Best Movies about Unions
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- DirectorJohn FordStarsWalter PidgeonMaureen O'HaraAnna LeeAt the turn of the century in a Welsh mining village, the Morgans, he stern, she gentle, raise coal-mining sons and hope their youngest will find a better life.
- DirectorDanny DeVitoStarsJack NicholsonDanny DeVitoArmand AssanteThe story of the notorious American labor union figure Jimmy Hoffa, who organizes a bitter strike, makes deals with members of the organized crime syndicate and mysteriously disappears in 1975.
- DirectorLeo HurwitzPaul StrandStarsPaul RobesonFred JohnsonMary GeorgePaul Robeson narrates a mix of dramatizations and archival footage about the bill of rights being under attack during the 1930s by union busting corporations, their spies and contractors. In dramatizations, we see a Michigan farmer beaten for speaking up at a meeting, a union man murdered in an apartment in Cleveland, two sharecroppers near Fort Smith Arkansas shot by men deputized by the local sheriff, a spy stealing the names of union members, and a dead Chicago union man eulogized. In archival footage we witness police and goons beating lawfully assembled union organizers, and we see men at work and union families at play. The narration celebrates patriotism and democracy.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsMarlon BrandoKarl MaldenLee J. CobbAn ex-prize fighter turned New Jersey longshoreman struggles to stand up to his corrupt union bosses, including his older brother, as he starts to connect with the grieving sister of one of the syndicate's victims.
- DirectorGeorge AbbottStanley DonenStarsDoris DayJohn RaittCarol HaneyAn Iowa pajama factory worker falls in love with an affable superintendent who had been hired by the factory's boss to help oppose the workers' demand for a pay raise.
- DirectorJohn BoultingStarsIan CarmichaelTerry-ThomasPeter SellersA naive aristocrat in search of a career becomes caught up in the struggles between his profit-minded uncle and an aggressive labor union.
- DirectorMario MonicelliStarsMarcello MastroianniRenato SalvatoriGabriella GiorgelliA former high school teacher turned unionist tries to organize workers laboring with inhuman conditions at a late 19th Century textile factory.
- DirectorBarbara KoppleStarsJohn L. LewisCarl HornNorman YarboroughA heartbreaking record of the thirteen-month struggle between a community fighting to survive and a corporation dedicated to the bottom line.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsSally FieldBeau BridgesRon LeibmanA young single mother and textile worker agrees to help unionize her mill despite the problems and dangers involved.
- DirectorJohn SaylesStarsChris CooperJames Earl JonesMary McDonnellA labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.
- DirectorNorman JewisonStarsSylvester StalloneRod SteigerPeter BoyleA rebellious Cleveland warehouse worker rises through the ranks of a trucking industry union to become union president but his organized crime links cause his eventual downfall.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsSean ConneryRichard HarrisSamantha EggarIn 1876 Pennsylvania, a group of Irish immigrant coal miners begin to retaliate against the cruelty of their work environment.
- DirectorMike NicholsStarsMeryl StreepKurt RussellCherA worker at a plutonium processing plant is purposefully contaminated, psychologically tortured and possibly murdered to prevent her from exposing worker safety violations at the plant.
- DirectorClaude BerriStarsRenaudGérard DepardieuMiou-MiouIn mid-nineteenth-century northern France, a coal mining town's workers are exploited by the mine's owner. One day, they decide to go on strike, and the authorities repress them.
- DirectorNigel ColeStarsSally HawkinsBob HoskinsAndrea RiseboroughA dramatization of the 1968 strike at the Ford Dagenham car plant, where female workers walked out in protest against sexual discrimination.
- DirectorKen LoachStarsPilar PadillaAdrien BrodyElpidia CarrilloTwo Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize.
- DirectorNiki CaroStarsCharlize TheronJeremy RennerFrances McDormandA fictionalized account of the first major successful sexual harassment case in the United States, Jenson vs. Eveleth Mines, where a woman who endured a range of abuse while working as a miner filed and won the landmark 1984 lawsuit.
- DirectorJames FoleyStarsAl PacinoJack LemmonAlec BaldwinAn examination of the machinations behind the scenes at a real estate office.
- DirectorKenny OrtegaStarsChristian BaleBill PullmanRobert DuvallA musical based on the New York City newsboy strike of 1899. When young newspaper sellers are exploited beyond reason by their bosses they set out to enact change and are met by the ruthlessness of big business.
- DirectorJohn FordStarsHenry FondaJane DarwellJohn CarradineAn Oklahoma family, driven off their farm by the poverty and hopelessness of the Dust Bowl, joins the westward migration to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.
- DirectorCharles ChaplinStarsCharles ChaplinPaulette GoddardHenry BergmanThe Tramp struggles to live in modern industrial society with the help of a young homeless woman.
- DirectorHerbert J. BibermanStarsJuan ChacónRosaura RevueltasWill GeerMexican workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It is only through the solidarity of the workers, and importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives, mothers, and daughters, that they eventually triumph.
- DirectorMichael MooreStarsMichael MooreRoger B. SmithRhonda BrittonAfter General Motors closes its factory in Flint, Michigan, eliminating 35,000 jobs, filmmaker Michael Moore undertakes a quixotic quest to interview General Motors' chairman, Roger B. Smith.
