UNION follows the efforts of Chris Smalls (founding President of the Amazon 
Labor Union or ALU), Connor Spence (current 
President of the ALU) and a dedicated group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island. Up against one of the most powerful companies on the planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in Staten 
Island, New York. Through intimate cinema vérité, UNION chronicles the extraordinary efforts of an unlikely group of warehouse workers as they launch a grassroots union campaign at an Amazon fulfillment center in Staten Island, 
New York. Led by the charismatic but underestimated Chris Smalls, the diverse band of workers start the Amazon Labor Union (ALU) and embark on a journey against one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. The odds are stacked against them, as the group finds itself up against a tech industry 
giant with unlimited resources, without major support from national unions or politicians, and while navigating internal divisions within their own ranks. Co-directors and co-producers Brett Story and Stephen Maing join us to talk about how and why they decided to document the struggle of ALU organizers and supporters from day one, offering a gripping human drama about the fight for power and dignity in today’s globalized economic landscape.
For more go to: unionthefilm.com
Monday, June 23, 2025 at 10pm ET on PBS Television;
Streaming Available on PBS App Until August 31, 2025
About the filmmaker – Stephen Maing is an Emmy-award winning filmmaker based in New York. His feature documentary CRIME + PUNISHMENT, which he directed, filmed and edited, won a Special Jury Award at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, an Emmy Award for Outstanding Social Issue Documentary and was shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. His previous films, HIGH TECH, LOW LIFE, which he directed, filmed and edited over five years, and THE SURRENDER, have screened internationally and were released on POV and Field of Vision, respectively. Maing is a 2021 United States Artists Fellow, Sundance Institute Fellow, NBC Original Voices Fellow, John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim Reporting Fellow and a recipient of the IDA’s prestigious Courage Under Fire Award shared with the whistleblowers of the NYPD12. He is a frequent visiting artist and educator based in Ridgewood, Queens.
About the filmmaker – Brett Story is an award-winning director, producer and writer whose work pushes the formal boundaries of political cinema. Her films have screened in theaters and festivals internationally, including at Sundance, CPH-DOX, and SXSW. She is the director of the feature films THE PRISON IN TWELVE LANDSCAPES (2016) and THE HOTTEST AUGUST (2019), and the author of Up against one of the most powerful companies on the the book PRISON LAND (2019). THE HOTTEST AUGUST was a New York planet, a group of Amazon workers embark on an Times Critics’ Pick and was called one of the best documentary films of 2019 unprecedented campaign to unionize their warehouse in by Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, among others. Brett has held fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the Sundance Institute, and was named one of Variety’s 10 Documentary Filmmakers to Watch. In 2020 she was nominated for a Cinema Eye Award for Best Director. She holds a PhD in geography and is currently an assistant professor of Cinema at the University of Toronto.
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88% on Rotten Tomatoes
“Captures both the pain and the power of people at the base of a global infrastructure.” – Isaac Feldberg, ROGEREBERT.COM
“Undeniably political in its focus while being artful and observational in its approach… Simmers like a present-day techno-thriller.” – Alison Willmore, VULTURE
“A document of solidarity, in which the scandal of the gig-economy model registers on a human scale.” – Doreen St. Félix, THE NEW YORKER
“A story of complicated people power.” – Chase DiBenedetto, MASHABLE
“An indelible portrait of the modern American labor struggle.” – Ben Travers & Anne Thompson, INDIEWIRE
“Stylistically haunting, politically urgent, and guided by its subjects’ journeys rather than a predetermined structure.” – Alison Willmore, VULTURE
“From the rousing leader dismissed for leading a walkout to the activists handing out free burgers, pizza and weed, an inspiring new documentary charts the long, hard fight to create the delivery giant’s first union.” – Heather Stewart, THE GUARDIAN
“Grapples with what it means to tell an underdog story without a satisfying ending.” – Ella Fanger, THE NATION
“As much a portrait of a struggle as it is a win.” – David Fear, ROLLING STONE
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