"(WOMAN SINGING) Ain't no miracle bein' born" "People doin' it every day" "Ain't no miracle growing' up" "People just grow that way" "So it goes like it goes" "Like the river flows" "And time, it rolls right on" "And maybe what's good" "Gets a little bit better" "And maybe what's bad gets gone" "Bless the child of a workin' man" "She knows too soon who she is" "And bless the hands of a workin' man" "He knows his soul is his" "So it goes like it goes" "Like the river flows" "And time, it rolls right on" "And maybe what's good" "Gets a little bit better" "And maybe what's bad gets gone" "Yeah, it goes like it goes" "Like the river flows" "And time keeps rollin' on" "And maybe what's good" "Gets a little bit better" "And maybe what's bad" "Gets gone" "(LOUD MACHINE NOISE)" "(LOUD MACHINE NOISE)" "That's all you're eating for lunch?" "An apple?" "I'm dieting." "I got to keep my strength up." "I put these preserves up myself." "Sunday, Russell and I put up over 60 quarts of peaches." "What did you do over the weekend, Norma?" "I soaked my feet." "I saw you in town Sunday." "Your friend drives a mighty big car." "If you'd looked on the motel register, you'd seen my name, too." "It's none of m business." "Mama, you haven't opened up your sack yet." "Mama, aren't you hungry?" "Mama?" "Mama, you feeling all right?" "Mama?" "Mama, can you hear me?" "Mama?" "Mama!" "Mama, come on." "Come on." "She didn't hear one word I said!" "You know that happens." "Well, it doesn't happen to my mama!" "It'll pass off." "It's just temporary." "That makes it OK!" "She's only deaf all day!" "She can get another job." "What other job in this town?" "I'll give her a note." "They'll send her home." "Come on, Mama." "They don't care anything about you." "You all right out there?" "I'm fine." "You're going to get all bitten up." "I'll be in." "Just a minute." "Well..." "I'm going to let this pot soak." "There's one soaking from breakfast." "Now it's got company." "Hey, you kids." "10 more minutes of this junk, then do your homework." "I did it." "Unsatisfactory in lettering and reading, and your numbers aren't too good." "You haven't done much homework." " Shh!" " Shush!" "I'll shush you." "What are you getting fixed up for?" "I'm going into town." "What do you need in town?" "Things." "OK." "I'll drive you in." "You got Bonanza on next." "I'll miss that." "It's the same every week." "I'm going to J.C. Penney's, buy myself some panties and a white cotton brassiere, size 32-B." "If you want to sit outside the dressing room and have the ladies look at you, then come on." "No, ma'am." "You coming straight back?" "No." "I'm going to the drugstore, buy myself some Kotex pads and a Cosmopolitan magazine." "Mm-hmm." "Then you coming home?" "Yeah." "I'll be so tired from all the excitement," "I'll be coming home." "(KNOCK ON DOOR)" "Hi." "Mr. Witchard?" "That's right." "Vernon Witchard." "Who are you?" "My name is Reuben Warshovsky." "Warshovsky." "What kind of name is that?" "The kind you have to spell for telephone operators and headwaiters." "What do you want?" "I'd like a room with a mill family." "What for?" "We got a hotel, a motel with 36 rooms." "I want to get to know some mill hands." "Why is that?" "I'll tell you." "I just got into town about an hour ago." "Hi." "How are you?" "Right away, the police chief was saying, "Who are you?"" "So I told him I'm a labor organizer." "I've come to put a union in the OP." "Henley Textile Mill." "He said, "The hell you are, boy!"" "He was dead right." "You people are Communists, agitators, crooks, or Jews, or all four rolled together." "You make folks lose their jobs, get their heads busted..." "Excuse me, sir." "How much do you make an hour?" "I make $1.33 a frame." "When was your last cost-of-living raise?" "I haven't had that." "With today's inflation, that makes you a schlemiel." "You calling me some kind of name?" "You're underpaid." "You're overworked." "They're shafting you right up to your tonsils." "You need me, sir." "If you run real fast, you'll get to your car before my dog bites you." "We ain't even got a dog." "You don't need one." "Hey." "How you doing?" "Do you have any vacancies?" "Yes." "Hi." "Hey." "Friendly little town you got here." "So far I've been told to shove off, get off, and go away." "Oh, it's OK." "Make sure they spray your room for roaches." "You got roaches down here?" "I'm very familiar with roaches." "Do you have a room with a view?" "You got the back alley or the parking lot." "Which?" "Back alley or parking lot?" "Give him 31, Alston." "Can't hear the drunks from in there." "I'll be back this way next Wednesday after dinner." "I'm having dinner with my wife's folks." "Tonight was the last time, George." "You don't say, Norma Rae." "Well, now, isn't that a surprising turn?" "No." "Been coming on for some time." "You know something funny?" "I didn't notice it." "Didn't you get your steak dinner and your box of pralines?" "Didn't you come three times in a row in that bed over there?" "I wasn't counting." "Ha ha ha!" "Well, well, well." "Looks like I don't know what it takes to satisfy you these days." "It just doesn't sit well with me anymore, George." "You got your wife, your two kids in high school." "There's a lot of gossip." "I got my two kids." "I don't know." "It just doesn't make me feel good." "You're here to make me feel good." "I'm not trotting down here anymore." "Why, you hick." "You got dirt under your fingernails." "You pick your teeth with a matchbook." "What the hell are you good for, anyway?" "You come