Norma Rae Movie Analysis
Unions were created to help the working man and woman achieve better wages and working conditions. Historically, unions were met with high scrutiny and resistance from management and self-organizing was a struggle. The movie Norma Rae perfectly depicts one woman 's struggle to organize a union within the textile mill she works at.
Summary of Movie
The movie Norma Rae opens in the summer of 1978 in a textile factory in a North Carolina town. As the camera pans through the mill, it follows a woman, later revealed as Norma Rae, as she moves about the machines. As she goes on break and tries talking to her mom, she realizes her mom cannot hear her and rushes her to the factory doctor. The doctor brushes off the loss
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Norma Rae gave him the tip to dumb down the flyers because to many big words were confusing to the factory workers. Management is disrespectful and rude to Ruben, where Ruben starts quoting legislation about interfering with union organization. Meanwhile, inside the factory manager calls Norma Rae into their office where she starts off the conversation as "Whatever it is, I didn 't do it!" It turns out they were promoting her to spot checker, she was only receiving minimum wage at the time and this would mean extra income for her family. During her brief time as a spot checker, Norma Rae began to lose her friends and family and ended up meeting her husband. The cost of losing her friends and family was not worth an extra $1.50 an hour and went back to working in the weaving …show more content…
It showed the employees struggle against management and the terrible working conditions of the factory. Like most union movies, viewers are meant to sympathize with the unions by seeing management as cruel, unforgiving people. I’m not saying that the employees’ struggles are fictional but the movies are dominantly one sided for union organization. Granted any movie that tried to show equal respects to both management and union organizers would probably not be as exciting because there is no defined “good” vs. “evil.” In all, Norma Rae brought to light hardships employees that work in deregulated factories and mills endured because management could do whatever they wanted and showed the need to unionize to protect employees.
Analysis
Norma Rae is an excellent movie to show the different aspects of unionization. From employee’s motivation to management’s reaction to the process of organization, it envelops these aspects while telling a compelling story.
Motives for
Tensions between union supporters and management began mounting in the years preceding the strike. In April of 1994, the International Union led a three-week strike against major tracking companies in the freight hauling industry in attempts to stop management from creating $9 per hour part-time positions. This would only foreshadow battles to come between management and union. Later, in 1995, teamsters mounted an unprecedented national union campaign in attempts to defeat the labor-management “cooperation” scheme that UPS management tried to establish in order to weaken the union before contract talks (Witt, Wilson). This strike was distinguished from other strikes of recent years in that it was an offensive strike, not a defensive one. It was a struggle in which the union was prepared, fought over issues which it defined, and one which relied overwhelmingly on the efforts of the members themselves (http://www.igc.org/dbacon/Strikes/07ups.htm).
The paper will discuss minicases on ‘The White-Collar Union Organizer’ and ‘The Frustrated Labor Historians’ by Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Witney (2010), to understand the issues unions undergo in the marketplace. There is no predetermined statistical number reported of union memberships in this country. However, “the United Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) excludes almost 2 million U.S wages and salary employees, over half of whom are employed in the public sector, who are represented at their workplaces by a union but are not union members. Not being required to join a union as a condition of continued employment, these employees have for a variety of reasons chosen not to do so. Nor do the BLS estimates include union members who are currently unemployed” (Sloane & Witney, 2010, p.5). Given this important information, the examination of these minicases will provide answers to the problems unions face in organizational settings.
In the short story “Norma” by Sonia Sanchez, a girl named Sonia looks up to a fellow classmate by the name of Norma. While in middle school, Norma hated French and since Norma hated french, and so did Sonia but only because norma didn't like it. Norma got kicked out of out of high school because she got pregnant. After Sonia graduates from college she sees how much Norma's life had taken a turn and no longer looks up to her. sonia saw that Norma had four children and did a lot of drugs. Sonia agreed to meet Norma again someday, but then left and agreed never to agree again. Sonia agreed never to agree again because, she had always looked up to and agreed with Norma, but now Sonia sees and understands that Norma has ruined her life. To begin with, Sonia always did what Norma did and tried to be like Norma as much as she possibly could.
...er their conditions, as workers. Furthermore, unfortunately even with the formation of the union nothing is guaranteed. We see this in Matewan where the union was apparently unsuccessful in its mission. In Norma Rae we, as the viewers, can only hope that the established union would in the end prove to be successful.
