Hearts starve as well as bodies; give us bread, but give us roses!
– from the 1911 poem by James Oppenheim
On January 1, 1912, textile workers at a Lawrence, Massachusetts factory told a bold and couageous action. Fed up with tyranical behavior and oppressive treatment by management, the workers, including women from twenty-five different countries, walked out into the winter cold and began a nine-week strike.
So often, short-sighted employers think that all staff ever cares about is money. But these workers proved them wrong. Yes, we want better wages, they said, but we want roses as well. We want to be treated with dignity and respect…
After an extended battle, management finally gave in to most of the worker’s demands. But one wonders if they ever understood that the strike was about so much more than money. Subsequent generations of first line staff have sought to 
teach overbearing managers the same lesson. True work is about more than daily bread, it’s about kind and respectful treatment. It’s about offering the roses of compassion and affirmation to the staff that labors each day to do their work.
Study after study demonstrates that the biggest single determinant of employee satisfaction is how they feel about their supervisor. Bread alone will not sustain the hearts of America’s caregivers. Wise and enlightened leadership will ensure that organizations are lead with respect for the fundamental 
dignity and worth of each person.
More than sixty years after the women of Lawrence adopted Oppenheim’s poem as their anthem,
an organization called Bread and Roses (www.breadandroses.org) was founded by Mimi Farina (see photo) in 1974 to bring music and art to those institutionalized for any reason. The charity’s name was inspired by the poem and it continues its work to this day. In 1976, Oppenheim’s words were set to music interpreted into a popular song recorded by Judy Collins and played countless times since.
Bread and Roses. It’s a nice combination of images. And a reminder to every leader that it’s the first line caregiver who delivers service to patients and clients of charities. Every successful organization and every healed person needs a sweet balance of bread and rose. And there is no more important job for health care leaders than to take care of the people who take care of people.
All of this is a signal, as well, to the need we have for the nurturing of our souls as well as the feeding of our bodies. We need to take care of ourselves so that we can take care of others. We need roses as well as bread in order to make life feel worth living. So give yourself some of both today.
Here is the closing stanza of Oppenheim’s poem. The emphasis on women reminds us that more than seventy percent of America’s hospital caregivers are female. And the words ring as true today
as they did when they were recited in the winter of 1912 by a band of brave women seeking fair treatment.
As we come marching, marching, we bring the greater days.
The rising of the women means the rising of the race.
No more the drudge and idler
— ten that toil where one reposes,
But a sharing of life’s glories: Bread and roses! Bread and roses!
Journal of Sacred Work 
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