Portrait

Joseph Lane Kirkland (March 12, 1922 – August 14, 1999) was an American labor union leader who served as president of the AFL-CIO for over sixteen years.

Quotes

  • The skills and productivity of American Workers, not to mention the taxes they pay, are the greatest economic resource our country has. To condemn large numbers of them to unemployment, to deprive the Treasury of their tax contributions and to force them to live on unemployment at public expense is the most expensive luxury any society ever chose to buy.
    • Cited in The AFL-CIO American Federationist, Vols. 84-86 (1977), p. 4.
  • The plain truth is that labor is the chief representative force that keeps the real special interests from dominating American political life.
    • Cited by Arthur B. Shostak, Robust Unionism: Innovations in the Labor Movement (1991), p. 190.
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