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‘Union’ Review: Amazon Is the Enemy In a Stirring Workers’-Rights Doc, But the Hero Isn’t So Steadfast
Brett Story and Stephen Maing's richly observed doc 'Union' follows weary workers at a Staten Island Amazon warehouse as they fight to unionize.
Young, charismatic and sympathetically rebellious, he quits his job at a New York Amazon warehouse over inadequate PPE provision, but doesn’t walk away: Instead, he launches an effort to establish a labor union at his former workplace, eager to improve conditions for those staying the course. Plunging into the quest of Smalls and his Amazon Labor Union cohorts with no talking-head interviews or directorial commentary, and scant onscreen text, the film is all narrative, procedurally tracking the ALU’s circuitous rise in tensely linear fashion, alert to both the systemic obstacles and personal conflicts that keep snarling up their progress. Their members range from Maddie, a young, white, comparatively privileged college graduate who hasn’t been able to parlay her degree into related employment; to Natalie, a toughened Latina who has been living out of her car for years; to anxious transit coordinator Jason, who initially finds in the union effort a sense of belonging that doesn’t come easily to him, but who needs more individual emotional support than his peers can provide.
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