Film review—”Union” lets the organizing process speak for itself

Union (2024) takes us behind the scenes of the difficult and delicate fight to form a union at Amazon's JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island. With a real and intimate look at the people leading the charge, this film shows us just how hard it can be to stand up to a giant like Amazon.

The documentary, which premiered at Sundance in January 2024, has little work to do to get viewers onside with the organizers and workers. The union leaders who are the subjects of the film are sympathetic, and the viewer is shown hard realities about the workers' quality of life. The hidden-camera footage which exposes Amazon's union-busting tactics is the icing on the cake. In this way, the film is very successful in showing, not telling the viewer, why a union is necessary.

The story begins at the point in the campaign that the camera crew showed up to film it. The trade-off for the filmmakers' choice to have no talking heads or voiceovers is that our only source of information is what naturally comes out of the mouths of the subjects as the cameras are rolling. Simply put, if the cameras don't see it, neither do we.

Indeed, Union makes little attempt to explain complex details of the organizing process or the circumstances of the workplace. Viewers will learn little about the structure of the Amazon Labor Union, the early days of the campaign, or the decision-making processes of the organizers. The film throws the viewer into the deep end and provides just enough context to make sense of the events.

Union makes no greater effort to analyze the successes and failures of the organization, even through the eyes of its subjects. This, however, is not necessarily a shortcoming, but simply a natural limitation of its observational style. The David-and-Goliath story which naturally emerges over the course of the campaign is compelling in its own right.

Union is available to stream online until December 31. It will play in Toronto at the Hot Docs cinema at 506 Bloor St. W on January 11th and January 12th.