At first glance, the workers’ demands seem straightforward: longer breaks, higher wages, job stability, and basic dignity. Yet, the film quickly demonstrates that achieving even these minimal rights is filled with obstacles. Amazon, deploying its vast resources, launches an aggressive anti-union campaign. Workers are bombarded with anti-union propaganda: posters in hallways leading to the bathrooms, compulsory meetings where managers paint the union as a financial scam, and targeted efforts to distrupt workers. The film does more than present a battle between workers and management; it reveals the internal struggles within the ALU itself. Organizing a union is never a seamless process, and Union portrays conflicts between founding members, differing strategic visions, and tensions around leadership and representation. These behind-the-scenes disagreements humanize the movement, reminding viewers that collective action is inherently messy and shaped by diverse personalities and motivations. These conflicts do not weaken the film’s message but rather reinforce the difficulties of sustaining solidarity in the face of immense pressure.

The documentary also carefully constructs its narrative around personal stories. We are introduced to key organizers whose experiences of exploitation or injury at Amazon become the moral force behind their activism. By foregrounding these testimonies, the film aligns with Ari Gandsman’s analysis of human rights documentaries as representational practices. As Gandsman argues, such films often rely on three elements: the identification of suffering subjects, the contextualization of their grievances within a broader system of injustice, and the articulation of a call to action. Union follows this structure: it first situates the warehouse workers as individuals enduring harsh labor conditions; it then links their struggles to Amazon’s corporate practices of extraction and disposability; and finally, it frames the creation of the ALU as both the narrative arc and the urgent call to action.

What makes Union especially powerful is the way it situates labor rights within the broader discourse of human rights. The right to fair wages, safe working conditions, and freedom of association are foundational principles of international human rights frameworks, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 23). By showing the denial of these rights in one of the wealthiest companies on earth, the documentary implicitly raises the question: if even Amazon workers in the United States must fight for these basic protections, what does this reveal about global labor struggles? A particularly moving moment in the film comes when a worker recalls the exhaustion of being unable to see family because of grueling shifts, while another describes the humiliation of being constantly monitored for productivity. These testimonies emphasize that the issue at stake is not only material survival but also human dignity.

The filmmakers’ aesthetic choices also contribute to this human rights framing. Interviews are shot intimately, with workers often framed in their own homes or familiar spaces, visually underscoring their humanity beyond their role as Amazon employees. The contrast between these tender portraits and the cold, industrial footage of Amazon’s warehouses further reinforces the dehumanizing nature of the corporation’s labor model.

Ultimately, Union forces viewers to grapple with the fragility of collective power in the face of corporate behemoths, while also inspiring hope by showing that grassroots organizing, though imperfect and conflict-ridden, can still achieve monumental victories. The ALU’s success in securing union recognition at one warehouse, against all odds, becomes a symbolic triumph far beyond Staten Island. By connecting personal suffering to systemic injustice, and by framing labor rights as a human rights struggle, Union exemplifies how documentary film can function as a tool of both representation and resistance. It aligns with the tradition of social justice documentaries that not only document but also intervene in real-world conflicts. As viewers, we are left with the challenge the film presents: to recognize that behind every package delivered in record time lies a worker whose humanity demands acknowledgment, respect, and rights.

References:

Gandsman, Ari. "Human Rights Documentaries as Representational Practice: A Narrative and Aesthetic Critique." Academic Quarter| Akademisk kvarter (2012): 8-19.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Article 23) https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

The article was created as part of the UniVerzió program, in collaboration between the Verzió Film Festival and the Department of Film Studies at Eötvös Loránd University. Instructor: Beja Margitházi.