- DirectorRobert TownsendStarsAndre BraugherCharles S. DuttonMario Van PeeblesUnion activist Asa Philip Randolph's efforts to organize the black porters of the Pullman Rail Company in 1920s America.
- DirectorDavid ApplebyAllison GrahamSteven John RossStarsPaul WinfieldThis moving documentary recounts the two months leading to Martin Luther King Jr.'s death in 1968, coinciding with the 65-day strike of 1300 Memphis sanitation workers.
- DirectorJohn FrankenheimerStarsRaul JuliaCarmen ArgenzianoSonia BragaBased on the true story of a Brazilian rubber tapper who leads his people in protest against government and developers who want to cut down their part of the rainforest for a new road and ranch land. The rich and the powerful will stop at nothing, and frequently resort to murder.
- DirectorMel StuartStarsDavid DukesTovah FeldshuhLauren FriedmanThe story of the fire in the Triangle Shirtwaist Mfg. Co. building in New York City in 1911 that resulted in the deaths of 146 employees, mostly young women. The ensuing investigation revealed the company's almost total disregard for its workers' safety in pursuit of increased production and profits; it resulted, among other things, in the passage of new worker-safety laws and the formation of the International Ladies' Garment Workers Union.
- DirectorLorraine GrayFrom December 1936 to February 1937 members of the United Auto Workers organized a sit-down strike inside the General Motors Fisher Body 1 and 2 plants in Flint, Michigan. They ultimately won recognition of their union and improved wages and conditions. "With Babies and Banners" tells the story of the Women's Emergency Brigade, composed of female GM workers and the wives of men involved in the sit-down strike, which not only provided support services (like running the union kitchens that provided food to the strikers occupying the plants) but did picket duty themselves. It intercuts footage from 1937 with interviews with the same women 40 years later, still active in union politics and still pressuring the UAW to acknowledge women as equals.
- DirectorOwen GowerStarsNorman StrikePaul SymondsSteve HammillStill the Enemy Within is a unique insight into one of history's most dramatic events: the 1984-85 British Miners' Strike. No experts. No politicians. Thirty years on, this is the raw first-hand experience of those who lived through Britain's longest strike. Follow the highs and lows of that life-changing year.
- DirectorBarbara KoppleCathy CaplanThomas HanekeStarsLewie AndersonR.J. BergstromRon BergstromRecounts the 1985-86 strike against the Hormel Foods Corporation in Minnesota after its employees' wages and benefits were cut.
- DirectorRon HowardStarsMichael KeatonGedde WatanabeGeorge WendtWhen a Japanese automobile company buys an American plant, the American liaison must mediate the clash of work attitudes between the foreign management and native labor.
- 2010– 53mTV EpisodeDirectorElisabeth Drevillon
- DirectorBill DouglasStarsRobin SoansWilliam GaminaraStephen BatemanThe story of "The Tolpuddle Martyrs". A group of nineteenth century English farm laborers who formed one of the first trade unions and started a campaign to receive fair wages.
- DirectorMarin KarmitzStarsJean-Paul GiquelJuliet BertoDominique Labourier22 year-old- Yan is trying hard to find his way in life: a job he likes, an ideal. In Saint-Nazaire, his home town, he vegetates, just like his father, an unambitious worker. His fiancée, Juliette, has middle class values and dreams of nothing but a comfortable married life. Dissatisfied, he moves to Paris where he becomes an assembly line worker at the Billancourt Renault car factory. Sick of the working conditions he and his fellow workers have to endure there, he soon turns into a leftist activist...
- DirectorJacques BesnardStarsAldo MaccioneMichel GalabruMarthe MercadierA young astrology enthusiast inherits an industrial business. Before any decision, he carefully studies the sign of his interlocutors.
- DirectorJean YanneStarsJean YanneBernard BlierNicole CalfanDismissed following an unfortunate initiative, financial advisor Benoît Lepape decides to work for his uncle, a union activist. His capitalist methods will surprise at first, but quickly bring in a lot of money.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsBarbara HersheyDavid CarradineBarry PrimusDuring the Great Depression, a union leader and a young woman become criminals to exact revenge on the management of a railroad.
- DirectorHervé Le RouxStarsPierre BonneauJacques WillemontThe starting point is a short film from 1968, showing the end of the strike in the Wonder factory in Saint-Ouen (France): A female worker is dissatisfied with the negotiated compromise and refuses to return to work. The Team takes up the lane trying to find this woman and gives all those involved the chance to reassess the situation which happened 27 years ago.
- DirectorDominique CabreraStarsAriane AscarideMarilyne CantoThierry FrémontNovember/December 1995, and France is paralysed by the transportation strikes. The huge traffic jams oblige Parisians to walk or cycle their way through the winter months. Nadia is a young woman who survives on minimum allowance with her six-month-old son, Christopher. One day whilst watching the news, she thinks she recognises the baby's missing father in a crowd of striking rail-workers at Austerlitz station. She decides to go and find him.
- DirectorPaul NewmanStarsPaul NewmanHenry FondaLee RemickA family of fiercely independent Oregon loggers struggle to keep the family business alive amidst changing times.