Educational Media Reviews Online

This documentary details the social struggle of employees at the Fralib tea factory in Gémenos, France. The story centers around the workers and their self-organized boycott against the parent company, Unilever, and its decision to close the factory and relocate tea production to Poland. This kicks off a nearly 4-year battle, during which the workers face many struggles, including no income.

After 1,336 days the employees win the case and decide to organize a self-managing cooperative: Scop-TI. Their victory is short-lived however, as the cooperative goes through several of its own struggles. Ultimately though, the tea production is re-launched under their own brand: “1336”, which symbolizes the number of days they were locked in the battle with Unilever.

Through the presentation of employees’ conversations, debates, and discussions during their business meetings, the documentary introduces the audience to the many organizational issues inside the co-op, including lack of discipline and self-motivation during a struggling time, as well as problems with commercial development, marketing, sales, and distribution of the products as they face their new reality.

Regardless of the difficulties the co-op encounter, the employees use a number of diverse marketing strategies to make the factory work and come up with a unique plan for producing organic herbal teas using local resources. The documentary highlights a few of the strategies that help to move the cooperative forward. For instance, the story follows Scop-IT as it launches a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for their business needs and to publicize their commitment to production of high-quality teas. In another instance, the documentary observes Scop-IT as they conduct customer testing at a local supermarket in order to better understand their preferences and advertise new products.

Ultimately, the author diligently documents the origin and success story of a self-managing cooperative factory, which can be used to encourage discussions in subjects related to labor movements, trade union struggles, and business.

The film is appropriate for public and academic library collections. The narration of the film is in French with English subtitles.

Awards:

Winner Prix du Jury SSA/ Suissimage (Visions du Réel), 2019; Winner Prix Zonta (Visions du Réel), 2019; Winner Audience Award (DokuBaku International Documentary Film Festival, 2019