Andy Stern Quotations

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?

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

The union movement has been the best middle class job creating program that America has ever had, and it doesn't cost the government a dime.

I was too much of a victim of the model I created. I tried Change to Win and helping Obama, and then I just ran out of Andy Stern ideas.

I'll never run for office. But I intend, either on the fiscal commission or on issues like immigration, to hopefully have my voice be heard.

Employers need to recognize that the world has changed and there are people who would like to help them provide solution in ways that are new, modern and that add value to companies.

I would say that workers in general, and white workers particularly, are correct that their economic wellbeing is deteriorating.

America is living through the third economic revolution and our country doesn't really have a plan on how to deal with it, and when it does - like the president sort of outlined when he first got here - we have a Congress who seem incapable of acting on it.

In 1972, I signed a union card for SEIU. And for the last 38 years, 14 as president, it's been my life. I've seen the most miraculous, spectacular things. But there's a time to learn, a time to lead and a time to leave.

When I left SEIU, we had started this quality public service agenda to say to our members what I think the United Auto Workers learned: that quality is our only job security in the long run.

The AFL-CIO is a structure that divides workers' strength by allowing each union to organize in any industry, then bargain on its own, even when workers share a common employer.

There is no path to citizenship for those who work hard, pay taxes and want a chance to obtain the American dream. By establishing a legal, orderly process, we can bring immigrant workers in this country out of the shadows and under our laws, connect those workers with willing employers and allow our overburdened law enforcement and border patrol to focus on protecting Americans from those who might do us harm.

We know where (Bush) has stood and we would like to hear him say it again.

We have reached a decision, and we are hopeful that there are other unions who share our members' excitement for Dr. Dean's candidacy.

Let's be clear -- state employees and other voters in New Hampshire take a huge risk by supporting him. Wesley Clark has a life-long pattern of support for national Republicans whose policies have been disastrous for public employees, and that is a track record that raises huge doubts about what he would do if he ever became President.

He comes with an enormous amount of good will. I mean, people have really seen him stand up in strikes and organizing drives and things that most vice presidents of the United States have never done, and that is enormously appreciated and gives him a lot of credit.

Our unions do a large amount of organizing in parts of the economy that historically and recently are places where people of color and immigrant workers have found jobs. Some of them are entry-level jobs. Throughout history immigrants have found work as janitors, and our unions have helped them raise families, send their kids to college, and that's been the American dream.

We are not trying to divide the labor movement, we are trying to rebuild it,

Today, we have made the decision to disaffiliate from the AFL-CIO. We believe in fundamental change, not incremental reform.

We can bring to earth a new world from the ashes of the old because our union transforms us the powerless into the powerful. And I ask you to join together in using all that power-all that strength to make the dreams of all workers and communities around the world come true.

Wal-Mart provides a chilling example of the damage that low-wage, nonunion corporations can wreak, and their business model is going to set the standards for our children unless we do something now. Wal-Mart is the sewer pipe through which good jobs are being flushed.

Once, a union job at GM or AT&T was a bridge to success. Now, a nonunion Wal-Mart job is a bridge to nowhere.

Wal-Mart is the sewer pipe through which good jobs are being flushed.

UNNATURAL CAUSES tears back the veil to show the socio-economic and racial inequities in health as well as the public policies that underpin them. Should be required viewing.

Republicans have been very successful. There are three things Americans dont like: big unions, big government and big corporations. So Republicans go after big government and big unions, and only talk about small businesses.

Workers of the world unite. It's not just a slogan anymore.

Unions have been the best anti-poverty program that actually worked and did not cost the government a dime. But as unions grow smaller- not stronger- our ability to act as an economic mechanism to distribute the gains of our work and raise all workers' wages and benefits up is disappearing.

Today I send this message to every emerging global corporation: "justice; family, community, and union" are the same in every language and, wherever you go and whatever you do, a new global labor movement is coming to find you.

College is about three things: homework, fun, and sleep...but you can only choose two.

When we strengthen our cooperation and help workers in the same industry unite, everybody wins,

Every resident of Malibu should be horrified about the BHP Billiton oil and gas rig in the Gulf of Mexico that was lost during Hurricane Rita, ... Not only did the supposed foolproof precautions taken by BHP Billiton fail, but according to their own spokesperson, they do not even know why they failed.

They've shown an incredible amount of courage, and I thought it was time to pass on the responsibility to other leaders in the union.

How do we take the different assets that different unions bring to the table and use them strategically? American Unions, for example, have a disproportionate amount of resources, while other unions have political power, and if we think together we may be able to use the global economy to our advantage.