With Babies and Banners: The Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade

Subtitle: Story of the Women’s Emergency Brigade, The
Synopsis: Women’s participation in the key strike of the 1930s in the USA. Layoffs, poverty wages, hazardous working conditions and speed-ups were daily realities for auto workers. Women workers also suffered lower wages than men, sexual harassment on the job, and the double workload of home and factory. The CIO union set out to organize the mass industries, and on 30 December 1936 auto workers at the General Motors plant in Flint, Michigan, occupied the factories. The strikers’ victory became the turning point in the CIO’s drive for industrial unionism and established the United Auto Workers as a force to be reckoned with in the automobile industry. In February 1977 the autoworkers celebrated the 40th reunion of their victory. Women were not represented on the platform but women workers forced the platform to allow Genora Johnson Dollinger of the Women’s Emergency Brigade to speak on their behalf. The film uses rare archival footage.*
Language: English
Country: United States
Medium: Film; Video; Film. 16mm. sd. b&w/col. 45 min. Videocassette. VHS. b&w/col. 45 min.
Technical information: Black-and-white / Sound
Year of production: 1978
Availability: OUT OF DISTRIBUTION
Subjects: Sociology
Keywords: industrial disputes; industrial relations; labour movements; motor vehicles; trades unions; United States of America

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British Universities Film & Video Council