Working people are under the worst attack in 80 years. Never has there been a stronger need for a stronger union movement.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
This is the crux of the problem: because the Republicans and the right wing have been successful in almost eliminating unions, everyone else has suffered as a result.
There has been a huge attack against private sector unions. Actually, that's been going on since the Second World War.
What's going on in this country? Unions stand against those trends. We've got to somehow insulate the robust American economy from this global economy that seems to want to devour our standard of living.
Never has a strong, responsible trade union movement been so needed. With austerity policies biting hard and with no evidence that they are working, people at work need the TUC to speak up for them now more than ever.
And the success of the union movement, historically, has always been to benefit all working men and women - not just people who belong to the union.
Let there be no doubt: the state of our union is strong - stronger than the terrorists who seek to harm us and stronger than the challenges that confront us. At the same time, we know that our union can be stronger still.
Of course, we knew that this meant an attack on the union. The bosses intended gradually to get rid of us, employing in our place child labor and raw immigrant girls who would work for next to nothing.
All the time our union was progressing very nicely. There were lectures to make us understand what trades unionism is and our real position in the labor movement.
I think we will see a united labor movement again. When workers unite they're stronger. The same goes for unions.
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.