"The companies in this industry are embarked on a program to tear the wages up, to tear the fringe benefits up, to return us to the days of the jungle, 60 years ago."
I date the slow gutting of the middle class in America to the Reagan years, and indeed that's when this documentary opens, with an allusion to Reagan firing all the striking air traffic controllers amidst his since disproven "trickle-down" economic policies. It picks up at the end of 1984, when the workers at Hormel in Austin, Minnesota have their wages cut, despite the company being successful and profitable. Under firebrand leadership they go out on strike, but the company holds the upper hand and crushes them over the following year, primarily by shifting to other sites and hiring scabs, some of whom are strikers growing desperate to provide for their families. The dilemma between not wanting to cross a picket line and needing to eat is brutal to see play out.
As with Harlan County, U. S. A. (1977), Barbara Kopple gets behind the scenes and into meetings, telling the story with just the right amount of helpful narration, otherwise letting the footage of speeches and actions speak for itself. One of the interesting aspects of this strike was the power struggle between the local union and its parent international union. Despite cautions from the international organization, the local group played hardball, hiring a labor consultant organization and refusing to budge on the primary issues (the most notable of which was an hourly pay cut). This fracturing, as well as that evident in scabs crossing the picket line, shows one of the fundamental problems labor faces - remaining unified. As someone correctly points out towards the end, to be successful, these kinds of things have to involve consumers and the general public too.
Meanwhile, the other side is more powerful to start with and more focused, almost always on squeezing every last damn dollar out of every possible situation, workers or the environment be damned. It's telling that of all the options an executive lists out that the company might do in reaction to the strike, none of them involve searching for ways to help the workers, they all involve destroying them (shutting down the plant, running it with management employees, and hiring scabs either temporarily or permanently). Unlike Harlan County, management had such a strong position that it didn't have to resort to violence or other underhanded techniques, it just pitted workers against one another.
Everything about how this plays out is still relevant today, but with unions eviscerated and the government passing laws too friendly to businesses and the wealthy over the ensuing decades, workers are now in a far more precarious state. In the days of a "gig" workforce, stagnant minimum wage, jobs shipped off to countries where workers are paid next to nothing, and corporations avoiding paying taxes through myriad loopholes and shelters, I'm not saying anything you don't already know. Watching this documentary felt like looking at a flash point from the past, one indicative of a larger, very unsettling transformation that was taking place in the country. It reminded me of the Bob Dylan song from this period, "Union Sundown" in 1983.
It's a compelling documentary, but speaking of the evisceration of unions, beware, there are some grisly, horrifying scenes of pigs being butchered on the assembly line that you may want to avert your gaze for early on.
Here's a final quote: "Had we pulled together two years ago, I don't think you or us would be faced with this, but I think this thing that's going on in America, and I think we as men and women have to realize, we better start pulling together or by God, they're (big corporations) going to bury us."
Indeed.
I date the slow gutting of the middle class in America to the Reagan years, and indeed that's when this documentary opens, with an allusion to Reagan firing all the striking air traffic controllers amidst his since disproven "trickle-down" economic policies. It picks up at the end of 1984, when the workers at Hormel in Austin, Minnesota have their wages cut, despite the company being successful and profitable. Under firebrand leadership they go out on strike, but the company holds the upper hand and crushes them over the following year, primarily by shifting to other sites and hiring scabs, some of whom are strikers growing desperate to provide for their families. The dilemma between not wanting to cross a picket line and needing to eat is brutal to see play out.
As with Harlan County, U. S. A. (1977), Barbara Kopple gets behind the scenes and into meetings, telling the story with just the right amount of helpful narration, otherwise letting the footage of speeches and actions speak for itself. One of the interesting aspects of this strike was the power struggle between the local union and its parent international union. Despite cautions from the international organization, the local group played hardball, hiring a labor consultant organization and refusing to budge on the primary issues (the most notable of which was an hourly pay cut). This fracturing, as well as that evident in scabs crossing the picket line, shows one of the fundamental problems labor faces - remaining unified. As someone correctly points out towards the end, to be successful, these kinds of things have to involve consumers and the general public too.
Meanwhile, the other side is more powerful to start with and more focused, almost always on squeezing every last damn dollar out of every possible situation, workers or the environment be damned. It's telling that of all the options an executive lists out that the company might do in reaction to the strike, none of them involve searching for ways to help the workers, they all involve destroying them (shutting down the plant, running it with management employees, and hiring scabs either temporarily or permanently). Unlike Harlan County, management had such a strong position that it didn't have to resort to violence or other underhanded techniques, it just pitted workers against one another.
Everything about how this plays out is still relevant today, but with unions eviscerated and the government passing laws too friendly to businesses and the wealthy over the ensuing decades, workers are now in a far more precarious state. In the days of a "gig" workforce, stagnant minimum wage, jobs shipped off to countries where workers are paid next to nothing, and corporations avoiding paying taxes through myriad loopholes and shelters, I'm not saying anything you don't already know. Watching this documentary felt like looking at a flash point from the past, one indicative of a larger, very unsettling transformation that was taking place in the country. It reminded me of the Bob Dylan song from this period, "Union Sundown" in 1983.
It's a compelling documentary, but speaking of the evisceration of unions, beware, there are some grisly, horrifying scenes of pigs being butchered on the assembly line that you may want to avert your gaze for early on.
Here's a final quote: "Had we pulled together two years ago, I don't think you or us would be faced with this, but I think this thing that's going on in America, and I think we as men and women have to realize, we better start pulling together or by God, they're (big corporations) going to bury us."
Indeed.