Glossary of labor slogans

• The slogan "An injury to one..." has a long history in the union movement. Initially attributed to the Knights of Labor
  Knights of Labor
  The Knights of Labor was the largest and one of the most important American labor organizations of the 1880s. Its most important leader was Terence Powderly...
  
  , the expression took the form "an injury to one is the concern of all." At the suggestion of David C. Coates
  David C. Coates
  David Courtney Coates was a Pueblo, Colorado businessman, a radical, the 11th Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, secretary of Colorado's State Federation of Labor, and a friend to Big Bill Haywood.Coates was born in Brandon, England....
  
  , the Industrial Workers of the World
  Industrial Workers of the World
  The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
  
   at their founding convention
  First Convention of the Industrial Workers of the World
  When Bill Haywood used a board to gavel to order the first convention of the Industrial Workers of the World , he announced, "this is the Continental Congress of the working class...
  
   in 1905 adopted a variation of the expression, rendered as "an injury to one is an injury to all
  An injury to one is an injury to all
  An injury to one is an injury to all is a motto popularly used by the Industrial Workers of the World who are also known as the "Wobblies." In his autobiography, Bill Haywood credited David C. Coates with suggesting a labor slogan for the IWW: an injury to one is an injury to all. The slogan has...
  
  ."

• Boring from within is a crude translation of a French syndicalist expression, la pénétration, (literally, penetration) which, according to Paul Brissenden, was initially recommended to the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) by William Z. Foster
  William Z. Foster
  William Foster was a radical American labor organizer and Marxist politician, whose career included a lengthy stint as General Secretary of the Communist Party USA...
  
  , as a preferred alternative to dual unionism with regard to the AFL
  American Federation of Labor
  The American Federation of Labor was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States. It was founded in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions disaffected from the Knights of Labor, a national labor association. Samuel Gompers was elected president of the Federation at its...
  
  . The IWW ignored the recommendation in 1911, and rejected the tactic as impossible in 1914. Foster, who had become a member of the IWW in 1909, left that organization and joined the newly formed Communist Party
  Communist Party USA
  The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
  
   in the early 1920s.

• The boss needs you, you don't need him is an expression from the Industrial Workers of the World, who envisioned "a world without bosses."

• Bosses beware — when we're screwed, we multiply

• Bread and Roses
  Bread and Roses
  The slogan "Bread and Roses" originated in a poem of that name by James Oppenheim, published in The American Magazine in December 1911, which attributed it to "the women in the West." It is commonly associated with a textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts during January-March 1912, now often...
  
  is an expression, the name of a poem, a song title, and a movie, derived from a picket sign carried by a woman striker in 1911 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, during what came to be called the Bread and Roses strike. The message on the homemade sign was, "We Want Bread, and Roses Too." The slogan calls for dignified working conditions as well as fair wages.

• Direct action gets the goods

• Don't mourn, organize! This expression is the familiar version of the "last words spoken" by Wobbly song-writer Joe Hill
  Joe Hill
  Joe Hill, born Joel Emmanuel Hägglund in Gävle , and also known as Joseph Hillström was a Swedish-American labor activist, songwriter, and member of the Industrial Workers of the World...
  
   before his execution on a murder charge in Utah. In truth, the expression is part of a telegram sent to Bill Haywood
  Bill Haywood
  William Dudley Haywood , better known as "Big Bill" Haywood, was a founding member and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World , and a member of the Executive Committee of the Socialist Party of America...
  
  , in which Joe wrote, "Goodbye, Bill, I die like a true blue rebel. Don't waste any time mourning. Organize!" It wasn't Joe's last telegram; he sent another in which he implored Haywood, "Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? I don't want to be found dead in Utah."

• Dual unionism
  Dual unionism
  Dual unionism is the development of a union or political organization parallel to and within an existing labor union. In some cases, the term may refer to the situation where two unions claim the right to organize the same workers....
  
  is the development of a union parallel to an existing labor union. The parallel dual union may exist for different tactical, philosophical, or strategic reasons.

• Dump the Bosses Off your Backs!

• A fair day's wage for a fair day's work The motto of the American Federation of Labor.

• Get it through industrial organization (Wobbly slogan)

• Hammering from without According to Paul Brissenden, this expression is the Americanized version of the French syndicalist term la pression extérieure, or external pressure, which was seen by some as an alternative to boring from within

• Instead of the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work," we must inscribe on our banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the wage system." Response of the Industrial Workers of the World
  Industrial Workers of the World
  The Industrial Workers of the World is an international union. At its peak in 1923, the organization claimed some 100,000 members in good standing, and could marshal the support of perhaps 300,000 workers. Its membership declined dramatically after a 1924 split brought on by internal conflict...
  
   to the AFL motto, from the IWW Preamble.

• Kickin' ass for the working class...

• Labor is entitled to all it creates

• The longer the picket line, the shorter the strike

• Look for the Union Label is the slogan of a multimillion dollar advertising campaign launched in 1975 by the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE,) urging consumers to purchase union-made clothing.

• The only force that can break tyrannical rule is the one big union of all the workers (Wobbly slogan)

• Organize the workers to control the use of their labor power (Wobbly slogan)

• Right to work (for less)

• Sit Down and Watch Your Pay Go Up!

• Solidarity forever! is the refrain from a song of the same name written by Ralph Chaplin.

• The secret of power is organization (Wobbly slogan)

• Unions: the people who brought you weekends

• A victory for one is a victory for all

• Which side are you on? From the song of the same name by Florence Reece, written about a 1931 strike by coal miners in Harlan County, Kentucky
  Harlan County, Kentucky
  Harlan County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1819. As of 2000, the population was 33,200. Its county seat is Harlan...
  
  .

• Workers of the world, awaken!

• Workers of the world, Unite
  Workers of the world, unite!
  The political slogan Workers of the world, unite! is one of the most famous rallying cries of communism, found in The Communist Manifesto , by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels...
  
  !

• Workingmen, Unite!

• 8 hours for work, 8 hours for sleep, 8 hours for what we will was a popular slogan beginning in the 1880s during organized labor's push for the 8-hour workday. Its exact origin is unclear, but its first recorded use was probably during a Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Union rally in Milwaukee on May 1, 1886.