Do you think there could be a second Great Depression?

[Marc Chevalier]

Look for the union label. If you can find it.

The ILGWU's song (from the 1970s):

Look for the union label
When you are buying a coat, dress, or blouse.
Remember somewhere our union's sewing,
Our wages going to feed the kids and run the house.
We work hard, but who's complaining?
Thanks to the ILG, we're paying our way.
So always look for the union label,
It says we're able to make it in the USA!

 

[jamespowers]

the ilgwu's song (from the 1970s):

look for the union label
when you are buying a coat, dress, or blouse.
Remember somewhere our union's sewing,
our wages going to feed the kids and run the house.
We work hard, but who's complaining?
Thanks to the ilg, we're paying our way.
So always look for the union label,
it says we're able to make it in the usa!

70s!?:eeek::eusa_doh:

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Yeah, 1975. UNITE (formerly ILGWU and other unions) had a contest among its members to come up with a jingle, and this was the winner.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were also the songs from "Pins And Needles," the hit 1937 Broadway revue produced by ILGWU, among them the immortal "It's Better With A Union Man."

 

[jamespowers]

Yeah, 1975. UNITE (formerly ILGWU and other unions) had a contest among its members to come up with a jingle, and this was the winner.

It sounded like a 70s contest song that is for sure.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

... among them the immortal "It's Better With A Union Man."

Darn tootin'. Here are the lyrics:


Oh listen to the story we sing you
Of everything that came to pass,
To Bertha, the sewing machine girl
A winsome and class-conscious lass.

As sweet as the flower is in Springtime
She worked at the men's pants machine,
Her sweetheart close by at another
While union love blossomed serene.

One day little Bertha was sewing
Not knowing that danger was near,
Our villain aspired her
And paused there beside her,
An un-union man with a lip.

Oh it's better with a union man,
It's better with a union man,
You'll live to regret if you ever forget
This motto proletarian.

So always be upon your guard,
Demand to see a union card,
You'll never go wrong
If you follow this plan,
It's better with a union man.

Poor sweet innocent little Bertha,
She did not suspect that this guy
Contrary to all union bylaws
Had six other wives on the sly.

While Bertha was sowing her wild oats
Midst black caviar and champagne,
Her true union lover was waiting
At Local Sixteen all in vain.

Alas she forgot all the presets
That for working girls are correct,
That Nine Union cad,
He was thoroughly bad,
He did just what you all would expect.

Oh it's better with a union man,
It's better with a union man,
You'll live to regret if you ever forget
This motto proletarian.

So always be upon your guard,
Demand to see a union card,
You'll never go wrong
If you follow this plan,
It's better with a union man.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

As a member of Teamster's Local 695, I thoroughly enjoyed this!

Darn tootin'. Here are the lyrics:

 

[Undertow]

Are there still Union labels? I know this makes me sound like a rube, but I've not seen any lately on regular clothing (excluding suits). Where does everyone typically find US made clothes?

Obviously, Wal-Mart is out of the question. I've found some US made garments, but they don't have the union label, and they are far/few.

Target is just as hit and miss. Kohl's too. Anywhere else?

(I like to shop at Goodwill, but sometimes new clothes are in order )

 

[dhermann1]

There once was a Union maid
Who never was dismayed
By goons and ginks and company finks,
And deputy sheriffs who made the raids.
She went to the Union Hall
Whenever a meeting was called,
And when the deputies came around, she always stood her ground.

Oh, you can't scare me, I'm sticking to the Union,
I'm sticking to the Union,
I'm sticking to the Union.
Oh, you can't scare me I'm sticking to the Union.
I'm sticking to the Union,
Till the day I die!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Are there still Union labels? I know this makes me sound like a rube, but I've not seen any lately on regular clothing (excluding suits). Where does everyone typically find US made clothes?

Obviously, Wal-Mart is out of the question. I've found some US made garments, but they don't have the union label, and they are far/few.

Target is just as hit and miss. Kohl's too. Anywhere else?

(I like to shop at Goodwill, but sometimes new clothes are in order )

The last thing I bought with a union label in it was a pair of rubber galoshes made by a company in the Midwest, which included a little slip of paper in the box with the Boot And Shoe Workers Union label and the slogan MADE IN THE USA BY TAXPAYING AMERICAN LABOR. But these were new-old-stock, probably dating to the late '80s, and I've never seen anything like that since.

I don't buy new clothes anymore for just that reason.

 

[Atticus Finch]

I went through a folk music phase some years (decades) ago. Here's a couple of my favorite pro-union tear jerkers.

1913 Massacre
by Woody Guthrie

Take a trip with me in nineteen thirteen
To Calumet, Michigan in the copper country
I'll take you to a place called Italian Hall
And the miners are having their big Christmas ball

I'll take you in a door and up a high stairs
Singing and dancing is heard ev'rywhere
I'll let you shake hands with the people you see
And watch the kids dance 'round the big Christmas tree.

