This Tuesday, October 10 at 9:10 p.m., France 2 devotes an evening to the working world. The documentary by Hugues Nancy and Fabien Béziat highlights these workers, who through their actions and their know-how will be the builders of our country for a long time to come.
For this documentary, the two directors viewed kilometers of archives. At the turn of the century, the working class was filmed a lot. From exhausted silhouettes leaving factories, to bodies damaged by repetitive assembly line work, the working class has been an integral part of political and social history.
What is the point of this film? For Hugues Nancy, director, “It’s a real democratic question, that of give back to the workers who are very numerous in our country, their places. Far from activism, this film is a way to pay tribute to them.”
That of a working class, essential in the political landscape where nothing could be done without the working world. A world that could mobilize and protest quite easily.
But being a worker is pride in know-how, in a gesture and in belonging to a group. However, the director notes: “Most workers feel they are not represented enough in the media and in politics.” The feeling of belonging is less significant “It’s harder to be heard now.”
And so that the tribute is worthy, “only the workers were to have the floor through interviews, they are the only ones who speak in the film.”
If the workers are not there, the company does not operate.
Hugues Nancy
Director
There are millions of workers in France. However, Hugues Nancy points out two paradoxes, the first is that: “Despite their crucial role in industrial, economic and political history, we tend to forget them.” The second, “we think, for different reasons, that they have disappeared!” For him the objective is clear: “It is time to give these women and men back their central places. To remind viewers than automobile channels, to the canneries of Douarnenez that there are still workers in this country.”
In Hauts-de-France, many things were invented in the mines such as, for example, the solidarity funds which would provide the embryos of social security, the provident funds which would provide retirement. Social advances have become social laws.
In 2023, two people die in the workplace every day.
Hugues Nancy
Director
In France, few know that “working conditions in France were born from worker struggles and collective, union and political struggles. The reduction of working hours was a historic struggle of workers. They worked more than 70 hours a week. At the beginning of the 20th century, the fight it was 48 hours and that alone, it was already unheard of to get them. This fight was fought over several years and was won in 1919.
The reality of the working world is also the fear for coal miners, the difficulty for metallurgy, the arduousness is real, like work accidents. Today, two people die in the workplace every day.
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Christine Boucaut was 14 years old when she started working at Lainière in Roubaix. • ©F. Giltay / FTV
The health crisis has demonstrated that workers play an essential role in France’s autonomy.
I hope people watching won’t be numb to their stories
Hugues Nancy, director of “We the Workers”
He rocks :“dIn all the factories we have visited, whether in the combing industry in Tourcoing or at Arcelor Mittal in Dunkirk, there is work. Their difficulty is finding candidates to join their companies. It’s quite striking! It’s fairly well-paid work, more than the average in service or commerce. There are also reindustrialization projects in the field of electric batteries or textiles in your region. The ecological transition will inevitably create new professions, we will have to manufacture new tools.”
France has companies in the luxury world that are very powerful. These companies make it possible to maintain activities and know-how and this is not about to disappear. This is an area where there will be more and more jobs in the future.
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Hugues Nancy testifies that in the factories of Hauts-de-France, it is difficult to recruit candidates. • ©F. Giltay /FTV
Even if there are fewer of them than before, France will always need its workers, this is what we will remember from this documentary “We, the workers”, broadcast this Tuesday, October 10 on France 2 at 9:10 p.m..
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