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CM . . .
. Volume VIII Number 20 . . . . June 6, 2002
This is an
apocalyptic film about the nature and future of work. With a clear agenda
that things are not getting better in this area, the film begins by looking
back at how there used to be far more jobs available to people. True,
they were more difficult, but now downsizing seems to be the norm, and
a manufacturer who once needed thousands of workers can do more with less
and remain profitable. In fact, profit seems to be ensured by a constant
reduction of the workforce.
No country is exempt from this reality.
The film begins in Cape Breton where coal mining is waning and the jobs
are disappearing daily. The impact of this situation on the mining communities
is made clear. Coal mining in Britain has been reduced from 161 mines
in 1981 employing 200,000 miners to 20 which presently employ 10,000.
Similarly in France, where in 1974, 30,000 steel plants existed, there
are now 600. The sky was red with pollution back then, but people had
work. That situation is mirrored in the United States where U.S. Steel
employed 120,000 workers in 1990 and is now producing more steel with
20,000 workers.
In addition to downsizing, the film highlights
the movement of jobs from industrialized countries to poorer nations,
hungry for employment. In El Paso, Texas, the minimum wage is $5.50
per hour compared to Juarez, Mexico, directly across the border, where
it is $3.20 per day. No surprise that Custom Trimms, a Canadian company,
closed all eight plants in Canada to move to Mexico. The Mexican workers
are prevented from union activity as any increase in wages could make
them too expensive to be attractive. The country fears a relocation
of the businesses from Mexico to some other nation hungrier for the
jobs.
For Man Must Work is a disturbing
film. There seems to be no hope for the future. Individual rights will
no longer apply, as everything becomes a commodity. Workers are not
workers, but human resources. The prediction is made that the world's
population will become like an ocean of migrant workers surrounding
islands of prosperity which will control the movement of business. Shareholder
profit and globalization will combine to ensure that the poor become
victims of an economic genocide.
This film is not recommended. While it
presents an interesting history of the nature of work, towards the end
it gets overly philosophical and offers no solutions. Most of it relies
on subtitles and demands much from its viewers. Students will get squirrelly
about mid-way through - if they last that long.
Not recommended. Frank
Loreto is a teacher-librarian at St. Thomas Aquinas Secondary School
in Brampton, ON.
To comment on this
title or this review, send mail to cm@umanitoba.ca.
Copyright © the Manitoba Library Association. Reproduction for personal
use is permitted only if this copyright notice is maintained. Any other
reproduction is prohibited without permission.
Published by
TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - June 7, 2002
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