Gompers, Says Biggs-Adams

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Samuel Gompers, founder and President of the American Federation of Labor from 1886 to 1924, said ”Show me the country that has no strikes and I’ll show you the country in which there is no liberty.” Carrie Biggs-Adams is this week’s Quote of The Week winner, drawn at random from the correct responses. She joins Sharlene Kranz, George Welling and Keith Romig as winners eligible to collect their prizes at next week’s Metro Council Delegate’s meeting. We had a couple of other interesting nominees this week, including Lech Walesa and John L. Lewis “who refused to give up workers' rights during World War II since the corporate millionaires were not required to give up theirs.”
       HONORABLE MENTIONS to Janis Hernandez, Michael Kerrigan, Loretta Kane, Jeffrey W. Burritt, Paula Littles, Anthony J. DiBitetto, Jennifer S. O'Dell, Jo Ellen Chernow, Luis Espinosa-Organista (who notes that Gompers was a great supporter of unionism in my home country of Mexico), Oscar Sanchez (who adds that “Gompers understood the meaning of liberty and of strikes...being a British-born American trade unionist), Hunter Phillips, Nancy Van Meter, Jordan Barab, Barbara Leonardi, Michelle Alioto, Scott Wilson, Lauren Gleason, Ilene Ferrell, Martha Mountain, Wayne Spong, Bob Lucore, Erik Brown, Patrick Wojahn and Monica Lee Silbas (who says "George W. Bush today...Samuel Gompers yesterday").