Overview
In 1981, 11,345 air traffic controllers stood in solidarity on the picket line, defying President Ronald Reagan’s order to return to work. He fired them en masse. The era of corporate strikebreaking and declining union power that followed paved the way for modern America’s unprecedented inequality and job insecurity. Thirty years later, The New York Times, reflecting on the relevance of these events to the lives of working Americans and contemporary politics, would write that it “transformed [Ronald Reagan’s] presidency” and “shaped the world of the modern workplace.” Yet incredibly this story has never before been told on film, until now.
The Last Strike is a feature length documentary film that uses a wealth of archival material and first person interviews, to put the viewers into the shoes, hearts and eyes of those who, blow by blow, lived through these dramatic events. Leaders and everyday workers from the controllers union, will take us from the tense moments as they took the a voice vote to strike and through the severe fall out many union members; their firing and being banned, not only from their profession, but also from future employment by the U.S. government. We will cross the picket lines with the small group of workers who chose not to strike and hear from the leaders from the AFL-CIO why they chose not to call a general strike to force the President to recant. We will meet officials from the Reagan administration and learn what motivated his actions throughout and accompany U.S. Marshals as they descended on PATCO offices to arrest 100 union leaders. We will go into hiding with some, to prison with others and hear from surviving family members heartbreaking stories of those who committed suicide and or lost everything and struggled to build new lives.
Recent events, from the Supreme Court’s ruling on Janus v. AFSCME to the victory of Labor over “right to work” in Missouri, have made this story, its characters and themes more relevant than ever. -The definitive portrait of a defining historical moment that continues to impact the lives of every working American today, The Last Strike leaves viewers with a final, haunting question—were the events of August 1981 the last great stand of the middle class, or the biggest mistake working people ever made?
Impact
We’re making The Last Strike not just to bring this moment of history to light, but to ignite dialogue around timely questions about the value of solidarity and empowering workers and to plan how we can avoid the mistakes of the past. To accomplish this, the film will be accompanied by a digital and community impact campaign that engages viewers, builds coalitions of allied organizations and leverages the film and additional content for dialogue, learning and change. Like the narrative approach of The Last Strike, which puts workers in the center of the story, the impact campaign will be led by contemporary workers and activists who will be able to use the film, additional video content, digital engagement tools, discussion guides, and short curricula at community engagement screenings across the country.
By exposing the events and context that led to the paradigm shift from workers’ power of the mid 20th century to our current landscape of unfettered corporate power, this impact campaign ensures the lessons of ‘81 are learned, that we return to organizing and advocating for the rights of all workers, and that we reinstate an understanding and connection to the value of solidarity among the American public.
Acknowledgements
The Last Strike is a Kindling Group production and is being produced with generous support from:
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Daniel Alpert
Laura Fallsgraff
Mara Sheban
Ingrid Roettgen
Adam Joel
Adam Wisneski
Ines Sommer
