Amid the fevered political upsurges of the late 1960s and early ’70s, a group of women office workers in Boston founded an organization called 9to5. One of these women was Karen Nussbaum. A self-described political radical, Nussbaum, along with coworker Ellen Cassedy, saw an opportunity to harness the energy of the growing women’s movement and combine it with the power of organized labor to create something new, an organization that would make homes for working women in the women’s movement and women in the labor movement.

For almost four decades, the comedy starring Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin has served as the primary cultural artifact tying us to this history. A new documentary, directed by Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar, changes that. 9to5: The Story of a Movement features footage from the peak of 9to5’s activities combined with contemporary interviews with 9to5 organizers and captures the hopeful and militant energy that drove their labor activism.

Jacobin contributor Marianela D’Aprile spoke with Nussbaum about the documentary, the 9to5 Movement, and the state of organized labor today.