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Category Archives: Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La classe operaia va in paradiso) aka Lulu the Tool (1971)

13 Jun

125m; Italy

Director: Elio Petri

Cast: Gian Maria Volonté, Mariangela Melato and Gino Pernice

Synopsis (IMDB): Lulù is a real hard worker. For this reason he is loved by the masters and hated by his own colleagues. The unions decide agitations against the masters. Lulù doesn’t agree till he cuts, by accident, one of his own fingers. Now, after he understood the worker’s conditions, he agrees the unions and participates to the strike. He immediately is fired and, not only is abandoned by his lover, but also by the other workers. But the fights of the unions allow him under a new legislation to be hired again. At this point his mind starts giving signs of collapse.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Drama, Organizing, Safety & Health, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Working for American Workers (2010)

13 Jun

55m; U.S.

Director: College of Labor and Employment Lawyers

Synopsis: Documentary highlighting labor turbulence in the 60s and 70s through the eyes of former Labor Secretaries Willard Wirtz and Bill Usery. Includes the pilots strike among other events, and shows “vividly how labor secretaries can differ in interests and style, with very different effects on labor.”

Contact: College Executive Director Susan Wan SWan@gibsondunn.com 202-955-8225

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Politics, Public Sector, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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The Writers Guild of America Strike of 2007-2008 [2008]

13 Jun

15m; U.S.

Director: Laura Fishman

Synopsis: How the WGA won a fair share from the entertainment industry.

Contact: lfishman@ucsc.edu

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Documentary, Entertainment Industry, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Even the Rain (También la Lluvia) [2010]

13 Jun

103m; Spain/Mexico/France

Director: Icíar Bollaín

Cast: Gael García Bernal, Luis Tosar and Karra Elejalde

Synopsis: A Spanish film crew comes to Cochabamba, Bolivia in 1999 to make a film about Christopher Columbus.  The intent is to do a revisionist account portraying Columbus not as a hero, but as a conqueror.  The film crew is not well financed and looking to cut costs, which includes to indigenous Bolivians being hired to star in the movie.  At the same time, a mounting wave of protests is occurring, with one of the film extras serving as a major leader, over the privatization of Cochabamba’s water supply.  The film crew becomes entangled in the protests in an ever more complex and deep ways.  A superb film about the intersections and limits of art and politics.

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Arts/Culture, Entertainment Industry, Global Economy, Labor History, Netflix Watch Instantly, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

USW Local 6500 Xmas Party ’09 (2009)

13 Jun

3:50m; U.S.

Director: Stuart Cryer

Synopsis: Steelworkers local 6500 has been on strike against Vale-INCO for five months, so as the holiday season approaches, it’s time for their kids to have a bit of a celebration.

Contact: Stuart Cryer terraV@cyberbeach.net

 
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Posted by on June 13, 2012 in Available Online, Children, Documentary, Streaming Online (Youtube, Vimeo), Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

The Trotsky (2009)

04 Jun

120m; Canada

Director: Jacob Tierney

Cast: Liane Balaban, Jay Baruchel and Taylor Baruchel

Synopsis: Leon Bronstein is a high school student in Montreal West who is absolutely convinced he is the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.  After leading a hunger strike with some of his fellow private school peers against his father, the owner of a textile factory who will not allow the workers to unionize, Leon is sent to public school.  There he finds apathy, but also potential and begins to organize a student union, while also pursuing an older woman he is convinced he must marry.  A very funny and smart film that includes a lot of genuine moments about the power of organizing, and a lot of jokes about labor and left-wing history.

Trailer

 
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Posted by on June 4, 2012 in Collective Bargaining, Comedy, Communism/Socialism, Education, Labor History, Netflix Watch Instantly, Organizing, Romance, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Sit Down and Fight: Walter Reuther and the Rise of the Auto Workers Union (1992)

07 May

55m; U.S.

Director: Charlotte Mitchell Zwerin

Synopsis: Chronicles the sit-down strikes that led to the growth of the United Auto Workers and the Reuther brothers rise to prominence.

Contact: PBS; WVLC has a VHS copy

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Labor History, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Solidarity Has No Borders – The Journey of the Neptune Jade (2005)

07 May

26m; U.S.

Director: Video Labor Project

Synopsis: In 1997, in support of striking Liverpool dock workers, San Francisco longshore workers refused to handle cargo in the Neptune Jade ship.

Contact: lvpsf@labornet.org

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Global Economy, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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Song of Strike (2001)

07 May

30m; South Korea

Director: Labor News Production

Synopsis: This series of videos tells the story of the Korean working class through music and footage of the struggle. This stirring video shows the soul of the Korean labor movement.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Documentary, Organizing, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

Sons of Steel (1934)

07 May

65m; U.S.

Director: Charles Lamont

Cast: Charles Starrett, Polly Ann Young and William Bakewell

Synopsis (IMDB): Chadburne Steel is run by two brothers, old men. They each have different plans for their sons. Curtis (Holmes Herbert) has put Ronald (William Blakewell) through college in style, and gives him a cushy executive job at the plant. John (Walter Walker) has a more twisted plan. He has given his son away at birth to a machinist and his wife. Phillip (Charles Starrett) has worked his way through college tending the furnace and doing rich kids laundry. Upon graduation, he puts Phillip in the lowest paying job possible , with the plan of promoting him to the executive branch in one year.

Both plans are terribly flawed and lead to an industrial accident and a general strike by the steelworkers.

 
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Posted by on May 7, 2012 in Drama, Strikes-Strikebreaking-Lockouts

 

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