In the 80's at a Champion Paper Mill in Florida, there was a major labor dispute. The bosses wanted to take away premium pay for overtime work. The workers were pissed.
Big Ed Potts, a pen-name for one of the workers, wrote a newsletter for the Mill "Between the Fenceposts" - in which he posted this poem:
Listen my friends to the message I gots,
This is another message from Big Ed Potts.
Listen I say and read, and listen real keen
About the way they want to screw us,
Mr. Champeen
To them it seems okay, but to me it's unfair,
If he's up to cut our premium pay, it'll be his woist nightmare.
He might think we're just blowing smoke,
But try to cut our pay and he'll surely choke.
We're in this together, ONE AND ALL,
When negotiations come, CHAMPEEN will fall
We'll stand together, it's not just talk,
Give it your best shot...we won't balk.
Between the fence posts is what I usually write,
And premium pay is worth a fight.
We dont want much, not the silver spoon.
This is Big Ed Potts, you'll hear from me soon.
Seems the problem was resolved by forming teams consisting of both management and labor to work it all out as fairly as possible.
Find this piece of Labor Relations history here: Big Ed Potts t-shirt.
Save a couple bucks and buy it on Defunkd here.
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