Talking Union chords by Pete Seeger

Chords with lyrics

Key: G+G

verse:
      G+G            C majorC
Now, if you want higher wages let me tell you what to do
      D7D7             G+G
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you.
                   C majorC
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong
D7D7
But if you all stick together, boys, it won't be long.
    G+G       C majorC
You get shorter hours, better working conditions
D7D7                   G+G
Vacations with pay. Take your kids to the seashore.

Verse:
     G+G            C majorC
It ain't quite this simple, so I better explain
     D7D7           G+G
Just why you got to ride on the union train.
                  C majorC
'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay
D7D7
We'll all be a-waitin' 'til Judgment Day.
   G+G       C majorC
We'll all be buried, gone to heaven
D7D7             G+G
St. Peter'll be the straw boss then.

Verse:
    G+G               C majorC
Now you know you're underpaid but the boss says you ain't;
  D7D7               G+G
He speeds up the work 'til you're 'bout to faint.
                 C majorC
You may be down and out, but you ain't beaten
D7D7
You can pass out a leaflet and call a meetin'.
G+G       C majorC
Talk it over, speak your mind
D7D7          G+G
Decide to do somethin' about it.

Verse:
      G+G           C majorC
Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool
  D7D7           G+G
To go to your meetin' and act like a stool.
                     C majorC
But you can always tell a stool, though, that's a fact
D7D7
He's got a yellow streak a-runnin' down his back.
      G+G          C majorC
He doesn't have to stool, he'll always get along
  D7D7                G+G
On what he takes out of blind men's cups.

Verse:
  G+G              C majorC
You got a union now, and you're sittin' pretty
D7D7          G+G
Put some of the boys on the steering committee.
        C majorC
The boss won't listen when one guy squawks
D7D7
But he's got to listen when the union talks.
   G+G    C majorC
He'd better, be mighty lonely
  D7D7            G+G
If everybody decide to walk out on him.

Verse:
  G+G                   C majorC
Suppose they're working you so hard it's just outrageous
      D7D7         G+G
And they're paying you all starvation wages.
              C majorC
You go to the boss and the boss would yell
D7D7                       G+G
"Before I raise your pay I'd see you all in hell."
      G+G           C majorC
Well, he's puffing a big seegar, feeling mighty slick
     D7D7          G+G
'Cause he thinks he's got your union licked.
                 C majorC
Well, he looks out the window and what does he see
   D7D7
But a thousand pickets, and they all agree:
    G+G    C majorC    D7D7
He's a bastard, unfair, slavedriver
G+G
Bet he beats his wife!

Verse:
      G+G         C majorC
Now, boys, you've come to the hardest time.
  D7D7             G+G
The boss will try to bust your picket line.
                C majorC
He'll call out the police, the National Guard
D7D7
They'll tell you it's a crime to have a union card.
    G+G             C majorC
They'll raid your meetin', they'll hit you on the head
D7D7
They'll call every one of you a goddam red
G+G      C majorC        D7D7         G+G
Unpatriotic
Japanese spies, sabotaging national defense!

Verse:
  G+G          C majorC
But out at Ford, here's what they found
D7D7            G+G
And out in Pittsburgh, here's what they found
G+G               C majorC
And out at Allis-Chalmers, here's what they found
D7D7        G+G
And down at Bethlehem, here's what they found:
                 C majorC
That if you don't let red-baiting break you up
D7D7           G+G
And if you don't let stoolpigeons break you up
C majorC
And if you don't let vigilantes break you up
D7D7
And if you don't let race hatred break you up
Outro:
G+G      N.C.
You'll win. What I mean, take it easy, but take it!