Coburn

• Some of Hollywood’s top stars are joining screenwriters on the picket line after the main U.S. actors union voted to take part in an ongoing strike.
• SAG-AFTRA, which represents more than 150,000 screen and stage actors, announced on July 13, 2023, that its members would go on strike.
• In so doing, they join members of the Writers Guild of America who have been on strike for several weeks.
• But this is the first time since the Eisenhower administration that the two major Hollywood unions have been on strike at the same time.
• Here are five unsung labor movies, all based on real-life events, that, in my view, deserve more attention.

1. ‘Northern Lights’ (1978)

• The film follows Ray Sorenson, a young farmer influenced by socialist ideas who leaves his North Dakota farm to become a Non-Partisan League organizer.
• In his beat-up Model T, he travels the back roads, talking to farmers in their fields or around the potbellied stoves of country stores.
• In 1916, the Non-Partisan League did, in fact, elect farmer Lynn Frazier as governor of North Dakota with 79% of the vote.

2. ‘The Devil and Miss Jones’ (1941)

• In this screwball comedy with a pro-union twist, Charles Coburn plays John P. Merrick, a fictional New York City department store owner.
• The film was likely inspired by the 1937 sit-down strikes by employees of New York City’s department stores.

3. 'Salt of the Earth’ (1954)

• They demand better safety standards and equal treatment, since white miners are allowed to work in pairs, while Mexican ones are forced to work alone.
• The strikers expect the women to stay at home, cook and take care of the children.
• Will Geer, a blacklisted actor who later portrayed Grandpa Walton on the TV drama “The Waltons,” played the repressive sheriff.

4. ‘10,000 Black Men Named George’ (2002)

• Andre Braugher stars as A. Philip Randolph, who organized the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first Black-run union.
• Being a porter on a Pullman railroad car was one of the few jobs open to Black men.
• Randolph became American’s leading civil rights organizer during the 1940s and 1950s and orchestrated the 1963 March on Washington.

5. 'North Country’ (2005)

• There, she is constantly groped, insulted and bullied by the male workers.
• Aimes sues the company, which, after a dramatic courtroom scene, is forced to settle with her and other women.
• Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article that was first
  published on The Conversation on Aug. 22, 2022.