Top 10 Union Movies
The Pajama Game, 1957
Organized labor never sounded more tuneful than in this vivacious transfer of the 1954 Broadway hit to the screen, directed by Stanley Donen and George Abbott. Babe Williams (Doris Day) is the union rep at the Sleep-Tite garment factory; Sid Sorokin (John Raitt) is the manager hired by the boss, "old man Hasler," to increase worker productivity and maybe break the union. Of course they fight, fall in love, fight some more and keep on singin'. Amid the sheaf of hits ("Hey There," "Hernando's Hideaway," "Steam Heat") by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, and the jazz dances choreographed by Bob Fosse, the show tucks in some jolly pro-union propaganda.
"Racing with the Clock" is a perky dirge about overwork; "Steam Heat" is performed at a union fundraiser ("Come on, union, get hot!"). And in the finale, "7½ Cents," a local brother gives the math for a small raise: "Seven-and-a-half cents doesn't buy a heck of a lot/ Seven-and-a-half cents doesn't mean a thing/ But give it to me every hour/ Forty hours every week/ That's enough for me to be livin' like a king!" He figures that 20 years with that bonus comes to $3,411.96 — the co-workers whisper a reverent "Wow" — and Babe sings, "I'll have myself a buying spree/ I'll buy a pajama factory/ Then I could end up having old man Hasler work for me!" At the end Babe and Sid are reconciled, she in pajama tops, he in the bottoms. Thus does labor get into bed with management.