Two workers stand in the kitchen. One is holding a camera, the other an envelope.

“What are we doing today?” asks the worker behind the camera.

“We are checking my salary,” says his companion. They open the envelope and count out twelve $20 bills and one $50 bill.

“$290? There’s no more there?”

“No.”

Just $290 – that’s how much Hot and Crusty employees made for 60 hours of work. This means $4.83 an hour. The workers, who were undocumented, felt they had little choice but to stay quiet and continue to work for such low pay.

It’s the opening scene in a documentary called The Hand That Feeds, released this month in theaters in New York and Los Angeles, where it is playing until Thursday. The documentary follows the workers at Hot and Crusty, a New York bakery cafe chain, as they try to navigate the US labor law to fight for minimum wage.

But The Hand That Feeds is not just a story of their fight for better wages, benefits and a right to unionize. As Fight for $15 rallies kick off around the country Wednesday, the documentary is now being used to inspire workers everywhere – especially at small businesses, which employ 48.5% of America’s private-sector workforce, according to the US Small Business Administration.

At the heart of the story is Mahoma López, a deli man at Hot and Crusty. At 18 years old, he left Mexico, where he was born, and came to the US, where he has lived without papers for about 16 years. His undocumented status contributed to the troubles he faced at work. If he spoke out, he said, the management would threaten to call the US immigration department.

In January 2012, tired of managers telling them that they were worthless, replaceable and could be fired at any time, the workers – led by López – decided that it was time to do something to change their situation.

First, they reached out to the Laundry Workers Center Union, a group of labor organizers in New York. Later, while meeting with Occupy Wall Street activists, they met Rachel Lears and Robin Blotnick, who directed and produced the documentary that depicts their fight.

Their organizing efforts span from the expected – standing on the streets, handing out petitions and flyers – to the unusual, such as ‘occupying’ their workplace to keep it from closing.

“The whole process turned out to be a much more exciting and dramatic story than we ever imagined,” Lears said. “We really tried to make it a really good story. We hope that it can draw in the people that are already interested in the issues, of course, but also people who like a good underdog story. It’s a documentary that really feels like an action film.”

There’s an unexpected alliance with Occupy activists, police action, and a happy ending.

The workers’ story is one that the Hot and Crusty workers, along with other community organizers, hope to replicate at small business across the nation.

“If we did it, they can do it,” López said of other workers who want to form a union. He continues to work as a deli man at Bröd Kitchen, formerly known as Hot and Crusty.

The union is still in place at Bröd, and almost all of the workers featured in the film still work there. In addition to his day job, López has remained active, helping other workers at local business demand fair wages and the right to form a union.

“After work, I am a labor organizer with the Laundry Workers Center,” he told the Guardian. “It’s very different – first being a victim of this kind of abuse and now helping other people fight against their abusers, their bosses.”

The Fight for $15 organizers have screened the movie to groups of workers and students to help mobilize them for the 15 April protests and strikes, according to Lears. The movie has been screened in Chicago and Los Angeles, as well as other cities in Arizona, Virginia and North Carolina, she said. The filmmakers are also talking with other local organizers and workers centers about how to roll out the documentary effectively.

“The idea – if the workers were successful – was to create a piece that would be useful as organizing and educational tool,” Lears said. “It’s really exciting to see that that’s really happening now.”

“We really believe that organizing is the only way to bring changes,” López said. “We need to continue to organize workers and use this documentary as a tool to inspire other workers.”