Heralded as the most important win for labor since the 1930s, Union captures the Amazon Labor Union's historic grassroots campaign to unionize thousands of their co-workers and take on one of the world’s largest and most powerful companies. Winner of U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award at Sundance. May Day screening.
On April 1, 2022, a group of ordinary workers made history when they did what everyone thought was impossible: they successfully won their election to become the very first unionized Amazon workplace in America. This feat would be extraordinary for any union, let alone the Amazon Labor Union (ALU), who did it with no prior organizing experience, no institutional backing, and a total budget of $120,000 raised on GoFundMe. Described by ALU President Christian Smalls as the “N.W.A. of the organizing world,” the group’s persona and strategies are highly unconventional, from wearing Money Heist costumes at press conferences to distributing free marijuana to workers. A core emotional arc arises out of the journey of these worker-turned organizers through a series of political battles, pivotal strategic events, and interpersonal tensions that test their commitments and their solidarity. Up against a corporate superpower and with legal protections at a drastic low for workers, all odds are against the ALU. Yet this rag-tag ensemble remains unswayed in their beliefs in collective action and the dignity and power of the working-class. [104 min; documentary; English]
Union co-director Brett Story was an IU Cinema guest in Spring 2024 - catch up on her work and approach to filmmaking with Final Draft: Brett Story on Film.
"Capturing the ascendancy of the working class, Union is a key addition to the canon of workers’ cinema." — Edward Frumkin, The Film Stage
"Although it depicts a small struggle to give some workers the dignity all deserve, it’s more compelling as a dystopian tale about how megacorporations are our modern-day empires, seeking to expand their purview and influence, no matter the human cost." — Alan Zilberman
"Union may be a vérité work, but it never lets us forget the humanity of everyone in front of and behind the camera." — Alison Willmore, New York Magazine
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