You are fighting for the entire working class and you must stand together. William Dudley Big Bill Haywood, to striking mill workers Lawrence, Massachusetts 1912
Workers of the world awaken. Break your chains, demand your rights. All the wealth you make is taken by exploiting parasites. Shall you kneel in deep submission from your cradle to your grave? Is the height of your ambition to be a good and willing slave? Joe Hill
The governor can stop a strike any time. If I were the governor I would stop a strike by simply saying, ‘These men have a grievance and demand redress from you. Come and discuss these questions with the miners on the fair soil of America like intelligent, law-abiding citizens. If you refuse I will close up your mines. I will have the state operate mines for the benefit of the nation.’ It is not right for public officials to bring scabs and gunmen into any state. I am directly opposed to it myself, but if it is a question of strike or you go into slavery, then I say strike until the last one of us drop into our graves. Mother Jones, 1913
On their side the workers had only the constitution. The other side had bayonets. Mother Jones
We have come too far – struggled too long – sacrificed too much and have too much left to do to allow that which we have achieved for the good of all to be swept away without a fight. And we have not forgotten how to fight. Lane Kirkland
Personally, I look forward to continuing the fight for justice and equality on the workroom floor. APWU will never – NEVER – allow heinous thinking by management to continue without a battle. It’s an atrocity which must be and will be stamped out. We are American workers and, most importantly, we are human beings! Moe Lepore, Boston Metro Area Local APWU 1985
Strike is inherently dangerous to the rich, and to the corporations who have brought this country to her knees, because it is the only defense the ordinary citizen has. Keith Olbermann, speech Cornell University March 29, 2011
The General Strike has taught the working class more in four days than years of talking could have done. Arthur Balfour
Transforming itself suddenly from a problem of abandoned plantations and slaves captured while being used by the [Southern] enemy for military purposes, the movement became a general strikes against the slave system on the part of all who could find opportunity. The trickling streams of fugitives swelled to a flood. Once begun, the general strike of black and white went madly and relentlessly on like some great saga. W E B du Bois
You see blokes on the picket line you’d never have dreamed would be there. And often they’re the ones who have the best ideas about what to do next.
I suppose most of the blokes still feel that this is just part of ordinary life. But I must admit for me it’s like living history. I feel that one day I’ll be telling those children’s children what it was like being in the Great Steel Strike of 1980. Tom Bartholomew