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MP3 5.2 MB • 128 kbps • 5:43
Lyrics
Union Man
My father was a union man
And a veteran of the war in Vietnam
If he were alive today to see what you’ve got planned
I don’t think he’d shake your hand
If all the workers from yesterday
Could see how the rights they fought for have gone away
I don’t think they’d be too happy today
The workers in the fields, the workers in the mines
The factories and railroads, how they fought and died
Just to get us a few of our rights
Like 40 hour work weeks, child labor laws
Safety regulations, workmen’s compensation
And the rights to good faith negotiations…
But now everything is run like a corporation…
They created problems and try to solve them with our sweat
They manufacture crises, don’t think we’ll forget
They think we won’t stand up and fight, well, you wanna bet?
You wanna bet?
They claim that we’re the problem
They look down their nose
They think they can live without us, well
Let’s see how that goes
Let’s see how it goes
Without workers in the public sector, how long would you go
If you had to …
Never mail a letter, don’t drive on a road
Someone steals your car, you just let it go
Your house is on fire, pick up a garden hose
Still think you can live without us? Okay, then
Don’t send your kids to school, don’t take them to a park
Don’t expect the streets to be safe after dark
If you think that’d make life hard…
Well, that’s just how it starts…
Never ride the subway, don’t get on a city bus
Let the highway bridges crumble into dust
Let the garbage all pile up
So you want the government out of everything? Okay, then
Let the corporations poison all your land
Poison all your water, poison all your air
And when you get sick, let the free market set the price of your healthcare
Of your healthcare
But I have to admit; you’ve done a pretty good job of
Keeping people stupid, keeping people numb
Keep them thinking the end times are gonna come
Keep them in the dark about where their rights come from
While you steal ‘em
So you can keep trying to kill us, but we won’t go away
Or maybe, just maybe, we can let the wealthy pay
Back into the system that helped them get that way
Helped them get that way
And you’ll do all right, and
We’ll all have our teachers, we’ll all have our schools
Firefighters, police officers, and nurses, too
And roads to drive on and parks to go to
And we’ll drink clean water and breathe clean air
And we’ll all have a future and help each other get there
We’ll help each other get there
My daddy was a Union Man…
