‘Union’ (2024) Review – A Rousing Ground-Level Look At The Fight To Unionize Amazon

Amazon is a user-friendly and seemingly faceless organization. The instantaneous action of ordering something with a click of a button is a reflex we all use or at the least have utilized. It is comfortable, and it is easy. And yet, we seldom think about the hours and workforce it takes to propel this vast shipping conglomerate. There are real people in these warehouses with lives, challenges, hopes, and dreams. For far too long, a cog-like system traps Amazon workers. The system continues in harmony, except for its harmony for the company, which is harmony at the expense of the workers. In the film Union, Amazon workers are front and center as they band together in the hopes of forming a union in a classic David vs Goliath tale.

The film is a ground-level documentary that takes us into the lives of several Amazon workers. We are there to form this protest and, ultimately, the unionizing of the Amazon Warehouse at Staten Island. Directors Stephan Maing and Brett Story are less interested in showing us the macro effects. Instead, they concentrate more on the universal plight of the working class across America: fairness and the lack of it in the workplace.

Union is filled with rousing picket line chants and ardent battle cries for compensation, but it is more constructive than simply presenting itself as a story about Amazon’s unionization. This is a story about people’s lives and their hardships. Doing battle against a corporation like Amazon is no easy business. This is David vs. Goliath in action, which is by no means a fair or easy fight. The film showcases the battle not only for fairness but also for basic human dignity.

A challenge with a film of this scope is the massive cast of characters. Highlighting a few lives presents insights into the challenges, but the narrative can be lost. Fortunately, this film has a central character at the helm. A hero we deserve: Chris Smalls.

During the height of the Covid pandemic, Smalls, an Amazon worker, lost his job. He posted about the disarray around safety protocols for Amazon workers. He rightfully noted that the company was shipping PPE products to the rest of the world but denied similar products to Amazon workers. The blatant disregard for these essential workers sparked Smalls’s decision to organize a walkout.

The irony is, of course, that without workers like Smalls, Amazon would stall and falter. However, in the eyes of the corporation, workers like Smalls are dispensable, a fact that fuels the underdog story at the heart of this film. The ability to wage a fair fight for unionization even as Amazon deployed archaic tactics is remarkable. It further compels even those who might be on opposite sides of the pro-worker argument to stop and reevaluate their priors.

Union is straightforward in its purpose but not overly blatant in its message. This is a pro-worker film, but it wisely focuses not on grandiose rhetoric. This movie relies entirely on the small band of rebels organized by Smalls. Their goal is to take the fight to Amazon. It is inspiring, to say the least, but it is also enraging.

It is enraging because this story is a microcosm of workers in corporations and union-less companies all over America. Union is a story about the lives of the people deemed essential workers. There are people who go without fair compensation, protection, and even, at times, without benefits—all to keep the cogs of business machinery turning without question. Amazon is the villain of this story, but is a stand-in for many corporations, both large and small, who devalue the basic dignity of their workers all for the sake of a bottom-line profit.

Union feels perfectly timed. Even with the rousing success of the Amazon Labor Union, the film underscores the ongoing struggle for workers nationwide. This film is as much a battle cry for that fight as it is a quiet tale about a brave man and a ragtag band of employees who said in one voice see us and hear us. Powerful stuff, and brought to focus through the lens of cinema. 

Union is now playing in select theaters courtesy of Level Ground.