American Dream

The human cost of a major American corporation's reorganization in the town of Austin, Minnesota, is chronicled in this ambitious, socially concerned documentary from filmmaker Barbara Kopple, her long-awaited follow-up to HARLAN COUNTY, U.S.A.

In 1984, the Hormel Company's management announced a cut in the hourly wage, from an average of $10.69 to $8.25, with similar reductions in benefits and an end to incentive payments that equalled a 50 percent cut for some categories of worker. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren of European immigrants, the predominantly white laborers were predictably angry, as can be seen in their testimony at union hearings. One f...