When Norma Won a Union :: Economics Economy Governmental Essays

When Norma Won a Union The movie Norma Rae depicted a town where the people worked within a capitalist economic system. While the textile mill may have been the only major job in town, the workers could have left without being under physical threat from the company. Their free time was their own as was their salary at the end of the day. The workers were paid by the hour so that the company did not pay them based on how much product was produced during the term of labor but how much time was spent at work. Because of this, the company had to have other ways of assuring that a specific amount of goods were produced by the end of every day. The assembly line, created by John Ford for this very purpose, was one way of managing the rate of production, in addition, they hired managers to do spot-checking and such as the workers were not the ones in charge of the organization of the production process. Unlike in a feudal society, the workers sold themselves to the employers and if the employers weren't happy with their work or didn't need them anymore they could fire them and the workers would then have to enter the labor market again. One could argue that though the textile mill was the only major employer, the workers still had a choice of employer because they could have become self-employed or have left town. The company did not seem to have any direct control over the real estate in town. By not spending any money on maintaining the equipment in the factory, buying protective earphones for the workers, installing a Kotex machine, allowing workers to take a break when they needed to, or supplying health care benefits the company cut down on their expenses and increased their profits. Because the unionization of the workplace could have resulted in an increase in the cost of labor, the textile factory attempted to stop the workers in the factory from joining the TWUA(textile workers union of America) by various methods. They used economic incentives to try to keep Norma Rae from complaining and bringing up new workers' rights issues every day. By giving