Camera on Labour No. 4

Dans l'industrie du vêtement : le syndicat International Ladies Garment Union a établi à Montréal, centre de l'industrie du vêtement pour dames, un service de santé pour assurer aux ouvrières un diagnostic rapide et un traitement gratuit en cas de maladie. Quelques nouvelles : les employés de l'usine Stelco de Hamilton--où l'on produit près de la moitié de l'acier fabriqué au Canada--ont leur propre journal; nouvelles syndicales, potins, comptes rendus des joutes des équipes sportives de l'usine remplissent les colonnes...

Because the filmmakers were given unparalleled freedom to record the historic 1984 contract negotiations between the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corporation, Final Offer provides a vividly accurate portrait of a high-level labour negotiation. This film is an invaluable document for anyone interested in the complexities of United States-Canada relations. Because of tensions that developed between the American and Canadian sectors of the UAW during the contract talks, the film concludes with Bob White, the charismatic head of the Canadians, leading his membership out of the international union. Final Offer is an extraordinary film about revolutionary events.

On April 6, 1980, the Canadian Farmworkers Union came into existence. This film documents the conditions among Chinese and East Indian immigrant workers in British Columbia that provoked the formation of the union, and the response of growers and labour contractors to the threat of unionization. Made over a period of two years, the film is eloquent testimony to the progress of the workers' movement from the first stirrings of militancy to the energetic canvassing of union members.