outta that factory, you wash under your armpits, you come on down here and spread your legs for a poke, and you're dumping me?" "I heard a hell of a thump." "That was me, getting throwed across the room." "I have some ice for that." "Sit down." "Please." "You look all shook up." "Here, put this on." "I thought everybody down South was Ashley Wilkes." "You lie down with dogs, you get fleas." "Does this look broken to you?" "Go like this." "No, I don't think so." "Do you want aspirin?" "No, thanks." "Band-Aid?" "Valium?" "You're a whole drugstore." "I'm a mild hypochondriac." "Keep that on it." "Ohh." "Me and men." "I ought to learn to say no right from the start." "But if it wasn't men, I don't know what it would be." "You got a lot of books." "I'm terrified I'll wake up in a motel room one morning and have nothing to read but the phone book." "She got big eyes." "Yeah, got a big brain, too." "What's her name?" "Dorothy Finkelstein." "She's a hotshot labor lawyer out of Harvard." "She must be your girlfriend if you haul her picture around." "We sleep together on Sunday mornings and read The New York Times." "I guess that makes her my girlfriend." "Hey. (WHISTLE)" " I'm Norma Rae Wilson." " Reuben Warshovsky." "Nice meeting you." "My pleasure." "Keep that on your nose." "I'm sorry about my daddy." "He got a short fuse." "My credentials keep me out of a lot of places." "But once in a while, someone puts me in their best bedroom and treats me like a cousin." " Ha ha ha!" " What?" "That sure as heck wouldn't be my daddy!" "You a Jew?" "I beg your pardon?" "Are you a Jew?" "Born and bred." "I never met a Jew before." "How you doing?" "I heard you all had horns." "Circumcised, yes." "Horns, no." "Well, as far as I can see, you don't look any different from the rest of us." "Well, we are." "Well, what makes you different?" "History." "Oh." "You got it now?" "Hey, it looks better." "I think it stopped." "Thanks for the ice." "Any time." "Christ, I hope not." "Good morning." "I'm from the Textile Workers' Union of America." "Read this when you have a chance, on your break." "Thank you." "Good morning." "Read this when you have a chance, please." "Thank you." "Here you go." "Good morning." "Read this when you have a chance." "I'm from the Textile Workers' Union of America." "Read this when you have a chance." "Read this on your break." "Want to read this when you can, please?" "I'm from the Textile Workers' Union of America." "You want to read this when you have a chance?" "Good morning." "You want to read this when you get home, please?" "I'm with the Textile Workers' Union of America." "Read this on your break." "Good morning!" "How's your nose?" "Read that on your break." "There's too many big words." "If I don't understand it, they ain't gonna understand it." "That fellow your friend, Norma?" "He's getting to be." " Better hurry." "You'll be late." " I don't care if I get there tomorrow." "If you have questions," "I'm at the Golden Cherry Motel, room 31." "Don't be late for work, now, folks." "Good morning." "The lady wants to go to work." "I'll catch you later." "One of you guys shows up about every four years, about the same time we get the locusts." "What's your name?" "My name's Jimmy Jerome Davis." "We got six boss men in civil contempt." "Would you care to make it seven?" "Why, hell, we plaster the toilets with them things." "Want to read this on your break?" "Asshole." "I already told him I wouldn't go out to dinner." "What's he want now?" "Maybe he wants to make it breakfast, Norma Rae." "Whatever it is, I didn't do it." "You got the biggest mouth in this mill." ""Give us a longer break, more smoking time." ""Give us a Kotex pad machine."" "Do it, and I'll shut up." "The only way to close that mouth is to promote you." "You're going up in the world, honey." "Yeah?" "How far for how much?" "Well, we're going to put you on spot-checking." "Well, hell, it sure ain't gonna make me any friends." "It'll make you another $1.50 an hour." "How am I doing, little girl?" "You doin' good, Daddy." "I think you better try to speed it up, if you can." "I'm going as fast as I can." "Yeah." "Well, they're watching me." "They're watching you." "Well, what, you're sore at me?" "You shouldn't push your own daddy." "I need the money for my kids." "Well, I don't need it from my kid." "Millie!" "Craig!" "What are you doing in Grandma's marigolds?" "Get up!" "I don't want to." "You do it anyway!" "You're filthy!" "I asked you to watch him." "Criminy!" "I cleaned you up once!" "(CHEERING)" "Come on!" "Right in here now." "That's it." "Come on, Steve!" "Come on, Steve!" "Come on!" "All right!" "They made it!" "He's got an arm on him!" "Woo!" "Hey, you want something?" "Get me a hot dog, lots of relish." " Woo!" " All right!" "Can I have a hot dog, please?" "OK." "Thank you." "Hi, Wilma." "Can I have two dogs?" "OK." "Just a minute." "Hi." "How you doing?" "You enjoying the game?" "Oh, yeah." "I love the shortstop." "Scouts are looking at him." "What's the matter?" "You don't like it?" "This isn't a hot dog." "What's in this thing?" "Lots of things you don't want to know about." "Excuse me a minute." "Hello, Norma." "Hey, Ellis." "You're looking fine." "I'm always fine." "I'm a horse." "You changed your hair." "It grew." "How's Craig?" "He lost a tooth." "It wouldn't hurt if you came by to see him every now and then." "I don't believe I can do that, Norma." "Well, suit yourself." "You always have." "Give me a Coke." "You want a Coke?" "Yeah." "Two, please." "Here, this is for hers." "All