Top 60 Sharan Burrow Quotes

Trade unions have stood at the front lines of struggles for democratic change and social justice throughout history. In many countries, we are the organized voice of oppositions to governments operating at the behest of corporate power and vested interests.

If multilateral institutions cannot bring about peace and the rule of law because of the vested interests of their members, then both national democracy and global governance will continue to be rocked by crises.

If political leaders want respect, they will begin by enforcing the global rule of law.

In terms of emerging economies, we absolutely believe that the prescription is social protection and a minimum wage on which people can live.

You cannot fuel demand, or consumption-led demand, on credit forever.

For the unions, it is simple. There are no jobs on a dead planet.

Workers know first-hand how corporate capture of government is undermining their rights and freedoms as citizens.

We need economic growth, yes, but growth can be jobless, so a sustainable development framework for employment must include a job creation strategy.

No country can afford to lose a generation to unemployment.

The competitive pressure to produce, buy, and sell to our global multi-national companies is so intense that contractors in supply chains are motivated to pay low wages, intensify exploitative conditions, keep workers fearful with insecure work contracts, or simply sack workers who have formed a union to fight back.

We need investment in green economy infrastructure; public services, training and education; and a multilateral plan to create youth job opportunities.

Wealth is being generated off the back of oppression and abuse.

A new model of business and economic development must ensure everybody’s sons and daughters are treated as we would expect for our own.

Large swathes of people losing faith in democracy is a dangerous thing. Conflict, desperation, totalitarianism are the products of that loss of faith.

You’d never plan a career like I’ve had.

Anyone who has lived in an area with high unemployment knows how it erodes social bonds, lowers the resilience of the unemployed and their families, and damages the prospects of the next generation.

Market-led globalization is leading to a race to the bottom, where efficiency and profit matter more than a fair share for working people.

If you put stimulus into an economy, you know there is a time lag in terms of depending where you invest it. If it’s family transfers, it might be quick. If it’s infrastructure, it might be two, three, five years.

Technology can be used to make people’s lives easier, to reduce inequality, to facilitate inclusion, or to solve intractable global problems, but without dialogue and governance, it can be used against humanity – the choice on how we use technology is ours.

Globalization has much potential. It could be the answer to many of the world’s seemingly intractable problems. But this requires strong democratic foundations based on a political will to ensure equity and justice.

The cycle of jobless youth, uncertainty about the future, depressing consumption, and weak investment and stresses on both the supply and demand side of economies are all thorns in the wheel of capitalism.

Until you separate the speculative behaviour of the financial sector from the real economy and the financing of the real economy, then we are not going to see the kind of stability or the capacity to drive genuine, income-led growth as opposed to debt-fuelled, speculative behaviour.

Creating a Financial Transactions Tax would go a long way to curbing short-term speculative trading, including high-frequency trading.

The corporate community understands the need for rules. Indeed, it argues for regulation to protect intellectual property, physical property rights, and contract law. So why does it oppose global regulation to protect people and the environment?

The concept of ‘green jobs’ or a ‘green economy’ is often attacked as the work of the Grimm Brothers by those wedded to the grim science of free-market economics.

As we contemplate a world which is still choosing to deploy technological innovation in a way that deepens inequality and divisions within and between nations, we need to set global foundations back on track.

We know an organised workforce cannot be enslaved, but when governments fail their citizens and allow corporations to escape the rule of law, slavery can flourish.

Democracy is rarely easy, nor swift.

Growing inequality is exacerbated by the companies who simply treat workers as commodities, and our governments are cowered by their demands to perpetuate this model of greed.

When working men and women have secure jobs with living wages and social protection, they can invest in the economy at levels which will increase demand and help overcome the twin challenges of ageing populations and economic stagnation.

There is a great deal of sympathy amongst workers for the Occupy Wall Street movement. We understand their frustration.

T-Mobile U.S.A. is one company that uses fear and intimidation to scare workers away from union representation.

Democracy is becoming collateral damage in a world where global risks have been ignored or exacerbated by those with the power to act.

My job is to represent working people.

With global rules for global supply chains, we can end corporate greed.

Public opinion must be heard.

Banks don’t come with an internal switch that says, ‘Enough! Let’s slow down a little.’ Or, ‘Let’s just share this wealth around for the benefit of the community now.’ That’s the job of government.

Out of the fires of desperation burn hope and solidarity.

Globalization can be shaped to ensure that people matter.

A new business model based on old principles of social justice where people matter – now that’s a revolutionary way to reduce inequality.

The environment, stabilizing the climate, needs urgent attention from all of us.

We cannot grow jobs without investment; we cannot grow economies if we don’t earn.

Investment in jobs at a time when millions are unemployed can only be a good thing: all the better if the jobs help us shift from a high-carbon to a low-carbon economy.

We need a multi-stakeholder approach to Internet governance, not vested interests in making citizens pay for formerly free services or restrictions to their capacity to share information.

We all eat breakfast in the morning, we all go to sleep at night, and we all want our kids to have opportunities that we didn’t.

If there are not jobs or adequate forms of social protection, there is not enough income to create the consumption base that drives demand and sustainable economic growth.

There is no doubt that the participation of women in the workforce is a serious productivity boost, but to enable this ambition, there must be investment in care – child care, aged care, disability care, health, and education – which are essential social support structures to enable women to work.

If people do not have jobs, they do not have a secure income, and they do not have a sense of security.

We need to decarbonise our societies and economies.

Corporate greed, corporate bullying cannot be tolerated – it’s time for a global rule of law to guarantee fair trade, rights, minimum wages on which people can live with dignity, and safe and secure work.

Many women drop out of the work force altogether, which holds back our economy with a loss of skills and personnel.

As economists bandy about terms like ‘recapitalization,’ ‘credit lines,’ and ‘liquidity,’ families are facing brutal cuts to their social services and welfare payments, losing their homes, wondering how their kids will make their way in the world.

Climate impacts hit working people first, and with extreme weather events, changing seasons, and rising sea levels, whole communities stand on the front lines.

We may be living in a world of disposable electronics, but working people are not disposable commodities.

I’ve had an enormously privileged working life.

We know how to build economies. It requires investment in jobs. The biggest medium-term multiplier is infrastructure.

Disproportionate corporate power over governments is giving license to the greed that denies workers even minimum living wages. It is also seemingly a license to allow the sheer brutality of treatment of working people at the base of the supply chains.

It’s never been clearer that unrestrained market forces do not produce the kind of societies we aspire to – economically stable and socially inclusive, where citizens have access to secure jobs with the dignity of a fair wage and a welfare safety net.

Technological developments are changing the way we live, and there is much talk of digitalisation and the disruptive business models enabled by smart phones, tablets, computers, and the ‘Internet of things.’

You can’t deny that if you have, you know, people who think it’s okay to talk about women, to disregard the rights of workers, we’re in trouble as an inclusive world.