Norma Rae (1979), 1 hr 53 min starring Sally Fields and Beau Bridges
This drama, based on a true story, tells of a female worker’s struggle to unionize a textile plant in the South. In the course of her work for unionization, she is harassed and eventually thrown in jail by the plant’s management.
In the microeconomics sequence, it will be helpful if this movie follows labor union graphs which show how labor unions increase wages for their members (and hence costs for the firm). It will also be helpful to explain how total employment will tend to decrease as a result (I.e. a smaller quantity of labor, working for higher wages) and whether the total share of labor (quantity time wages) will increase, decrease, or remain the same. This movie was made in 1979, and since then many manufacturing jobs have moved overseas in search of cheaper labor and lower labor standards. This can also set the stage for a discussion of trade and globalization and perhaps a simple explanation of factor price equalization using supply and demand for labor curves.
Show this movie with material on labor unions and free trade versus protectionism.
Discussion Questions for Norma Rae