Celebrate Labor Day with an in-house film fest

 

Bill Knight column for 8-27, 28 or 29, 2020

 Since most Labor Day activities are being cancelled by the pandemic, a list of safe alternatives like cooking out with family might include retreating inside to watch some good movies about unions. The films below are entertaining, good cinema and often show labor in a good light.

In “Through Jaundiced Eyes,” a book about how media can depict labor, William Puette writes that media’s image of labor “has been both unrepresentative and virulently negative ... [showing labor to be] by nature violent and mired in corruption.”

Still, somehow, more Americans see themselves as working class (47%) than middle class (41%), according to the most recent General Social Survey. That means a huge audience is ignored by timid studios.

In fact, when Warners released the Depression-era “Black Fury,” the company released a note: “ ‘Black Fury’ is not a propaganda picture; it offers no solution to labor problems, but presents human beings in a human story.” Nevertheless, it was banned in some states, including Illinois.

Here are 10 excellent films available on video or streaming:

“Black Fury” (1935). This pet project of star Paul Muni was based on a real incident in coal country. Muni plays a friendly miner who’s betrayed, by a woman and strikebreakers. Racketeers seek to control the miners’ union, and Muni’s character finds himself at the center of controversy. Directed by Michael Curtiz (“Casablanca”), it co-stars Ward Bond and Barton MacLane.

“Blue Collar” (1978). Peoria native Richard Pryor co-stars with Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kototo in a tale about assembly-line culture that can exhaust workers who feel trapped between Big Business and Big Labor. Set in a Detroit-area factory, three co-worker friends find themselves involved in mischief that turns deadly when they try to steal from the union and discover what looks like corruption.

“Bread and Roses” (2000). Ken Loach directed this drama about a group of immigrant janitors who demand their right to organize. The cast is superb, with Adrien Brody as an organizer. Pointedly pro-worker, the film also concedes flaws in everyone.

“Cesar Chavez” (2014). Michael Pena stars in this biopic of the legendary leader of the Farm Workers union, an inspiring figure also active in civil rights and the church. Rosario Dawson and John Malkovich are featured.

“Hoffa” (1992). Starring Jack Nicholson in the title role, this is compelling. However, working people appear just a few times: early in Teamsters history (when workers were weak) and in a mob scene (where strikers confront scabs). Nevertheless, Hoffa, who vanished in 1975, is shown organizing, leading strikes and improving lives, but also making deals with organized crime. Its superb cast includes Armand Assante, John C. Reilly and Danny DeVito, who also directed.

“The Killing Floor” (1984). Produced for PBS, this award-wining drama is a grim glimpse of early 20th century meatpacking and racial strife in Chicago. Damiene Leake stars as a Southern sharecropper who moves north for work. Hired at the stockyards, he finds organizers for a union of African Americans, immigrants and locals, all trying to bargain with powerful packinghouses. Moses Gunn, Alfre Woodard, Dennis Farina and John Mahoney are featured.

“Matewan” (1987). Filmmaker John Sayles’ vivid account of West Virginia coal miners in the 1920s focuses on what’s remembered as the Alamo of coal-field wars. Chris Cooper stars as a union man organizing miners and overcoming racial divisions. The film is narrated by an adult version of an adolescent miner, preacher and union man who recalls, at film’s end, that “it’s just one big union, the whole world over. That’s what I preached. That was my religion.” James Earl Jones and David Strathairn co-star.

“Norma Rae” (1979). Sally Field won an Oscar for her portrayal of the title role in Martin Ritt’s movie about a working wife and mother who rises to the challenges of organizing her workplace. A plain-spoken, 31-year-old Southern textile worker, Norma Rae shows little interest in the arrival of a union organizer (Ron Liebman) then slowly changes, realizing her priorities and risking her job, marriage and family to do what’s right. Beau Bridges and Pat Hingle co-star.

