A band of manual laborers bet their legendarily strong digger against a salesman’s machine in a competition to prove human workers’ worth.

When he and his fellow workers are left unemployed by the mechanization of the cotton-picking process, a man overcomes his instincts to flee, and stays with his friends as they set out to make a new life.

A male at a wood chopping factory takes on a nervous new female apprentice but he becomes frustrated with her inability to be safe and efficient.

The laborers at a gas plant use all means to evade company rules and withdraw their money as they please.

A farm’s hired craftsman kills an elderly man and is forced to find a new home, lest he draw the attention of the authorities. However, his employer has grown attached to the craftsman, and the craftsman has unfinished business to attend to.

When a tragedy occurs at a construction site on Good Friday, the devout foreman's religion fails to save him or his men.

An elderly couple argue over their farm and house labor. When they agree to switch responsibilities, they must confront their obstinacy, strained relationship, and most significantly, exhausted old age as they struggle to complete their tasks.

A woman gets a new job sewing pockets and distractedly ponders her love for her brother, all while under the watchful eye of her overseer at the factory.

When a Croatian immigrant arrives for his first day at a New York City pork processing plant, the dehumanization of his work and the petty squabbles of his colleagues become overwhelming. Even so, nothing could have prepared him for the ferocity with which their dissatisfaction soon erupts into violence.

After her husband goes missing, a young mother assumes he's been deported and decides she must find work of her own.