My name’s Phil Wright. Mister Wright if we are doing business.
I’ve been around a long time.
Long enough to hear every trick word folks use when they don’t want to say labor.
They say the market. They say capital. They say innovation. They say leadership. All fine words. Useful words. But they ain’t the first word.
The first word is labor.
- Nothing moves without it.
- Nothing gets built without it.
- Nothing earns without it.
Labor creates all wealth — not some of it, not most of it. All of it.
My daddy was a porter. Carried other folks’ bags for a living. Named me after A. Philip Randolph, and that wasn’t an accident. He wanted me to understand early that dignity don’t come from what you own — it comes from what you do, and how you do it. Randolph said it straight, and I never heard it improved on: “Freedom is never given; it is won.”
Now let me tell you something folks forget.
Labor isn’t just muscle.
It’s judgment. It’s patience. It’s knowing when to slow down so somebody doesn’t get hurt. It’s measuring twice because you know the cost of being wrong. Machines don’t do that. Money doesn’t do that. People do that.
Every bridge you cross. Every light that comes on. Every train that runs on time.
Somebody worked for that. Somebody showed up. Somebody paid attention.
I’ve sat across the table from management my whole life. Good ones and bad ones.
And I’ll tell you this: the good ones already know what I’m saying. They know profit don’t appear out of thin air. It comes from organized effort. From skill. From respect moving both directions.
And labor ain’t charity.
It’s not a favor. A fair day’s work earns a fair day’s pay — and that’s not a slogan, that’s a contract older than any corporation still standing.
Mr. Randolph used to say,
“A community is democratic only when the humblest and weakest person can enjoy the highest civil, economic, and social rights.”
That wasn’t poetry. That was instruction.
See, when labor is disrespected, corners get cut. When corners get cut, people get hurt. When people get hurt, trust breaks. And when trust breaks, no amount of money fixes it.
I’ve trained soldiers and I’ve trained apprentices.
Same rule applies to both: discipline isn’t punishment. Discipline is protection. It keeps you alive. It keeps the job honest. It keeps the future standing upright instead of leaning on somebody else’s back.
So when you hear folks talk like labor is a cost to be minimized, or a problem to be managed, understand what they’re really saying. They’re saying the people who make things don’t matter as much as the things being made.
And that’s backwards.
Labor creates all wealth. Respect keeps it legitimate. And dignity is the interest it pays over time.
Do the work right. Treat people right. Hold your line.
Now you know, Jack.