right." "Keep the change." "Here you go." "I climbed into the backseat of his Cadillac one rainy night six years ago, stuck my feet out the back window, and got little Craig off that Southern gentleman." "He ain't done nothin' worthwhile since." "Did you get married?" "He didn't bother." "I didn't bother." "My first affair, as I recollect it, was with my Hungarian piano teacher." "I was playing Smetana." "She put her head in my lap." "I played the hell out of that." "Next thing I knew, we were in her bedroom." "Her husband came home and found us." "The poor guy burst into tears." "I said, "Hey, man, I'm sorry,"" "and we all went into the kitchen and had a glass of tea." "I'm always hassling with some other guy." "That's how it seems." "What do you think of me, I wonder." "I think you're too smart for what's happening to you." "I'm over here now." "I got the jump on you!" "Come on, lady." "Come on, come on, come on!" "Mark me down." "Mark me down." "I'm over here now, lady!" "Come on!" "I'm over here." "Hey. lady!" "What you waiting for, girl?" "I'm over here now." "Come on, lady." "I'm over here now." "Come on, lady." "Come on." "You damn fool!" "You'll get us both to lose our jobs!" "(DOORBELL RINGS)" "I'll get it." "Hey." "(DOORBELL RINGS)" "I won't trouble you." "I just came to apologize." "I know I could have lost you your job today." "You sure went crazy on me." "I know." "I got handed divorce papers this morning." "I guess I went off my head." "Well, things can get to you." "Would you come and have a drink with me?" "Just to make up for the ruckus." "I'm Sonny Webster." "You used to come in my mama's bakery." "Sonny Webster?" "Sonny Webster!" "I remember you." "You stood behind the cash register and gave everybody the wrong change." "I never was too good at math." "You're telling me!" "Sonny Webster!" "Golly!" "How about that drink?" "OK." "Just wait one minute." "I heard a man's voice." "I'm going out with him." "Where did you meet him?" "Just now, on the front porch." "You're not going out." "Daddy, I'm over 21." "Let me say some names to you." "Buddy Wilson, Ellis Harper, George Benson, a U.S. sailor." "None of which is looking after you, as far as I can see." "It's my roof, my food." "You're always trying to keep men off me." "Be grateful for your daddy's love." "You're loving me to death." "(SINGING) My needs are very much alive" "Is it OK if I stop by" "It's all wrong, but it's all right" "It's all wrong, but it's all right" "God darn, that lady can sing." "And her words are so true." "I like Elvis myself." "I wish I could make lots of money by just wailing." "That don't necessarily make them happy." "What does?" "What does?" "What does?" "A man and a woman is about your best chance." "Didn't you tell me you got a gun, and you was gonna shoot your wife?" "I was gonna burn them both down, her and her boyfriend, but I couldn't." "She was a real good person when we went to school." "But then a change had come over her." "It still really amazes me." "Listen." "I'm a lot different from what I was." "I mean, you go through things." "Hey!" "Hey!" "New York!" "Hey, man!" "Hey, buddy!" "Come on over here!" "We need anybody else?" "The more the merrier." "Reuben!" "Here you are with your papers!" "Come on over." "Come on, Reuben." "Reuben, meet Sonny." "Sonny, this is Reuben Warbershovsky." "Close!" "How are you?" "Sit down!" "Take a load off." "What are you doing here?" "I'm working." "Working?" "This is a drinking place." "Can I pour you out one?" "I'll just have some plain seltzer." "You're just drinking club soda?" "You'll feel a whole lot better than I will tomorrow morning." "Reuben's trying to put a union in the mill." "But there ain't never been one." "Then maybe its time has come." "There better be more than one of you, 'cause there's more than one of them." "There will be." "Those big companies get everything they want." "You getting tired of it?" "Oh, when I do, I just wash it down with a beer." "(MAN SINGING) We never really got right down to talkin'" "Hey, you know what?" "This song on the jukebox was on the radio the night they called me up and told me my husband had been killed in a fight in a beer joint." "I knew Buddy Wilson in high school." "You did?" "Yeah." "Goll!" "He was drunk, and he got in a fight, and he broke a beer bottle." "And then this other guy, he had a broken beer bottle, too." "I went down to the funeral parlor because I wanted to see him." "This old guy says I shouldn't see Buddy because he wasn't "prepared" yet." "I don't know." "I really just wanted to see him, and my daddy wouldn't let me." "Well, that were the end of Buddy." "Far as that goes." "I'm going to drive." "I'll drive." "No, I'll drive." "No, no, gang." "This way." "I'm coming home with two men." "That will surprise the hell out of my daddy." "He sure keeps a close watch on you." "Yeah." "We're close." "He used to drive 250 miles to take me down to Crescent Beach." "He'd buy me a chicken dinner." "We'd sleep in the back of the car." "We'd wake up that morning and walk out on the sand." "He bought me this ring." "Reuben, would you pull the car over?" "I think I'm going to be sick." "Hang on." "Easy, easy." "You OK?" "Come on." "I'd help, Norma, but I think I'd give it up, too." "(RETCHING)" "That was real ladylike of me." "I did bedpans one summer at Stuyvesant Hospital." "One of these days, I'll get myself together." "Well, make it soon." "Because one of these days, I'm going to start in on you." "Read this when you can." "Got it down to two syllables." "One's