The film “Union” was made when Joe Biden promised to be the most pro-union president in U.S. history—he even joined a picket line. Labor responded fittingly during his four years in office. The filings for unionization election increased to their highest level in a decade, and so did union victories. Unions won elections at Starbucks and Amazon, and unions succeeded in organizing a major foreign auto plant in the South. To top it off, a walkout by the United Auto Workers achieved major contract gains. But Trump’s victory in the recent 2024 election means that labor is bound to face great difficulties in organizing and achieving recognition from the National Labor Relations Board in the future. Trump may be able to talk to “the people” to win elections, but he is committed to the interests of billionaires and economic elites, with many of them clearly feeling there will be no restraints on their profit-making activities for the next four years.
The observational documentary “Union,” directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing, depicts the organizing of a union in a vast, alienating Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island. The film eschews any narration or exposition for close observation of the daily work of organizing a union against the opposition of one of the most powerful companies (one with unlimited resources) in the world. It is a company that can treat its workers exploitatively and high handedly—disciplining them without warning and firing them without cause. The leader of this fledgling union, the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), is Chis Smalls, a charismatic, passionately committed, somewhat flawed and controlling father of three who had taken up organizing after being fired from Amazon for protesting the lack of COVID protections for workers. He is supported by other dedicated Amazon workers and some professional organizers who have joined the struggle. One limitation of the film is its inability to more than merely sketch its major characters, including Chris, who is the one who comes most alive.
No established union gives them more than modest support.
Chris and his fellow activists spend much of their time in a tent outside the Amazon center talking to workers, offering them free hot dogs and hamburgers with the hope of getting them to sign up for the union. There are conflicts that arise, but there is something genuinely communal and familial that the activists, some of whom have given up their lives to organizing the union, have established among themselves.
It is a tough multiyear struggle during the COVID pandemic. Inside the centers workers attend orientation meetings where union busters attack the union for charging oppressive dues, and in one scene outside the plant, New York City Police and plant security people arrest Chris for trespassing. The union garners enough signatures to run to represent the workers in the fulfillment center and wins the bargaining election. It is not a victory that a Hollywood film would conclude with, for in the aftermath, the union messily breaks up into factions, loses collective bargaining votes at smaller Amazon centers, and affiliates with the Teamsters. Amazon has also continued to stall on negotiating a new contract. It is a great win, but just a step in struggling against a monolith like Amazon. In this Trumpian moment, however, any victory for the forces that represent an expansion of democracy and equity is an inspiring one.
