I’m not the kind of guy you fire. Ray Donovan s1e5: The Golem starring Liev Schreiber & Paul Malcomson & Jon Voight & Eddie Marson & Dash Mihok & Steven Bauer et al, Ray to boss, Showtime 2013
Dr Melfi: What line of work are you in?
Tony: Waste-management consultant. The Sopranos s1e1 starring James Gandolfini & Lorriane Bracco & Edie Falco & Michael Imperioli & Dominic Chianese & Steven van Zandt & Tony Sirico & Robert Iler et al, HBO 1999
Tony: I’m not getting any satisfaction from my work either.
Dr Melfi: Why?
Tony: Because of RICO.
Dr Melfi: Is he your brother? ibid.
I don’t want to come to work anyway. I hate this frigging place. I detest it like a sickness. Do the Right Thing 1989 starring Spike Lee & Ossie Davis & Danny Aiello & Ruby Dee & Steve Park & Bill Nunn & Richard Edson & Giancarlo Esposito & John Turturro & Samuel L Jackson & Rosie Perezet al, director Spike Lee, Pino
There’s nothing like a family in business working together. ibid. Sal
Because we are the people you don’t see: we are the ones who drive your cabs, clean your rooms and suck your cocks. Dirty Pretty Things 2002 starring Chiwetel Ejiofor & Audrey Tautou & Sergi Lopez & Sophie Okonedo & Benedict Wong & Damon Younger & Paul Bhattacharjee & Darrell D'Silva et al, director Stephen Frears
You work your side of the street and I’ll work mine. Bullitt 1968 starring Steve McQueen & Robert Vaughn & Jacqueline Bisset & Don Gordon & Simon Oakland & Norman Fell & Robert Duvall & Georg Stanford Brown et al, director Peter Yates, Bullitt to politician
May 10th. Thank God for the rain which has helped wash away the garbage and trash off the sidewalks. I’m workin’ long hours now, six in the afternoon to six in the morning. Sometimes even eight in the morning, six days a week. Sometimes seven days a week. It’s a long hustle but it keeps me real busy. I can take in three, three fifty a week. Sometimes even more when I do it off the meter. All the animals come out at night – whores, skunk pussies, buggers, queens, fairies, dopers, junkies, sick, venal. Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets. I go all over. I take people to the Bronx, Brooklyn, I take ’em to Harlem. I don’t care. Don’t make no difference to me. It does to some. Some won’t even take spooks. Don’t make no difference to me. Taxi Driver 1976 starring Robert De Niro & Jodie Foster & Harvey Keitel & Cybill Shepherd & Albert Brooks & Leonard Harris & Peter Boyle & Harry Northup & Martin Scorsese & Victor Argo et al, director Martin Scorsese
Each night when I return the cab to the garage, I have to clean the cum off the back seat. Some nights, I clean off the blood. ibid.
Twelve hours of work and I still can’t sleep. Damn. Days go on and on. They don’t end. ibid.
