Norma Rae - Labor and the Strength of a Union

Norma Rae is a film which follows a character by the same name as she and a union organizer attempt to unionize the textile mill where she works. The film also raises a question of responsibility for the economic well-being of the public through the poor conditions at the mill and visible government intervention in the ways Mr. Warshowsky can threaten legal action as a union organizer. The government has taken interest in the unionization process, as we can see in the film, but are not specifically interested in preventing the mistreatment that the employees are experiencing. Nor is the government intervention we see in the film particularly interested in the success of the union; the government interest is instead that the process is conducted without major disturbance. The government would intervene when the business encourages white employees to target black employees, which starts a fight in the movie, but Norma Rae is eventually arrested for causing a disturbance when she stands on top of a table holding a sign reading UNION. In the context of preventing wildcat strikes and lengthy disputes to recognize unions, the rules preventing ‘unfair’ practices by management to prevent unionization serve a purpose in preventing disturbances. The government’s purpose in the film and in American society is not to pick a winner between the management and the union, but to establish certain rules of competition and prevent the uglier side of the dispute from boiling over. Placing faith in our government to ensure the success of labor in the face of the present abuses against labor is then misplaced. The success of the union, while the government was involved in the process, is ultimately the task of the textile mill workers, just as any long-term success of labor is the work of labor.