Talking Union

[verse] Now if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you. You got to build you a union got to make it strong But if you all stick together boys it won’t be long. You get shorter hours better working conditions Vacations with pay. Take your kids to the seashore. [Verse] It ain’t quite this simple so I better explain Just why you got to ride on the union train. ’Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay We’ll all be a-waitin’ ’til Judgment Day. We’ll all be buried gone to heaven St. Peter’ll be the straw boss then. [Verse] Now you know you’re underpaid but the boss says you ain’t; He speeds up the work ’til you’re ’bout to faint. You may be down and out but you ain’t beaten You can pass out a leaflet and call a meetin’. Talk it over speak your mind Decide to do somethin’ about it. [Verse] Course the boss may persuade some poor damn fool To go to your meetin’ and act like a stool. But you can always tell a stool though that’s a fact He’s got a yellow streak a-runnin’ down his back. He doesn’t have to stool he’ll always get along On what he takes out of blind men’s cups. [Verse] You got a union now and you’re sittin’ pretty Put some of the boys on the steering committee. The boss won’t listen when one guy squawks But he’s got to listen when the union talks. He’d better be mighty lonely If everybody decide to walk out on him. [Verse] Suppose they’re working you so hard it’s just outrageous And they’re paying you all starvation wages. You go to the boss and the boss would yell "Before I raise your pay I’d see you all in hell." Well he’s puffing a big seegar feeling mighty slick ’Cause he thinks he’s got your union licked. Well he looks out the window and what does he see But a thousand pickets and they all agree: He’s a bastard unfair slavedriver Bet he beats his wife! [Verse] Now boys you’ve come to the hardest time. The boss will try to bust your picket line. He’ll call out the police the National Guard They’ll tell you it’s a crime to have a union card. They’ll raid your meetin’ they’ll hit you on the head They’ll call every one of you a goddam red Unpatriotic Japanese spies sabotaging national defense! [Verse] But out at Ford here’s what they found And out in Pittsburgh here’s what they found And out at Allis-Chalmers here’s what they found And down at Bethlehem here’s what they found: That if you don’t let red-baiting break you up And if you don’t let stoolpigeons break you up And if you don’t let vigilantes break you up And if you don’t let race hatred break you up [Outro] G           N.C. You’ll win. What I mean take it easy but take it!