“Silkwood” (1983). Likeable Karen Silkwood (Meryl Streep) joins union organizers in improving working conditions in this biography directed by Mike Nichols. The story traces most of the circumstances that led to the still-unsolved death of the Kerr-McGee nuclear plant worker – en route to deliver incriminating documents to a reporter. It co-stars Kurt Russell, Cher and Craig T. Nelson.

“10,000 Black Men Named George” (2002). This made-for-cable film stars Andre Braugher as Asa Philip Randolph, the organizer who led the Pullman sleeping-car porters union for decades before becoming an AFL-CIO and civil rights leader. Directed by Robert Townshend, the picture co-stars Mario Van Peebles, Brock Peters and Charles S. Dutton. Often overlooked, the 90-minute film is splendid.

Pray for workers this Labor Day

 

Bill Knight column for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, 8-24, 25 or 26

As Labor Day looms, the stock market has set new record highs – proving again that Wall Street doesn’t reflect Main Street, much less working people. Most Americans were more affected by circumstances revealed in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ apocalyptic report that the economy fell by almost one-third – the Gross Domestic Product at the end of June was 32.9% lower than the second quarter in 2019, the biggest decline on record – hardly Good News.

The reported 10.2% U.S. jobless rate for July fell by 0.9% from June, but 1.2 million Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits the same week – the 20th consecutive week of more than 1 million claims. Further, BLS’ stats can be misleading. The agency said the number of jobless last month was 16.3 million, 1.4 million fewer than in June. But that doesn’t include more than 6 million workers who were unemployed before the pandemic struck, nor people without work but receiving federal payments through separate aid funneled through their employers. Adding those jobless workers to the 16.3 million listed results in 22.3 million unemployed Americans, or a jobless rate of 14%. That’s a Great Depression number.

So while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Congressman Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) propose a new Workers Bill of Rights, everyday workers know that only something like Divine intervention will force Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to permit lawmakers to even consider the measure.

Regular folks might reasonably turn to the Good News as expressed generally in the Bible and specifically by Pope Francis. Marking Labor Day, the Pontiff publicly prayed:

“God our Father, Creator of heaven and Earth, we thank you for gathering us as brothers and sisters. We pray to you for workers everywhere.

“We pray for those who work with their hands and with immense physical effort: Soothe their wearied frames, that they may tenderly caress their children and join in their games.

“Grant them unfailing spiritual strength and physical health, lest they succumb beneath the burden of their labors. Grant that the fruits of their work may ensure a dignified life to their families. May they come home at night to warmth, comfort and encouragement and together, under your gaze, find true joy.

“May our families know that the joy of earning our daily bread becomes perfect when that bread is shared. May our children not be forced to work, but receive schooling and continue their studies, and may their teachers devote themselves fully to their task, without needing other work to make a decent living.

“God of justice, touch the hearts of owners and managers. May they make every effort to ensure that workers receive a just wage and enjoy conditions respectful of their human dignity.

“Father, in your mercy, take pity on those who lack work. May unemployment – the cause of such great misery – disappear from our societies. May all know the joy and dignity of earning their daily bread and bringing it home to support their loved ones.

“Create among workers a spirit of authentic solidarity. May they learn to be attentive to one another, to encourage one another, to support those in difficulty and to lift up those who have fallen.

“Let their hearts not yield to hatred, resentment or bitterness in the face of injustice. May they keep alive their hope for a better world, and work to that end.

“Together, may they constructively defend their rights. Grant that their voices and demands may be heard. God our Father, you have made St. Joseph, foster father of Jesus and courageous spouse of the Virgin Mary, protector of workers throughout the world. To him I entrust all those who labor, especially those experiencing uncertainty and hardship. May he keep them in the love of your Son and sustain them in their livelihood and in their hope.

“Amen.”

And pray for a good Labor Day and justice ahead.

A new ‘old college try,’ or the end of an era?

