Billy Bragg - "There Is Power in a Union" / SUPPORT THE WGA STRIKE (note vid ends at 3:00, last minute blank)

There is power in a factory, power in the land
Power in the hand of the 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 realise
Brutality and unjust laws cannot defeat us
But who'll defend the workers who cannot organize
When the bosses send their lackeys 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 for 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

• Residuals are paid to cover the re-use of creative work, either in an ad-supported form (such as TV) or for pay (such as home video) and are not a bonus
• Right now writers receive 0.3% residual on home video sales thanks to a contract set up back in 1988
• Most writers only make about the same as a school teacher (or less)
• That amount was set as a concession to the studios who said they needed it due to home video being an uncertain new market
• Many or most films now make more money on home video than they do in the theater
• The studios don’t want to negotiate an increase in home video residuals and the WGA even pulled the request for an increase in the latest talks
• The WGA is presently asking for a 2.5% residual on electronic sales (meaning iTunes and Amazon downloads) and the same TV re-run residual rate for online streaming
• The studios only offers are no residuals for electronic media (the status quo) or the same 0.3% home video residual figure and refuse to negotiate unless the WGA accepts one of those

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Tags: billy-bragg, labor, strike, viva-la-huelga, wga, More…writers-strike
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