A strike is imminent in a pajama factory in Cedar Rapids, Iowa: The Union is seeking a wage raise of seven and a half cents an hour. Hines, the factory manager, keeps the girls on their toes by timing their production with a stopwatch and the girls respond by working at white heat in a race with the clock ("Hurry Up, Hurry Up, Hurry Up"). When Babe Williams, head of the Union grievance committee, comes to the plant's new superintendent, Sid Sorokin, to state the Union's case she finds herself attracted to him, even though she realizes he is the enemy camp.