MichaelMoore.com

Republic sit-in a highlight of Moore film

'CAPITALISM: A LOVE STORY' | Workers who invited him to be on the inside attend screening

By Dave Hoekstra / Chicago Sun-Times

A month after the election of President Obama, 240 workers at the Republic Windows & Doors factory staged a six-day sit-in that culminated in a layoff package of $1.35 million from Bank of America. The 1930s-style sit-in garnered national attention and neighborly empathy from Chicagoans.

The sit-in was the perfect storm for filmmaker Michael Moore.

The Republic story is one of the emotional victories in Moore's documentary "Capitalism: A Love Story" that opens next weekend on more than 1,000 screens across the country, including Chicago. (It is the biggest debut for any Moore film.)

Moore's camera crew were the only media allowed in the factory for the duration of the sit-in. Friday night, the two-hour-plus film was screened for more than 200 people at a Near North Side theater. Half of the audience was Republic workers.

Ironically, just before the screening, former Republic CEO Richard Gillman bonded out of jail after being accused of scheming to bankrupt his own company. As Gillman left jail with an ankle monitor, the workers received a standing ovation at the end of the screening.

Melvin Maclin, vice president of United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America Local 110, has a key moment in the film when he says, "We understand there were some bad business decisions, but we don't make business decisions. We make windows and doors."

Maclin, 55, was in the house.

"I loved it," he said after the screening. "I hope it influences more people to fight back and take a stand. These are desperate times, and they call for desperate measures."

Maclin understood how little victories grow into big triumphs. He said, "Not only were we able to get paid what was owed to us, but a company out of California [Serious Materials Inc.] bought our old plant, and our workers are going back to work."

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan caught the film with her husband, Pat Byrnes. "It's another Michael Moore film," she said. "It's provocative. At times it appears to be funny, but for too many people it's reality. We've been at the forefront of trying to hold the people at Countrywide and Wells Fargo accountable for what they've done to millions of families across this country so in that regard, he's dead on."

In an early-evening interview at a Chicago hotel, Moore said, "Every day I get asked, 'Gee, you're Michael Moore, it must be hard to get in to places.' Actually it's just the opposite. I'm sitting in Traverse City, Mich., in the middle of a blizzard, and an e-mail comes in from people I don't know that are inside of a factory in Chicago that they've just taken over. They've asked if I want to come down."

Union organizer Leah Fried invited Moore to the factory. "We sent him a press release on Dec. 5, the day we began occupation of the factory," she said. "I just went to michaelmoore.com, and they were here the next day. We snuck them in during the middle of the night."

Chicago Evangelical Catholic Bishop James Alan Wilkowski appears in the film counseling the sit-in workers. He was at the screening. Wilkowski is also a history teacher and uses many documentaries in his classes.

"Mr. Moore approaches the same issue from different perspectives," said Wilkowski, whose father was a steelworker for 43 years. "So its almost impossible not to get the message. It inspires creative thinking on how we are connected to what is going on. That is the magic of a person who does documentaries. I hope those who see it are empowered to work for change but also watch out for their own interest and protect themselves."