Amazon Labor Union Film Screening in Rhinebeck December 12

In the harsh winter of 2021, workers at Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse faced grueling hours, intense surveillance, and a corporate environment that left little room for dissent. A group of organizers decided it was time to organize. With freezing winds whipping around them, they set up tables outside the massive JFK8 Fulfillment Center, offering free food to workers as they handed out flyers and collected signatures for a petition demanding better pay, benefits, and working conditions. Despite the risks of arrest and legal action, job insecurity, retaliation, and harassment, the effort sparked a movement that would culminate in an unprecedented victory: on April 1, 2022, workers at JFK8 voted to form the first-ever Amazon union in the US.

Union membership in the US has significantly declined over the past several decades. In the 1950s, around one-third of the workforce was unionized, but by 2023, that figure had dropped to 10 percent, with private sector union membership falling even more sharply to about six percent. This decline reflects shifts in the economy, including the rise of service and gig industries, automation, and globalization, which have made it harder for traditional unions to maintain power.

Union, the powerful new documentary chronicling the Amazon unionization effort, offers an unflinching look at the tense, behind-the-scenes campaign to unionize Amazon’s Staten Island warehouse. Directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing, the film captures the personal and collective stakes of workers who stood up to Amazon’s fierce anti-union tactics. Shot over the course of a year, with much of the footage filmed by the workers themselves, Union is a testament to the courage and determination required to challenge one of the most powerful companies in the world. The film will be screened at Starr Cinema in Rhinebeck on December 12, and following the screening, Amazon Labor Union (ALU) organizers Brima Sylla and Kathleen “Kat” Cole will participate in a talkback moderated by New York State Rep. Sarahana Shrestha, offering a chance for the audience to hear directly from those leading the ongoing fight for workers’ rights.

Through intimate cinema verite, Union chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots unionization campaign at the fulfillment center. Led by Chris Smalls, a warehouse employee fired after he helped stage a pandemic-era walkout, the diverse band of workers—many of whom had never been involved in union organizing before—embark on a journey to challenge Amazon. The odds are stacked against them from the start, as they face an industry giant with nearly unlimited resources, no support from national unions or politicians, and internal divisions within their own ranks.

“We saw this act as an incredibly courageous and admirable rejection of those hierarchies of power,” Story, Maing, Mars Verrone, Samantha Curley, and Martin DiCicco wrote in their filmmaker’s statement. “Such a task was considered impossible—until they did it.” The documentary’s raw, behind-the-scenes footage brings the struggle to life, highlighting the relentless organizing efforts of workers who sacrificed long hours and faced intimidation and opposition from their employer.

“It was the effort itself that held so much meaning,” the filmmakers note in their statement. “The formidable sacrifice and endurance to show up after a 12-hour shift, day or night, through rain, heat, or snow, for the unrewarding and unglamorous work of organizing. The creativity and commitment demonstrated by the multi-racial, multi-class, multi-generational coalition felt electric to witness. Perhaps most moving was how the ALU combatted the purposeful alienation and dehumanization inherent in a workplace like Amazon—cultivating instead a sense of family, belonging, and dignity amongst their co-workers.”

“We know Union can inspire workers to speak to each other about the conditions of their workplace and fortify worker-organizers currently engaged in campaigns to unionize,” say the filmmakers. “This film is a cinematic portrait of a movement, and its power lies not only in documenting the past but in continuing to fuel the ongoing fight for fair treatment for Amazon workers.”

Since the completion of filming, the ALU took a significant step last summer by affiliating with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, becoming ALU-IBT Local 1. This move was followed by the election of a new leadership team, including Cole as secretary-treasurer, Sultana Hossain as recording secretary, Sylla as vice-president, and Connor Spence, a six-plus year Amazon veteran and co-founder of the ALU, as president. Despite their victory on Staten Island, the road remains challenging, especially after the October 2022 setback in Albany, where workers at the ALB1 Amazon warehouse voted against unionizing, with 406 votes against and 206 in favor.

“This won’t be the end of ALU,” Smalls said in a statement following the loss. “We are filled with resolve to continue and expand our campaign for fair treatment for all Amazon workers. When workers are empowered to take on a greedy, uncaring company with a poor safety track record and high churn rate of workers, it isn’t a loss; it’s an ongoing battle.”

Amazon operates several warehouses and distribution centers in the Hudson Valley, with at least five key facilities. The Schodack and New Windsor locations, in particular, have come under scrutiny from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cited them for serious safety violations related to unsafe working conditions. Investigations found that both facilities had exceptionally high injury rates, with the Schodack facility recording the highest injury rate among Amazon’s US warehouses.

Meanwhile, the Amazon warehouse in Montgomery has not yet seen unionization efforts, but the struggle continues as ALU-IBT remains committed to challenging the corporate juggernaut and improving conditions for its employees.

The stakes are high. With 1.5 million employees globally, Amazon is setting the standard for a future of work defined by automation, surveillance, and employee turnover rates as high as 150 percent. The company’s aggressive stance against unionization has become a major battlefront in the fight for workers’ rights in the US and beyond. The filmmakers behind Union hope that by sharing this story, they can inspire a new generation of workers to challenge the systems of power and inequality that define much of today’s global economy.

“We invite our audiences to wrestle with these contradictions, and like the ALU, to tap into your own creativity, energy, and desire for a better collective future,” the filmmakers say. The ongoing struggle for Amazon workers, and for labor rights more broadly, is far from over—but with films like Union, the fight for dignity and fairness is gaining the attention it deserves.

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