"Salt of the Earth" is a film documenting the 1951 strike of the International Union of Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers local 890 against their employer, the Empire Zinc Company. Discriminated against for years, the Mexican miners of local 890 decide to strike for equality and improved safety conditions in the mines. Their wives `man' the picket lines when a court injunction prohibits the miners from picketing at the mine gates. The backlash that results goes far beyond labor-management relations and results in creating equality between the men and women that did not previously exist. The film centers on one family, the Quinteros, and how the strike effected their family from within.
A nice edition for a collector. The supplemental material, "The Hollywood Ten," is dramatic and gives insight concerning the 1950's extreme fear of Communism, when ten Hollywood talents were accused of Communism and imprisoned for comtempt of court.