Chris Smalls on the frontlines of the Amazon Labor Union
Noni Ford discusses the historic events at the heart of the new documentary from award-winning filmmaker Brett Story and her co-director Stephen Maing.
When you envision a march, a rally, a union, you picture a group of people formed under one ideology or at least one countervailing belief that ties them together. For the leader, you imagine a figure almost saint-like in their work and measured response to the forces that are trying to suppress them and their constituents’ voices. The portrait you have painted in your mind is far from the truth of what it takes to push change and effect lives in this world. With movements and leadership come strife and a heap of different ideological ways to solve the issues facing those affected.
Union is not a neat story with a bow on top; you’re not getting served the cookie-cutter turn of events that surrounded the campaign to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, NY. You are seeing the thornier sides of this process and divisions within the group alongside the triumphs and massive gains throughout a year of action. These moments aren’t shown to illustrate the pitfalls of organizing, but to better let viewers understand that the road to progress is not absent of struggles. Snapshots like these, and the environmental interior shots of the warehouse, bring us into the moment of recognizing the stakes and the intensity of the people to change what seems insurmountable at times.
No one’s fervor is subdued and that’s why there is so much conflict amongst the union organizers. The stakes are high and they know that each window of time passing is important to get them the votes needed to finally change the working conditions around them. People are flawed, the work situation is untenable, and hope is hard to come by. We see Chris Smalls, the president of the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), stoke up excitement and promise amongst workers while also seeing him sometimes unable to cede the floor when he feels efforts are being funneled into a direction that’s ineffective. Just as we see workers, who outwardly have no similarities, fighting together, the divisions can become more pronounced when each side is not fully taking in the perspective of another, such as during a conversation at a shared tent when they talk about a potential arrest on the horizon and one party is thinking more about the signal it will send while the other is thinking about the safety of the detainee.
We know the three-act structure, and because it is so familiar, and comforting, we try to frame stories with it by nature. But documentaries are not always simple stories, they are visual recountings of significance in a specified time period. They aren’t funneled down to us in digestible chunks, they are shown to us through a blindingly focused lens. We can look away from them, but that’s not the reason we see them. We see documentaries in order to find the reality of a situation we want to learn more about. We go to them to see unvarnished truth and that is what Union presents you with.
Press conference for the ALU
No frills and no heroic story, just a recording of a historic unionization effort and all of the work that went into it, from passing out flyers everyday when the worker’s bus arrives at the warehouse, to tabling outside at nearly all hours, to protesting inside the building as Amazon attempts to dissuade workers from joining the campaign. There are no shortcuts or lucky breaks; even when another union organizer remarks on the “miracle” of their union’s achievements, someone quickly corrects them. Miracle denotes a divine blessing or good fortune that happened to fall into everyone’s lap. This was not that, and miracles don’t lead to unionization — people do.
This one story captures a microcosm of a bigger shift of “blue-collar” laborers realizing the conditions they are working in, and the treatment they receive in no way reflects the impact and profit they are creating for these billion-dollar corporations. It’s often remarked by the subjects of the documentary how fundamentally overworked everyone is at this facility with so many hours standing up, long shifts, and increasing demand for higher rates of task completion. The instability of being fired with little forewarning or care is a looming threat always, especially as retaliation which is shown as a tactic the company employs when it feels the workers are expressing pro-unionization sentiment. Everyday is treacherous for Union’s subjects because loss of income and housing are potential consequences they face for the right to challenge Amazon. That level of stress is simmering beneath the surface of any meeting and interaction, which is why it can be so uncomfortable to take in as the feature builds on its stakes.
Starbucks workers picketing
Amazon, Starbucks, and Trader Joe’s have all been businesses that have been using different tactics and some overlapping strategies to squash the unionization efforts of their laborers. The workers are not just giving up, though, even during setbacks, because while the companies are focused on profits these people are fighting for their lives to be better and for the futures of others. And it is a laborious fight due to the ways certain companies (like Amazon) are using the system to put off changes and progress for these established unions. These efforts have not been in vain, though, as much as the corporations would love that outcome. They have formed communities and sparked mobilization in other parts of the private sector.
Culturally and historically the pandemic cannot be discounted as an impact of the current labor union journey in 2025. In 2020, people were reflecting on the way we work, what makes work essential, and their places in society. Out of this came a better recognition of labor performed all around us and our reliance on jobs that are a huge component of the US’s society, and through this came more support for unions. This is only one portion of the story, though, because even without this occurrence the conditions had been set and were rising. The people were overworked and underpaid. And there was never a reason for any of it.
There is no knowing what the future holds or how this reality will continue to develop, but one thing is certain. Baristas, graduate workers, and Amazon workers along with many others have stated what they need. Now we listen.
Union will be screened at IU Cinema on May 1 as part of the New Americas Cinema series. The screening will also include the short film Local One, directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s coda to Union.