Critical Tactics Lab | The Hand That Feeds

November 6, 2014
7-9 pm
This event will be livestreamed, starting at 7 pm (EST). Click here to view the live video feed.

*Note: This event will have simultaneous translation via headsets provided at the event.

*Nota: Este evento tendrá traducción simultánea via audífonos provistos por el evento. 

At a popular bakery café, 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 López 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.  

Mahoma and Vergilio, the main subjects of the film and organizers of the Hot and Crusty campaign, will join filmmakers Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick in a simultaneously translated discussion. They will relate the strategies it took to overcome a two-month lockout, back door legal battles, and a picket line that divided a neighborhood and the soul it took to ensure they will never be exploited again. http://www.thehandthatfeedsfilm.com/

Wine reception to follow. 

Hemispheric Institute of Performance & Politics
20 Cooper Square, 5th Floor
New York, NY 10003

This event is free and open to the public. A photo ID is required to enter NYU buildings. This venue is wheelchair accessible. 

Directed and Produced by Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick, http://www.thehandthatfeedsfilm.com/
Photo: Eleazar Castillo