The Battle of the Invisibles - Puebla, Mexico and California

On Tuesday, the University of Scranton's Latin American Studies Program welcomed filmmaker Manuel de Alba to campus to screen his award winning film, The Battle of the Invisibles.

The Battle of the Invisibles: Undocumented Workers vs Supermarkets” is a 60-minute documentary film that focuses on the janitorial labor force from Puebla, Mexico and the exploitation of their labor by major U.S. supermarkets. It also tells the story of how thousands of workers from a rural town in Mexico became employed by California's grocery stores and engaged in a five-year struggle against labor abuses by powerful supermarket chains including Ralphs, Vons and Albertsons.

After years of having been taken advantage of while working as janitors in California, over 2,000 people, many from Puebla, Mexico, joined in a class action lawsuit against the supermarket chains that exploited them. They had suffered lost wages for not being paid the minimum wage, not receiving breaks or vacation days, and were forced to work with toxic chemicals without the proper clothing, gloves, or masks. In the end the supermarkets agreed to an out-of-court settlement of $22 million with the janitors.

It was a very good film that addresses several important issues in immigration and labor exploitation, One of the more interesting targets of the film were the Puebla power brokers who made an economic killing facilitating the travel of their neighbors, often family members, to California and their subsequent exploitation by the supermarket chains.