Real "Norma Rae" dies at age 68
Crystal Lee Sutton, the Burlington woman whose union organizing efforts were chronicled by Sally Field in the Oscar-winning movie “Norma Rae,” died Friday following a long illness. She was 68.
Sutton, became famous for her push for unionization of a N.C. textile plant in the 1970s.
In 1973, a 33-year-old Sutton was working at the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids , where she was making $2.65 an hour folding towels. The poor working conditions she and her fellow employees endured compelled her to join forces with Eli Zivkovich, a mill worker turned union organizer, and attempt to unionize the plant employees.
Sutton eventually lost her job, but the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union (ACTWU) won the right to represent the workers at the plant and Sutton briefly became an organizer for the union.
In 1977, she was awarded back wages and her job was reinstated by court order, although she chose to return to work for just two days.
In 2007, Sutton chose Alamance Community College as the repository for her historic unionization papers. She graduated from the school’s nursing assistant program in 1988.
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