AMERICAN UNION

TYPE: Documentary Feature
GENRE: Documentary
STATUS: Production

LOGLINE

In post-industrial Alabama, Amazon workers and coal miners fight for good jobs against corporate greed. 

AMERICAN UNION is a powerful film that follows their collective fight for labor rights and dignity in the Deep South, raising troubling questions about the American economy and whom it truly serves.

SYNOPSIS

In early April 2021, Amazon workers and coal miners in small-town Alabama took on Amazon and Warrior Met Coal in two high-stakes labor battles that sparked global outcry and ignited a nationwide surge in worker advocacy. In the new documentary, AMERICAN UNION, filmmaker Brett Wallace captures the resilience and hopes of two communities in small-town Alabama fighting for their livelihoods and dignity against corporate greed. Through intimate, eyewitness footage shot at the heart of the action and rare behind-the-scenes access, the film bears witness to the most significant resurgence of the American labor movement in decades. It is a fight that transcends Alabama - it’s about what the future of work will look like.

A year earlier, Amazon opened a warehouse in Bessemer, raising hopes for job recovery in the former steel town devastated by deindustrialization. But, for workers like Jennifer Bates, toiling under Amazon’s automated, surveillance-laden management systems, hope quickly turned to despair. In the most closely watched union vote in decades, Jennifer and a small group of coworkers at Amazon’s BHM1 facility in Bessemer attempted to establish the company’s first-ever union in the United States while Amazon tried to stop them at all costs. Meanwhile, 30 miles away in Brookwood, contract negotiations between the United Mine Workers and Warrior Met Coal collapsed, leading to a two-year strike involving over a thousand miners. When Alabama Governor Kay Ivey ordered state troopers to escort strikebreakers, Braxton and Haeden Wright and their community of coal miners dug in to save their jobs and union.

Featuring candid interviews and drawing upon hundreds of hours of vérité footage, AMERICAN UNION presents a timely, intersectional perspective illustrating the challenges, setbacks, and triumphs of two unions—one established and one emerging—as they fight for labor rights in the hardest of places - the Deep South. Through the perspectives of families, union leaders, pastors, civil rights leaders, historians, and politicians, the film investigates the South’s failing economic system rooted in racial and economic injustice, which exploits workers through low-wage jobs, coordinated attacks on unions, violations of workers’ rights, and unpaid prison labor.

Too many American workers struggle to make ends meet and reclaim a voice in their workplaces to improve their conditions. In response to growing inequality, a growing wave of worker advocacy is challenging outdated assumptions about unions and building new pathways to good union jobs to build healthier communities. AMERICAN UNION raises troubling questions about the U.S. economy and asks if we, as a society, can put aside the relentless pursuit of profit that is eroding democracy and destroying communities to create a more just and fair future of work for us all. 
 

ARTISTIC STATEMENT

Growing up in a working-class family rooted in unions profoundly shaped my perspective as a filmmaker. Through my father’s job with the State of Massachusetts and my brother’s work with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), I witnessed firsthand the impact unions have on supporting working families. This experience instilled in me a deep appreciation for labor justice.

As a working artist, I have dedicated myself to exploring the complexities of labor issues through art, film, and exhibition projects. In 2016, I founded Amazing Industries, a project that serves as both an artwork and a research platform aimed at critically examining Amazon’s business model while envisioning a future of fair and equitable work.

From 2017 to 2019, as part of my solo exhibition, “Working Conditions,” I documented gig labor on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk platform and the community uprising surrounding the conflict between Amazon HQ2 and New York City. My 2021 short film, TRUCKERS, documented how new technologies and changing dynamics have reshaped the working conditions, economic provisions, and lives of America’s truck drivers. These projects have investigated the economic and political forces impacting American workers and their communities.

Throughout this project, my conversations often referenced Barbara Kopple’s riveting documentary Harlan County, USA, about a 13-month miners’ strike in eastern Kentucky in 1976. Inspired by Kopple’s film and other immersive vérité documentaries on organizing work and social change, I closely followed our story, with intimate and rare behind-the-scenes access, portraying the interconnected struggles of Amazon workers and coal miners in the Deep South fighting to save unions and good jobs. 

My background in labor justice, economics, and art uniquely equips me to direct and produce AMERICAN UNION. I have a deep understanding of labor issues from multiple perspectives. Like the participants in this film, I grew up in a union family, which supported me in building trust-based relationships and connecting with them on a fundamental level. This project is grounded in their organizing efforts, encouragement, and support and is a testament to their resilience and hope. My intention is to share their stories, deepen viewers’ understanding of what it takes to sustain solidarity and inspire the collective fight for worker power.

I aim to create a powerful and defining film that shines a light on the story and captures the essence of the contemporary labor movement in America at a pivotal time in our nation’s history and future.

Brett Wallace

KEY CREW

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