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Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed.

American Dream

1990
1h 38m
Documentary
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Cast

Jesse Jackson (Self)Ray Rogers (Self)Juan Munoz

Directors

Cathy Caplan, Thomas Haneke, Barbara Kopple, Lawrence Silk

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Synopsis

Chronicles the six-month strike at Hormel in Austin, Minnesota, in 1985-86. The local union, P-9 of the Food and Commercial Workers, overwhelmingly rejects a contract offer with a $2/hour wage cut. They strike and hire a New York consultant to manage a national media campaign against Hormel. Despite support from P-9's rank and file, FCWU's international disagrees with the strategy. In addition to union-company tension, there's union-union in-fighting. Hormel holds firm; scabs, replacement workers, brothers on opposite sides, a union coup d'état, and a new contract materialize. The film asks, was it worth it, or was the strike a long-term disaster for organized labor?

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