Directing duo Brett Story and Stephen Maing bring light to the Amazon union struggle in the new documentary Union. The feature follows a group of current and former Amazon workers who attempt to unionize Amazon employees working at the JFK8 facility in Staten Island, N.Y., capturing their struggle as they build support for their movement.
The footage in the film shows actual ALU members documenting the harsh conditions behind the scenes to “prove that this was not a loving, level playing field,” Maing told Variety. The documentary focuses on the union founder and president— and former JFK8 warehouse employee– Chris Smalls as he was beginning to gain media attention in Spring 2021 after he helped organize a work stoppage.
When asked if Amazon founder Jeff Bezos would react to the documentary, Story admits, “I don’t know if he will ever find out [about it].” Maing says, “A single documentary is not going to take down Amazon.”
Without a distribution, Union has yet to start streaming, but with Bezos possibly not approving the film, mainstream streamers might step back from the project. But Story says it would be “really smart and strategic to buy a film like this” given that “[i]t’s a really political generation. This is the kind of film that could have a huge audience.”
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