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Union DVDs

Buy your union DVDs from the unionized online bookstore Powells.com -- and help support LabourStart too.

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What are your favorite union films?

We are currently listing only a few DVDs -- but we know that there are many more that ought to be listed here. If you have any suggestions for great movies that we should be selling, movies that tell the stories of workers and their struggles -- tell us. Please check and see if Powells.com sells the DVD you're recommending, first.

Links to more information about union films
You've seen the movie. Now, read the book.

Which Side Are You On?: Ken Loach and His Films by Anthony Hayward .

Working Stiffs, Union Maids, Reds, and Riffraff: An Expanded Guide to Films about Labor by Tom Zaniello.

Radicalism in American Silent Films, 1909-1929: A Filmography and History by Michael Slade Shull.

Thinking in Pictures: The Making of Matewan by John Sayles.

Working-Class Hollywood: Silent Film and the Shaping of Class in America by Steven J. Ross .

Click on the title to learn more about each film -- and to order your DVDs!

Norma Rae (1979) - Martin Ritt (director). The classic story of the organizing of a textile factory in America's Deep South. Based on a true story. Essential viewing. Click here for more information.

Hoffa: Special Edition (1992) - Danny DeVito (director). Based on the story of legendary leader of the Teamsers, James R. Hoffa. Starring Jack Nicholson as Hoffa. Written by David Mamet. IMDB

Salt of the Earth (1954) - Herbert J. Biberman (director). Based on an actual strike against the Empire Zinc Mine in New Mexico, the film deals with the prejudice against the Mexican-American workers, who struck to attain wage parity with Anglo workers in other mines and to be treated with dignity by the bosses. The film is an early treatment of feminism, because the wives of the miners play a pivotal role in the strike, against their husbands wishes. In the end, the greatest victory for the workers and their families is the realization that prejudice and poor treatment are conditions that are not always imposed by outside forces.

Bread and Roses (2000) - Ken Loach (director). Two Latina sisters work as cleaners in a downtown office building, and fight for the right to unionize.

Wall Street (1987) - Oliver Stone (director). From a review by Roger Darlington: "OK, I know this isn’t a film about trade unionism, but it does feature a trade unionist who is shown sympathetically and that’s why I’ve included it in this compilation. Oliver Stone, fresh from his success with “Platoon”, co-wrote and directed this, as well as being on screen for a few seconds and it is dedicated to his stockbroker father. Michael Douglas won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko and a highlight of the film is his “Greed is good” speech. However, for me, the movie is about how the ambitious young financial broker played by Charlie Sheen is forced to choose between the values of his ruthless hero and his selfless father. The role of the father is taken by his real-life dad Martin Sheen who is aircraft mechanic and trade union official Carl Fox and it is so welcome to see such a positive portrayal of union values."

Silkwood (1983) - Mike Nichols (director). From a review by Roger Darlington: "Like “Norma Rae”. This is a true story about an American woman who becomes active in her union as a result of a health and safety issue, only to face the full force of the company. Karen Silkwood was a laboratory technician at the Kerr-McGee plant in Cimarron, Oklahoma. The factory worked with radioactive plutonium which was pressed into fuel rods for a breeder reactor. Over a period of time, she became more and more anxious about the company’s safety standards: a contaminated truck had to be taken apart and buried, there were nothing like enough showers for the workers, and the staff doctor was only a veterinarian. Matters became even more frightening when she discovered that the X-ray negatives of welds in the fuel rods were being doctored to remove white spots. The film depicts how the safety issue drew Karen, a rank and file trade unionist with no previous skill at negotiation, into more and more active participation in union matters, first the battle to win a certification election – something we in Britain have not faced – and then the struggle to expose the company’s working practices. In these efforts, she is assisted by a national officer of her Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union. But Karen paid the price for her growing union involvement. Her live-in boyfriend walked out on her. Even more serious, someone contaminated her with plutonium – but the company suggested that she had contaminated herself to make the management look bad. The scenes in which she has to undergo the humiliating and painful procedure of being scrubbed down with brushes and detergent, in order to eliminate the contamination, are among the most dramatic in the film. “Silkwood” was directed by Mike Nichols whose others successes include “The Graduate” for which he received an Oscar for Best Director. The part of Karen Silkwood is played by Meryl Streep, one of the finest actresses of her generation, and her friend is portrayed by the singer Cher, both of whom received Academy Award nominations for their impressive performances. Yet the film is not without its faults. At times it is rather slow and sometimes the dialogue is a little hard to follow. Above all, the ending backs away from making a clear stand on the central issues. On 13 November 1974, Karen Silkwood drove off to meet a reporter on the “New York Times” with a dossier on the work conditions at her company. She never arrived, suffering a fatal car crash that – depending on whose version of events you accept – was the result of her taking tranquillizers and alcohol or the consequence of the deliberate ramming of the back of her car by another vehicle. "

