Don’t worry if you didn’t make it to the Capitol Theatre! The film is available to stream for free now.
The new documentary “Relighting the Flame” premiered in Cleveland on Monday night, with director Carl Kriss joining United Steelworkers (USW) International President Dave McCall and Cleveland-Cliffs’ Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer Lourenco Goncalves to unveil the film, which profiles the workers who are rebuilding American industry.
The 26-minute film, available to stream to for free on YouTube, follows a new generation of workers at several Cleveland-Cliffs facilities in the Midwest, who share how their careers in steel are helping support their families and the communities around them. Much of the action centers on Cleveland Works in the Forest City, which infamously shut down in December 2001 after then-owner LTV Corporation filed for bankruptcy due to rising imports.
As the film depicts, the USW led a massive effort to get the mill reopened, working to help the newly formed International Steel Group purchase the plant and put an innovative contract in place to get steelworkers back to work. Now owned by Cleveland-Cliffs, Cleveland Works is considered one of the most productive steel facilities in the world.
McCall was on the front lines of that effort. In remarks given before the film began on Monday, he said that the documentary reminded him of “the sacrifices that our members and our retirees made some 20 odd years ago, to make sure that that flame got relit at Cleveland Works.”
“It was those dark days where we all stuck together, because we knew that we would make steel in Cleveland again, and today, it’s one of the most productive steel plants anywhere in the world, because of the hard work and talents of our members,” McCall said.
The film is an important one, McCall said, because it shows what can be done when you have the right management and union members working together.
“This tells a story of revitalizing steel in America, and I think it’s one of the greatest stories anybody can see and tell, because it’s about the heart and soul of working America.”
Goncalves echoed McCall’s remarks, calling the film a blueprint for showing the nation how American industry can not only be rebuilt, but can thrive.
“I found a partner in the USW that I thought I’d never have. This is a case study for this country going forward. What we are doing, Cleveland-Cliffs and the USW, is a case study on how to make the middle class strong again, with no politics,” Goncalves said. “Ourselves, for ourselves. Getting our plant better, getting our environmental controls in shape, being able to operate a plant within 2.6 miles from Cleveland downtown, that’s very unique.”
For Kriss, Relighting the Flame is a bookend of sorts, as he previously directed the film Bring It Home, which chronicles the closure of the General Motors Lordstown plant in Ohio. That story was a sad one, with workers sharing how they didn’t want to the plant to close, how they didn’t want to leave their homes to find new employment.
But Relighting the Flame is the opposite, showing the positive that can happen when a plant reopens and thrives.
“A steel mill really is a melting pot, for a lack of a better term,” Kriss said. “It’s incredibly diverse and high tech and creative. There’s so much problem solving that happens in a steel mill. And people are starting to realize how important blue collar jobs are, especially post covid.”
Goncalves told the crowd that earlier in the day, he had a meeting with Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JP Morgan & Chase Co., and invited him to visit the mill.
“I said, ‘next time we’re at the Great Lakes, I’ll take you to Cleveland Works. I want you to see real life, I want you to see where America is real America, where the middle class is thriving and improving. This is not a thing that we are going to be resolving for the next year or two years or three years, this is generational.”
Watch Relighting the Flame below or on YouTube.