Fifteen minutes into “Bread and Roses,” a new feature film on organizing immigrant janitorial workers in Los Angeles, Maya meets Sam when he squeezes into her cleaning cart and begs her to hide him. Sam is a union organizer, and the comic sequence that follows is worthy of a Marx Brothers movie.

Maya is a young undocumented worker whose education about exploitation and fighting back form the core of the movie.

While she is initially overjoyed at the opportunity to work cleaning office buildings, Maya soon runs up against a brutal supervisor who demand kickbacks and sexual favors. The older janitors have become used to arbitrary firings, low wages and long hours, but Maya joins Sam to organize them into a union.

“Bread and Roses” opened nationwide in June. The fictional account of a real organizing drive is the first major studio film to depict the struggles of undocumented workers. The movie dramatically recalls the 1990 “Battle of Century City,” when Los Angeles police brutally beat 500 strikers and their supporters.

While labor organizing nationwide was at a low then, the movement for labor and immigrant rights that grew among janitorial workers starting in Los Angeles has been an important exception, ringing up victory after victory throughout the nation.

This year’s successful student sit-in at Harvard University for low-paid university workers received national attention. Here in New York City, the movement is growing rapidly among Mexican-American grocery workers.

Award winning Director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty have created a magnificent film in which the struggles of ordinary people working in often-invisible jobs are used to tell the much broader story of union and immigrant organizing today. The film spreads a powerful political message, and it’s good entertainment in the tradition of “Norma Rae,” “Salt of the Earth” and “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Good feature films about labor struggles don’t come often, so don’t miss “Bread and Roses.” You can see a promotional trailer for “Bread and Roses” on the Web at www.breadandrosesthemovie.com.

– Ken Nash,
DC 37 Ed Fund Library