EXCLUSIVE: In April 2022 Amazon union leader Chris Smalls and his associates in the trenches pulled off one of the most astounding feats in the annals of American labor: successfully unionizing the first Amazon facility anywhere in the country. The story of how Smalls and members of the grassroots Amazon Labor Union achieved the unthinkable is told in the award-winning documentary Union , directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing. We have your first look at the film in the trailer above.
“On April 1, 2022 a group of ordinary workers (the ALU) in Staten Island [New York] 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, with no prior organizing experience, no institutional backing, and a total budget of $120,000 raised on GoFundMe,” notes a synopsis. “ Union focuses on the journey of the worker-turned-organizers, described by ALU President Christian Smalls as the ‘N.W.
A. of the organizing world,’ whose highly unconventional journey goes from wearing Money Heist costumes at press conferences to distributing free marijuana to workers.” Under a self-distribution arrangement , Level Ground Productions will release the documentary theatrically in more than 15 markets beginning October 18.
Self-distribution became a necessity after major distributors steered clear of Union , perhaps wary of upsetting retail and streaming behemoth Amazon, or its founder Jeff Bezos. (It was obvious Amazon Prime wouldn’t touch it, but neither did Apple TV+, Netflix, Max or other potential homes for the film). Union is set to be honored at the Albie Awards at the Maysles Documentary Center in New York on September 25.
It will screen at the Camden International Film Festival in Maine in mid-September and at the New York Film Festival, which begins Sept. 27. The documentary premiered in January at the Sundance Film Festival where it won a U.
S. Documentary Jury Special Award for Art of Change. Smalls, a former rapper, began working for Amazon in 2015.
He was fired in 2020 during the pandemic for what the company claimed was a violation of Covid protocols. Smalls’ protest against his firing became the genesis of the unionization movement. Story and Maing take a pure verité approach in Union , showing the process by which the ALU first signed up enough workers at the Staten Island facility to prompt a vote on whether to unionize, and then won that vote against intense pressure from Amazon management.
(Part of Amazon’s strategy, as VICE News reported based on internal company memos, was to portray Smalls as “not smart or articulate.”). Union shows moments of dissention within the ranks of the ALU as they battled to convince workers to unionize, but it also conveys how Smalls was able to clearly articulate issues to rank-and-file employees and to motivate ALU colleagues whenever things looked bleak.
“The only thing that’s going to stop us is if we stop ourselves,” he says in the trailer. In a Zoom meeting of ALU leadership, Smalls says, “Right now, Amazon is on their high horse, and we want to punch them in the face.” Smalls recently left his leadership position with the ALU, after deciding not to run for re-election as president of the union.
That followed a vote by ALU members in June to affiliate with the Teamsters union. Deadline is told that Union’s impact team is working with Athena for All, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and dozens of local union chapters and organizing groups across the country “to ensure the film reaches a million workers across industries and around the globe.” Watch the trailer for Union above.
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