Documentaries aren’t particularly my strong suit. It has nothing to do with the quality of the films, but rather my inexperience with watching them, unless you consider special reports on CNN or CBC Newsworld “documentaries”. A few weeks ago, I rented Gimme Shelter, about the notorious Alamont Speedway concert thrown by the Rolling Stones, and I liked the film, although the format took a little getting used to. And recently I purchased a used copy of American Dream (for three bucks!) and got around to watching it last week. I’m still not used to the format, but this film still had some very interesting things in it.

The film details the strike of workers from the Hormel Meat Packing plant in Minnesota. The plant is responsible for packaging such things as Spam, as well as the usual stand-bys such as sausage and hot dogs, and as the film begins we see the graphic detail of exactly what many of these people do, which is basically slicing up pigs and other creatures. Such imagery may make you reconsider your attachment to meat, but, for me, after being numbed and chilled by such sights, they slowly fade away from memory, and it’s back to the greasy hamburgers for me.......

But in any case, the film is able to show us the sorts of activities that go on when striking union workers take on the big, bad corporation. The event that ignites the match, so to speak, is a painfully typical one -- the corporation shows a profit, a decent profit at that, so it responds by cutting costs.... and the wages of the employees. The wage falls about 2 bucks, from about 10 dollars to around 8. There’s a funny scene in which two workers go to to house of one of the executives, and the exec’s wife says that there would be a whole lot of people who would love to take over your job for 8 bucks an hour. That’s right, but this is pretty rich from a person living the sort of lifestyle that the employees could only dream about even at ten bucks an hour.

So of course this sounds like a classic situation of the big bad company and the noble union and its workers. But it’s not quite like that, as the film actually rarely focuses on the company, and far more on the turmoil within the union........

What happens is that the local union hires Roy Rogers, a union “campaigner”, who essentially starts a media blitz to discredit the company and make the issue known across the country. Of course the company disapproves of such tactics, but so does the representative of the National Meat-Packing Union, who considers (rightfully, I think) this guy to be more of a blowhard than someone who really cares about the workers. Rogers is the sort of guy who seems more able to push his agenda, and promote himself, rather than act reasonably with the company and the rules of the national union.

Yet at the same time, the workers need somebody to help them out, and they would like support from all sides. We see workers getting angry at the National Union for not support Rogers’ tactics -- understandable because they want to feel that everybody is on side in getting the workers back their wages. Why should a company actually get away with cutting wages? It’s one thing not to get a raise, but to lose a quarter of your wage?

The one thing I find funny about this film, though, is that while the film obviously was made from a left-wing, pro-worker perspective, the actual events that occur sort of undercut the whole notion that there is something intrinsically noble and perfect about the labor movement. It is clear that the culture of unions can make some people really stupid! This is really apparent when the strike is underway, and the company threatens to replace the workers with “scabs”.

It is standard that union strikers have issues with the company for essentially replacing these legally-striking workers with others, and it is also standard for those strikers to make things hard not just for the company, but for the poor suckers who actually take up the company’s offer for a job. It is a genuinely stupid sight to see these strikers verbally abuse innocent people who cross the picket line just so they can actually work .... don’ t they have the right to find a job? Isn’t it more productive to focus your anger on the corporation that would allow this situation to happen? But it is an even more stupider sight when, after months of striking, some of these workers have had enough and actually want to go back to work just so they can live somewhat properly again. This is a totally understandable notion, yet the other workers don’t behave sympathetically, but turn on these people -- apparently they’re traitors for actually thinking of themselves and their families rather than ideology.

There’s an incredible moment when one striker says, in a TV interview, that if his brother crosses the picket line and goes back to work, then he’s no longer his brother! This guy thinks that he is fulfilling noble principles. I thought, and I quote, “What a sh*thead!” Sure, it might undermine the efforts of a strike if some people go back to work before anything is resolved. But some people can’t help it -- if they are desperate enoguht, they will go back to their jobs, to at least make some money to make ends meet. The others ought to understand that. But no! The two sides just argue with each other.

Like I said, I’m not completly used to documentries. But certainly American Dream is a good examination of a labour dispute, abling to show us all sides of the story, showing us both the good and the bad points of the company and of the different union factions. Definitely, this film will teach you a lot.



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day