Roger & Me (1989)

This documentary by Michael Moore investigates the toll on workers when company CEOs make decisions that hurt their employees. Sound boring? Well, actually, this film will have you alternately laughing and yelling back at the screen, at what went down.

The film shows how the economy of Flint Michigan spent most of the 20th century dependent on several General Motors (GM) manufacturing plants, which employed most of the people living there. In the late 1980's, the CEO of GM, Roger Smith, started closing the plants with the plan of resituating them to Mexico, where the company's labour expenses would be much less expensive than they were in Flint. This decision created widespread civil unrest in Flint, as most of its people fell into poverty and lost their jobs. The culture of Flint, which once had a legacy for being an auto-town, was effectively stripped of its reputation and consequentially dispossessed of their prime cultural identity. Follow film-maker Michael Moore as he tries to track down GM CEO Roger Smith for an explanation of why the Flint plants were closed.

Despite taking place a few decades ago, this story is important for us as students to consider in our own work lives. Our rights as workers need to be protected and advocated for, because it doesn't take much for them to be disregarded and trampled on. Today, this story serves as a cautionary tale to us all of the extent to which a large company, like Amazon or Walmart, might go to increase profits at the expense of their workforce. It also demonstrates our capabilities, as young workers, in not only defending, but demanding better working conditions on the job.

Bryson Landriault, 4th Year Sociology Student