Guess who the fuck we’re working for? Al’s Lads (UK) aka Capone’s Boys (US) 2002 starring Marc Warren & Kirsty Mitchell & Peter Pedrero & Ralf Little & Al Sapienza & Julian Littman & Scott Maslen & Stephen Lord & Richard Roundtree & Ricky Tomlinson, director Richard Standeven, Jimmy
I can’t work in an office. I don’t like wearing suits. I like to ride. Fixed gear, steel frame, no breaks, the bike cannot coast. The pedals never stop turning. Premium Rush 2012 starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt & Michael Shannnon & Dania Ramirez & Jamie Chung & Wole Parks & Henry O & Brian Koppelman et al, director David Koepp, opening scene courier on bike
I wouldn’t like that kind of work. City Streets 1931 starring Gary Cooper & Sylvia Sidney & Paul Lukas & William Boyd & Wynne Gibson & Guy Kibbee & Stanley Fields & Robert Homans et al, director Rouben Mamoulian, him to her
I hate this office. Most of all I hate this desk. The Destructors aka The Marseilles Contract 1974 starring Michael Caine & Anthony Quinn & James Mason & Maurice Ronet & Alexandra Stewart & Maureen Kerwin & Catherin Rouvel & Marcel Bozzuffi et al, director Robert Parrish, Quinn to secretary
If you work for a living, why do you kill yourself working? The Good, The Bad & The Ugly [Il Buono, il Brutto, il Cattivo] 1966 starring Clint Eastwood & Lee van Cleef & Eli Wallach & Aldo Giuffre & Al Mulock & Antonio Casas & John Bartha & Claudio Scarchillio & Sandro Scarchilli & Antonio Molion Rojo, director Sergio Leone, Tuco
I’m working on something that will change the world. The Fly 1986 starring Jeff Goldblum & Geena Davis & John Getz & Joy Boushel & Leslie Carlson & George Chuvalo & David Crronenberg et al, director David Cronenberg, him to her opening line
I like to put in a little time every now and then ... Even if it is the night shift. Star Trek: The Next Generation: Thine Own Self s7e16, Dr Crusher
Sweetheart, when you believe in a thing as much as I’ve believed this, there really isn’t any other work until you have seen it through. The Dam Busters 1954 starring Richard Todd & Michael Redgrave & Ursula Jeans & Basil Sydney & Derek Farr & Patrick Farr & Ernest Clark & Charles Carson & Stanley van Beers & Colin Tayley et al, director Michael Anderson, Barnes to wife
That state is a state of slavery in which a man does what he likes to do in his spare time and in his working time that which is required of him. Eric Gill, Art-Nonsense and other Essays, 1929
Throwing a bomb is bad,
Dropping a bomb is good;
Terror, no need to add,
Depends on who’s wearing the hood.
Kangaroo courts are wrong,
Specialist courts are right;
Discipline by the strong
Is fair if your collar is white.
Company output ‘soars’
Wages, of course, ‘explode’;
Profits deserve applause,
Pay-claims, the criminal code.
Daily the Church declares
Betting shops are a curse;
Gambling with stocks and shares
Enlarges the national purse.
Workers the absentees,
Businessmen relax,
Different as chalk and cheese;
Social morality
Has a duality –
One for each side of the tracks. Roger Woodis, Ethics for Everyone
The Tolpuddle Martyrs – still a landmark in British labour history. Michael Wood, The Great British Story: A People’s History 7/8: Industry & Empire, BBC 2012
Those who worked were beginning to taste a new freedom ... Social change was unstoppable. Robert Bartlett, Inside the Medieval Mind IV: Power, BBC 2008
A labourer in Elizabeth’s reign can expect to earn 4d per day – not enough for food for his family and himself, let alone clothes and other requirements. Ian Mortimer, The Time Traveller’s Guide to Elizabethan England II: The Rich, BBC 2013
A man who has no work becomes ridiculous. The Young Victoria 2009 starring Emily Blunt & Rupert Friend & Miranda Richardson & Jim Broadbent & Paul Bettany & Mark Strong & Harriet Walter & Thomas Kretschmann & Jesper Christensen et al, director Jean-Marc Vallee, lady to Victoria
The worker is the slave of the capitalist society, the female worker is the slave of that slave. James Connolly, 1868-1916, The Re-conquest of Ireland, 1915
The real value of the money that flows in our economy today is created by our promises of future productive work. Paul Grignon, Money as Debt III: Evolution Beyond Money, 2006
There are over three hundred people who die – who are killed – at work each year. 300 people killed at work each year and we haven’t got a proper law to deal with that. And this is a class issue. Because if it was three hundred chief executives or three hundred directors dying in industrial accidents each year ... you can guarantee the law would change like that. Mark Thomas Comedy Product s6e3, Industrial Killing, Channel 4 2002
1.2 million temporary workers ... The average federal worker now earns twice as much as the private worker. Celente & Schiff & Paul & Faber & Rogers & Woods, MeltUp: The Beginning of a US Currency Crisis
Let the workers organize. Let the toilers assemble. Let their crystallized voice proclaim their injustices and demand their privileges. Let all thoughtful citizens sustain them, for the future of Labour is the future of America. John L Lewis