Today is National Boss’ Day. (Assuming you’re reading this the day it publishes, which, I mean, why wouldn’t you be.) Which is ironic.

There are so many strikes about to start in the coming days that it may turn into a general strike purely by coincidence. First was 1,400 workers at four Kellogg’s plants over inhuman working conditions. About 10,000 John Deere workers followed on Friday. Around 60,000 movie and TV crew members are going to go on strike on Monday, and roughly 34,000 Kaiser Permanente employees authorized a walkout, joining 700 Kaiser operating engineers already on strike.

If you read this column, follow me on Twitter, or have sat near me on BART at any point, you know where I stand on this. I am OK with ruining Boss’ Day by striking. Everyone should unionize and nobody should hesitate to strike if their demands aren’t met. And nobody—especially you—should ever cross a picket line unless you have absolutely no other choice.

So let’s listen to some songs about hating your job. If you agree with any of these, unionize.

Ramones — “The Job That Ate My Brain”

Yes, this song is from 1992, which, let’s face it, wasn’t the Ramones’ prime. They hadn’t had a real job in 20 years by that point, having risen to fame as a world-renowned band. But that said, this is a really distressingly good summary of the average day working a job you hate.

This isn’t my favorite song of the five, but I’m putting it first because I have little to no faith in your attention span and I want to put this message where you’ll see it: If you relate to this song, unionize then strike for better conditions. That’s the whole point. The company needs its employees more than you need the job; there are other employers, but without workers, the company will fold. So wield that power.

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Dropkick Murphys — “Worker’s Song”

This is a cover. It was originally written by Ed Pickford, who was inspired by Woodie Guthrie to write a bunch of pro-labor songs, and was first performed by Scottish singer-songwriter Dick Gaughan. I probably should have put Gaughan’s version on here.

But hear me out: The Dropkick Murphys are awesome. I respect Woodie and Pete Seeger as much as anyone, but sometimes your protest songs should be shouted. It just makes sense, you know? There’s a time to be inspired and a time to yell over Irish punk, and these days the latter is more common.

The Police — “Dead End Job”

Yes, this song is good and it fits the theme and all that, even if Sting is a weirdo. But I’m including it as an excuse to make one caveat: Police unions are bad.

No, I’m not a hypocrite, hear me out.

Workers need unions to protect themselves against employers who only seek to maximize profits at the expense of their employees. This applies to both private sector employees and public sector since, I mean, you’ve seen the government, it’s not exactly looking out for everyone.

That reason falls apart, however, if the people in the union are the ones with power. If there was a union for, say, the House of Representatives, it would inherently exist to protect them from the voters, since the voters employ them. In the same sense, a police union—while protecting their rights as workers—also protects them from accountability by us, the people they’re supposed to protect and serve.

If a union protects a group from the people, it defeats the purpose. That’s no good. It only leads to… well, 21st century American policing.

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Beck — “Soul Suckin’ Jerk”

It’s rare that a song from Beck’s Mellow Gold/Odelay era makes sense, but if any of them do, it’s probably this one.

As far as I can tell, the protagonist of the song’s response to working for the titular soul suckin’ jerk at a fast food chicken restaurant is to rip off his uniform, burn it in the fryer, and run through the mall in his underwear.

Then—and I am not making this up—the protagonist nearly freezes and shares a fur coat with a prostitute, steals a gun from a cop, and… then it turns into mid-’90s Beck and none of the rest of it makes any sense. But the lucid part is definitely about quitting a miserable job for a miserable boss.

Bob Dylan — “Maggie’s Farm”

I guess I should throw in one folk song, right? Because most songs about workers and unions are from the early 20th century and they’re mostly folk. There’s tradition and all that. So I picked this over the Rage Against the Machine version.

Be like the more than 100,000 people across the country fighting for better wages and conditions. Unionize and strike. The system is broken, people are working more and harder for less than even 20 years ago. The only way it will stop is if people collectively put their feet down to stop it. Especially if you work in retail or tech, join the fight.

Or you can keep working on the proverbial Maggie’s farm. Up to you.

Follow editor Daniel J. Willis and tweet column ideas to him at Twitter.com/BayAreaData.