As Goes Janesville(2012)

Northern Minnesota's Labor Wars(en)

Filmmaker Gary Kaunonen of KCC-TV in International Falls just released a new documentary about a pivotal time in Northern Minnesota’s labor history. It’s called “Northern Minnesota’s Labor Wars.” The years 1916 and 1917 brought major labor uprisings in the mines of the Mesabi Iron Range and the lumber camps of the state’s far northern pine forests. These events not only shaped local history, but became vital turning points in the national and international labor movement.

These were the reasons(en)

This film takes us into the harsh realm of BC's early coal mines, canneries, and lumber camps; where primitve conditions and speed-ups often cost lives. Then, the film moves through the unemployed' struggles of the '30s, post WWII equity campaigns, and into more recent public sector strikes over union rights.

Miners Shot Down(en)

In August 2012, mineworkers in one of South Africa’s biggest platinum mines began a wildcat strike for better wages. Six days later the police used live ammunition to brutally suppress the strike, killing 34 and injuring many more. Using the point of view of the Marikana miners, Miners Shot Down follows the strike from day one, showing the courageous but isolated fight waged by a group of low-paid workers against the combined forces of the mining company Lonmin, the ANC government and their allies in the National Union of Mineworkers.

The Red Elvis(de)

A documentary on the late American entertainer Dean Reed, who became a huge star in East Germany after settling there in 1973.

The Miners' Strike and Me(en)

Documentary marking the 30th anniversary of the 1984 miners' strike, one of the bitterest industrial disputes in British history, with stories from both sides of the conflict.

The Flickering Flame(en)

Documentary following dockers of Liverpool sacked in a labour dispute and their supporters’ group, Women of the Waterfront, as they receive support from around the world and seek solidarity at the TUC conference.

Harlan County U.S.A.(en)

This film documents the coal miners' strike against the Brookside Mine of the Eastover Mining Company in Harlan County, Kentucky in June, 1973. Eastover's refusal to sign a contract (when the miners joined with the United Mine Workers of America) led to the strike, which lasted more than a year and included violent battles between gun-toting company thugs/scabs and the picketing miners and their supportive women-folk. Director Barbara Kopple puts the strike into perspective by giving us some background on the historical plight of the miners and some history of the UMWA. Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in partnership with New York Women in Film & Television in 2004.

Justice in the Coalfields(en)

This film demonstrates how labor law has crippled the collective bargaining power of unions and weighed the scales of justice against working people. The documentary follows the 1988 United Mine Workers strike against the Pittston Coal Company that followed the expiration of their contract and Pittston's termination of the medical benefits of 1,500 pensioners, widows, and disabled miners.

Look Back at Grunwick(en)

A RECORD OF THE STRIKE AT GRUNWICK IN 1977. The story of the continuing struggle at Grunwick’s by mainly Indian workers, from July 11th, 1977 until the struggle was lost. It shows the Special Patrol Group attack on the November 7th day of action, how the leadership of the struggle was taken out of the hands of the strike committee, how some of the strike leaders were disciplined by their own union for going on hunger strike outside the TUC in protest at the TUC’s inactivity, and how the post office workers were forced by their union to end their blacking of Grunwick mail. It also shows the beginnings of the similar struggle by immigrant workers at Garner’s Steak Houses in London.

Strike! The Women Who Fought Back(en)

In their own words, this is the story of six women from the South Wales valleys and how they helped sustain the bitter year-long miners' strike, changing their lives forever.

A Vision in the Darkness(fr)

Through the eyes of a Quebec Jewish activist, Lea Roback, feminist, unionist, pacifist and communist, A VISION IN THE DARKNESS proposes a modernist vision of Quebec history, from the beginning of the twentieth century to the period knows as « La Grande Noirceur », the Great Darkness.

The Research Director(en)

A description of the work of a research director of a United Steel Workers Union in Canada. The painstaking research and analyses of economic information, and the arrangement of arguments that lie beneath the negotiations of labour unions for better wages and working conditions are shown.

Haiti's Tourniquet(en)

The Confederation of Haitian Workers (CTH) invited an Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) delegation to Haiti to learn about their fight against "le plan neoliberal" and recruit help in the form of material aid and solidarity. The delegation was in Haiti from April 24 to May 25, 2008, two weeks after the country erupted in mass protest at burgeoning food prices. This video shares the stories and experiences.

A Struggle to Remember(en)

The video documentary "A Struggle to Remember: Fighting for Our Families" puts faces and narratives to the story of the struggle for family leave in Canada. The 20-minute film shows how it became accepted that women be able to return to their jobs after maternity leave and how men and women gained real and enforceable work-life balance provisions.

American Dream(en)

When workers at the Hormel meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota are asked to take a substantial pay cut in a highly profitable year, the local labor union decides to go on strike and fight for a wage they believe is fair. But as the work stoppage drags on and the strikers face losing everything, friends become enemies, families are divided and the very future of this typical mid American town is threatened.

Cocalero(es)

A documentary centered on the union formed by Bolivian farmers in response to their government's (which was urged by the U.S.) effort eradicate coca crops, and the man who would come to represent them, Evo Morales.

The Deregistration of the Builders Labourers Federation(en)

Chronicles the industrial action leading up to the deregistration of the Builders Labourers Federation.

The Grievance Hearing(en)

Presents a case history of a grievance case from the initial causes to the final settlement. Shows how grievance hearings enable labor unions and management to arrive at compromises in settling disputes.

Mémoires d'un condamné(fr)

Plutocracy III: Class War(en)

The early struggles of the working class are placed under a microscope in Plutocracy III: Class War, the latest chapter in an exceptionally well produced series which explores the origins of America's growing economic divide.