Matewan

Matewan is a movie starring Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, and Mary McDonnell. A labor union organizer comes to an embattled mining community brutally and violently dominated and harassed by the mining company.
Filmed in the coal country of West Virginia, "Matewan" celebrates labor organizing in the context of a 1920s work stoppage. Union organizer, Joe Kenehan, a scab named "Few Clothes" Johnson and a sympathetic mayor and police chief heroically fight the power represented by a coal company and Matewan's vested interests so that justice and workers' rights need not take a back seat to squalid working conditions, exploitation and the bottom line.