Working women of the world [Widescreen] = Ouvieres du monde

An amazing documentary filmed in Belgium, France, Turkey, Indonesia and the Philippines, about Levi Strauss Europe and their intentions in 1998 to restructure its European activities by closing three factories in Belgium and one in France creating a loss of 1400 jobs. The arguments given for these closures were over-production problems, excessive social security contributions and a decreasing market. However as the film progresses it is quite clear that Levi Strauss Europe’s aim is to relocate to the developing countries of the world such as Indonesia, Turkey and the Philippines where workers’ rights are almost non-existent with deplorable and repressive working regimes, low wages, child labor, and union involvement either not encouraged or not allowed, so that the multinational company can cut costs, increase productivity and increase profits. Through Rosa (an employee in one of the Belgium Levi factories), Maria Therese (an employee and union representative in the Levi factory in Yser La Basse in France) and Yanti (an employee in an Indonesian factory) allowing themselves to be filmed and interviewed, we learn of the conditions and the fears which plague these women daily, their stresses and in Yanti’s case, the excessively long hours of work - upto 80 hours a week - of Rosa’s fortitude and of Maria Therese’s attempts through negotiations with government and management to prevent the closures/relocations and subsequent redundancies. An interesting expose of multinationals and globalisation, large scale redundancies and international restructurings. In French and other languages with English subtitles.