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GRETCHEN LEHMANN: The events of December 1977 are still crystal clear in Irene Wallen's mind. That was the year she decided she'd had enough with training new male bank employees to be her boss. It was the year she and seven of her co-workers took on the banking industry and formed one of the first bank employee unions. But 1977 was also the year Irene Wallen realized the price of demanding equal treatment.

IRENE WALLEN: A lot of us lost friends. Our children were mistreated. They were teased. They were not allowed to join certain things. We were so angry about the situation.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: Wallen says she's still angry not at her fellow Willmar residents-- they were just following the attitudes of the time, she says-- but she's upset that 20 years later, not much has changed.

IRENE WALLEN: I wish that this idea had gone away. But it really hasn't gone as far away as we would like it to. We're gaining, but we're not there.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: So you still see it?

IRENE WALLEN: Oh, yes. I think some of the women have more opportunities to get some of the jobs. And I think they're token jobs sometimes. And I hate to say that. But if they give you a title, you'll keep your mouth shut.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: Wallen says despite the fact, the Willmar 8 lost their legal battle against the banking industry, she keeps on talking about her experiences and so do many of the other women. Their frequent visits to college classrooms and labor union meetings keep the 1977 strike fresh in the minds of many Minnesotans. The Willmar 8 documentary, which was filmed during the height of the 18-month strike has also made the story a regular feature in women's studies and labor history classrooms across the country.

Metro State University political science professor Tom O'Connell says the Willmar 8 strike has many elements to keep it in the history books for one, there are hundreds of newspaper articles and artifacts to document the strike. But O'Connell says what makes the strike significant to future generations is the story itself.

TOM O'CONNELL: It's a quintessential story about what I call social power, how people come together around shared values and shared grievances and then discover a strength together that they never had as isolated individuals.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: Despite the story's universal appeal, O'Connell says he's not certain if in 100 years the story will be much more than a footnote in some labor union textbook. The trend in academics, he says, is for documentaries and books to fall out of use to make way for new materials and new stories.

Renée Vaughn, a women's studies instructor at several Minnesota colleges, says she also has concerns about the future of the Willmar 8 story but for a different reason. Back in 1996 when she was working on her master's thesis about the strike, she found few academic articles. And those she did find, painted a very inaccurate picture.

RENÉE VAUGHN: When I did come across articles on the Willmar 8, many times they were either omitted or it came from a very male perspective. And it tended to distort the women's experiences as I came to know it through my research directly with them.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: Vaughn says she hopes her own writings will clear up some of these distortions. She admits that while she shows the Willmar 8 documentary in her classes, she can't say for certain whether other instructors still teach the material. But Vaughn says that's not the point of teaching any historical event.

RENÉE VAUGHN: No social movement in history, whether it's the Civil Rights Movement, whether it's the Women's Movement, whether it's the Labor Movement, no movement in history has ever come across as being one specific movement or one specific incident that has caused an incredible social change. Its many different, small movements that come together, and then they roll in to one another.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: Renée Vaughn believes as long as women continue to press for equal pay and equal job opportunities, the Willmar 8 will find some niche in history. And she agrees with striker Irene Wallen, there's still room for change.

IRENE WALLEN: I think it just came out recently with the US Department of Labor Statistics, women are still making $0.71 to every male dollar. And in the top 500 banks in the nation, there's only five women that hold the title of CEO.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: No matter what the legacy will be of the Willmar 8, Irene Wallen, says she's content with offers to come and speak to students and with the letters she still gets from people across the world thanking her for speaking out. But she admits she won't complain if the story of the Willmar 8 endures.

IRENE WALLEN: I hope they don't forget it. I'm surprised they remembered it this long really. To us, it's amazing.

GRETCHEN LEHMANN: The Willmar 8 may get one more surprise. The planners of the proposed Minnesota Labor Interpretive Center say they expect photos and stories about the eight women from Willmar will occupy a prominent place at their new facility. The center, which is set to open its doors in the year 2001, could be just the ticket to keep the Willmars strike story alive. In Collegeville, I'm Gretchen Lehmann, Minnesota Public Radio.