5 –
Strike!
Recorded by:
Ryan Williams
From the Album:
Year of the Skype
Lyrics and notesCHORUS:
Well the union where I work is going to strike on May 31
and I'm going to quit to hold the line with them
But with 40,000 bucks worth of college debt, no degree, no unemployment check
I ask, "can we start the revolution yet?"
I see all my friends depressed
'cause college didn't work for them and restaurant jobs make you want to kill yourself
Tell the asshole patrons to cook themselves
and fuck temp. agencies
they take half of your wage and give you no security
but the bosses at all these jobs can't keep employees
'Cause they can't hear the workers' pleas
they only hear the money!
CHORUS
And my dad worked all his life
he can fix 'most anything you'd like
household repairs to bikes
computers to most any electronic device
and after the Navy in Vietnam
he got a job fixing copiers and married my mom
Seventeen years and the company sold
layoffs sure make the winters cold
and accentuate the tension in an unheated house
while the C.E.O.'s doing lines off pink slips funded by the corporate expense account
So my dad got a new job
engineering at another company
but he could only be called a "tech"
cause he only had an associate's degree
he taught the engineers a million things he learned while they made more money
now this company's sold so at fifty-six years old
when layoffs come, retirement hopes will go
and another hard worker will lose all his hope
CHORUS
