‘Union’ Directors Release New Short Documenting December Strike At Amazon, As Their Award-Winning Feature Film Goes For Oscar Nomination

EXCLUSIVE: The directors of Union are releasing what might be called a mini-sequel to their Oscar-shortlisted documentary feature. The companion short, titled Local One, can be watched below or on the Field of Vision website.

In their 10-minute short, directors Stephen Maing and Brett Story document in verité style the largest strike in the history of Amazon, the $2.3 trillion retail behemoth founded by Jeff Bezos. The labor action sprang up almost a month ago at the height of the Christmas package delivery season, with workers at Amazon facilities dotted across the country picketing for better wages, benefits, and working conditions, and a demand that Amazon negotiate with them on a contract.

It’s impossible to imagine the strike happening without the events shown in Union, a film that made the Oscar shortlist despite having no U.S. distribution. The documentary explores how ex-Amazon worker Chris Smalls and allies launched the first successful unionization drive at an Amazon “sortation center,” a warehouse located in Staten Island, New York, overcoming intense opposition from Amazon management.

The successful vote for the Amazon Labor Union took place in April 2022. Two years later, the ALU affiliated with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union (the Teamsters, as the documentary illustrates, initially displayed reluctance to back the longshot unionizing bid by Smalls and allies).

“If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon’s insatiable greed,” Teamsters General President Sean M. O’Brien said as the union announced last month’s walkout. “We gave Amazon a clear deadline to come to the table and do right by our members. They ignored it. These greedy executives had every chance to show decency and respect for the people who make their obscene profits possible. Instead, they’ve pushed workers to the limit and now they’re paying the price. This strike is on them.”

In the recent footage captured by Maing and Story for their short, strikers chant, “Amazon Prime, white collar crime!” Another chant takes aim at the company founder: “Hey Bezos, the people over profit!”

“Almost one year since Union premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize for the Art of Change, Maing, Story, and producers Samantha Curley, Mars Verrone, and Martin DiCicco have released a follow-up short film with Field of Vision that reveals the workers’ most recent headline-making campaign,” notes a release. The new film “includes several of the Union film participants as they lead the strike at JFK8 [in Staten Island], this time in solidarity with hundreds more workers across the country. The short also documents some of Amazon’s latest retaliatory efforts against workers, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who has seen the feature. It is another heartfelt testament to the longitudinal efforts of collective action and change-making.”

“Our commitment to the labor movement, the workers documented in our film, and those who have joined their efforts since, didn’t end with the film’s release,” filmmakers Story and Maing said in a statement. “When we heard about the impending strike, our team knew we needed to document it. As the administration changes hands next week, the rights and dignity of workers have never been in more peril. This is an ongoing story that has implications for all of us. We hope audiences continue to champion workers’ efforts and that our film, and this companion short, might be a small part of that.”

Watch Local One here: