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Talking Union
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Almanac Singers
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1
Now, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do
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You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you.
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You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,
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But if you all stick together, boys, it won't be long.
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You get shorter hours, better working conditions,
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Vacations with pay. Take your kids to the seashore.
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It ain't quite this simple, so I better explain
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Just why you got to ride on the union train.
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'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay,
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We'll all be a-waitin' 'til Judgment Day.
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We'll all be buried, gone to heaven,
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St. Peter'll be the straw boss then.
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Now you know you're underpaid but the boss says you ain't;
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He speeds up the work 'til you're 'bout to faint.
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You may be down and out, but you ain't beaten,
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You can pass out a leaflet and call a meetin'.
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Talk it over, speak your mind,
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Decide to do somethin' about it.
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Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool
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To go to your meetin' and act like a stool.
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But you can always tell a stool, though, that's a fact,
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He's got a yaller streak a-runnin' down his back.
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He doesn't have to stool, he'll always get along
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On what he takes out of blind men's cups.
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You got a union now, and you're sittin' pretty,
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Put some of the boys on the steering committee.
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The boss won't listen when one guy squawks,
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But he's got to listen when the union talks.
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He'd better, be mighty lonely
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Everybody decide to walk out on him.
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Suppose they're working you so hard it's just outrageous
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And they're paying you all starvation wages.
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You go to the boss and the boss would yell,
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"Before I raise your pay I'd see you all in hell."
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Well, he's puffing a big seegar, feeling mighty slick
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'Cause he thinks he's got your union licked.
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Well, he looks out the window and what does he see
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But a thousand pickets, and they all agree:
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He's a bastard, unfair, slavedriver,
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Bet he beats his wife!
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Now, boys, you've come to the hardest time.
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The boss will try to bust your picket line.
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He'll call out the police, the National Guard,
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They'll tell you it's a crime to have a union card.
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They'll raid your meetin', they'll hit you on the head,
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They'll call every one of you a goddam red,
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Unpatriotic, Japanese spies, sabotaging national defense!
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But out at Ford, here's what they found,
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And out at Vultee, here's what they found,
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And out at Allis-Chalmers, here's what they found,
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And down at Bethlehem, here's what they found:
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That if you don't let red-baiting break you up,
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And if you don't let stoolpigeons break you up,
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And if you don't let vigilantes break you up,
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And if you don't let race hatred break you up,
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You'll win. What I mean, take it easy, but take it!
Talking Union - Pete Seeger
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