9to5: The Story of a Movement

Writer and Yiddish translator Ellen Cassedy talks with The Shmooze about the new documentary 9to5: The Story of a Movement and her role in the feminist labor movement at the center of this story. In conversation, she tells us about being inspired to activism by her Jewish immigrant grandfather's story of hearing the feminist labor union leader Rose Schneiderman—who is credited with coining the phrase “Bread and Roses"—orating in Union Square in NYC, around 1912, about the struggles of garment workers. Ellen describes the female garment workers as "our spiritual grandmothers," noting of herself and the female office workers that were part of this movement, "We saw ourselves as carrying on their legacy."