Norma Eae: Struggles And Triumphs Of Norma Rae

Superior Essays
This film depicts the 1978 struggles and triumphs of Norma Rae Webster, a hardworking, straight to the point, all-American woman. Norma Rae is a textile worker for O.P. Henley Textile Mill in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina; she works in the weaving room as a loom operator. Being an outspoken individual, she is very intent on changing the poor working conditions of the mill such as the excessive noise, the long hours with short breaks, the overall physical stress from standing for long periods and the high temperatures inside the factory.
Summary
The film begins by portraying a noisy, dusty, dirty, and fairly dangerous mill that Norma Rae and her family work at. In the opening scenes Norma is trying to talk to her mother regarding their lunch,
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Jimmy initially insults Norma by telling her that she has the biggest mouth in the mill,due to the fact that in the past, she has demanded longer breaks, more smoke time and a Kotex pad machine for the ladies. Instead of offering to grant her requests or even working to resolve the issues, he tries to detour her by giving her a promotion to “Spot-Checking” that includes a $1.50/hr raise, in what could be interpreted as an attempt to silence or buy her off because her outspokenness. Norma Rae naïvely takes the bait because she needs the money for her two kids. But this position came with a catch and put her in a position where she had to record the other employees’ activities and make follow-up reports to management regarding their performance. This created a conflict for her in regards to maintaining a good relationship with coworkers and family members. Subsequently, the other workers quit talking to her and call her names such as a “fink.” After realizing the web that Jimmy ensnared her in, Norma Rae returns to his office and admits that she was greedy and dumb and that he was only having her speed them up so he could weed them out. She quickly and impulsively proposes to quit or have Jimmy fire her, but her boss instead demotes her back to loom operator. This whole ploy by the boss, Jimmy, could be taken as management making an attempt to …show more content…
So instead she holds the union meeting at her own house with both black and white employees. Her husband is appalled that she would have blacks in their home, but she ignores him and continues on with the meeting. At the meeting the other workers voice their own opinions and complaints. One of the mill workers states that, “The man’s work should be a man’s work not a jail term” (Ritt, 1979). Another woman describes her menstrual cramps and how management won’t let her sit and that she must keep on her feet. Another woman describes how her husband passed away two months prior from brown lung caused by the factory environment (Ritt, 1979). Norma Rae and Reuben continue to talk to friends and neighbors about the union. They receive some push back while others were receptive to the idea of unionization. Norma Rae becomes very invested in the creation of the union and begins calling neighbors and talking to them and educating them about the benefits of a union in the mill. It is so important to her that she begins fall behind with her home obligations and ends up upsetting her husband, but Norma stands her ground because she can see the benefit of the union in her future and her kid’s

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