On the top letterhead banner of this blog you will see a quote from a great woman, Eleanor Roosevelt.

She was a champion of human rights and working people.

As Bridget O'Farrell ,the author of a new book about Eleanor Roosevelt, writes: "ER, as she often signed her name, told her readers that “ " 'Many people do not believe in unions. Unquestionably unions and their leaders are not always wise and fair any more than any other human beings. There are only two ways to bring about protection of the workers, however, legislation and unionization.' "

"The Wagner Act embodied her combined strategies. The legislation was necessary to unionization: guaranteeing workers the right to take individual responsibility and then act collectively, to join a union and bargain for their wages, working conditions, and benefits. She gave her full support, starting with her own very public union membership, which she maintained until her death in 1962. Union membership grew from 3 million to 8 million during the decade and by 1955 over one-third of all workers belonged to a union, creating the core of a growing middle class.

"Eleanor Roosevelt fought amendments to weaken the Wagner Act, especially Taft-Hartley, and under her guidance workers’ rights became part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The decades that followed her death, however, witnessed a dramatic decline in union membership. In the early 21st century, 12 million union members represent only 12% of the workforce. Just over 7% of workers in the private sector belong to a union, a level not seen since the Great Depression.

"The current labor relations system is in need of repair. Work has changed a great deal since ER’s day but the problems are familiar: low wages, employer hostility, plant closings, outdated laws, racial and gender discrimination. There are multiple reasons for union decline, but management resistance to union organizing and the failure of labor laws to effectively protect workers’ rights contribute to the problem.

"Eleanor Roosevelt would support labor law reform today, beginning with the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)....

"For ER, legislation that facilitated union organizing was a necessary step to give workers a democratic voice in securing their human rights, but then she would move on to expanding protection to all workers, stopping the permanent replacement of strikers, strengthening mediation systems, and ending right-to-work laws."

Monday was her birthday, and it's fitting to celebrate her life and work in her own words:

1. You must do the thing you think you cannot do.

2. It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness.

3. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

4. Justice cannot be for one side alone, but must be for both.

5. Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.

6. If life were predictable it would cease to be life, and be without flavor.

7. A woman is like a tea bag — you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

8. Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.