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“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 is School Director and Professor of Labor and Employment Relations at Pennsylvania State University. The Collar Laundry Union organizer (see History, below), who, when a newspaper claimed that there weren't enough women in New York to be labor organizers, said confidently: "You show me the women and I'll turn them into organizers." “We didn't commit no mutiny. We didn't take over no ship. We didn't take over a base.We had no weapons. We didn't even have a pen. We only refused to go back to work. Now how could that be mutiny?”
Meeks was one of the African-American sailors at Port Chicago (see Labor History, below).  Reaching the end of a job interview, the company's human resources director asked a young engineer fresh out of college what kind of a salary he was looking for.
“In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year, depending on the benefits package.” “Well, what would you say to a package of five weeks’ vacation, 14 paid holidays, full medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50 percent of salary, and a company car leased every two years... say, a red Corvette?” “Wow! Are you kidding?” “Yeah, but you started it.” —From Workplace Jokes: Only SOME of Them Will Get You Fired! |
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