There's talking and laughing and songs in the air
And the spirit of Christmas is there ev'rywhere
Before you know it you're friends with us all
And you're dancing around and around in the hall

You ask about work and you ask about pay
They'll tell you they make less than a dollar a day
Working their copper claims, risking their lives
So it's fun to spend Christmas with children and wives.

A little girl sits down by the Christmas tree lights
To play the piano so you gotta keep quiet
To hear all this fun; you would not realize
That the copper boss thug men are milling outside

The copper boss thugs stuck their heads in the door
One of them yelled and he screamed, "There's a fire"
A lady she hollered, "There's no such a thing;
Keep on with your party, there's no such a thing."

A few people rushed and there's only a few
"It's just the thugs and the scabs fooling you."
A man grabbed his daughter and he carried her down
But the thugs held the door and he could not get out.

And then others followed, about a hundred or more
But most everybody remained on the floor
The gun thugs, they laughed at their murderous joke
And the children were smothered on the stairs by the door.

Such a terrible sight I never did see
We carried our children back up to their tree
The scabs outside still laughed at their spree
And the children that died there was seventy-three

The piano played a slow funeral tune,
And the town was lit up by a cold Christmas moon
The parents, they cried and the men, they moaned,
"See what your greed for money has done?"

JOE HILL
by Alfred Hayes

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

"The Copper Bosses killed you Joe,
they shot you Joe" they filled you full of lead.
"Takes more than guns to kill a man"
Says Joe "I didn't die"
Says Joe "I didn't die"

"In Salt Lake City, Joe," says I,
Him standing by my bed,
"They framed you on a murder charge,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead,"
Says Joe, "But I ain't dead."

And standing there as big as life
and smiling with his eyes.
Says Joe "What they can never 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!

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night,
alive as you and me.
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"I never died" said he,
"I never died" said he.

AF

 

[Marc Chevalier]

Speaking of Joe Hill ... there's a new biography out: The Man Who Never Died: The Life, Times, and Legacy of Joe Hill. Its author, William Adler, posits that Joe was probably innocent of murder, but that he came to welcome a dramatic death --by a Utah firing squad-- in order to become a martyr for the "Industrial Workers of the World" ("IWW", or "Wobblies") movement.

 

[Undertow]

The last thing I bought with a union label in it was a pair of rubber galoshes made by a company in the Midwest, which included a little slip of paper in the box with the Boot And Shoe Workers Union label and the slogan MADE IN THE USA BY TAXPAYING AMERICAN LABOR. But these were new-old-stock, probably dating to the late '80s, and I've never seen anything like that since.

I don't buy new clothes anymore for just that reason.

Rats! I was afraid you would say that.

 

[jamespowers]

Rats! I was afraid you would say that.

I think New Balance shoes are still made in the USA.[huh]
[video=youtube_share;ZiGhXGfheEo]http://youtu.be/ZiGhXGfheEo[/video]

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I think New Balance shoes are still made in the USA.[huh]

According to the New Balance website, "25% of our shoes sold in North America are made or assembled right here."

That's good, but it also means that the other 75% are made or assembled outside the U.S.

 

[jamespowers]

According to the New Balance website, "25% of our shoes sold in North America are made or assembled right here."

I wonder where the other 75% are made.

 

[Marc Chevalier]

I wonder where the other 75% are made.

The website fails to say where. :eusa_doh:

 

[sheeplady]

According to the New Balance website, "25% of our shoes sold in North America are made or assembled right here."

I've noticed a lot of places have taken to saying North America in their advertising rather than being country specific. I'd like to know which country my (potential) products are coming from, and not have to go look on the box in the store.

I know they are just trying to get people to think: Oh, it must be made in the USA! I did learn basic geography in school. Granted, it was a US public school... so maybe I shouldn't be too sure about my geography knowledge.

 

[jamespowers]

The website fails to say where. :eusa_doh:

Then I suppose we have to look at the box in the stores to be sure.[huh]

 

[Lady Day]

The argument is often made that politics exacerbated the Great Depression. The United States, thinking the worst was over in 1936, decided to balance the Federal budget in 1937, which tipped the economy back into another severe downturn. The lesson that balancing the budget during an economic slowdown is not a good idea still doesn't seem to have sunk in.

I never understood this either. Its like the country is a man starving right now and he has a sandwich now that someone is grabbing from him.

"Don't eat that! You have to hold it until next year."
"Why?"
"Because you don't know when your next meal is going to be."
"But I'm starving now. If I don't get energy, I can't look for my next meal and then it won't matter."
"Fine, I'll give you a corner of the sandwich bread."
"But that's not enough energy for me to get up."
"Hey, I gave you the sandwich. Its not my fault it didn't get you up."

LD