better." "Good morning." "Good morning." "Read this when you have a chance, please." "Good morning, Norma Rae." "Hey, Lucius." "Morning, Linette." "Linette?" "Hey, Billy Jo." "What the hell is going on around here?" "I'm talking to you!" "Fink." "Well, shit!" "Nobody's talking to me." "Less talk, more work." "They're my friends." "I'm quitting." "You're speeding them up so you can weed them out." "You knew all that." "Yeah." "I was greedy, and I was dumb." "You can fire me." "We'll put you back in the weaving room." "Your family's been with this mill a long time." "Good morning!" "Morning." "Hey." "Hey." "We're all ready." "All of you?" "All three of us." "Well, then, everybody hop in." "Millie, you can climb in yourself." "Now, be careful." "Don't fall down." "What's your name, big guy?" "Craig." "Put your feet on the floor!" "Bye!" "Bye, Mama." "Bye, Grandma!" "I want to sit up front." "Are we there yet?" "No, you silly willy." "We just started off." "I thought we were going to the lake." "I got to make a stop." "You should have done that before we started." "This is Alice." "She's mine." "Like I always say, the more the merrier." "OK, watch what you're doing now." "Next time, you get up there yourself." "You're sure easy with your kids." "I yell at them." "I swat them." "You're a pretty woman." "I was good at 18, but things have slipped and slid." "You look all right to me." "Keep the lights low, I'm all right." "I'll take you where it's dark." "I've been there." "I don't owe a nickel in this town." "I'll eat anything put in front of me." "I can fix anything electrical." "I'm all right after my first cup of coffee." "I want that bad, though." "I got me a new job at the gas station." "I turn my paycheck over every Friday, and I come straight home from work, and I stay there." "Me and Alice, we're alone." "You got your two kids." "You're alone." "If you could help me, maybe I could help you." "It's been a long time between offers." "Kiss me." "If that's all right, then everything else will be." "By the authority vested in me, by this sovereign state," "I pronounce you man and wife." "If you like, you may kiss the bride." "Mother over here has a little homemade wine for us." "I picked the berries myself." "Thank you." "To my wife Norma Rae." "And, uh..." "I just hope I can keep up with her." "Roscoe doesn't like it, but I'm going." "I'm not asking anybody." "I'm going." "On October 8, 1970, my grandfather," "Isaac Abraham Warshovsky, age 87, died in his sleep in New York City." "On the following Friday morning, his funeral was held." "My mother and father attended, my two uncles from Brooklyn attended, and my Aunt Minnie came up from Florida." "Also present were 862 members of the amalgamated Clothing Workers and the Cloth, Hat, and Cap Makers' Union of America." "Also members of his family." "In death, as in life, they stood at his side." "They had fought battles with him, had earned bread together, and had broken it together." "When they spoke, they spoke in one voice, and they were heard." "And they were black, and they were white." "They were Irish, and they were Polish." "They were Catholic, and they were Jews." "And they were one." "That's what a union is, one." "Ladies and gentlemen, the textile industry, in which you are spending your lives, and in which your children and their children will spend their lives, is the only industry in these United States that is not unionized." "They are free to exploit you and to take away what is rightfully yours." "Your health, a decent wage, a fit place to work." "I urge you to stop them by coming over to room 31 at the Golden Cherry Motel to pick up a union card and sign it." "Yes, it comes from the Bible." ""According to the tribes of your fathers," ""ye shall inherit."" "But it comes from Reuben Warshovsky," ""Not unless you make it happen."" "Thank you." "(APPLAUSE)" "Thank you, Reverend." "Appreciate it." "Everybody should have come." "Next time." "If I have to drag them." "Hey." "When are you going to join?" "Who's got the time?" "Make the time." "I need help." "I appreciate any help you can give me." "Licking stamps, stuffing envelopes, typing with two fingers, anything." "I'll show up." "I'm here." "I'm ready to inspect your plant." "The federal government, in accordance with federal court order 7778, states the following, "The union has the right to inspect" ""every bulletin board in the mills at least once a week" ""to verify that its notices are not being stripped off."" "Do you have a trash can?" "Inside." "Keep America beautiful." "Downstairs." "Thank you." "Morning." "Morning." "Am I moving too quick for you?" "I did my running in the army." "I'm not in the army now, brother." "If you're out of shape, I'll slow down." "Keep it to a basic saunter." "Good morning." "I'm Reuben Warshovsky of the Textile Workers' Union." "What is your name, brother?" "Buffum." "How long have you worked here?" "Twelve years." "Do you like your job?" "I'd like to keep it." "You're interfering with the work." "Court order says you can't do that." "Well, then, brother, let us both keep to the letter of the law." "I ain't got no kike brother." "You didn't mean that." "I meant it." "Shit, do we have to fight?" "The bulletin board's over here." ""Bulletin board's over here"!" "Good morning." "Somebody's looking to get into a car pool." "Somebody wants to sell a basset pup." "You can pick pecans for 40 cents a bushel at Zelma Landing." "The only thing missing is my notice." "It's there." "It is?" "I don't see it." "Ah, yes." "Wilt