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The Hand That Feeds

Bullfrog Films • 1h 23m

Directed by Rachel Lears, Robin Blotnick • Documentary • 2015 • 84 minutes

At a popular bakery cafe, residents of New York's Upper East Side get bagels and coffee served with a smile 24 hours a day. But behind the scenes, undocumented immigrant workers face sub-legal wages, dangerous machinery, and abusive managers who will fire them for calling in sick. Mild-mannered sandwich maker Mahoma Lopez has never been interested in politics, but in January 2012, he convinces a small group of his co-workers to fight back.

Risking deportation and the loss of their livelihood, the workers team up with a diverse crew of innovative young organizers and take the unusual step of forming their own independent union, launching themselves on a journey that will test the limits of their resolve. In one roller-coaster year, they must overcome a shocking betrayal and a two-month lockout. Lawyers will battle in back rooms, Occupy Wall Street protesters will take over the restaurant, and a picket line will divide the neighborhood. If they can win a contract, it will set a historic precedent for low-wage workers across the country. But whatever happens, Mahoma and his coworkers will never be exploited again.

"'Noteworthy." —Stephen Holden, The New York Times

Tags
abusive managers, american (u.s.) studies, american studies, americas, area studies, bullfrog films, business, business ethics, citizenship, criminal justice, cultural and ethnic studies, dangerous machinery, deportation, exploitation, expository, form independent union, hot and crusty, human rights law, immigration and refugees, labor and economics, labor organizing, labor studies, latino and hispanic studies, laundry workers center, law and legal studies, lawyers battling, lockout, loss of livelihood, mahoma lopez, minimum wage, north american studies, occupy wall street protesters, organizers, ovid, ovid_ca, pax, picket line divides neighborhood, poverty, precedent for low-wage workers, s_0041, s_0153, s_0172, s_0256, s_0263, s_0275, s_0280, s_0301, s_0306, s_0437, s_0453, s_0642, sandwich maker, sectors, services sector, social issues, social justice, social movements and activism, social studies, sociology, the, the hand that feeds, title_defgh, title_h, trade unions, undocumented immigrants, undocumented workers, union election, united states, upper east side, urban studies, workers justice cafe, world regions

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