Ina Wood, a militant feminist, is the most likely inspiration for this song. She put Woody Guthrie and Pete Seger to work singing for the poor desperate people in the Hooverville on the banks of the Canadian River, and then for the striking oil workers and the Unemployed Workers' Alliance (1940). It became Woody's most popular song throughtout the 1940's and is often sung today.
Lyrics
There once was a union maid; she never was afraid
Of goons and ginks and company finks
And the deputy sheriffs who made the raid.
She went to the Union hall when a meeting it was called,
and when the company boys came around,
she always stood her ground.
Chorus:
Oh you can’t scare me,
I’m stickin’ to the Union,
I’m stickin’ to the Union,
I’m stickin’ to the Union...
Oh, you can’t scare me,
I’m stickin’ to the Union
I’m stickin to the Union
‘til the day I die.
This union maid was wise
to the tricks of the company spies;
She couldn’t be fooled by company stools,
she’s always organize—the guys!
She’d always get her way
when she struck for higher pay;
She’d show her card to the National Guard
and this is what she’d say:
Chorus
You women who want to be free.
Just take a little tip from me:
Break out of that mold;
we’ve all been sold
we’ve got a fightin’ history.
The fight for women’s rights
With workers must unity
Like Mother Jones, bestir them bones
To the front of every fight.
Chorus
