Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1532181
34 C I N E M O N T A G E F E A T U R E Retirement beckons, but CATHY REPOLA still has the LABOR movement in her blood Po r t r ait Leader of a By Kristin Marguerite Doidge I t's fair to say that service on behalf of entertainment workers is in Cathy Repola's DNA. After all, her father, the late Ernie Repola, played an important role at IATSE Local 683 decades before his daughter would become the first-ever female nation- al executive director for the Motion Picture Editors Guild (MPEG). " I w a s b o r n a n d r a i s e d i n a u n i o n household," the Burbank, California native said. "My father held an elected full-time position at an IATSE local representing film laboratory workers, so I grew up in that environment, and I remember him talking about union things at the dinner table, and going to IA conventions, things like that." Still, working for a union herself wasn't exactly part of her plan — at least initially. Even though her sister and both brothers were part of the film lab union, the younger Repola thought she might be an English literature professor or a writer. After college, she said, she "sort of stumbled around trying to figure out how to make a living," taking a position at what was then the MGM lot working under the ju- risdiction of OPEIU (Office and Professional Employees International Union), Local 174. "First, I got talked into being a shop steward, and I really mean talked into it, because I really didn't have an interest," Re- pola explained. "I was one of those people who always told my coworkers, 'Well, you should call the union if you think that's not right. You pay dues to them.'" Her nickname quickly became "Norma Rae" after the heroine of that labor-orient- ed film. "I'd say, 'Don't let them treat you that way, don't let them underpay you,'" she said. "And it inspired me from somewhere I didn't know existed." That's when, as she tells it, she first got into "a little bit of trouble." "I think I was a little overzealous in my representation," she said with a laugh, adding, "I believed I was doing the right thing, and it kind of rattled some people.