With all their faults, trade-unions have done more for humanity than any other organization of men that ever existed. They have done more for decency, for honesty, for education, for the betterment of the race, for the developing of character in man, than any other association of men. Clarence Darrow
The methods by which a trade union can alone act, are necessarily destructive; its organization is necessarily tyrannical. Henry George
No king on earth is as safe in his job as a Trade Union official. There is only one thing that can get him sacked; and that is drink. Not even that, as long as he doesn’t actually fall down. George Bernard Shaw
The most conservative man in the world is the British Trade Unionist when you want to change him. Ernest Bevin
The trade union movement represents the organized economic power of the workers… It is in reality the most potent and the most direct social insurance the workers can establish. Samuel Gompers
Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected. Samuel Gompers
It is necessary to be able to withstand all this, to agree to any and every sacrifice, and even – if need be – to resort to all sorts of stratagems, manoeuvres and illegal methods, to evasion and subterfuges in order to penetrate the trade unions, to remain in them, and to carry on Communist work in them at all costs. Lenin