Factory that inspired film 'Norma Rae' to close soon

ROANOKE RAPIDS, N.C. -- A textile mill where labor organizers claimed the first major union victory in the South, an effort that inspired the 1979 movie "Norma Rae," is closing this summer.

WestPoint Stevens Inc. said Friday that to stay efficient in a global economy, it would have to close its complex in Roanoke Rapids and lay off 320 workers.

"If there was ever an icon of that industry, this was it," said Harris Raynor of the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Technical Employees.

In 1974, the Roanoke Rapids factory, which had 3,100 workers, became the site of the first big win for labor in the South after an 11-year organizing effort. The union and textiles giant J.P. Stevens & Co. Inc., WestPoint's predecessor, agreed on a contract six years later.

The union victory became the basis for the movie "Norma Rae," in which Sally Field portrays a minimum-wage textile worker-turned-union organizer.