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mean.
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “I mean I’ve been sittin’ here listenin’ to you guys bellyache for nearly two weeks now, and ain’t none of youse heard a thing that’s goin’ on.”
    “All right, Mr. Doggie Doodle, if you’re so smart why don’t you tell all of us who have been workin’ here for years what it is you’ve learned in a whole two weeks.”
    I choose to ignore the Doggie Doodle crack, as there are now several tables of worker types listenin’ to our conversation and I’m afraid I’ll lose their attention if I take the time to bust Roxie’s head.
    “Youse guys spend all your time arguin’ about who’s gettin’ honked the worst, and in the meantime you’re missin’ the point. The point is that you’re all gettin’ the Purple Shaft.”
    With that I commences to itemize a dozen or so of the more reprehensible examples of the exploitation of worker types I have noted in my investigation. By the time I am done, the whole bar is listenin’, and there is an ugly murmur goin’ around.
    “All right, Guido. You’ve made your point,” Roxie sez, tryin’ to take another swallow of his drink before he realizes that it’s empty. “So what are we supposed to do about it? We don’t set company policy.”
    I shows him the smile that makes witnesses lose their memories.
    “We don’t set company policy, but we do decide whether or not were gonna work for the wages offered in the conditions provided.”
    At this, Roxie lights up like he just won the lottery.
    “That’s right!” he sez. They control the plant, but without us workers there won’t be no Doggie Doodle to ship!”
    The crowd is gettin’ pretty worked up now, and there’s a lot of drink buyin’ and back slappin’ goin’ on when someone just has to raise a discouragin’ word.
    “So what’s to stop ‘em from just hiring a new work force if we hold out?”
    That is Sion talkin’. As you may have noticed, he don’t mouth off near as much as Roxie does, but when he opens up, the other worker types are inclined to listen. This time is no exception, and the room starts to quiet down as the worker types try to focus on this new problem.
    “C’mon, Sion,” Roxie sez, tryin’ to laugh it off. “What idiots would work for these wages under these conditions?”
    “Roxie, we’ve been doing just that for years! I don’t think they’ll have any more trouble finding a new work force than they had finding the old one.”
    I decided it was time I took a hand in the proceedin’s.
    “There are a few things you are overlookin’, Sion,” I sez. “First off, it will take time to hire and train a new work force, and durin’ that time the plant ain’t producin’ Doggie Doodle to sell, “which means the owner is losin’ money which he does not like to do.”
    Sion just shrugged at that one.
    “True enough, but he’d probably rather take the short-term loss of a shutdown than the long-term expense of giving us higher wages.”
    “Which brings up the other thing you’re overlookin’.”
    “Which is?”
    “There is one intolerable workin’ condition a new work force would have to endure that we haven’t ... to wit, us! We don’t have to get past us to come to work each mornin’, and whilst the security types are aces at guardin’ a plant, it is my best appraisal that they would not be able to provide bodyguard service for an entire new work force.”
    This seemed to satisfy the objection in question, and we then got down to workin’ out the details, for while from the outside it may seem simple to organize a labor movement, there is much to be planned before any thin’ can actually be set into motion. The other two shifts had to be brought on board and a list of demands agreed upon, not to mention the buildin’ of a contingency fund in case the other side wanted to try starvin’ us out.
    A lot of the guys wanted me to run the thing, but I felt I could not accept in clear consciousness and successfully