Notable Quotes from the 6th Regular UFCW Int'l Convention
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"We have left our work at home behind because we have work to do here - for the next generation" |
- Chris Sanders - Local 227 Louisville, Kentucky |
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"Our work is not about money...our work is about giving a voice to those who have been kept silent." |
- Michael Matuszak - Local 227 Louisville, Kentucky |
| "One Union, One Voice is a practical method of operation" |
- Joe Hansen - Following his re-election as UFCW International President |
| "To do otherwise would have been to walk away from our responsibility" |
- Joe Hansen - on re-booking delegates to other Montreal hotels in support of workers who went on strike at the originally booked hotels. |
| "Montreal is a union city. Over 40% of the city's workers belong to a union - same in the province (of Quebec)...We must support politicians everywhere in North America who support free choice, unions and workers' wages. Things have to change - the gap between rich and poor must be narrowed." | - Michael Arsenault - Quebec Federation of Labour (FTQ) |
| "Workers and retirees depend on us and we must improve their lives...(by) leveling the playing field between the so-called silver spooned masters of the universe and those who make those spoons." |
- Marc Perrone - UFCW International Secretary/Treasurer |
| "We all have obligations to one another. We ARE our brother's keeper...Reclaim the idea that we are mutually responsible for one another." | - Barack Obama - Speaking via video feed to the convention |
| "Work is not a crime." |
- Joe Hansen - On the U.S. Immigration Service raid of the Smithfield Meatpacking facility in Tar Heel, North Carolina on January 24, 2007 |
| "The Teamsters will back the UFCW with any fight...We are the ones to make our unions better - there ain't no one but us." |
- James P. Hoffa, General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters |
| "The Wal-Mart wall has been cracked right here in Quebec." |
- Wayne Hanley - President of UFCW Canada and Executive VP of UFCW Int'l on the historic first contract with Wal-Mart won by Local 486 (Gatineau, Quebec). |
| "A Lobbyist from Wal-Mart approached me and said, 'I'd like to sit down and talk with you.' I told her, 'I'd love to talk with you about the employment practices of Wal-Mart.' I'm still waiting for her phone call... Multinational corporations have only one interest - to keep taking, taking and taking. We will not give anymore." | - Donna Edwards - U.S. Congresswoman Maryland's 4th District |
| "They even voted in half black and half white cats and called it a coalition. (But) the problem is they were all cats and cats always look after themselves." |
- Tommy Douglas, in 1940 speaking to the Canadian Parliament about the story of Mouse Land comparing cats to politicians and mice to the workers who elect them. A film introduced to the convention by Douglas' grandson, actor Kiefer Suntherland |
| "Politics did not lead me to workers. Workers led me to politics." |
- Barack Obama |
| "We need politicians who care more about Main Street than Wall Street or Bay Street...Go block by block, door to door, worker to worker" |
- Jeff Traeger, Local 832 Manitoba, Canada on the need to rally voters |
| "Our challenge is to take back our government on behalf of working people. We must make our voices heard." | - Tom McNutt - Local 400 Landover, Maryland |
| "Hold politicians accountable. Getting the job isn't the task - doing the job is the task." |
- Ken Georgetti - President of the Canadian Labour Congress |
| "In the last ten years our health care costs have risen so high that I will soon be a health care worker without health care (protection of my own)." |
- Risa James - Local 141 Registerd Nurses of Washington State |
| "(You), the richest nation in the world, have 48 million people without health care and 8 million of those are children...1.5 million Americans filed for bankruptcy - 50% claiming medical expenses as the main reason...Just cutting the paperwork costs in America (to levels similar) to Canada's would cover the 48 million without insurance...Health care (should be delivered) based upon the size of the need not the size of the wallet...We look to you to change that." |
- Philip J. Jennings - General Secretary of Union Network International |
| "We must pass the EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) as a first step toward putting law on the side of workers in the U.S." |
- Joe Hansen |
| "EFCA is the silver bullet. If we get that we'll see your union double in size." |
- James P. Hoffa |
| "We will get this vital bill (EFCA) across the finish line" |
- U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts in a letter to the convention read by Joe Hansen |
| "I'm not a moron. I'm a Baptist." |
- Linda Cullen and Bob Robertson - of the Canadian comedy team 'Double Exposure' satirizing President George Bush |
| "The long Bush night is (almost) over. You survived the most anti-union administration in history. It's so nice to say bye bye Bush, bye bye black night." |
- Philip J. Jennings |
| "Canadians don't want to see George Bush win a third term by using the name John McCain." |
- Ken Georgetti |
| "If you want to know who is going to elect Barack Obama look in the mirror...you are voting for yourself and your children." |
- James P. Hoffa |
