The negotiating committee of the Writers Guild of America has recommended that the union's members go on strike, perhaps as early as Monday.

Whether you support one side or just hope it ends quickly, you probably have a favorite film that deals with labor relations and striking workers. Two classic pro-labor films date from the same year, 1954.   

A couple of years before On the Waterfront was released, its director, Elia Kazan, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee and identified some of his fellow writers as Communists. Arthur Miller, who wrote the original screenplay for On the Waterfront, was himself blacklisted. The film won a slew of Oscars, among them best acting (Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint), best writing (Bud Schulberg, who replaced Miller), best director and best picture.

The same year brought Salt of the Earth, a neo-realist film about striking zinc mine workers in New Mexico. Not surprisingly, since Salt's writer, director and producer were once members of the "Hollywood Ten," the film was itself blacklisted by HUAC - it's the only American film to receive this dubious honor.

The poll, after the jump.