New Orleans     There used to be a bumper sticker saying “Unions:  The People Who Brought You Vacation.”  Unions definitely brought us all Labor Day.  There were years of giant parades, now largely in the United States something for San Francisco, Chicago, and maybe New York City, while the rest of the world celebrates May Day for workers’ solidarity.   In New Orleans when I was Secretary-Treasurer of the Greater New Orleans AFL-CIO we brought back the Labor Day picnic which has now endured more than 15 consecutive years.  Not the same, but at least it’s something.

            But for too many it’s just a welcome day off, a turn of the calendar marking the rush of school buses hitting the streets and leaves getting ready to fall.   For us it’s a chance to remember the importance of unions, and even more, union organizing, so let’s hear it in the words of the great Woody Guthrie, the classic Ballad of Joe Hill, and then Billy Bragg from Britain, a modern union troubadour.

Union Burying Ground

by Woody Guthrie

I see they’re lowering a right new coffin
I see they’re letting down a right new coffin
Way over in that union burying ground

And the new dirt’s falling on a right new coffin
The new dirt’s falling on a right new coffin
Way over in that union burying ground

Oh, tell me who’s that they’re letting down, down
Tell me who’s that they’re letting down, down
Way over in that union burying ground

Another union organizer
Another union organizer
Way over in that union burying ground

A union brother and a union sister
A union brother and a union sister
Way over in that union burying ground

A union father and a union mother
And a union father and a union mother
Way over in that union burying ground

Well, I’m going to sleep in a union coffin
I’m going to sleep in a union coffin
Way over in that union burying ground

Every new grave brings a thousand new ones
Every new grave brings a thousand members
Way over in that union burying ground

Every new grave brings a thousand brothers
Every new grave brings a thousand sisters
To the union in that union burying ground

The Ballad of Joe Hill

by Alfred Hayes and Earl Robinson

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
Alive as you or me:
Said I, but Joe you’re ten years dead;
I never died said he.
I never died said he.

In Salt Lake, Joe, Great God, said I,
Him standing by my bed;
They framed you on a murder charge,
Said Joe but I ain’t dead;
Said Joe but I ain’t dead.

The copper bosses framed you Joe
They shot you Joe said I;
Takes more than guns to kill a man,
Said Joe I did not die.
Said Joe I did not die.

Joe Hill ain’t dead he says to me,
Joe Hill ain’t never died;
Where working men are out on strike,
Joe Hill is at their side,
Joe Hill is at their side.

And standing there as big as life
A-smiling with his eyes.
Said Joe, what they forgot to kill
Went on to organize,
Went on to organize!

From San Diego up to Maine,
In every mine and mill – 
Where working men defend their rights
It’s there you’ll find Joe Hill.
It’s there you’ll find Joe Hill.

(repeat first verse)

There is Power in a Union

 by Billy Bragg

There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hands of a worker
But it all amounts to nothing if together we don’t stand
There is power in a union

Now the lessons of the past were all learned with workers blood
The mistakes of the bosses we must pay for
From the cities and the farmlands to trenches full of mud
War has always been the bosses way, sir

The union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters from many far off lands
There is power in a union

Now I long for the morning that they realize
Brutality and unjust laws can not defeat us
But who’ll defend the workers, who cannot organize
When the bosses send their lackies out to cheat us?

Money speaks for money, the devil for his own
Who comes to speak for the skin and the bone
What a comfort to the widow, a light to the child
There is power in a union

The union forever defending our rights
Down with the blackleg, all workers unite
With our brothers and our sisters, together we will stand
There is power in a union