[Intro: Male Lead]
Monday brought no apology.
Pink envelopes moved from chair to chair.
"One big family" vanished from the email.
The family has a budget.

[Verse 1: Employee Ensemble]
Nina brought a list of open jobs.
The night shift brought the names and phone numbers.
A payroll clerk tracked every missing check.
The interns mapped the nearest legal clinic.
No logo hung above the folding table.
People passed out coffee, rides and leads.

[Chorus: Mixed Gang Vocals]
The family has a budget.
The budget has a blade.
It cuts the longest service,
then counts the wages saved.
We keep the names and numbers.
We remember who got aid.

[Verse 2: Female Lead]
I faced the board with every unpaid cost:
unused leave, insurance, notice, wages.
One more month of medication mattered
more than every sentence in their statement.
They paid what basic decency required,
then called the package proof no one was fired.

[Chorus: Mixed Gang Vocals]
The family has a budget.
The budget has a blade.
It cuts the longest service,
then counts the wages saved.
We keep the names and numbers.
We remember who got aid.

[Instrumental Break: Acoustic Guitar into Full-Band March]

[Bridge: Female Lead]
We dropped the word "family" that week.
A ride, a reference, a hot meal:
no branded love, no leader in the shot,
just workers doing work the company would not.

[Breakdown: Female Lead]
Family says, "Trust the head."
Family leaves when budgets fall.

[Breakdown: Gang Vocals]
Solidarity brings bread.
People stay and take the call.

[Final Chorus: Mixed Gang Vocals]
The family has a budget.
The budget cuts us first.
We keep the names and numbers,
each missing check and every debt.
Their org chart has no backbone.
Our phone tree does the work.

[Outro: Male Lead]
Fresh apples waited by the meeting room.
Outside the frame, we packed a worker's car.
The family has a budget.