Chamberlain on stilts could read that thing maybe." "Bring it down to eye level, brothers." "We'll make note of your request." "Why do you guys pull this horseshit?" "I'll have to call my lawyers." "That's childish." "Where's the pay phone?" "Hey!" "Rick, bring it down." "Eye." "Eye level." "Eye." "You ain't supposed to read it." "No union organizer has been here for 10 years." "I'm reading it." "Well, read fast, then." "You go read the court order that says any agent of this company can be held in contempt." "I ain't violating' no laws!" "You're violating the law now!" "Can we finish this?" "Certainly." "Where's the other bulletin board?" "In the weaving room." "Show it to me." "Rick!" "Good morning." "How are you?" "Good morning." "Good morning to you." "Good morning." "I'm Warshovsky, Textile Workers' Union of America." "Good morning." "Morning to you." "Good morning, ma'am." "Good morning." "Warshovsky, Textile Workers' Union of America." "Good morning to you, ma'am." "Good morning." "I'm in room 31 of the Golden Cherry Motel if you have any questions." "Good morning." "Good morning to you." "Good morning." "Nice." "Gentlemen, your average working man is not stupid." "He just gets tired." "You want to move this out of here, please?" "Move it." "Move the stuff." "Hey, Reuben?" "Hey." "You busy?" "Yeah, very busy." "Can I come in?" "Please." "Jeez, don't they ever clean up around here?" "I don't want them messing with my stuff." "I know where everything is." "If I joined up with you, would I lose my job?" "No way." "You can wear a union button as big as a Frisbee, talk union, as long as it's during a break, and pass along union pamphlets." "They can't touch you." "I was never a very good Girl Scout." "I'll go along with you." "You're the fish I wanted to hook." "Well, you got me." "What the hell you gonna do with me?" "Make a mensch out of you, kid." "What is that?" "Somebody who visits the old folks' home on Saturday instead of playing golf or gives a blind man a dollar for a pencil." "I'd do that." "But would you take the pencil?" "Of course." "I paid for it." "Somewhere between logic and charity maybe there falls a little shadow?" "Reuben..." "We could debate this all night." "Sign this." ""Norma Rae Webster."" "Everybody down here has three names." "Let me pin this on you." "It would cover up the gravy spot." "What do I get if I do?" "You don't get nothin' if you don't." "Besides, ain't you had enough of that?" "We used to heat up that NCO club, remember?" "Bygone days." "Then pin it on for bygone days." "Wayne, I'm proud of you." "Think we'll see that club again, honey?" "Take your wife." "She doesn't get out much." "Looks like you've strayed off the reservation, Norma." "Is that right?" "You got a coffee machine at your end." "But no water fountain." "I cool down my coffee before drinking it." "You'll cool everything!" "Hey, Reverend." "Norma." "You caught me in my shirtsleeves." "Can we have some of your flowers for Sunday?" "Spider mites eating up everything." "OK." "Somehow I can help you, Norma?" "How long I been coming to this church?" "Since you were little." "That's right." "I accepted Christ when I was 6 years old." "Would you call me a good Christian?" "With a lapse or two, yes." "With a lapse or two." "Are you a good Christian?" "That's for the Lord to say." "I want this church for a union meeting next Saturday." "That's blacks and whites sitting together." "This is a house of God." "I'm waiting to see whether it is." "You're coming close to blasphemy." "I've come here to ask God's forgiveness." "I want to see what this church stands for, and if you'll say there should be justice, a union." "And if you don't, there ain't nothin' good for me in that church." "I'll leave it flat." "We're going to miss your voice in the choir." "You'll hear it raised up someplace else." "I'll be in in a minute." "We're holding a meeting, union business." "Afterward we're having lemonade and ginger snaps." "The shades are up." "You can see in." "Washed my windows on Saturday." "You shouldn't have any trouble." "You're going too far." "How?" "There's a bunch of black men in there." "You'll get us in trouble." "I've never had trouble with black men, only white men." "I remember some of you from the church." "I did all of the talking that day." "Now I'd like you to speak." "Please." "A man's work should be a man's work, not a term in jail." "Blacks have been pushed, pulled, and scorned." "For what?" "If everybody believes in the union, I'm all for it." "Excuse me for saying this with menfolks here, but when I get menstrual cramps, which come pretty hard, they don't let me sit down on my job." "You got to keep to your feet unless you bring a note from the doctor." "We wouldn't pretend to be sick." "I look at a brick wall all day." "There used to be a window there." "They brick it up to make us feel we shut in." "My husband died of brown lung two months ago." "His children are going to grow up not even knowing him." "I got all his clothes, if someone could use them." "I'm not getting the message across." "17 people out of 800." "Well, you're an outsider." "Things move slow around here." "This isn't New York, where you grab a taxi and grab your hat." "Craig's wetting the bed." "I told him not to drink Coke before he went to sleep." "Craig?" "Come on, sugar, wake up." "Get up." "Put your arms around my neck." "You got any ideas?" "Get some corn whiskey." "We'll hit the back roads on Saturday." "Are you finished, honey?" "OK." "No more Cokes before you go to sleep." "Mr. Robinson, how