Organizers Beat Amazon in Complex and Important Labor Documentary “Union”

This is a strange, uncertain time for labor rights and union power. On the one hand, worker concerns are reaching new highs in many sectors, while the Republican presidential candidate barely made a splash on the campaign trail by insulting auto workers by saying the job could be done by a child.

However, union organizing is on the rise, and no cause seems more exciting than the grassroots movement co-founded in 2021 by Chris Smalls. organize work for Amazon employees at a warehouse in Staten Island where he was fired. And if firing sounds like a character disqualification, then in Brett Story and Stephen Main’s gripping documentary The Union, you’ll learn that consistently firing employees for the right reasons is the key to success. The giant’s net profit is a trillion dollars. Disposability is how Amazon maintains draconian control over its workers’ fragile sense of security, depriving them of the will to fight back through unionization.

But with Amazon also playing heavily in the entertainment sector, does this fearsome corporate power explain why one of the most celebrated documentaries to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival failed to secure a mainstream release and is now self-distributed? ? This is probably true, say the creators of the Soyuz. Watching footage of Smalls and his fellow volunteer organizers strategizing against virulently anti-union Amazon — setting up registration tents in freezing weather, disrupting forced anti-union rallies, even handing out free weed — has added resonance. “Union” feels like a truly independent film that was in the right place at the right time and witnessed one of the greatest labor victories in generations.

But it also means exposing all the tensions that arise when eager activists from different walks of life, with ideas and egos but no playbook and no support from national trade unions (though they don’t try), must learn to stay focused and motivated. the struggle is intensifying. The filmmakers stand firmly on the side of labor, just as Barbara Kopple chronicled the miners’ strike in her iconic documentary in the early ’70s. “Harlan County, USA.” And aside from a run-in with the police that irritates one sensitive organizer, there’s thankfully nothing like the gun violence seen in Copple’s film.

But you will feel disheartened as faith wavers, accusations of insensitivity begin, and one avid supporter feels defeated and ultimately votes against forming a union.

Repeated images of a massive barge loaded with shipping containers send a curious two-pronged message here: Amazon will continue to operate no matter what, but so will the unionization efforts. The good news that ended up topping the headlines in 2022 is a fair celebration, but the subsequent difficulties we see reinforce the notion that the union needs cohesion, direction and support beyond a star organizer having a well-deserved moment.

Smalls is a decidedly charismatic rabble-rouser as he chronicles Union’s banner year. But in a calmer moment, reflecting on when he was fired after trying to force Amazon to comply with COVID protocols, he articulates what is forgotten in the nuanceless David and Goliath rhetoric: The goal is for everyone, top to bottom, to prosper. . “They didn’t realize how invested I was in the company,” he says, almost wistfully. Sober and sincere, “Union” allows us to see what Amazon and the world will soon learn about energy workers if they invest in their dignity first.

This story first appeared in Los Angeles Times.