‘Union’: Sundance Review

Dirs: Stephen Maing, Brett Story. USA. 2023. 102mins

A David vs Goliath story unfolds on New York City’s Staten Island as a group of former and current Amazon workers campaign to unionise the workforce in the immense Amazon JFK8 distribution warehouse. This fly-on-the-wall documentary from Stephen Maing and Brett Story tracks the triumphs and setbacks of the grassroots movement, led by charismatic organiser Chris Smalls. It is a stirring account, but, like the movement itself, unravels slightly towards the end.

A solid work about an important subject

This is not Maing’s first film to deal with the subject of workplace issues - his Sundance Special Jury award-winning film Crime + Punishment followed a group of NYPD whistleblowers exposing the truth about illegal quota practices in police departments. Story’s previous documentaries include The Prison In Twelve Landscapes and The Hottest August. Union is a solid work about an important subject. Yet, while the observational approach gives the picture an urgency and immediacy, it’s a film that might have benefitted from the addition of more contextual background information about Amazon’s labour practices. It should find further interest on the festival circuit and, while it may not be distinctive enough to tempt distributors, a streaming platform release is a possibility – although it is unlikely to turn up on Prime any time soon.

The film starts in 2021, as huge cargo ships full of goods haul themselves across the oceans and Amazon warehouse employees are disgorged from buses in the chill light of dawn. Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s billionaire founder, blasts himself into space, as a passenger on the first crewed mission performed by his aerospace company Blue Origin. Meanwhile, Smalls and his Amazon Labor Union (ALU) colleagues serve burgers and hotdogs to weary warehouse workers, winning hungry hearts and minds one by one.

That is a neat demonstration of the vast profits of the company and the cost to the employees, who get a half hour daily lunch break – barely enough time to get across the site to the staff canteen, let alone to eat. Smalls, a former Amazon worker who lost his job when he lobbied for PPE for the workers during Covid, is open to listen to the plight of the current workforce. Some find themselves living in their cars between shifts; one woman talks about the death of her sister in a workplace accident. None of the workers have job security, they can be (and frequently are) laid off with no notice.

Smalls’ team is composed predominantly of working class Amazon employees, with a few college educated idealists thrown in for good measure. And while they all share a common aim, there is mounting discord between different factions. One (white, middle class male) volunteer maintains that Smalls should voluntarily get himself arrested for the publicity. It is pointed out to him that for a Black man in New York City, getting arrested is not a risk-free undertaking.

As Amazon flexes its considerable muscle and uses every legal loophole available to forestall the vote on whether or not to unionise, tensions within the group rise. It becomes clear that, even after the workers vote to unionise, the ALU’s aim of a successful negotiation to improve wages and workers rights is still a long way off.