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MN90: The Hormel Strike on Film

Home > MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds > MN90: The Hormel Strike on Film

Barbara Kopple won her first Oscar for a documentary about Kentucky coal workers. She won her second Oscar for a documentary about striking meat packers in Austin, Minnesota. Britt Aamodt takes a look at Kopple’s American Dream.  

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Editor: Britt Aamodt

Producer: Britt Aamodt

Editorial support: Emily Krumberger

Mixing & mastering: Chris Harwood

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Transcript

Welcome to MN90: Minnesota History in 90 Seconds.

In 1983, filmmaker Barbara Kopple was reading about plant closings and labor disputes. She wanted to know how the industrial landscape had changed since her 1977 documentary Harlan County, USA, about a Kentucky coal miner strike couples research led her to Austin, Minnesota. The following year, the Hormel meat processing plant reduced its employee wages from $10.69 to $8.25 an hour. Kopple went to Austin and filmed there for the next two years as the union protests led eventually to a prolonged strike.

DOCUMENTARY AUDIO: A person takes a lot of pride in being a breadwinner, in providing for your family, but you can't do that when you say to them, all I want to do is go to work.

After six months, the local Austin union was pushed to end the strike against Hormel. Unfortunately, many of the strikers never got their jobs back. Barbara Kopple’s documentary American Dream won the 1991 Oscar for feature documentary.

MN90 is produced by AMPERS, diverse radio for Minnesota's communities, made possible by funding from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Online at MN90.org.