Barbara Kopple returns to the frontline of American labour with a ferocious new documentary that lays bare the grim realities facing app-based delivery workers. Premiering at the Venice Film Festival, Union Town is a stirring, defiant affair that swings between the fraught picket line and the hazardous streets of New York. It is a hoarse battle cry that summons the ghosts of past labour movements, even as it highlights how drastically the cultural landscape has shifted. The legendary director offers a fly-on-the-wall glimpse into the lives of undocumented ‘deliveristas’ fighting to unionise a colossal corporate giant.
A Trilogy of Labour and Loss
Kopple’s latest feature serves as the final instalment of a loose trilogy acting as an ongoing audit of workers’ rights across the United States. It began with the acclaimed 1976 classic Harlan County, USA, which documented a Kentucky miners’ strike, before continuing through 1990’s American Dream, which focused on a meatpacking plant in Austin, Minnesota. Since those landmark productions, however, the cultural fabric has atomised considerably. Big corporations now rely heavily on a shadow economy of undocumented labour, stripping away the protections once fought for by previous generations. The director clearly sees a parallel between the struggles of the past and the fractured present, noting that while the America of old is long dead and buried, there is still reason to fight for its revival.
The Harsh Reality of the Gig Economy
At the heart of the programme lies the plight of the ‘deliveristas’ who ferry packages for the likes of Amazon and DoorDash. These individuals are technically classified as third-party contractors, a designation that leaves them utterly vulnerable. If they happen to be injured in the line of duty, they must cover the hospital bills and repairs to their bicycles entirely out of their own pockets. Furthermore, they are likely to be dismissed while they are laid up recovering at home. Kopple’s camera ensures these invisible workers have names, faces, and voices, even as the corporate bosses refuse to break cover. We hear from warehouse employees packing boxes in 105-degree (40.5C) heat, delivery drivers sleeping in their cars on a paltry $7 an hour, and exhausted migrant workers living under the constant threat of apprehension by immigration officers. The sole executive to offer a comment is Carol Tomé, the grandmotherly CEO of UPS, who materialises on a television business show to enthuse about the benefits of introducing robots into the warehouse. She giggles that automated machines would be far better, more efficient, and possess “No attitude.”
The Union Push and Political Paradox
The documentary also spotlights a concerted push by the Teamsters union to organise Amazon’s disparate workforce. This campaign culminated in a paralysing six-day strike over the 2024 Christmas period, prompting a disapproving news anchor to tell Teamster president Sean O’Brien, “You’re killing Santa.” Along the way, the film collates a lengthy and damning rap sheet of corporate negligence. Yet, the narrative also emphasises the positives of solidarity. One Teamster succinctly declares, “Jeff Bezos is Darth Vader… And we’re the rebel army.” However, the unavoidable takeaway is that this struggle remains profoundly Sisyphian. The membership is split, confused, and actively voting against their own interests. The Amazon drivers look enviously upon their UPS counterparts, while a staggering 60% of Teamster members support Donald Trump. Outside the Amazon headquarters at night, the union’s Chris Williamson maintains what is effectively a one-man picket line after everyone else has gone home, freezing his feet off in the New York slush and desperately calling for reinforcements.
A Bleak Yet Necessary Portrait
It is a bleakly potent picture that offers little in the way of easy optimism. The ghosts of Eugene Debs and Woody Guthrie may still haunt the American psyche, but the current climate offers a stark reminder that the past is long dead and buried. Kopple captures a movement that is exhausted, fragmented, and fighting against insurmountable odds. The contrast between the romanticised notion of rebellion and the cold, mechanical reality of corporate greed is starkly drawn.
Why it Matters
The systemic exploitation of gig workers represents a critical failure of modern employment law, and Kopple’s film serves as a vital, urgent reminder of the human cost behind our next-day deliveries. As corporations increasingly rely on a shadow workforce to maximise profits, the erosion of basic safety nets and fair wages threatens the very foundation of the labour movement. Understanding these precarious conditions is not merely an academic exercise; it is essential for demanding legislative reform and ensuring that the digital economy does not entirely discard its human operators.
