The union is much more than me, and when you think the union is you and it's not about who you represent, I think you've sort of lost your morals and focus and the purpose of your leadership.

The union movement has been the best middle class job creating program that America has ever had, and it doesn't cost the government a dime.

The AFL-CIO is a structure that divides workers' strength by allowing each union to organize in any industry, then bargain on its own, even when workers share a common employer.

Unions should not be lapdogs to a political party, they should be watchdogs for their members' interests.

I have a temperament that doesn't adapt well to politics. It's because I speak my mind so much.

Shaping the future is what drives me. Since I left politics, I'm very much interested in emerging markets.

I see people like me, who thought someone like me couldn't be in politics, now are saying, 'Oh, wait, I don't need to take money from corporations to run. Maybe I'll run, too.'

In the early 2000s, people expected that anonymity on the Internet would be positive for the development of democracy in South Korea. In a Confucian culture like South Korea's, hierarchy can block the free exchange of opinions in face-to-face situations. The web offered a way around that.