Blue Collar (1978), directed by Paul Schrader, follows three Detroit auto workers who plan a robbery of their union office, only to uncover corruption that alters their relationships and personal lives. The film examines labor conditions, institutional power and the pressures faced by working-class communities. The production marked Schrader’s directorial debut and focuses on tensions within industrial America during the late 1970s.

Their discovery sets off a chain of betrayal, blackmail, and violence that ultimately pits the men against each other, revealing how power structures divide and conquer even the closest of friends.

Powerhouse films

After writing Taxi Driver for Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader made his directorial debut with this profane and profound drama about life on the factory floor of a Detroit car manufacturing plant. With explosive performances from the great Richard Pryor (Silver Streak, Stir Crazy), Harvey Keitel (The Border, Pulp Fiction) and Yaphet Kotto (Live and Let Die, Alien), Blue Collar presents one of the most authentic portraits of working-class life in all American cinema, and is one of the finest films of the 1970s.

Från IMDB:
When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail.