“They are free to exploit you, to lie to you, to cheat you and to take away from you what is rightfully yours - your health, a decent wage, a fit place to work” (Asseyev, Rose, Ritt, 1979). In the movie Norma Rae, union organizer Reuben Warshovsky, delivered this powerful speech to workers at the O.P. Henley textile mill. He warned them that without union representation they would continue to be taken advantage of by management. The movie, set in 1978, showed textile workers in a small, southern town who were forced to work long hours for a measly wage in deplorable and unsafe conditions. These workers were characteristically “poorly educated and largely unskilled” (Leiter, 1986, p. 951). The management was neglectful of and apathetic to the health and safety of their workers. Norma Rae, a mill worker, knew that her children were destined to work in the mill like the generations before them. It was a life that they could not escape. Therefore she made it her mission to stand up for her rights, empower her co-workers, and effectively improve the quality of life for mill workers of the future. Norma Rae chronicles the union organizing process from the expression of the workers’ discontent to the ultimate union win. Discontent in the workplace motivates workers to form a union. Though the mill workers in the movie were accustomed to a modest life, they became angry with their somber working conditions and the treatment they received. In one scene, a mill worker verbalized his discontent by referring to working in the mill as a term in jail. Another worker relayed the story of losing her husband to brown lung – a condition caused by prolonged exposure to cotton dust (Lynn, 1976). Additionally, Norma Rae saw firsthand how unsympath... ... middle of paper ... ...on representation and obtain a proper wage and working environment. References Asseyev, T., & Rose, A. (Producer). Ritt, M. (Director). (1979). Norma Rae [Motion picture]. United States: Twentieth Century Fox. Fossum, J. (2012). Labor relations: Development, structure, process (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Leiter, J. (1986). Reactions to Subordination: Attitudes of Southern Textile Workers. Social Forces, 64(4), 948-974. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Lynn, F. (1976). The dust in Willie's lungs. Nation, 222(7), 209. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Noe, Hollenbeck, Gerhart, & Wright, 2007, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2007). Fundamentals of human resource management (2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Weil, D. (1991). Enforcing OSHA: The role of labor unions. Industrial Relations, 30(1), 20. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
...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.
In the film, Matewan, director John Sayles paints a 1920’s picture of a small, West Virginia coal-mining town. Over the course of the film, this seemingly American Township reveals itself as the site of feudal hardship for its citizens. The Stone Mountain Coal Company was the sole employer in Matewan. The company’s laborers struggled for autonomy and for freedom from the company’s grasp. The ideal method for this achieving such autonomy was organization of a union. This idea of union struck a cord with the company, and the conflict between employer and employee soon escalated into a battle. The laborers began to realize, in certain terms, that the Stone Mountain Coal Company is not simply a corporation but a feudal power. These townspeople were living in a capitalist country, but they were controlled by a feudal enterprise in Matewan, West Virginia. The coal mining business built a town that was then forced to rely on that company through monopoly control, bondage contract, and the organization of their production. Thus, the Stone Mountain Coal Company created a feudal monopoly over the town. The business had dominant control over all aspects of their laborer’s lives.
The early 1900s was a time of many movements, from the cities to the rural farms; people were uniting for various causes. One of the most widespread was the labor movement, which affected people far and wide. Conditions in the nation’s workplaces were notoriously poor, but New York City fostered the worst. Factories had started out in the city’s tenements, which were extremely cramped, poorly ventilated, and thoroughly unsanitary. With the advent of skyscrapers, factories were moved out of the tenements and into slightly larger buildings, which still had terrible conditions. Workers were forced to work long hours (around 12 hours long) six hours a day, often for extremely low pay. The pay was also extremely lower for women, who made up a large portion of the shirtwaist industry. If a worker were to openly contest an employer’s rule, they would be promptly fired and replaced immediately. Also, strength in numbers did not always work. Managers often hired brutal strikebreakers to shut movements down. The local police and justice were often of no help to the workers, even when women were being beaten. At the time, the workers needs were not taken seriously and profit was placed ahead of human life. This was not just a struggle for workers’ rights; it was also a movement for the working class’ freedom.
