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How a small group of Amazon workers took on big business and challenged traditional unions | Kenan Malik
- Union, a documentary, narrates the battle to unionise Amazon warehouse, Staten Island. Amazon is known for often using devious tactics to stifle the unionisation of workers aimed at crushing unions.
- The documentary follows a small group of Amazon workers and ex-workers as they try to establish the Amazon Labour Union (ALU). The central figure in the story is Chris Smalls, a former worker at the Staten Island warehouse.
- Despite the odds, the ALU triumphed, and Amazon was forced to recognise the union in April 2022; however, Amazon has refused to negotiate with the union using lawyers to drag the process.
- The experience of being working class is significantly different today than it would have been even half a century ago.
- As they have lost members and power, unions themselves have transformed, their leaders preferring to cultivate political influence than to organise industrial action.
- That sense of betrayal, combined with a lack of any alternatives, has pushed sections of the working class towards politicians and parties that are among the most hostile to working-class interests, from the far right in Europe to Donald Trump in America.
- Elon Musk, whom the president-elect has tasked with cutting government bureaucracy and spending, has refused to countenance unions, and sacked workers for union activity and criticising his policies.
- In such a world, an organisation such as the ALU, that shows the practical possibilities of building solidarity, becomes more important than ever.
- Union is a portrait of the difficulties and conflicts that attend attempts to forge solidarity; it is not simply a feel-good David and Goliath drama but an exploration of the messy reality of building solidarity.
- An organisation that challenges corporations and defends working-class interests without tumbling into bigotry becomes more crucial in today's world.
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