Under a current political administration that’s focused on deregulation, benefiting the corporate bottom line at the expense of everyday workers, it’s a dark time for the labor movement in the U.S. Two new documentaries—Yael Bridge’s Who Moves America and Barbara Kopple‘s Union Town—distill this unfriendly climate by observing a shared union conflict: the Teamsters’ 2023 struggle for a new UPS contract.
Who Moves America takes a more focused approach, zeroing in on the UPS fight from the union and workers’ perspectives, following their step-by-step approach as the possibility of a strike approaches, before the company returns to the table and the union is able to negotiate for many of their demands. Union Town goes macro, looking at just how many people work to deliver goods, and how badly they’re treated by their companies. Kopple’s lens expands past UPS workers to those subcontracted by Amazon, forced to take on inhumane workloads with nary a break to eat or use the bathroom, and those exploited by apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash, where they’re offered no health insurance and given similarly punishing schedules.
Both films, however, expertly capture what’s at stake for all of the workers they feature. Kopple, who previously covered labor labor movements in Harlan County, U.S.A.and American Dream, is no stranger to the back-and-forth wrangling of support for a common cause, but Bridgelistens in on workers’ conversations about what even the slightest of pay bumps could afford them, and hears from parents ready to make sacrifices for a strike if it means they can get attentive care for their special needs child. The doc personalizes the fight, illustrating how each of the union’s demands could make significant changes to individual employees’ well-being. The documentary also ties in video footage from the last major UPS strike in 1997 as a visual reminder of what the union has accomplished with the hope that it can be done again.
Both films listen to union members nervous that layoffs will come for them and upend their lives. Both capture the uncertainty of full-time workers risking their needs for the sake of part-time workers, many of whom can’t participate in union activities because they have multiple jobs or family care to juggle. But the party line remains the same: It is better to improve the lives of more workers than just a segment.
Union Town captures the democratic process in its rawest form, as dissenting members who want more in their next contract speak up against the majority that just wants to get back to work as soon as possible so that their families don’t go hungry. Each film gets a sense of just how much work it takes to run a union drive, but watching both movies juxtaposes the well-oiled machine of the Teamsters with upstarts like the Amazon union and the scrappy delivery drivers uniting as Las Deliveristas in New York City. It is hard work to greet people face-to-face with flyers and signs, answer the same questions over and over, and meet anger and resistance from the company and cops alike. But as one of the Teamsters reps teaches his young sons, there is power in solidarity, and using twigs in their yard, shows that they are stronger together than if they are apart.
That optimism pervades Who Moves America, which ends as the UPS union membership votes overwhelmingly in favor of the proposed new contract. The job here is done until the next contract negotiation, a few years away in 2028. Union Town complicates this a little, including both the feel-good news of the UPS workers’ hard-won victory as well as the ongoing struggles facing Amazon workers, many of whom were retaliated against for participating in union activity, and delivery drivers, many of whom are now caught in the crosshairs of ICE raids—adding another enemy to fight along with the companies that steal their wages.
Union membership is finally making a comeback after decades of decline, a sign of changing public attitudes towards unions in the face of increasing income inequality. But while Who Moves America gives filmgoers a tidy victory, Union Town is a reminder that there is still much more work to be done to protect those who keep New York—and the rest of the country—running.
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