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peace beyond all of you

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I joined the transport and general

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Workers Union

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on Christmas Eve 1973.

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and I remain a fully paid up member

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until this day which makes me a union

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man

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I joined upon leaving school

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the miracle was I found our Union office

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open on Christmas Eve at 10 minutes to

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six but that's another matter

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because I went to work in the Michelin

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Tire Factory in Dundee in Scotland where

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I was born

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and I have remained a member of this

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Union

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for one basic reasons and that basic

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reason is this

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if the workers are not United

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if the workers are divided

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they will be weak and they will fall

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united we stand

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divided we fall

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so when I learned as the owner of a very

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beautiful open drop bus myself

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but the company

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but simply refused all efforts that

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negotiation

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and the Acres

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and that the workers had no alternative

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but to withdraw their labor to highlight

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their concerns about their conditions of

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service I had no choice

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I had to be here with you on this picket

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line

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we live in a world

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will the rich get richer and the poor

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have to struggle of a harder just to

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keep up

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over the last years five years

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of conservative liberal Democrat

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government

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the rich

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have doubled their wealth double their

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next assets

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while those who have to work for a

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living and who depend on the wages

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depend on their salaries to live

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have been cheated at every turn

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they say that it's because of the need

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for austerity

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they say there's an economic crisis

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they say that we're all in this together

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well when the millionaires are getting

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tax cuts and the workers are getting

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wage cuts when the millionaires are

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doubling their assets

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and the workers are finding an Ever more

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difficult to put food on their table

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we're definitely not all in this

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together

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did you know this

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the reality is that our country is a

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rich country

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it's a rich country

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it's just that the money is used wrongly

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we've got no money to keep our old age

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pensioners warm in the winter time

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but we've always got money to go around

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the world setting fire to other people's

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countries with war and Invasion and

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occupation we've got money from nuclear

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weapons but we don't have money to pay

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the bus drivers and the public sector

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workers whose wages have been frozen

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throughout these five years and both of

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the main parties intend to continue to

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freeze them

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so I'm here with my friends with my wife

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to stand with you on this picket line

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if we need to do it again and again and

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again we'll still be here

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to the employer first boss

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you would have no business if it were

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not for these men

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standing around me now

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you would have no prophets you'd have

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nothing to live your lives of luxury on

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the workers are the people who create

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everything everything around you was

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made by a worker every service you

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receive or your family received today is

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given by a worker Henry Ford the great

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motor magnate once told the United

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automated Workers Union in America I

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could replace all of you with robots and

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the worker said that there'd be nobody

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to buy your cars the workers and their

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wages are what makes the economy work

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and so it's time to stand up for

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fairness and Justice that's all that

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unite are doing the newspapers including

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I may say the telegraph in Argus whose

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photographer we welcome today

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will say that somehow you've

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inconvenienced the public well of course

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there's inconvenience when there's a

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strike because the people depend on you

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depend on your work

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but that inconvenience has been caused

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by the intransigence of the employer the

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refusal to negotiate properly and the

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refusal to reach an agreement even with

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the involvement of acas so any

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inconvenience is the fault of first bus

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and not the bus drivers who make the

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world

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so I wish you every success but if first

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we don't succeed we'll try try again

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because we're standing up for dignity

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for

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justice and that's why I'm here with you

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now and always

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thank you