''Final Offer'' is a Canadian film documenting the 1984 contract negotiations between the

United Auto Workers Union The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America, better known as the United Auto Workers (UAW), is an American labor union that represents workers in the United States (including Puerto Rico) ...

(UAW) and GM. Ultimately, it provided a historical record of the birth of the

Canadian Auto Workers Union The Canadian Auto Workers (CAW; formally the National Automobile, Aerospace, Transportation and General Workers Union of Canada) was one of Canada's largest and highest profile labour unions. In 2013, it merged with the Communications, Energy and ...

(CAW) as Bob White, the head of the Canadian sector of the UAW, led his membership out of the International Union and created the CAW. The movie depicts life in an era of massive industrial change in North America. The audience sees the emergence of automation and how it begins to affect the lives of the working class. Other themes depicted are labour relations, life on the picket line, and corporate

restructuring Restructuring is the corporate management term for the act of reorganizing the legal, ownership, operational, or other structures of a company for the purpose of making it more profitable, or better organized for its present needs. Other reasons ...

. A

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary fi ...

production, ''Final Offer'' is directed by

Sturla Gunnarsson Sturla Gunnarsson (born August 30, 1951) is an Icelandic-Canadian film and television director and producer. Gunnarsson was born in Reykjavík in 1951. He moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, with his parents when he was seven years old. As h ...

and Robert Collison, written by Collison, and produced by Collison, Gunnarsson and John Spotton. The movie features Henry Ramer as the narrator,

Buzz Hargrove Basil Eldon "Buzz" Hargrove, (born March 8, 1944) is a Canadian labour leader and the former National President of the Canadian Auto Workers. He is currently serving as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at Toronto Metropolitan University's Ted R ...

, Roger Smith, chairman of

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

, and founding CAW president Bob White.

Awards

Banff Mountain Film Festival The Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival is an international film competition and annual presentation of films and documentaries about mountain culture, sports, environment and adventure & exploration. It was launched in 1976 as ''The Banff Festival ...

Banff, Alberta Banff is a town within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. It is located in Alberta's Rockies along the Trans-Canada Highway, approximately west of Calgary and east of Lake Louise. At above Banff is the community with the second highe ...

: Grand Prize of the Festival, 1986 *

: Rockie Award for Best Political and Social Documentary, 1986 *

7th Genie Awards The 7th Genie Awards were held March 20, 1986, at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre to honour achievements in Canadian film in 1985. The ceremony was co-hosted by Leslie Nielsen and Catherine Mary Stewart Catherine Mary Stewart (; born 22 Ap ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

: Best Feature Length Documentary, 1986 * Golden Gate International Film Festival, San Francisco: Special Jury Award, 1986 *

Columbus International Film & Animation Festival The Columbus International Film + Animation Festival is a Columbus, Ohio, United States annual film festival which is designed to encourage and promote the use of film and video in all forms of education and communication. It is the first and o ...

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...

: Chris Award, First Prize, Industry & Commerce, 1986 *

Chicago International Film Festival The Chicago International Film Festival is an annual film festival held every fall. Founded in 1964 by Michael Kutza, it is the longest-running competitive film festival in North America. Its logo is a stark, black and white close up of the comp ...

, Chicago: Gold Plaque, Social/Political Documentary, 1986 * Prix Italia, International Competition for Radio and Television Productions,

Lucca Lucca ( , ) is a city and ''comune'' in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the Serchio River, in a fertile plain near the Ligurian Sea. The city has a population of about 89,000, while its province has a population of 383,957. Lucca is known as one ...

, Italy: Italia Award for Best Documentary, 1986

References

External links

Watch ''Final Offer'' at NFB.ca
* English-language Canadian films Canadian documentary films National Film Board of Canada documentaries General Motors Canadian Auto Workers United Auto Workers Economic history of Canada Labour history of Canada Films directed by Sturla Gunnarsson Documentary films about the labor movement Best Documentary Film Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners 1985 documentary films Documentary films about the automotive industry 1980s English-language films 1980s Canadian films Labour history of Ontario {{hist-documentary-film-stub

Awards

See also

References

External links