After the industrialization, machine became so important that workers’ excellent skill was not necessary anymore. So talented workers were no more valuable. Entrepreneurs could easily hire cheaper workers to run the machine, which lower the workers’ salaries in a certain degree. Then of course workers wanted to gain equality with their employers like what they lived before. Therefore, workers established Unions to protect their own benefits.
The case study of GMFC provides an example of a company attempting to avoid unionization of its workers. GMFC is expanding by building a new U.S. plant which will manufacture motorized recreational equipment. The company plans to hire about 500 production workers to assemble mechanical components, fabricate fiberglass body parts, and assemble the final products. In order to avoid the expected union campaign by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) to organize its workers, GMFC must implement specific strategies to keep the new plant union-free. GMFC’s planning committee offers suggestions with regards to the plant’s size, location, staffing, wages and benefits, and other employee relations issues in order to defend the company against the negative effects of unionization and increase...
The story also focuses in on Ruth Younger the wife of Walter Lee, it shows the place she holds in the house and the position she holds to her husband. Walter looks at Ruth as though he is her superior; he only goes to her for help when he wants to sweet talk his mama into giving him the money. Mama on the other hand holds power over her son and doesn’t allow him to treat her or any women like the way he tries to with Ruth. Women in this story show progress in women equality, but when reading you can tell there isn’t much hope and support in their fight. For example Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor and she is often doubted in succeeding all due to the fact that she is black African American woman, her going to college in general was odd in most people’s eyes at the time “a waste of money” they would say, at least that’s what her brother would say. Another example where Beneatha is degraded is when she’s with her boyfriend George Murchison whom merely just looks at her as arm
David Brody argues that the rise of contractual or collective bargaining relationships during the post WWII era formalized the relationship between employers and unions, but simultaneously began to put a break on shop floor activism. Explain Brody’s argument and, where relevant, incorporate Weber’s theory of bureaucracy.
Throughout the history of the United States of America the continuation of misfortunes for the workforce has aggravated people to their apex, eventually leading to the development of labor unions.
Beginning in the late 1700’s and growing rapidly even today, labor unions form the backbone for the American workforce and continue to fight for the common interests of workers around the country. As we look at the history of these unions, we see powerful individuals such as Terrence Powderly, Samuel Gompers, and Eugene Debs rise up as leaders in a newfound movement that protected the rights of the common worker and ensured better wages, more reasonable hours, and safer working conditions for those people (History). The rise of these labor unions also warranted new legislation that would protect against child labor in factories and give health benefits to workers who were either retired or injured, but everyone was not on board with the idea of foundations working to protect the interests of the common worker. Conflict with their industries lead to many strikes across the country in the coal, steel, and railroad industries, and several of these would ultimately end up leading to bloodshed. However, the existence of labor unions in the United States and their influence on their respective industries still resonates today, and many of our modern ideals that we have today carry over from what these labor unions fought for during through the Industrial Revolution.
After reviewing the film a rather short list of union ULP¡¦s, but they are potentially damaging and could be used by management to contest the outcome of the election if so desired. One committed by labor representative, the other by Norma Rae and are summarized as follows.
U.S. Labor History Unionism can be described as "a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment" (Smelser). This means that a group of workers can unite to gain more power and leverage in bargaining. The bargaining process may include many aspects but usually consists of wages, benefits, terms and conditions of employment. The notion of union came about in the 1700's. In the beginning, as it is today, workers united to "defend the autonomy and dignity of the craftsman against the growing power of the company" (Montgomery).
Before I took this class I had heard about unions in workplaces but did not know exactly what they were. In the museum it was said that the black Pullman Porter employees were able to form a union for the first time. When these employees met in secrecy to talk about their working conditions they were already a union; an informal union. In now days, they did not have to be recognized by their employer as a union to be a union. The Pullman Porters were coming together in solidarity as a brotherhood; standing together in strengthening numbers.
Throughout American history, labor unions have served to facilitate mediation between workers and employers. Workers seek to negotiate with employers for more control over their labor and its fruits. “A labor union can best be defined as an organization that exists for the purpose of representing its members to their employers regarding wages and terms and conditions of employment” (Hunter). Labor unions’ principal objectives are to increase wages, shorten work days, achieve greater benefits, and improve working conditions. Despite these goals, the early years of union formation were characterized by difficulties (Hunter).
Flanagan, R. J. (2005). Has Management Strangled U.S. Unions? Journal of Labor Research, 26(1), 33-63.