September 14, 2009 06:00 PM
'Norma Rae' Dead at 68 After Struggle With Her Insurance Company to Get Chemo
50 comments
By Susie Madrak

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It's the death of an American icon, a working-class woman who stood up for her rights and unionized her workplace. And wouldn't you know it? She fought the mills, but she couldn't make her insurance company do the decent thing until it was too late:

The woman whose life inspired the 1979 film Norma Rae has died of cancer after struggling with her health insurance company, which had delayed her treatment.

Crystal Lee Sutton was 68. She had struggled for several years with meningioma, a form of brain cancer.

She became a hero to the labor movement in the 1970s, when she took on her employer, a North Carolina textile plant, and unionized the factory floor. Her story became famous nationwide in 1975 after New York Times reporter Hank Leiferman wrote Crystal Lee: A Woman of Inheritance.

In 1979, her story was turned into the movie Norma Rae, a thinly-veiled fictional adaptation of Sutton’s struggle to unionize the J.P. Stevens plant in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Sally Field won an Oscar for her portrayal of the character inspired by Sutton.

As Daily Kos blogger hissyspit points out, last year Sutton gave an interview to the press where she described a struggle with her health insurer over treatment. The Times-News in Burlington, North Carolina, wrote in 2008:

[Sutton] went two months without possible life-saving medications because her insurance wouldn’t cover it, another example of abusing the working poor, she said.

“How in the world can it take so long to find out (whether they would cover the medicine or not) when it could be a matter of life or death,” she said. “It is almost like, in a way, committing murder.”

She eventually received the medication, but the cancer is taking a toll on her strong will and solid frame.

In 2008, the North Carolina branch of the AFL-CIO urged supporters to donate money to Sutton’s medical fund. On its Web site, the union had stated that “after initially being denied coverage by her insurance company for life saving treatment, Sutton is now on drug and chemo therapies and has undergone two surgeries.”

In its obituary the Greensboro News-Record describes her now-legendary struggle to unionize the J.P. Stevens plant:

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.

http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/norma-rae-dead-68-after-two-year-stru

We know she would have fought for this right too had she had the energy.

The reason the health care bullshyters can get away with this is because we are most vulnerable when we are sick. If others will not fight for us, we are doomed. Others are too busy saying it isn't their problem to care.

Her story is one that definitely helped to form me into who I am today.

May she rest in peace.

The saddest thing here is that congress refuses to acknowledge the fact that they allowed EVERYTHING in life to be commodotized. It means they managed to put a price on everything. When Health Care is for profit the good of the patient goes out the window. It comes down to BOTTOM line. 68 and grappling with cancer? Bottom line, not worth it no matter who she is unless she can come up with the money herself. "There is no cure for cancer so why waste money dealing with that?" THAT RIGHT THERE IS THE BOTTOM LINE! And what has the Deomocratic party done to deal with this? Obamacare? WE MUST HAVE INSURANCE? THEN THIS IS WHAT WE SHOULD EXPECT IN GETTING ANY TREATMENT!

If we made Insurance in general AND Healthcare Not For Profit like Germany and several other nations are now following suit like Sweden we could first of all deal with a HUGE financial bleed on our economy but it would also in turn reform the speed and transparency of Insurance and HEALTH CARE! If Germany is a Capitalist Republic as are we WHY CAN'T WE DO WHAT THE OTHER GUY IS DOING RIGHT???????? Please Explain WHY to me??? It is YOUR beloved Democratic Party who instigates this situation JUST AS MUCH AS THE PROFITEERING REPUBLICANS DO! MANDATORY HEALTHCARE INSURANCE? MANDATORY as in I MUST OR ELSE?!?!?

Now for the cost of education. Something is very very wrong here. Our education system is falling apart to pensioning and financial mismanagement. Teachers Unions are one Union I despise! Why? Allow me to illustrate and please read this carefully...

A Union I respect is the Sprinkler and Pipefitter's Union along with the Boiler and Steam Fitters Union. Both Unions do not demand outrageous up front costs. They make members apprentice and then they take a competency test to become journeymen. They hold them all to the same standard since both do work that if done wrong can and will kill people. These Unions are VERY CONCIENTOUS about who they call MASTERS (Master Craftsmen) in their trades. If they don't make the cut they don't get the title or the high pay. When you hire men of these unions to fit say a boiler for heating or the very Fire Sprinklers over your heads these men are rated professionals with the skills and training necessary to do the job right. They also have to keep their skills up to date under these Unions who have classes to update their people.

What do Teacher's Unions do? Job Security and Pensions. Nothing more. No maintenance of employee quality. No quality assurance of any kind to the end consumer namely all of us taxpayers and children and the parents of those children especially. Firing incomepetent teachers is virtually impossible and the sickest thing is PEDOPHILE TEACHERS are payed to just show up at a special office and they can retire and pension out thanks to the Teacher's Unions and the Courts not smelling BS! And Fire and Police Unions are no better! At least the Police Union of Redondo Beach did the smart thing facing layoffs. They agreed to pay cuts and they volunteer a day a week NO PAY! That saved jobs! They do indeed think about each other. And Redondo PD is a police force LAPD could learn from and especially the LA SHERRIFS who are some hard core shitte heads with guns. RDPD is the most professional PD I ever came across. We need Unions to step up to the plate and give us quality assurance and back it or get ready to go extinct. It is also time for them to adapt or die. They can pension their members if they want. Don't put it off on employers.

FACT LIBERALS OVERLOOK IN LIFE: Pensioning is a perk, not a responsibility to an employer. Retirement is the responsibility of the individual. NOT THE GOVERNMENT. That is why these programs fail. People stop doing for themselves. And poverty grows thanks to a population suckling at the governemtn teat.

ANOTHER FACT: Not all jobs offer pensions of any kind! That is a fact with most labor!

So back to the cost of education...

Likewise profiteering is going on like mad with school books and tuition. We need to lower the costs to students especially when pursuing higher education. Just the UNIT COST ALONE ARE BRUTAL. It is not something I have issue with when a school has a GPA requirement for admittance. But when a single college class can cost several thousand dollars... and Student Loans are a scam too. Like Healthcare reform we need Education Reform BADLY! Scholastically we are BEHIND THE TIMES! It takes a lot of work and a lot of effort to pay off $100,000 Student Loans.

OH BUT DOCTORS ALSO FACE HIGH MANDATORY COSTS TO OPERATE AS DOCTORS AS WELL! Look at what they pay in insurance JUST to be a doctor! So you say Doctors are screwing us? Hell they are being screwed too!

And need I digress what Illegal Immigration does to our systems when we extend it to them when they don't pay in? And when they get Health Care who pays for it? The State? And where is the State getting its money? FROM WHO YOU ASK MAYBE????

You look at a forest, all you see is trees. I look at a forest I see Elms, Oaks, Poplars, and Pine! And if I am HIGH in the Rockies I see LOTS of Aspen!

Well, here i look at Haelthcare and I ask, where does all the money go? And when I look I see a lot of grabbing hands! So who are thse hands attached to? See above for explanation!