THE STORY – A group of current and former Amazon workers in New York City’s Staten Island challenges one of the world’s largest companies in a unionization battle.
THE CAST – Chris Smalls, Angelika Maldonado & Connor Spence
THE TEAM – Brett Story & Stephen Maing (Directors/Writers)
THE RUNNING TIME – 100 Minutes
On April 1st, 2022, business communities worldwide were shocked to learn that the employees of an Amazon distribution center in New York voted to form a union, the first such Amazon enterprise to do so successfully. Amazon? The retail behemoth that reflexively crushes any effort at unionization? Beaten by a bunch of workers in Staten Island? The nation’s leading business observers were utterly baffled. Not so surprised, however, were producers Samantha Curley and Mars Verrone, who, back in 2020, became intrigued with the story of Chris Smalls, a 5-year Amazon manager who led a walkout of the warehouse over Amazon’s lack of COVID precautions and was summarily fired for his efforts. The producers saw a story there and brought on filmmakers Brett Story and later Stephen Maing to co-direct the chronicle of Smalls’ grassroots effort to form a union so that the workers could collectively bargain with Amazon.
That film, “Union,” begins with a shot across the bow at Amazon’s owner Jeff Bezos, followed by footage of his ride in the rocket ship Blue Origin, for which he paid $5.5 billion to enjoy four minutes of weightlessness. Then, it cuts to Chris Smalls in the cold, flipping burgers to hand out to the Amazon warehouse employees, hoping that someone—anyone—would be willing to stop and talk with him about forming a union.
Rather than relying on talking heads to tell the story of the struggle to unionize, Story and Maing have chosen to make their documentary observational. Quickly gaining the trust of the movement leaders, they simply recorded events as they occurred. It’s a risky approach, as the success of any such film can largely ride on unanticipated events that are out of the director’s control. But Story and Maing have lucked out with their charismatic leading man because, around Chris Smalls, interesting things just seem to happen.
After attracting a high media profile with his appearances on news shows after his firing, Smalls attracts allies willing to help set up the grassroots effort: Maddie, a young, committed white woman determined to make a difference; Jason, who is good at his job but is hindered by his emotional neediness; and Natalie, a Latina who has been hardened by life and who, while committed to the workers’ cause, begins to have doubts about Smalls’ leadership.
As interest in the union picks up and its crowd-sourced funding increases, Amazon begins to take notice of the upstarts, at first by harassment and then by a heavy-handed advertising campaign against the unions. A poster initiative quickly slaps anti-union ads on every available hallway and bathroom stall. However, the company’s clumsy efforts backfired, with resentful employees beginning to flock to the union table, though the hot dogs, pizza, and (the clincher) free weed certainly helped. Once there, many were eager to sign the petition to get Amazon to allow an election to be held to determine whether or not their workers want to be represented by the newly-named Amazon Labor Union (ALU).
Labor regulations can be confusing, but Story and Maing lay out their narrative clearly. For there to be an election, for example, valid signatures from 30% of the warehouse’s labor force are required. Here’s where Amazon turned one of its biggest liabilities into its greatest anti-organizing strength: the company’s turnover rate of 150%, one of the worst in the industry, meaning there’s a constant flow of employees being hired and then fired. So when the time comes for the ALU to submit its petition signatures, the number of signers who were once employees but whom Amazon has let go causes the initial petition submission to fall short. Only through the diligence of Smalls and his team will the union eventually gather enough current employees and the election will be allowed to proceed. And history was eventually made.
Had the filmmakers left it there, “Union” would have been hailed as a crowd-pleasing David-vs-Goliath story that would have made audiences feel good about themselves. What’s so impressive about the film is that Story and Maing weren’t content with that and decided to take it to the next level.
Being embedded so deeply in the ALU movement, they couldn’t help but witness the growing seeds of dissension within the ranks. Folks had been grumbling about various slights throughout the campaign, but the growing cause for concern was Smalls’ increasingly autocratic “my-way-or-the-highway” style of leadership. Natalie, in particular, felt that his style showed enormous disrespect to those who fought so hard alongside him. In a heartbreaking scene with Maddie, she lays out just how disillusioned with the cause she has become, culminating in the shocking image of Natalie on the day of the vote, carrying a picket sign urging workers to vote against the union. If Chris Smalls was the key to the success of the Amazon Labor Union, his tactics may yet prove to be its undoing.
By focusing on this remarkable grassroots success at one Amazon warehouse, “Union” provides audiences with a complex look inside the American labor movement, with both the joy of coming together with a shared purpose to protect the worker and its darker side of personalities getting in the way of effective implementation. The film serves as a stark reminder that while victories for the American worker can still be achieved, the struggle is ongoing.
