Well worth seeing, it tells the inspiring story of Lois Jenson—Josie Aimes in the movie. Jenson and other female miners waged a determined fight to defend the right of women to work in the mines without harassment. When she was hired in 1975, the mines were the only good paying jobs in town.

In this 110-mile-long strip of northern Minnesota, the livelihoods of tens of thousands depend on mining taconite, a low-grade iron ore used to make steel. In the late 1970s, there were 1,400 miners at Eveleth Taconite, including 33 women. There were more than 14,000 miners on the Range. Women made up a higher percentage at other mines, including Minntac, the largest mine, where about 400 of 4,000 workers were female.  
 
Bosses were chief culprits
The first part of the movie gives the impression that backward male workers were the chief culprits women in the mines had to fight. This was not the case. The mine bosses were. Women workers were stalked, groped, physically attacked, and threatened. Their privacy was invaded to degrade them. Pornography and vulgarity were pervasive. The film does show the company responsibility for fostering this environment but fails to adequately convey the direct role mine bosses played in encouraging such actions.

Most people would leave the theater after watching North Country without an inkling of the great social and labor battles that made it possible for Jenson and other women to get into the mines. Women got these jobs as a result of a broadly supported national drive to win affirmative action—a gain of the civil rights movement. The 1974 consent decree in the basic steel industry (including iron ore) forced the companies to make sure at least 20 percent of new hires were women and Blacks, and to develop apprenticeship programs so these workers could gain skilled jobs.

Inspired by the civil rights revolution and building on the influx of women into the labor force since World War II, supporters of women’s rights marched and rallied for the Equal Rights Amendment. Abortion was decriminalized in 1973.

Then came the 1974-75 recession. It was the first worldwide economic downturn since the 1930s. It brought action by industrial workers and their unions to the forefront. In 1977, coal miners struck for 110 days—one of the most important labor struggles in decades. And that year 14,000 Iron Range miners walked out. Cries of “Solidarity!” shook the Iron Range. At the same time, Ed Sadlowski was running the national Steelworkers Fight Back campaign against what he called the “country club unionism” of the regime of USWA president I.W. Abel. The Sadlowski campaign swept the Iron Range USWA locals, as well as the giant steel mills. He almost won.

These were the conditions under which women came into the mines. USWA Local 1938 at Minntac formed a women’s committee that won a base for women’s rights among the union membership, including among the men. Women in other locals set up such committees too. Women won a reputation for being good union fighters because their aim was to bring the power of their union behind the women taking on company discrimination. This helped to deepen the sense of solidarity among union members who experienced the 1977 strike and subsequent union struggles on the job.

The bosses tried to push the union back. The Eveleth mine management led efforts to attempt to break the USWA’s support for its women members as a way of weakening the union as a whole. If male unionists could be intimidated into not supporting their union sisters, the companies could begin the process of curbing unionism on the Iron Range.

North Country ends with an explanation of the impact of the victory won by Jenson and the other women miners. Its shortcomings notwithstanding, we hope the film will help inspire a new generation of workers—men and women—to build solidarity with those who stand up against discrimination on the job.

Those interested can also read the book North Country is based on, Class Action: The Story of Lois Jenson and the Landmark Case That Changed Sexual Harassment Law, by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, Anchor (Oct. 14, 2003). A review of the book was published in the Nov. 25, 2002, Militant.

The struggle North Country dramatizes has had a lasting impact.

The Duluth News Tribune, a daily published in northern Minnesota, reported October 7 that the Northshore Mining Co. recently agreed to pay $1.3 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in 1999 on behalf of 38 women who presently work at, or were former employees of, the Babbitt, Minnesota, taconite mine. Owned by Cleveland-Cliffs, Inc., which partly owns five other iron ore mines on the Range, including United Taconite, Northshore is the only nonunion mine there. United Taconite is the former Eveleth Taconite Co., where the battle depicted in North Country unfolded.

According to the Tribune, a news release by the company’s attorneys said, Northshore denies any wrongdoing but “agrees that settlement is in the best interests of all parties involved to avoid the risk and distraction of costly and protracted class litigation.”

“This is not a case of sexual harassment,” Joseph Mihalek, the attorney for the plaintiffs, told the Tribune. “It’s a case of gender discrimination… related to the company’s practice in regards to promotion, training, job assignments, and overtime.”

Mihalek said “the great majority” of the women involved in the lawsuit still work at Northshore Mining.

David Salner worked at Eveleth Taconite from 1980 to 1982 and was a member of USWA Local 6860. Ilona Gersh worked at the Minntac mine from 1978 to 1981 and was a founding member of the USWA Local 1938 Women’s Committee.  
 
 
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