The image of the unions is still not in tune with where we actually are, which is fifty-fifty men and women, with an increasing number of women at the top. I think it is changing, but I'm not complacent about this.
While unions did not play a part in my family life when I was being brought up, my early years were most certainly spent in a working-class community.
I see the policy of opposing same-sex marriages or unions, whatever you call it, as bigotry or discrimination.
They said it was impossible to touch the third rail of politics, to take on public-sector unions and to reform a pension and health benefits system that was headed to bankruptcy. But with bipartisan leadership, we saved taxpayers $132 billion dollars over 30 years and saved retirees their pensions. We did it.
I respect the state workers and I respect their unions, but we simply can't afford to pay benefits and pensions that are out of line with economic reality.
Even in Britain, the trade unions tell me that employment contracts have less protection than in the past.
Although unions may be good for a worker, singular, they are not always good for workers, plural. Especially when it comes to finding a job.
I'm prepared to fight as hard as I can against unions entering the University on behalf of our students.
For small community banks and credit unions, like those in Central and Northern Wisconsin, the hundreds of new rules will require an estimated 2,260,631 labor hours just for compliance. Those are hours that your local bank or credit union will spend dealing with some Washington bureaucrat instead of focusing on the needs of customers like you.
The time has come to tell the truth about the corruption of the government employee unions in this country.
That's what unions do. They can get money, they can get support, they can get manpower.
Large corporations and unions know the power of being big enough to bargain for better rates.
There are teachers' unions around the country realizing they want to improve standards of the profession, improve the quality of their profession, and ultimately attract the best and the brightest to their profession. The vast majority of teachers are dedicated and committed.
I do not support a North American Union. I disagree fundamentally with that, and I think the United States should be governing itself and not being governed by multilateral unions, the United Nations.
My problem with unions is they breed mediocrity.
I certainly support civil unions.
Where trade unions are most firmly organized, there are the rights of the people most respected.
Several unions have agreed to larger employee contributions for their members. Taxpayers are living with cuts and making sacrifices to deal with the reality of California's budget crisis, state workers are going to have to do the same.
And I believe we should strengthen unions which have formed the bedrock of a strong middle class. It should be easier to bargain collectively. That's not only fair, it makes workers more productive, it strengthens our economy.
The unions claim the deck is stacked against them when it comes to labor laws, but the truth is many private and public sector workers are forced to pay union dues as a condition of their employment, yet they have little say in how the unions spend their money.
The trade unions, far from being content with these declarations, established international liaisons and supported every policy based on pacification and understanding.
I have no difficulty with the recognition of civil unions for non-traditional relationships but I believe in law we should protect the traditional definition of marriage.
This constitution recognises the need for social dialogue involving labour and management; it involves trade unions in the decision-making process; it has a social vision founded on social dialogue.
I think we have to be fair in saying at this point that neither Roosevelt nor Lewis realized the peril to which they were exposing both the unions and the country.
I don't do lullabyes.
I believe that the fact and the reality of homosexuality and heterosexuality and of opposite and same-gender unions should be taught in our public schools without a value judgement system also being offered.
I oppose any attempt to grant homosexual unions the same legal privileges that civil government affords to traditional marriage and family life.
I would not go so far as to say that the French trade unions attached greater importance to the struggle for peace than the others did; but they certainly seemed to take it more to heart.
2009 was a tough year, but Australia rose to the challenge of the global financial crisis. It shows what can be done when we all join together and work together, governments of all persuasions state, territory and local; businesses large and small; unions and local communities right across the nation.
Margaret Thatcher made tough decisions. She put people out of work and she stood up to labor unions and she did a lot of things that I did not like.
Unions, by and large, are democratic organizations with freely chosen leaders and policies determined by the membership. They concern themselves with individual dignity not only in their aims but in their method. We have no better example of what is worthy of emulation abroad than the workings of a good union.
What until then seemed impossible to achieve has become a fact of life. We have won the right to association in trade unions independent from the authorities, founded and shaped by the working people themselves.
The objective I propose is quite simple to state: to foster the infrastructure of democracy - the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities - which allows a people to choose their own way to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.
If credit unions can grow and prosper with a 15 percent cap, so can banks.
Unions did in fact build the middle class. And here's what that did. That built the United States of America as we know it.
Credit unions are often a better deal than banks and tend to pay higher yields on deposits.