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Director's Notes

I had been living in Las Vegas for several years, and noticed an ongoing picket line outside the Frontier Hotel. No matter how hot it was (sometimes over 120 degrees) these workers were always out there, so I began to chat with them and learned of their long and arduous struggle with the sole owner of the casino hotel, Maggie Elardi. A hardcore old-style casino owner, I was amazed at the standoff between her and her loyal workers (some of whom had worked there over twenty years).

The issues were basic: she had tried to take away their pension and healthcare, and they decided to make a stand, and their union backed them up. No one knew how long it would take.

Because I had already been filming at the Culinary Union for my previous film, Stripped and Teased, I was no stranger to the complexities and ironies of a labor struggle against a tiny gaming company in the midst of a Las Vegas boom. As the MGM, Bellagio and other mega-resorts opened, the strikers were often asked why they did not go get other jobs—they refused, saying this strike was for all the workers in Vegas, and it became clear that this strike was a significant lynchpin for all the contracts on the Strip. It was an amazing journey these workers embarked on, and I will never forget filming the third, fourth and fifth anniversary parties of the strike…how resolved and dedicated this group of ordinary workers were—they had become international heroes, with repeat tourists stopping by the picket line from as far away as Finland, to wish them well. The night we all marched in together is the opening scene of the film, and perhaps the most moving of anything I have ever filmed. It gave me hope as a filmmaker and a person, witnessing what a handful of people can do to affect monumental change in society.