Norma Rae, Ted Kennedy and the Employee Free Choice Act

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/4903/norma_ra... /

Tuesday September 15 2:55 pm

Norma Rae and Teddy Kennedy are dead.

Well, the woman on whom the 1979 Academy Award-winning movie Norma Rae was based – Crystal Lee Sutton – died Sept. 12. Sen. Kennedy died just weeks earlier on Aug. 25.


Sally Field portraying Crystal Lee Sutton in the film Norma Rae.


Brain cancer felled both iconic labor heroes.

It was a hell of a start to the AFL-CIO's 26th Constitutional Convention in Pittsburgh this weekend.

Caroline Kennedy stood in for her uncle Monday, telling the delegates she'd promised to speak on his behalf. She asked the delegates to devote themselves to the labor struggles to which Sen. Kennedy had dedicated his life, one of which was the Employee Free Choice Act.

Passage of the act, which would ease union organizing and completing first contracts, would definitely be a cause for celebration by industrial organizations and federations of labor.

Crystal Lee Sutton's story reinforces why it's vital Congress pass the act.