Bread and Roses

Maya is a sharp and resourceful young woman who crosses the Mexican border without legal documents and travels to Los Angeles to stay with her older sister, Rosa. Rosa secures Maya a job as a janitor, working for a non-union cleaning company that holds the contract for the building. The company is overseen by a verbally abusive supervisor who has the power to fire workers at will. The service-workers' union has assigned organizer Sam Shapiro to push its "justice for janitors" campaign at the site. Sam finds Maya to be a receptive and engaged listener, and a mutual attraction develops between them. Rosa, however, is resistant to the campaign, citing concerns for her ailing husband. As the workers attempt to gain public support, management uses intimidation tactics to sow division among the staff. The tensions between Rosa and Maya, as well as between the workers and management, threaten to escalate into a confrontation.