History of the struggle on film: Norma Rae

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner~y2009m2d7-History-of-the-struggle-on-film-Norma-Rae?cid=exrss-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner



Norma Rae is a compelling dramatization of the struggle to organize JP Stevens in North Carolina. It is based on the life and experience of workplace leader Crystal Lee Sutton. The following description of the movie and her life are from the Crystal Sutton Collection website.

Set in the industrial South and based on a true story, Martin Ritt's 'Norma Rae' is a moving portrait of a woman's fight to improve both her own life and the deplorable conditions that exist in the mill where she works. Norma Rae (Sally Field) has worked at the textile mill for years, but when a union organizer from New York comes to town, Norma takes on the hostility of the mill's management and the apathy of her coworkers to try to unionize the mill. Field plays Norma Rae as a passionate woman who realizes her own potential and her need to rebel against the status quo. She is also infuriated by the conditions at the mill. When Norma, uneducated and poor, finally expresses her disgust with life at the mill, it is an electrifying moment, and Field radiates this energy for the rest of the film, providing an emotional core and drive that gives the picture its power.

Sutton’s role in the history of labor is assured. In the early 1970s, Crystal Lee was 33 and working at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., where she was making $2.65 an hour folding towels. The poor working conditions she and her fellow employees suffered compelled her to join forces with Eli Zivkovich, a union organizer, and attempt to unionize the J.P. Stevens employees.

sally field in norma rae: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qilQ_gfm3w&eurl=http://www.examiner.com/x-2071-DC-Special-Interests-Examiner~y2009m2d7-History-of-the-struggle-on-film-Norma-Rae?cid=exr

“Management and others treated me as if I had leprosy,” said Crystal. She received threats and was finally fired from her job. But before she left, she took one final stand, filmed verbatim in the 1979 film Norma Rae. “I took a piece of cardboard and wrote the word UNION on it in big letters, got up on my work table, and slowly turned it around. The workers started cutting their machines off and giving me the victory sign. All of a sudden the plant was very quiet…”

Sutton was physically removed from the plant by police, but the result of her actions was staggering. The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union won the right to represent the workers at the plant and Sutton became an organizer for the union. In 1977, Sutton was awarded back wages and her job was reinstated by court order, although she chose to return to work for just two days. She subsequently became a speaker on behalf of the ACTWU and was profiled in interviews on Good Morning America, in The New York Times Magazine, and countless other national and international publications during the late 1970s and early 1980s.


FULL story at link.

[2Design]

1. I loved that Film, the story and Sally Field

Sally Field as an actress became my top favorite because of that film. My support for unions became solidified because of that film. We need more films like that now so that these young people who have been persuaded by repukes against unions understand what is really at stake.

[mmmkay]

2. I finally saw it...great film...Sally Field was amazing in it and the story was an inspiration!

I hope more people will take the time to watch such a great work.

[Ernesto]

3. I showed the Sally Field movie to my students every year........

while serving as an apprentice instructor for Union Sheet Metal Workers.
My students also loved "Matewan".
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093509/