Norma Rae - Plot

Plot

Norma Rae Webster is a minimum-wage worker in a cotton mill that has taken too much of a toll on the health of her family for her to ignore her Dickensian working conditions. After hearing a speech by New York union organizer Reuben Warshowsky, Norma Rae decides to join the effort to unionize her shop. This causes conflict at home when Norma Rae's husband Sonny says she's not spending enough time in the home. Despite the pressure brought to bear by management, when confronted, Norma Rae takes a piece of cardboard, writes the word "UNION", stands on her worktable, and slowly turns to show the sign around the room. One by one, other workers stop their mill machines, and eventually, the entire room becomes silent, after all machines have been switched off. Norma Rae then successfully orchestrates an election to unionize the factory, resulting in victory for the union.

The story is based on Crystal Lee Sutton's life as a textile worker in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, where the battle for the workers union took place against a J.P Stevens Textile mill. Her actual protest, in the mill, is the scene in the film where she writes the sign "UNION" and stands on her worktable until all machines are silent. Although Sutton was fired from her job, the mill became unionized, and she later went to work as an organizer for the textile union.