Ethical Issues in Five Workplace and Labor Films
This paper presents commentaries on five films — Norma Rae, North Country, Erin Brockovich, Food Inc., and The Yes Men — examining the ethical issues depicted in each and connecting them to business ethics frameworks. Drawing primarily on Boatright's Ethics and the Conduct of Business, the paper explores themes including unsafe working conditions, sexual harassment, corporate environmental negligence, food industry deception, and the exploitation of cheap labor in international trade. Each film is analyzed through its plot, the central ethical conflict it raises, and the relevant theoretical concepts such as utilitarian reasoning, Kantian autonomy, property rights, and corporate social responsibility.
- Norma Rae: Labor Rights and Workplace Safety: Mill worker fights unsafe conditions through unionization
- North Country: Sexual Harassment and Employment Rights: Mining workplace harassment leads to landmark lawsuit
- Erin Brockovich: Corporate Environmental Negligence: Gas company conceals toxic pollution affecting residents
- Food Inc.: Corporate Power and Consumer Ethics: Food industry monopolies and government complicity examined
- The Yes Men: International Trade and Labor Exploitation: WTO satirized for exploiting cheap foreign labor
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What makes this paper effective
- Each section follows a consistent three-part structure (plot summary, ethical issues, connection to readings), making the analysis easy to follow and compare across films.
- The paper grounds its ethical observations in a specific text — Boatright's Ethics and the Conduct of Business — giving the analysis academic coherence rather than relying on unsupported opinion.
- A range of ethical frameworks is applied across the five films, including utilitarianism, Kantian autonomy, property rights theory, and corporate social responsibility, demonstrating breadth of engagement with course material.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied ethical analysis: it identifies a moral problem depicted in a cultural artifact (film or documentary), names the relevant ethical framework, and cites a course text to support the connection. This technique — moving from observation to framework to citation — is a foundational skill in applied ethics and business ethics courses.
Structure breakdown
The paper is divided into five parallel sections, one per film. Each section contains a brief plot summary, identification of the central ethical issue, and a connection to assigned readings. The conclusion of each section ties the film's conflict to a broader principle from business ethics theory. The consistent structure across all five sections reflects a comparative commentary format typical of undergraduate ethics coursework.
Norma Rae: Labor Rights and Workplace Safety
Plot Summary
This film, set in the state of Alabama, centers on social conflict in a textile mill community. In short scenes uncommon for its era, the film captures the narrowed worldview that poverty imposes on its characters. The characters in Norma Rae are neither eulogized nor parodied; instead, they are portrayed in a genuinely authentic light. Norma Rae's mother, going nearly deaf from the noise in the weaving room where she works, has grown indifferent to her environment. Her father is, at best, cautiously skeptical about the union, much like any other worker at the mill. Another character, Sonny, eventually leaves the mill and takes a new job at a service station. The film's central appeal is not simply how the characters overcome the challenges they face, but how the director draws out their natural personalities — their complicated feelings for one another, their emotional reserves, and their stubborn determination. The conflicts in the film matter, but they are secondary to the characters themselves, particularly Norma Rae, whose personality is revealed through her sharp, and at times brutal, interactions with strangers, parents, children, lovers, and ex-husbands (Canby, 1979).
Ethical Issues
One of the most pressing ethical issues in this film is the dangerous working conditions that are causing deaths among employees. Norma's father is one of those affected. Management is fully aware of the conditions but makes no effort to improve them. Things come to a head when Norma Rae confronts management directly after her father dies as a result of those conditions. She is the only worker — in a mill employing 800 people — willing to raise her voice and push for change (Leadership Development and Norma Rae Movie Leadership, 2015).
Connection to Readings
According to Boatright, the concept of employment rests on two foundations: freedom of contract and property rights. However, most rights are limited because they will, at some point, conflict with another right or with important social interests. For instance, property rights are important to securing individual freedom and meeting basic needs, as articulated in Locke's political theory (Boatright, 2012, p. 169).
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