Books and films

The Zero Hour / La hora cero

In Caracas in 1996, a medical strike takes place. Parca (Zapata 666), a self-described Grim reaper[1] and regular sicario,[2] brings a pregnant injured woman (Amanda Key) to his gang; the locals are unsympathetic to the doctors' reasons for strike and kidnap a doctor (Erich Wildpret) from the picket line, but the child is born in the back of a car.

El renacer de la huelga obrera en Chile: El movimiento sindical en la primera década del siglo XXI / The Rebirth of the Workers' Strike in Chile: The Trade Union Movement in the First Decade of the Twenty-First Century

This valuable, illuminating, and indispensable publication from the end of the 2000s is a major sociological and historiographical study for understanding the transformations of Chile’s world of work at the turn of the century. Published by ICAL with production by LOM, the volume analyzes the resurgence of work stoppages and workers’ new repertoires of…

End of Representation: Emmely and the Retail Strike / Ende der Vertretung: Emmely und der Streik im Einzelhandel

The film was made during the longest collective bargaining dispute in German retail up to that point. When employers announced cuts to evening and night-work bonuses despite rising profits, many already precariously employed workers went on strike.

Hands off! / Hände weg von der Officina!

an impressive documentary about the successful fight against the closure of the workshops. On March 7, 2008, the SBB management announced the closure of the Bellinzona workshops.

They were 100.000 People /100 Bin Kişiydiler Belgeseli

1990-91 Big Mining Strike and the march of Ankara 100 thousand people, the documentary, the Turkish working class history sheds light on a period of the history of the work.

International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest: 1500 to the Present

A definitive eight-volume reference work covering five centuries of protest and revolution in the modern era of mass movements. The encyclopedia examines major uprisings and protest movements across the world, the ideas and activists behind them, and the ways in which these struggles developed.

Revolt on Goose Island: The Chicago Factory Takeover, and What It Says About the Economic Crisis

Kari Lydersen tells the story of the workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago who, in December 2008, occupied their factory after the company abruptly shut it down, leaving them without jobs, health care and legally mandated severance pay. The workers, members of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 1110, won…

Capitalism: A Love Story

Danny Greene: The Rise and Fall of the Irishman

Centring on the 24 days of the first-ever strike at Lakeside, this film is a nuanced portrait of people working together and adapting to change. They are people like Peter Jany Khwai, who escaped war in Sudan, wears an African shirt and a cowboy hat, and affirms his Canadian identity as well as his determination to fight for his rights.

New in Town

A witty tearjerker comedy. Businesswoman Lucy Hill from sunny Florida travels to the small town of New Ulm in snow-covered Minnesota to carry out mass layoffs at a food processing plant.

The Last Truck: The Closing of a GM Plant

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Truck:_Closing_of_a_GM_Plant

Why David Sometimes Wins : Leadership, Organization, and Strategy in the California Farm Worker Movement

Why David Sometimes Wins tells the story of Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers' groundbreaking victory, drawing important lessons from this dramatic tale. Since the 1900s, large-scale agricultural enterprises relied on migrant labor--a cheap, unorganized, and powerless workforce.

24 City / Er shi si cheng ji

Bastard Boy

The story of a major conflict between the workers, united in the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), entrepreneurs, and the government. The film presents four "truths" in this "war," from four different perspectives: union leader Greg Combet, lawyer Josh Bornstein, docker Sean McSwain, and the managing director of the company "Patrick Stevedores" Chris…

24 Days in Brooks

In a decade, tiny Brooks, Alberta has been transformed from a socially conservative, primarily Caucasian town to one of the most diverse places in Canada. Hijabs have become commonplace, downtown bars feature calypso and residents speak 90 different languages.

Miss F / Signorina Effe

Emma Martano, born into a working-class family of southern origins transplanted to Turin , is employed at FIAT in the IT sector.

El astillero (Disculpen las molestias) / The Shipyard (Sorry for the Inconvenience)

This is the story of the workers at a small shipyard in northern Spain who, for years, have been forced to take to the streets to defend their jobs. It is another chapter—perhaps one of the last—in the fight against the industrial dismantling of a region, Asturias, which has been in constant restructuring.

Made in L.A.

The 70-minute film tells the story of a three-year struggle of three Latina workers who challenged their employer—a trendy clothing retailer in Los Angeles, Forever 21.

Mother Jones: America’s Most Dangerous Woman

https://laborfilms.com/2012/04/20/mother-jones-americas-most-dangerous-woman-2007/

The Return of Osvaldo Bayer / La vuelta de Osvaldo Bayer

The film is dedicated to the veteran of the civil movement, O. Bayer, and his 40-year-long efforts to restore the truth about the events related to the Patagonian Tragedy of 1921-1922.

Von der Klassensolidarität zur humanitären Hilfe: Die Flüchtlingspolitik der politischen Linken 1930–1950

The 1930s and 1940s were a momentous period for the Swiss labor movement. At the beginning of this era, the two wings of the labor movement—the Communists on the one hand and the Social Democrats and the trade unions close to them on the other—stood in sharp opposition to bourgeois Switzerland and its political system.

The Gama Strike - A Victory For All Workers

In 2005 Turkish workers at the Gama company in Ireland went on strike over the non-payment of wages. With the active assistance of the Socialist Party, they won.

Strike - the Hero of Gdańsk / Strajk – Die Heldin von Danzig

The film portrays the labor movement in Poland over a roughly twenty-year period, from the unrest of the 1960s to the open uprising of the 1980s, led by Lech Wałęsa. The character of Agnieszka Kowalska is based on a real historical figure, Anna Walentynowicz, who, alongside Wałęsa, was one of the founders of the free trade union movement.

Maquilapolis

The exploitation & struggles of Mexican maquila workers in Tijuana.

Rising from the Rails: The Story of the Pullman Porter

Walkout

Walkout is a 2006 HBO film based on a true story of the 1968 East L.A. walkouts.

코끼리 / The Elephant

The book Elephant explores the hidden realities of labor, migration, and inequality in contemporary Korean society through deeply human stories. Its title story follows a mixed-heritage boy born to undocumented migrant workers, exposing how globalization produces invisible people who exist outside legal and social protection.

The Last Cry of Madness / Des Wahnsinns letzter Schrei

In 2005, German companies were making record profits while unemployment was rising and unemployed people were increasingly pressured. The film examines how these realities coexist, including forced one-euro work and life below the poverty line under the Hartz IV reform.

Trade Unionism and Politics / Sendikacılık ve Siyaset

The Heart of the Earth / El corazón de la tierra

Spain, at the end of the 19th century. A powerful English company obtains a concession to exploit the Riotinto mines in Huelva for 30 years.