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American Dream

American Dream

english

|

100 min

| 1990 |

"The film describes a labor dispute of workers at Hormel Foods in Austin, Minnesota, between 1985 and 1986. Hormel had reduced the hourly wage from $10.69 to $8.25 and cut benefits by 30 percent despite posting a net profit of $30 million. The local union opposed the cuts, but the national union, the Unted Food and Commercial Workers Union, did not support its strategy. The call for a wildcat strike lead to new conflicts and prompted Governor Rudy Perpich to bring in the National Guard to protect the production facilities and those workers who did not take part in the strike against striking workers' attacks.

Barbara Kopple studied the factory workers for several years and shows not only the  strike for better working conditions and higher wages, but also the conflicts within the union. Using interviews and press releases she tries to illustrate both sides' viewpoints."

(English translation of a review on de.Wikipedia.org)

team: Barbara Kopple

Tags: repression

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