Stand up for what you believe in, not matter how hard it makes life for you… Do not give up and always say what you believe. — Crystal Lee Sutton
On Friday, a 68-year-old woman died of cancer in a North Carolina hospice.
Her name was Crystal Lee Sutton. But millions of people around the world knew her by another name: Norma Rae. And her story of courage gave inspiration to a generation of working men and — perhaps especially — working women.
In 1973, Sutton was a worker at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, N.C., where she earned $2.65 an hour folding towels. Frustrated by the dangerous working conditions at the plant, she became a leader in the movement to organize the notoriously anti-union J.P. Stevens. Management fought back with a furious union-busting campaign, eventually firing her for her efforts to stand up for her rights, but she was determined not to leave the plant without making one final statement of defiance:
I took a piece of cardboard and wrote the word UNION on it in big letters, got up on my work table, and slowly turned it around. The workers started cutting their machines off and giving me the victory sign. All of a sudden the plant was very quiet…
Management had police drag her out of the building, but the example she set made what had been unthinkable into a reality: the workers at J.P. Stevens rallied together and joined the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. In 1977, she was awarded back wages and reinstatement to her job by court order, later becoming an organizer for the Amalgamated herself.
In 1979, her inspirational story came to the silver screen, with Sally Field playing Crystal Lee Sutton in an Academy Award-winning performance. For legal reasons, the producers of the film couldn’t use the real names of the people portrayed, so Crystal Lee acquired the name by which she would become a worldwide symbol of workers’ rights: Norma Rae.
Bruce Raynor — who worked alongside Sutton in the struggle to organize J.P Stevens, and who today is the President of Workers United — remembers her in today’s Huffington Post:
Crystal Lee Sutton was a courageous woman who stood up for herself and her coworkers under the most difficult circumstances. She was an inspiration to organizers in this union and beyond, particularly Southern women who went on to lead their own campaigns after learning from her example…
Crystal Lee Sutton is an inspiration to every worker who holds out hope and is prepared to fight for justice and respect at work. Our condolences go to her family, but they should know that we will not forget her, and she continues to inspire our union and workers throughout the world.
As we debate whether or not our health insurance system needs reform, it’s worth noting that when Crystal Lee Sutton was diagnosed with brain cancer, she experienced something too many Americans experience every year — her insurance company, eyes fixed firmly upon the bottom line, refused for two months to pay for potentially life-saving medications. And while her insurance company did eventually relent and pay for the medications, much of the cost of Sutton’s treatments, including chemotherapy, drugs and two surgeries, ended up being heaped upon her family.
The North Carolina State AFL-CIO has set up a fund to help them bear that burden. If you want to help, contributions can be sent to the following address:
Crystal Lee Sutton Foundation
Truliant Federal Credit
P.O. Box 26000
Winston-Salem, NC 27114
Asked by a reporter as she struggled with cancer last year how she would want to be remembered, Crystal Lee Sutton’s wish was simple:
It is not necessary I be remembered as anything, but I would like to be remembered as a woman who deeply cared for the working poor and the poor people of the U.S. and the world. That my family and children and children like mine will have a fair share and equality.
We remember, Crystal Lee. We remember.
Comments (2)
Comments posted to CtW Connect are the sole property of the individual posting them, and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Change to Win, its affiliated unions, or its leadership.
I want the name of the insc co., I want to blog them, I want them to know: we will get univ. coverage, they will pay, they will not get huge profits, they will earn a living wage, if they are lucky. They're flippant, devil may care attitude will end and we will preserve!
Posted by TLP on September 14, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Posted on September 14, 2009 at 11:00 PM
Yes, I am looking attempting to find the name
of the insurance company. I think they need to
be made an example of for bad health care.
They are a death panel themselves.
Posted by ljl on September 15, 2009 at 11:53 AM
Posted on September 15, 2009 at 11:53 AM