Talking Union - Woody Guthrie

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

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

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

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 yaller 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

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

Everybody decide to walk out on him

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!

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!

But out at Ford, here’s what they found

And out at Vultee, 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

You’ll win.

What I mean, take it easy, but take it!