you doing today?" "I'm busy." "I'm Norma Rae." "You know me." "Yeah." "How do you do?" "This is my friend Reuben." "Nice to see you." "Read this, if you will, sir, and I'll fix your tire." "How about that?" "You've got a deal." "Can you do this?" "Are you kidding?" "Let's look like we can." "Watch your hand." "I think he was taking it off." "Are you making a baseball bat?" "Hey, Joe." "Will you read one of these?" "Jay, how you doing?" "Will you read one?" "Meet Reuben." "He's a friend of mine." "How you doing, gentlemen?" "Would you like to read one?" "Elwood?" "Bob?" "I'm not interested." "You're not interested in a union?" "No." "You think you'll get a better shake from management?" "I always have." "Ow!" "Damn glad you cut it." "That's telling him." "Hey, Robert." "Hi, Norma." " We come out..." " Ah!" "It's only grass and water." "We swam here as kids." "We'd leave school, chuck off our clothes, and jump in." "The only water hole I ever saw was when we opened the fire hydrant on 110th with a wrench." "This is the life!" "It's just a mud hole." "It's cooling off my mosquito bites." "It's as clean as I can get it." "Thank you." "Whoo!" "It is hot." "I'm coming in." "Come on." "You know what?" "An old farmer used to live around here with a BB gun." "Sure hope he's moved." "Yeah." "Me, too." "What's that?" "Something's flicking around my..." "Those are minnows." "Those are what?" "Minnows." "They won't hurt you." "They better not." "You're a fish out of water down here." "It's not exactly my native habitat." "What would you do on a day like this at home?" "Play handball at the Y, go see Aida at the Met." "Eat Chinese, play poker, hit the sack." "(SINGS A SONG FROM AIDA)" "I've been two places in my life." "I've been to Henleyville, been to Piston." "Oh, you'd love New York." "You would, wow." "Super town." "Most beautiful women in the world, best food, opera, theater, ballet." "Reuben." "What?" "You're homesick." "Right." "God." "Reuben." "You got a skinny build." "Yeah?" "Sonny works out with weights." "I tried that." "I dropped them and broke my foot." "Well, you don't got to worry, because you got a head on you," "and you use it." "What?" "We got a bad connection, because the line is being tapped." "Hey, you?" "This is Norma Rae Webster." "I'm talking union to Henry Willis." "I'm on every night." "Same old story, no commercials." "Union, union, unions." "Look, have your boss man tap me." "Then you can go home to your wife and kids." "Henry?" "Shoot!" "You ain't gettin' any sleep." "Neither am I." "We're working tomorrow morning." "I got 100 calls to make tonight." "Is that going on our phone bill?" "We'll take it out of my paycheck." "That damn milk is sour!" "I didn't have a chance to go shopping." "And you didn't get to the washing, or the kids, or to me!" "Is that right?" "That's right!" "Damn TV dinners!" "Kids going around in dirty jeans!" "I'm going around, uh, without!" "Altogether!" "You want cooking?" "You got cooking." "You want laundry?" "You got laundry." "You want ironing?" "You got ironing." "You want to make love?" "You get behind me and lift up my nighty, and we'll make love." "Norma." "Norma!" "Hey." "Come this time." "Don't just nod your head." "Doris, come on." "Bring your peanut butter pie." "I heard your little one's got the measles." "Keep him away from mine, will you?" "Brenda, how's your new baby?" "Get down to the Golden Cherry." "Hey, get down to the Golden Cherry." "Sue?" "Come on, read this, every single word of it." "It's important." "Come on down." "If I got the time, you do." "I don't bump into you much anymore." "You all right, Daddy?" "About the same." "Your color's bad." "You been drinking?" "Thimbleful now and then." "It's not good for you." "What's the difference?" "I lie down and wonder if I'll get up again." "Don't talk old." "I don't like it." "Listen." "I'm coming over there one of these nights and take you out to a grand supper." "OK." "OK." "Has James gone back?" "I guess so." "Where'd he go, home?" "I don't know." "Jesus." "I ought to be going home, too." "Hey, how's Dorothy?" "Terrific." "Thanks." "I see you got a new picture of her." "You like it?" "My mother sent that." "She and your mother must get along real well." "Are you kidding?" "My mother loves her." "She's a lawyer, she's Jewish, and a great cook." "What else is there?" "How come she's so smart?" "Dorothy?" "Books." "Oh, madame, your dinner." "Le grand banana and a beer." "No." "Who's this?" "Dylan Thomas." "He was a poet, genius, and a drunk." "What's he write about?" "Love, sex, death, other matters of consequence." "Is he hard to read?" "Eh..." "Eh..." "So why should I bother?" "Because maybe he has something to say to you." "Open that, will you?" ""Rage, rage against the dying of the light."" "Yeah?" "Yeah." "Well, I'll try him." "Good." "Hell, there ain't nothin' on TV but reruns anyway." "Don't eat while you read." "I hate banana in my books." "Kvetch, kvetch, kvetch." "Warren?" "Warren?" "Nobody showed up at the meeting." "They got us on a stretch-out." "Put us on a three-day week." "Twice the work for half the pay." "All on account of you." "You stand there for a minute." "Oh, man." "There's six turnips and two quarts of water in there." "That's supper for seven people." "Sell your union someplace else." "Hey..." "My arm's numb." "I better lie down." "You got a break in 15 minutes." "I better go now." "Hang on." "Your break's coming up." "In a minute, Lucius." "Mavis, Rhonda." "Hey, Betty." "You're supposed to be here at 3:15." "It's 