Which Side Are You On? Oscar Contender ‘Union’ Chronicles A Yearlong Struggle At Amazon Warehouse

deadline.com:

Just as the holiday season was going into full-blown commercial overdrive last month, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters launched a nationwide strike against Amazon, primarily among its delivery drivers, that ended on Christmas Eve.

Arguably, the roots of this labor dispute against the multi-trillion-dollar goliath can be traced back to 2021, when workers at the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Staten Island, New York, waged a union campaign.

Led by Chris Smalls, who had been fired earlier for protesting working conditions amid the COVID pandemic, the movement faced considerable headwinds – from Amazon, of course, which, through its anti-organizing efforts, had thwarted a similar effort in Alabama, but also from the national unions, including the Teamsters, who were slow to throw their support behind the nascent Amazon Workers Union (AWU).

As the Amazon Workers Union began to take shape, documentary producers Mars Verrone (Golden Voice) and Samantha Curley (Framing Agnes) sensed a compelling narrative, especially in light of a groundswell of labor movements happening in other sectors across the country.