Bread and Roses (2000)

Directed by

Ken Loach

Genre

drama film

Country

Germany, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland

Runtime

1h 50m

Rated

18

Rating

6.3 of 10 from 140 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of janitors in Los Angeles organize for better wages and working conditions. A union organizer helps them push back against their powerful employers.

urgentgrittyhopefulfrustratingearnestsocially consciousslow-burngrounded

What happens

Bread and Roses is a 2000 drama film directed by Ken Loach, starring Pilar Padilla, Adrien Brody and Elpidia Carrillo. The plot deals with the struggle of poorly paid janitorial workers in Los Angeles and their fight for better working conditions and the right to unionize. It is based on the "Justice for Janitors" campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the lead union organizer, Sam Shapiro, is based on SEIU organizer Jono Shaffer. The film is critical of inequalities in the United States. Health insurance in particular is highlighted and it is also stated in the film that the pay of cleaners and other low paying jobs has declined in recent years. The film's name, "Bread and Roses", derives from the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts. Though the phrase comes from a 1911 poem by James Oppenheim (which was, in turn, based on a speech given by Rose Schneiderman), it is commonly associated with the Lawrence strike, which united dozens of immigrant communities, led to a large extent by women, under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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