Worker Rights Quotes

“To Jurgis the packers had been the equivalent to fate; Ostrinski showed him that they were the Beef Trust. They were a gigantic combination of capital, which had crushed all opposition, and overthrown the laws of the land, and was preying upon the people.”
― Upton Sinclair, The Jungle

“Now you're being sentimental, Marija. You shouldn't waste your pity on machines! If you want to pity someone, pity the poor guestworker who's chucked out of the territory when they build a robot to do his job! Pity the janitors, the nightwatchmen, the dustcart drivers. My God, even the whores have been put out of business now! We live in a country where we even fuck machines!”
― Chris Beckett, The Holy Machine

“Altitude sickness, unregulated drugs and medical gas enabled workers to become drug abusers/addicts”
― Steven Magee

“I have been through the OSHA system twice and I can confirm that I did not have the right to a safe workplace or whistle-blower protection on either occasion.”
― Steven Magee

“During my five years on Mauna Kea, workers routinely displayed the symptoms of Cerebral Hypoxia”
― Steven Magee

“Oxygen deprivation and supplemental oxygen are both bio-hazards for Mauna Kea workers”
― Steven Magee

“Corrupt utility companies require a corrupt legal system to protect them from their own sickened workers and the masses.”
― Steven Magee

“[1916] The IWW’s involvement in the [Minnesota] Iron Range’s labor unrest led mine company owners to take extreme actions and, just as in other conflict locations, they mobilized the businesses and municipal offices under their ownership. All mail and telegrams to and from Virginia were halted and reviewed. In other locations, including Biwabik, Aurora, and Eveleth, general stores turned away miners and their famlies. When the strikers formed their own cooperative for supplies and groceries, Oliver Iron Mining Company pressured wholesalers to serve notice that all credit would be curtailed pending the strike, and that payments for supplies must be made weekly. Meanwhile Sheriff Meining publicly announced new jail sentences for other agitators and miners for simply saying, “Hello Fellow Worker,” carrying a red IWW membership card, or discussing industrial unionism on public streets.”
― Jane Little Botkin, Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family