On the Waterfront (1954) - Elia Kazan (director). From a review by Roger Darlington: "If asked to name a film featuring trade unions, most people recall “On The Waterfront” which is strange considering that it is a black and white work made so long ago, but it is a memorable movie containing some fine acting and scenes of great drama and violence. The central character, a New York dock worker called Terry Malloy, is played by Marlon Brando (“I cudda become a contender”) who has gone on to become one of the most distinguished film actors of our time. However, several other members of the cast have moved on to much greater things. This is especially true of Rod Steiger who play’s Terry’s brother Charley and Karl Malden who portrays the priest Father Barry. Even the composer of the music, Leonard Bernstein, went on to distinguish himself with “West Side Story”. “On The Waterfront” depicts the corruption in a trade union local in New York City harbour and shows one man’s fight to call a halt to the violence and death used to enforce the brutal reign of the president and his mob. Although it is often thought of as a rare film about trade unionists, really it has little to do with the role of trade unionism in defending and advancing the interests of working people against authoritarian management. Instead, essentially it is a movie about informing and the central dilemma which it poses is whether or not Terry Malloy should testify before the Crime Commission investigating gangsterism on the waterfront. The question was a familiar one to the director Elia Kazan, because he testified as a ‘friendly witness’ before the Un-American Activities Commission of the US House of Representatives (better remembered as the McCarthy Commission). Other such witnesses were the writer of the film, Budd Schulberg, and the man who played the mobster heavy in the film, Lee J Cobb. This triumvirate produced a work that views informing, under certain circumstances, as a noble act and obviously there is a considerable element of self-justification in this. "

Battleship Potemkin (1925) - Sergei Eisenstein (director). From a review by Roger Darlington: "Made the year after “Strike” and – like it – a silent black and white directed by the genius Sergei Eisenstein, this is not strictly a labour movement film, but I’ve included it in this collection because it is centred on a workers’ revolt – the sailors of the battleship mutiny and spark the 1905 revolution in Russia – and it is quite simply a masterpiece. The famous Odessa Steps sequence was borrowed by Brian de Palma for 'The Untouchables' (1987)."

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - John Ford (director). From a review by Roger Darlington: "This film of John Steinbeck’s novel was directed by John Ford and stars doe-eyed Henry Fonda as Tom Joad and Jane Darwell as Ma. It depicts the consequences of the dust-bowl disaster of the Thirties as Oklahoma farmers trek to California in the hope of finding work and it is a highly effective portrayal of the brutal conditions of the dispossessed families. The movie won Ford an Oscar and has become a classic, but – to my mind – it is seriously flawed by the failure to proffer an answer to the travails. The ending – softened from the book – is particularly unsatisfactory."

Nine to Five (1980) - Colin Higgins (director). From a review by Roger Darlington: "In big city America, three female office workers plot revenge against a sexist and arrogant boss in this clever comedy which includes a number of phantasy sequences. The trio are played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton (who also sings the title song) and the manager who receives his comeuppance is the unfortunate Dabney Coleman."

Molly Maguires (1970) - Martin Ritt (director). Life is rough in the coal mines of 1876 Pennsylvania. A secret group of Irish emigrant miners, known as the Molly Maguires, fights against the cruelty of the mining company with sabotage and murder. A detective, also an Irish emigrant, is hired to infiltrate the group and report on its members. But on which side do his sympathies lie?

Matewan (1987) - John Sayles (director). Mingo County, West Virginia, 1920. Coal miners, struggling to form a union, are up against company operators and gun thugs; Black and Italian miners, brought in by the company to break the strike, are caught between the two forces. Union activist and ex-Wobbly Joe Kenehan, sent to help organize the union, determines to bring the local, Black, and Italian groups together. Drawn from an actual incident; the characters of Sid Hatfield, Cabell Testerman, C. E. Lively, and Few Clothes Johnson were based on real people.

F.I.S.T. (1978) - Norman Jewison (director). A sympathetic account of the story of the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa, without ever mentioning the Teamsters or Jimmy Hoffa. Probably the best film Sylvester Stallone ever made.

Modern Times (1936) - Charlie Chaplin (director). Chaplin's masterpiece about life in the industrial age.

How Green Was My Valley (1941) - John Ford (director). Classic film about a turn-of-the-century Welsh mining village.

Bound for Glory (1976) - Hal Ashby (director). The life of Woody Guthrie, starring David Carradine as the Communist troubador. Yes, that's the same David Carradine who starred in the TV series "Kung Fu" -- and 30 years later, "Kill Bill".

October (1927) - Sergei Eisenstein (director). Also known as "10 Days That Shook The World". The classic film version of the October 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

Strike (1925) - Sergei Eisenstein (director). Eisenstein's first major film -- before he made "Potemkin" and "October".

Brassed Off (1996) - Mark Herman. A small Yorkshire mining town is threatened with being shut down and the only hope for the town's men is to enter their Grimley Colliery Brass Band into a national competition.

The Take - Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein. An extraordinary documentary about what the authors see as an alternative to neo-liberal, corporate globalization: the movement in Argentina to 'reclaim' factories that have been closed down. Essential viewing.



Total DVDs now showing on this page: 20

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