A new documentary on the formation of the Amazon Labor Union – the first union at America’s second-largest employer and one of the most significant organized labor victories in decades – premiered on Sunday at the Sundance Film Festival, a major distribution festival at which Amazon will be bidding.
Union, directed by Brett Story and Stephen Maing, tracks the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) from its early organizing efforts at the JFK8 warehouse on New York’s Staten Island in spring 2021, through a contentious vote to establish the union in April 2022. The approval by a two-thirds majority, considered a watershed victory in the nascent new labor movement, made JFK8 the first unionized Amazon workplace. The mega-corporation, which currently employs 1.5 million people in the United States, disputed the terms of the election. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) dismissed the complaint, which the company has since appealed.