4:15." "Working for this union or not?" "I got my tooth filled." "You were getting your beer gut filled!" "Chew your old man out." "Get off me." "I'm giving 9, 10, 12 hours here every day." "We're doing our share of work." "Either do your share or don't call yourself a union member!" "Norma!" "Shut your cake hole." "Out of the office." "I only said what was true." "Out." "Come on." "Peter." "Get to work." "Come on." "Everybody back to work." "Mouth." "You can't come down that hard on a man." "Leave him his balls." "Easy." "Jesus." "If you were in the state department, we'd be at war." " All right." "I got a big mouth." " Um-hmm." "Cotton mill workers are known as trash to some." "The union's the only way we'll get our own voice and make ourselves any better." "I guess that's why I push." "Our own Mother Jones." "Who's she?" "She was some considerable lady." "She made it happen for the coal miners in West Virginia." "You ain't mad at me?" "If the situation ever called for a smart, loud, profane, sloppy, hard-working woman," "I'd pick you every time, kid." "How come sloppy?" "Nobody wears girdles anymore." "I didn't order anything." "Well, hey, you ate it!" "(KNOCK ON DOOR)" "What do you want?" "Warshovsky around?" "Reuben's at the printer's." "Pretty late for the printer's." "Reuben keeps them working late." "You're Norma Rae, aren't you?" "Huh?" "I'm Mrs. Webster." "We're from the union national headquarters." "Al London, Sam Dankin." "Is that right?" "I might as well give you my shopping list." "We need envelopes, stamps." "We're almost out of typing paper." "How about some typewriters that don't stick?" "We're not in office supplies, Mrs. Webster." "You aren't around much, either." "Hello, Reuben." "Sam, you're getting fat." "I've gained a couple pounds." "Al, how are you?" "Lousy." "I got a cold." "What brings you guys?" "You're not getting up a head of steam, Reuben." "You know what I'm up against." "We're worried." "That makes three of us." "It's a small, Southern Baptist town." "You got to keep your nose very clean." "Why?" "You see any snot in mine?" "Maybe Mrs. Webster would like to leave?" "Why?" "This concerns her." "I'm making it easy on her..." "It's late." "What do you want?" "If the company wants us to look bad, they'll use anything to make us look bad." "The mill hands go to church every Sunday." "She's talking union to them?" "They say she's made a porno movie with a local police officer, very explicit." "Run it for me." "There doesn't have to be a movie, if people talk like there's one." "The lady has an illegitimate child." "She's slept around." "She naps on your bed." "Are we in the union business or the character assassination business?" "After an 18-hour day, I got the Legion of Decency here!" "She's broken her ass for this organization!" "She doesn't see her kids!" "Doesn't have time for bath!" "Is this the Catholic Church?" "Are we canonizing her?" "It's your game." "You're damn right!" "Make it stick or get out!" "Get out anyway!" "I'm sorry, Mrs. Webster." "I don't want to hurt the union." "I'll quit if you want." "Weren't you supposed to be typing letters?" "Yeah." "Hey." "It's me, Norma." "OK, it's I, Norma." "Forget the grammar." "We got to talk." "Maybe we could meet at my break." "OK." "I was making sure my kids got home from school." "Your kids are with my kids buying candy." "That's why dentist bills is busting me!" "Uh!" "Come on!" "Come on, boy!" "Come here, boy!" "You thinking union?" "You want union?" "You'll get union." "Break it up!" "Break it up!" "Break it up!" "You all right?" "Yeah." "What started this?" "They put up a letter saying blacks are taking over the union, that they're going to push the whites around." "We'll take legal action." "Get me the letter." "They're watching me." "How's your memory?" "I don't know the pledge of allegiance." "Write down a line at a time." "It's like the time I pinched a lipstick." "Did you get caught?" "I went back for curlers." ""Dominate it" ""and control it" ""as you may" ""see fit." ""If now..." ""if now..."" "Damn!" "Damn, damn, damn!" ""...you black employees, by joining the union," ""can dominate it and control it" ""as you may see fit." ""If..."" "Where's the rest?" "That's all I could get." "Mata Hari." "They watched us every minute." "Here's our chance to nail them." "Don't tell me you can't remember." "You copy it line for line." "You get the date and signature." "I'll get fired." "I'll run you a benefit." "Thanks a lot." "Want a massage?" "Go to a massage parlor." "Either we get beat, or we don't get beat." "I got three kids, bills, and an unhappy husband." "I'll do it, but keep off my back." "Reuben, I'll tell you something." "What?" "You've been away from home and you're getting crabby." "Reuben, you need yourself a woman." "Funny you should mention it." "Tonight's the night." "What would Dorothy say?" ""Wear a rubber."" "You can't copy this!" "It's on the board." "I'm going to copy it!" "You better not." "I'm taking down every word!" "It's my break!" "I'm copying every word!" "Stay out of my way!" "I'm copying it!" "Hello, Norma." "You know who I am." "Put the pencil and paper away." "Stop it right now." "You're going to leave!" "The law's going to come after you!" "Mr. Mason, I started this, and I'm going to finish it." ""Serious violence."" "Let's go to my office." "Why did you make personal calls on company time?" "Spell out your names for me." "Don't be foolish, Norma Rae." "Nobody here is on my side, and I'm not leaving until I set down all your names." "I want you