Zhang, Y. B., Harwood, J., Williams, A., Ylänne-McEwen, V., Wadleigh, P. M., & Thimm, C.
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.
...Hallert, C., C. Grant, S. Grehn, C. Grannot, S. Hultent, G. Midhagens M. Strom, H. Svensson,
Early in American history during colonial times and into the middle of the 19th centry, relations between employers and those whom they employed were many times hostile and adversarial. Sometimes these disagreements between employee and employer would explode into violent confrontations. Workers wether skilled or not would fight with management over improved/safer working conditions, fair pay, long exhausting hours by uniting and form...
Norma Rae a loom operator in the weaving room is an outspoken individual and is very out spoken about her poor working conditions such as excessive noise, long hours with short breaks, physical stress from standing for long periods and abnormally high temperatures in the work areas. Added to all this is management¡¦s apathy for the working conditions, as seen when her mother looses her hearing temporarily with little or no sentiment from the company doctor, who knows this is a common problem for the workers. With this setting, the film progresses through most of the stages for employee organization. While management tries to get the workers support to keep the union out, and labor struggles to get a foothold to develop worker unity and get the union elected as the official bargaining agent both sides violate federal laws or come precariously close. First the Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) of the union will be examined.
Tackett, J. L., Lahey, B. B., van Hulle, C., Waldman, I., Krueger, R. F., & Rathouz, P. J. (2013).
In the early 1930s, the Great Depression was in full swing. Businesses were cutting wages and laying off workers in order to maintain high profits. Workers faced sweatshop conditions, low wages, long hours, and the constant threat of being laid off. The conditions of the coal industry in Minneapolis were typical for the time. In the Teamster Rebellion by Farrell Dobbs; a member of the Communist League of America and one of the leaders of the 1934 strike describes his own situation: “We were just squeaking by when I was cut to forty-eight hours a week. It was a welcome physical relief since coal heavers had to work like mules, but there was also a two-dollar cut in weekly pay…. The thin flesh of mere subsistence was being scraped down to the bare bones of outright poverty…. On top of all that, I could expect to be laid off in the spring…. And I could be fired at any time without recourse merely at the employer’s whim. (Pg.30-31)”
Ethics and the Unions - Part 1. Industrial Workers of the World. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.iww.org/en/history/library/Dolgoff/newbeginning/1
Under the employment of the powerful capitalists, the workers had long hours and low wages (Schoenthaler, 2018b). Additionally, they worked in poor working conditions and performed mind-numbing work on assembly lines (Schoenthaler, 2018b). These conditions provoked the first of many worker strikes. For instance, one of the first was the Homestead strike against the Carnegie Steel Company (History.com Staff, 2009). When Andrew Carnegie placed Henry Frick, an unethical man, in charge, the workers endured long hours, low wages, and strenuous work (Schoenthaler, 2018b). As a result, the workers went on strike and demanded shorter hours and higher wages (Schoenthaler, 2018b). In response, Henry Frick hired the Pinkerton guards to forcibly remove the workers from the factory (History.com Staff, 2009). Consequently, the battle between the guards and workers resulted in death and injuries on both sides (History.com Staff, 2009). Eventually, the Carnegie Steel Company managed to run the factory again with strikebreakers (History.com Staff, 2009). As a result of these conditions, the capitalists increased the social inequality gap between those of great wealth and of extreme poverty (Schoenthaler,
Mary Barton tells the story from the laborer's point of view, but we are not without knowledge of the mill owner's side of it either, especially through the philosophical wisdom of Job Legh. In her attempts to present the plight of the laborer in Manchester, Elizabeth Gaskell has not neglected to make us understand the importance and significance of the industrial movement, as well as the great possibilities it possessed.
Tamborini, Ron ; Eastin, Matthew S. ; Skalski, Paul ; Lachlan, Kenneth ; Fediuk, Thomas A. ;
Barker, V., Giles, H., Hajek, C., Ota, H., Noels, K., Lim, T-S., & Somera, L. (2008).