Seven Strong Women

From the Album Dove with Claws

My name it’s Linda on the sewing machine
Some call me Rover, if you know what I mean
My name’s BJ, I mangle and iron
Folding sheets all day
My name is Marge with eleven grandkids
Untying knots in the laundry bin
My name is Mary, just call me Mom
On the picket-line
My name is Betty, I’m now forty-eight
I love to make quilts and love to bake cakes
My name is Linda Perry, you know
I’m the youngest on the line
My name is Ruth, telling the truth
It’s been a long hard climb

Seven strong women on the Iron Range
We want our pension not their I.R.A.
Trying to break us, but we’re not afraid
To walk the picket line

We clean the mops, we clean the shirts
The uniforms covered with dirt
The roller towels, six in a sling
Round and round all day
Fed for two hours, folded two more
Went off to lunch, then back on the floor
We got tossed like an old apple core
When all was said and done

Seven strong women on the Iron Range
We want our pension not their I.R.A.
Trying to break us, but we’re not afraid
To walk the picket-line
Divide the young with those up in age
The old need the pension; the young want to play
In the long run the company saves
By tearing the union down

Voting to strike; out in the cold
In snowmobile suits; thirty below
Before the strike we didn’t know
Each other on the line

Look at us now we’re the best of friends
Not one of us will go back in
Sisters now until the end
Long after we have won

Seven strong women on the Iron Range
We want our pension not their I.R.A.
Trying to break us, we’re not afraid
To walk the picket-line
If we don’t fight, who are we
To our kids and family
In these times just to be
I’ve got to take a stand

Words & Music by Larry Long
Copyright Larry Long 1992 ; renewed 2020 / BMI

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