Bread and Rosesis a 2000 drama film directed by Ken Loach , starring Adrien Brody . The plot deals with the struggle of poorly paid janitorial workers in Los Angeles and their fight for better working conditions and the right to unionize . It is based on the " Justice for Janitors " campaign of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

The film is critical of inequalities in the United States. Health insurance in particular is highlighted and it is also claimed in the film that the pay of cleaners and other low paying jobs has declined in recent years.

The film's name, " Bread and Roses ", derives from the 1912 textile strike in Lawrence , Massachusetts . Though the phrase comes from a 1910 poem by James Oppenheim , it is commonly associated with the Lawrence strike, which united dozens of immigrant communities, led to a large extent by women, under the leadership of the Industrial Workers of the World .