Keiner schiebt uns weg (2018)

Gelsenkirchen, 1978. By chance, Lilli Czipowski, a longtime employee at Foto Kunze, a large photo-processing laboratory, discovers that the female staff are paid considerably less than their less experienced male colleagues. When her partner Kalle, who also works for Kunze and earns far more than she does despite having been trained by her, fails to understand her outrage, she and her colleagues Gerda and Rosi seek advice from Ritschi, a member of the works council. He promises them union support in their fight against management and for equal pay. Determined, the trio begins collecting signatures to pursue a lawsuit against their employer. The three friends are also grappling with all kinds of problems in their private lives. Lilli learns that Kalle, the father of her two children, is having an affair with a photographer, and eventually throws him out. But without his income, the low-paid worker suddenly finds herself facing unpaid bills and a broken-down car. Rosi, who works against her husband's wishes because she wants to improve their standard of living, struggles to maintain the appearance of a happy family. But her daughter notices that when she is away, her mother is not attending adult education classes, but secretly going to work. After her husband Hans dies, Gerda, a passionate singer, tries to escape her lonely existence by dwelling on better times. With her revolutionary efforts to stand up to management and the chauvinism within their own ranks, Lilli makes many enemies. And many of the women are too afraid of possible reprisals to sign the petition. Then Gerda has the brilliant idea of asking for signatures at their regular pub. Lilli addresses everyone there in an impassioned speech, and succeeds. Before long, they have enough signatures, and the women look ahead to their case at the labor court in Hamm, which draws considerable media attention. As feared, the case is dismissed. The employer claims that wages are paid according to performance, which supposedly explains the differences. The women return to work in resignation over the following days, only to face reprisals from company management. From now on, they will be assigned only light duties in the lower pay grades. Since they are now getting only “half pay,” they show their employer what it is like to get only “half the work” in return, and promptly reduce their output. Ritschi also encourages Lilli to take the lost case to the Federal Labour Court. The Basic Law is on their side, he says, and they should not give up just because the judge did not respond to the women's arguments. The women also get a boost from the press. Because of the negative headlines about Foto Kunze, the first customers pull out, and no one wants to work there anymore, leaving the company unable to fill its vacancies. Management therefore offers the women a settlement. But because of the public interest, they do not want to accept it; instead, they want to increase the pressure on management even further. Lilli, however, is gradually running out of strength. Her debts are mounting, and her husband contributes almost nothing to the children’s upkeep. More than anything, she wants to give up. Ritschi comes to her aid, giving her enough money for three months’ rent and, on that occasion, coming out as gay. When Wolfgang Kessler discovers that his wife has secretly been working part-time, he picks a fight with her. As a result, Rosi moves out and seeks shelter with Gerda. Gerda is in the middle of writing a protest song, true to her passion. When she realizes that Lilli is in crisis, she takes the initiative and contacts the television station. This way, they can reach people directly, and people will have to listen to them. In court, only the lawyers and judges listen, and then they decide according to their own ideas of justice—or interpret the laws as they see fit. On the way to the TV station, where Gerda and Rosi are travelling with a whole busload of supporters, she presents them with her song, “Keiner schiebt uns weg” (“Nobody’s Going to Push Us Aside”), and rouses their fighting spirit. In front of the cameras, facing their company boss Kunze, Gerda cannot find the right words, and Rosi is not very eloquent either. Lilli, sitting in the audience and unable to listen to this any longer, speaks up and confronts Kunze with her compelling arguments, prompting him to leave the discussion. A year later, the women finally get their hearing before the Federal Labour Court, and this time they win. However, they do not get much out of it, because a year after the ruling, Foto Kunze has to file for bankruptcy. But they have won the first part of the fight for equal pay, at any rate. They intend to keep going, because nobody’s going to push them aside.