For the Labor Day holiday viewing pleasure of my readers in the U.S., a scene from John Sayles’ 1987 flick Matewan:
Matewan is out of print on DVD in Region 1, but used copies are available; likewise, it’s nuthin’ but used copies in Region 2, too.
watch it: “union meeting” clip from ‘Matewan’
share and enjoy
Nice clip. Reminds me that the US used to be the fore-front of organised labour.
Is it a coincidence that Labour getting tarred as criminal and corrupt occurs as American manufacturing fails?
What makes you think that started happening when American manufacturing fails?
On the Waterfront doesn’t paint a rosy picture of American organized labor and that was made during the height of the American manufacturing era.
Nor is all union corruption in America a figment of Michael Medved’s imagination–though it would be nice if it were.
And yet it’s hard to read American history and not come to the conclusion that unions are a necessary evil whose necessity has not yet passed. As bad as union corruption has been in the US, management corruption has been worst. And unfortunately, it seems to be a lot harder to punish a corrupt management team than to punish a corrupt union.