 

Bill Knight column for 8-20, 21 or 22, 2020

 I’m not optimistic about colleges, which are coping with more than a pandemic. As campuses struggle to start fall terms, the old Rolling Stones lyric comes to mind: “This could be the last time, this could be the last time, maybe the last time, I don’t know. Oh, no…”

Either higher education is adapting to a New Normal, an indefinite approach of face coverings, social distancing and remote learning, or is at a Turning Point, a moment that could permanently change college.

College during a pandemic already has outbreaks, from the University of North Carolina and Missouri State to Texas A&M and Bradley University. In Illinois, Gov. Pritzker approved guidelines requiring masks, social distancing and monitoring student symptoms, and area colleges are complying. Some also offer remote learning, in-person classes ending before Thanksgiving, single dorm rooms of available, and mandated negative test results before attending classes or activities.

Testing in some places is for people showing symptoms or having had contact with cases, but health officials say that may be problematic since people may be infected and contagious without symptoms. A forthcoming study by Harvard and Yale researchers says outbreak control requires testing all students every two or three days, which the federal government isn’t funding.

Some colleges are asking students and staff to sign agreements that they realize the risks and will follow guidelines, uncomfortable documents people may tie to the American Council on Education’s request for protection from costs defending pandemic-related lawsuits. Some schools seem to be relying on students refraining from behaving like students have for generations; that’s doubtful and places the burden on them, not their institutions.

The American Federation of Teachers and its unit representing college workers, University Professionals of Illinois, last week filed an Unfair Labor Practice with the Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, alleging that Western Illinois and Eastern Illinois Universities didn’t bargain about reopening.

Bill Thompson, president of WIU’s UPI chapter, said, “The university has asked me to pledge to wear a mask, maintain social distancing, and clean frequently used surfaces, but in return they haven’t pledged to provide students and employees with safe places and ways to work, to test everyone adequately, and to provide a metric so that we can see whether WIU’s plan is working.”

Meanwhile:

* the American Council on Education projects enrollment nationwide to fall 15% (the number of Illinoisans going to school out of state is up 73% since 2000, according to the Chicago Tribune);

* revenues are falling; the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign reportedly lost $70 million in pandemic-related expenses, and colleges face less housing income (a survey by Real Estate Witch says just 9.3% of students plan to live on campus this fall);

* debts incurred to pay for college are becoming huge liabilities. Area schools’ tuitions range from $9,600 at Illinois Central College to $47,000 at Knox, with Black Hawk at $4,100 and WIU at $11,000. CBS’ Jill Schlesinger reports that new federal loans between July 1 and June 30, 2021, have interest rates of 2.75% (undergrads), 4.3% (graduate students) and 5.3% (“Grad PLUS” and “Parent PLUS” loans);

* more college teachers (maybe two-thirds, according to Indiana University/South Bend professor Benjamin Balthaser) are low-paid “adjuncts”; and

* administrations at some campuses are deemphasizing liberal-arts studies, thinking students want specific courses for narrow career goals.

 

“[Universities’] purpose is to turn students into thinking people and, more important, into critical citizens,” Balthaser said. “Higher education is by definition a social good, not something to be engaged solely for private gain.”

Whatever their academic philosophies, Illinois campuses are reopening. The two-year Black Hawk College in Moline and Galva opened Monday with remote learning for classes without labs, and expects 1,874 students – 47% of last fall. Galesburg’s private Knox College is letting students choose in-person or remote learning and single rooms if available. (Knox had about 1,200 students last year, but it’s unclear about this year’s enrollment since they gave students until Aug. 31 to decide for fall, which starts Sept. 14.). And WIU in Macomb and the Quad Cities, which this week is holding a “virtual assembly” to kick off the semester, is starting with reduced class sizes, staggered class times and both in-person and online classes. Its enrollment is forecast to be up from Spring, with more than 1,000 new freshmen and 700 new transfers.

However, college-as-commodity – the door through which grads supposedly enter the middle class – seems at risk or, increasingly, an illusion. Are students or parents still reassured they’ll get what they thought they were buying?

If my son were still in college, I’d recommend he take a “gap year,” but such a choice could go on for years. Oh, no: I’m not optimistic.