Sept. 22, 5pm: Join the United Campus Workers for the first in a series of labor-themed film screenings. Free and open to all.

First up is the 1979 award-winning classic Norma Rae, featuring actors Sally Field, Beau Bridges, and Ron Leibman. Like a lot of her family before her, Norma Rae works at the local textile mill, where the pay is hardly commensurate with the long hours and lousy working conditions. But after hearing a rousing speech by labor activist Reuben Warshowsky, Norma is inspired to rally her fellow workers behind the cause of unionism.

Her decision rankles her family, especially her fiancé, Sonny, and provokes no shortage of contempt from her employers. The film is based on a real-life union organizing campaign at J.P. Stevens Mill in Roanoke Rapids, NC. Norma Rae is based on Crystal Lee Sutton. Reuben Warshowsky, the union organizer, is based on Eli Zivkovich, a 55-year-old former West Virginia coal miner. In 1974, thanks to the efforts of Sutton and Zivkovich, workers at J.P. Stevens Mill voted to join the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union. However, it took 10 years for the union to get a contract. Some real-life events are re-created verbatim in the movie, including Norma Rae holding up the “UNION” sign and the plant workers shutting down their machines.