off the premises now!" "Phone your husband!" "Have him fetch you!" "I want you out quick!" "Norma Rae." "Forget it!" "I'm staying put!" "Right where I am!" "It's going to take you, the police department, the fire department, and the National Guard to get me out of here!" "I'll wait for the sheriff to take me home!" "And I ain't gonna budge till he gets here!" "(MACHINES ALL SILENT)" "Come on down now, Norma Rae." "Come on down, now." "You heard what I said." "Come down." "Lamar." "I want you to put it in writing that Sheriff Lamar Miller is going to take Norma Rae Webster straight home." "I want you to sign it, and I want you to hand it to me." "Don't tell me what to do." "You're getting nothing from me in writing." "You want her off the premises?" "Take her out." "I'm not sure I should get in the same car with you and nobody else." "Lamar, I ain't gonna bite you." "A police car?" "You're taking me to jail!" "No!" "No!" "No!" "Quit that now!" "No!" "No!" "You're going to jail!" "No!" "Get her in there." "No!" "No!" "No!" "Get in there now!" "No!" "Get her in." "Get in there." "No!" "Ahhh!" "No!" "Webster, Norma Rae." "704 Priester Road, Henleyville." "She's white." "Female, 31." "Occupation, textile." "Fair complexion, brown hair, brown eyes." "Arrest number, 2238B." "Charge, disorderly conduct." "Norma Rae, you go with her now." "Might as well sit down." "You got one phone call." "Better call Sonny." "I'll be calling my union organizer." "The first time you're in is bad." "It comes with the job." "I saw a pregnant woman on a picket line get hit in the stomach with a club." "I saw a boy of 16 get shot in the back." "I saw a guy blown to hell and back when he tried to start his car." "You just got your feet wet on this one." "(DOOR OPENS)" "Norma, you all right?" "I put the kids to bed." "Craig?" "Honey, wake up." "It's Mama." "I want to talk to you." "Come on." "Put your arms around my neck." "Alice, Millie, wake up." "I want to talk to you, sweetheart." "Come in the living room." "Come on." "Atta girl." "I love you kids." "That's the first thing." "And Sonny loves you." "You got the both of us." "The second thing is" "I'm a jailbird." "Now, you're going to be hearing that and a lot of other things." "But you're going to hear it from me first." "Millie." "Your daddy." "His name was Buddy Wilson." "He died four months after you was born." "Craig." "I wasn't never married to your daddy." "And he wasn't Buddy." "And he's not Sonny." "He's another man." "And there have been others in my life." "You're going to be hearing about them, too." "I'm not perfect." "I made mistakes." "Millie, these are pictures of your daddy." "Craig, I got pictures of your daddy." "They belong to you." "If you go in the mill," "I want life to be better for you than it is for me." "That's why I joined the union, and that's why I got fired for it." "You understand me?" "Now, you kids, you know what I am." "And you know that I believe in standing up for what I think is right." "Go to the bathroom before you get into bed." "Take your pictures." "Go on." "I'll take a bath." "There's lice in that jail." "She had one call, and she called you." "She knew I could make bail." "You come in here, you mix her up, turn her head all around." "She's all changed." "I didn't want her to be a front-runner." "What's going to happen to us now?" "She stood on the table." "She's a free woman." "Maybe you can live with it." "Maybe you can't." "Busted my shoelace." "There's another one in the drawer." "I busted that one last week." "Did you ever sleep with him?" "No." "But he's in my head." "I'm going to see you through getting tired, getting sick," "getting old." "I'm going to see you through anything that comes up." "And there's nobody else in my head." "Just you." "Folks, ballots tabulated for the O.P. Henley Company, against the union, 373." "(CHEERING)" "Folks, the count for the union, 427." "We got it in!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "Union!" "(CHEERING)" "You going to drive straight through?" "Yes." "You better stop for coffee, stay awake." "I got a thermos in the car." "Well..." "Well?" "Well." "Well." "Ah, so." "What are you going to do now?" "Live." "What else?" "Drop me a line once in a while." "Anyone read your mail?" "My mother." "I'll send you a copy of Dylan Thomas." "I already bought one for myself." "You did?" "Nobody can do anything for you, huh?" "You've done something for me, a lot." "Well, you did something for us." "A mitzvah." " What's that?" " What is that?" "That's a good work." "I don't say good-bye." "I have been known to cry." " Well, what do you say?" " Ahhh..." "Be happy." "Be well." "Same to you." "Best wishes don't seem hardly enough." "I..." "I'd like to thank you." "I do." "I thank you for your companionship, your stamina, your horse sense, and 101 laughs." "I also enjoyed very much looking at your shining hair and your shining face." "Reuben, I think you like me." "I do." "I was going to buy you something, but I didn't know what you'd like." "Norma, what I've had from you has been sumptuous." "(WOMAN SINGING) Bless the child of a workin' man" "She knows too soon who she is" "And bless the hands of a workin' man" "He knows his soul is his" "So it goes like it goes" "Like the river flows" "And time, it rolls right on" "And maybe what's good" "Gets a little bit better" "And maybe what's bad gets gone" "And it goes like it goes" "Like the river flows" "And time keeps rollin' on" "And maybe what's good" "Gets a little bit better" "And maybe what's bad Gets gone"