Year: 1954
Language: English
Format: 16mm Black & White
Runtime: 30 min
Director: Morten Parker
Producer: Guy Glover
Writer: Morten Parker
Cinematographer: Hector Lemieux
Editor: Douglas Robertson
Sound: Clifford Griffin
Music: Robert Fleming
: John Drainie
Production Company: National Film Board of Canada

The Grievance, a characteristic example of the Labour in Canada series, illustrates the orderly processing of a grievance through several stages of negotiation between union and management, showing how the rights of a worker are protected under the union’s contract. The film dramatizes the case of an auto worker who is demoted for refusing to work inside a truck cab that he considered too hot. The union registers the case as a legitimate grievance; it passes through three stages of negotiation in the plant and eventually reaches an impartial arbitrator for settlement.

The story was based on an actual incident in which the company (General Motors) won the settlement, though in the film it is the worker who wins. The Grievance won a special mention Canadian Film Award in 1955.

By: Peter Morris