Film: Divided We Fall (90 min.) 2016, The Great Sitdown (52 min.) 1976

Divided We Fall (90 min.) (2016) Directed by: Katherine Acosta
In one of the largest mobilizations of labor during the last decade, hundreds of thousands of workers from throughout the country joined together to oppose the union-busting attack by Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. This film by Katherine Acosta looks at the important mobilization, including the Wisconsin University Graduate Student Assistants and workers throughout the state who mobilized to stop the attacks on labor and democratic rights.
Wisconsin was one of the strongest unionized states in the country and the result of the failure of labor to stop his attack has left unions like AFSCME and AFT decimated with a loss of over 50% of the membership. Katherine Acosta provides lessons from how labor and the community fought back.

https://vimeo.com/194732001

The Great Sitdown (52 min.) (1976) BBC Documentary

Scott Houldieson, Vice President UAW 551 Ford Assembly Plant Chicago,  Illinois, will introduce the film “The Great Sitdown”  and discuss the relevance today.
This year we also commemorate the 80th anniversary of the autoworker sit-down of GM Fisher Number 1 in 1937. This sit-down and occupation was a critical turning point in the fight to unionize General Motors, which was the largest industrial corporation in the United States. Auto worker organizers and a Women’s Brigade planned the sit-down at critical plants that if occupied would shutdown the entire company. Women in this struggle also played a critical role by preventing the police from entering the plants and thereby allowing time for mobilization of strike supporters.
This historic struggle shows that despite the massive power of the largest corporations in the world, workers can win their fight for unionization.