Kristin Marguerite Doidge
It is fair to say that the service representing entertainment workers is in the DNA of Cathy Repola. After all, her father, the late Ernie Repola, played a major role in the IATSE Local 683 years, and his daughter became the first female national executive director of all time, serving as the Cinematography Picture Editors Association (MPEG).
“I was born and raised in a union family,” said Burbank, California native. “My father held a full-time elected position at the IATSE native who represented film lab workers, so I grew up in that environment and I remember him talking about union things at the table, going to the IA conference, something like that.”
Still, at least initially, working for her union was not part of her plan. Even though her sister and two brothers are part of the Film Lab Alliance, the young Ropola believes she may be a professor of English literature or a writer.
She said after college, she “somewhat happened to try to figure out how to make a living” at MGM who worked under the jurisdiction of Opeiu (the International Alliance of Offices and Professional Employees), local 174.
“First of all, I was talked about being a store housekeeper, and I mean talking because I really didn’t have any interest,” Ropola explained. “I’m one of those people who always tell my colleagues, ‘Well, if you think it’s wrong, you should call the union. You pay the dues for them.'”
After the heroine of that workforce-oriented film, her nickname quickly became “Norma Ray”. “I’ll say, ‘Don’t let them treat you that way, don’t let them support you,'” she said. “It inspired me to not know where I exist. ”
As she said, she was in “a little trouble” first.
She smiled and said, “I think I’m a little enthusiastic about how I’m performing. I believe I’m doing the right thing, which has disturbed some people. At the end of those negotiations, I decided that I wanted to go to a union to work and I don’t know anything yet. Night.”
But soon, Ropola represented the negotiating unit in negotiations and fell in love with the process, the meaning and experience behind it. She worked as an assistant business broker in the union.
The whole family
When she saw an ad in her 1992 deal with the Editors Association, Ropola took the opportunity to be hired as an assistant executive director after an interview with her ex Ron Kutak, then 776, 776. Over the years, his advice, experience and knowledge have proven to be priceless.
Kutak oversees the merger of the East Coast and West Coast Editors Association and expanded the National Post Production Alliance community, which led to the Editors Association becoming a local 700 in 1998, a national 700.
As the guild’s membership continued to grow, in 2010, Ropola had a particularly meaningful personal moment, when the union where her father worked decades ago was facing challenges as films and TV shows began shooting with digital cameras instead of movies.
“The locals find themselves having to merge with another local because they can no longer maintain economic sustainability,” she explained. “They are made up of about a thousand people who don’t want to forget because they don’t want to be swallowed up.”
At a meeting where 683 local members introduced local 700, Ropola came on stage to say her name and people began to shout her father’s name to the audience.
“They love him, and he’s highly praised,” she said. “So I’m there to make people feel like, ‘It’s going to be OK.'”
Since then, when she attended a retiree luncheon, she has heard a lot of stories about his lasting impact – not only for their careers, but for their lives. “I’ll hear about ‘your dad initiated my story,’ and ‘your dad gave me my first job’ and then ‘when I went a bad path, your dad figured out me and he saved my life.’ This is one of the important highlights of my career in the Editors Association – being able to have this cycle, family experience. ” she added.
Although her father Ernie died before her career began, she said she has been in her career and his dedication to the career.
Women’s lighthouse
After Kutak retired in November 2016, Ropola is ready to serve as the national executive director. No woman did this before.
Years ago, she began organizing informal dinners with other IA women to connect with executive board meetings, share stories and support each other informally. The initial 12 people grew up to include 25 to 30…40, then 75 to 80, and are still growing today. “I want women to get out of there and carry something with them,” Ropola said.
In 2015, IA President Matt Loeb recognized the importance of women in the International Aeronautics and Space Administration (IATSE) and established an official Women’s Commission. “This is the first time IA has had a Women’s Commission and he appointed me to chair,” she said. “I am very proud of it because it makes a difference in the lives of a group of women. There are a lot of women who are running for office because of this, and they feel more capable, less and less – it’s just growing.”
Loeb, representing women’s unremitting advocacy, awarded her the IA President Award for Outstanding Women’s Leadership Award in 2017.
There were indeed challenging times during her tenure. The basic agreement negotiations in 2018 sparked a new sense of radicalism in the local 700 membership. With this, the members’ deeper appeals were followed, asking the union to do more and do more. Repola embraces these challenges and seeks new ways to become a leader in change. She received the Ace Heritage Award in January 2020, which attracted enthusiastic applause from the audience.
“[This award] Steve Rivkin, president of ACE, said that it is reserved for people with special merit, someone who has had a huge impact on our craft.
However, soon after, the common pandemic shut down everything, and many of the approximately 9,000 guild members experienced most of the world’s most people: isolation at home, illness and fear, loss of loved ones, and most importantly, the loss of connection to each other. Ropola wants to help members stay hopeful and engaged, so she will work toward providing space for community awareness.
“For a long time, we did a lot of in-person guild events and then suddenly, all of them stopped,” Ropola said. At that time, she came up with an idea called “Coffee with Cathy,” a series of zoom meetings that welcomed members to discuss important issues in a more intimate environment, and welcomed members to stop, chat, connect or listen to speakers, including DEI experts. With the Black Lives Matter Movement in the formation, members and boards were trained.
Lasting legacy
As the world slowly returned to a new normal, the dual labor strike between WGA and SAG-AFTRA (what Cathy called “a war we all share”) has brought many members to this day. The lingering effects of these strikes – including already held or scrapped projects, already cut budgets or out-of-control production budgets to Canada or elsewhere, have made the past few years particularly worryingly involved in many categories of hard-working post-production professionals.
To help those facing hardships, the guild has developed many initiatives to help members deliver everything from health care to financial support. With concerns over how AI will impact post-production workflows, Ropola asked the board to form a thing that became the guild’s emerging technology committee in January 2023. She also rebooted the Coffee with Cathy series, creating space for members to have open conversations with her with these issues.
After tough contract negotiations in 2018 and 2021, Ropola said that participation and activism increased among the guild’s members, and she strongly believed that these sentiments would drive negotiations in 2024, which proved right when she successfully led the basic agreement contract negotiations with film and television producers with other Hollywood colleagues.
Her successor, Scott George, was coached for years and worked with Ropola and was a third-generation member of the local 683. His goal is to continue to bring strength and stability to the league in the coming years.
After announcing her retirement in August last year, the guild president Alan Heim used two words to describe her 32 years of service: grace and courage.
But she is still the father’s daughter.
“To be honest, honor and all of this stuff really make me feel really uncomfortable,” she said. “This has always been a member of me.”
To read about colleagues paying tribute to Cathy’s work, click here.
