LARB Radio Hour

The Fight to Unionize Amazon


Listen Later

Kate Wolf speaks with filmmakers Brett Story and Stephen Maing about their new documentary Union, which is out in theaters now. It follows, in real time, the forming of the first ever Amazon union in the country, the ALU, at the JKF8 plant in Staten Island. Later in the conversation Chris Smalls, the president of ALU, joins as well. Chris began to petition for the Amazon union after he was fired by the company in March of 2020 for walking off the job in protest of the lack of Covid safety precautions at the plant. The film picks up about a year later as Chris and his fellow organizers are gathering signatures to ratify their petition to formalize the union process. It captures the ensuing months of grueling work by Chris and other ALU members as they try to convince the 8,000 plus workers at the JFK8 plant that a union is in their best interest. The film is an object lesson in the many tactics needed for political organizing, and the inevitable discord that comes with it, both from the outside—in this case, one of the biggest companies in the world—and from within as well. Also, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, author of Survival Is A Promise: the Eternal Life of Audre Lorde, returns to recommend Audre Lorde's The Black Unicorn.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

LARB Radio HourBy Los Angeles Review of Books

  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9
  • 4.9

4.9

123 ratings


More shows like LARB Radio Hour

View all
Bookworm by KCRW

Bookworm

573 Listeners

The Book Review by The New York Times

The Book Review

3,901 Listeners

Otherppl with Brad Listi by Brad Listi

Otherppl with Brad Listi

500 Listeners

The LRB Podcast by The London Review of Books

The LRB Podcast

291 Listeners

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry by David Naimon, Tin House Books

Between The Covers : Conversations with Writers in Fiction, Nonfiction & Poetry

445 Listeners

New Books in Critical Theory by Marshall Poe

New Books in Critical Theory

143 Listeners

London Review Bookshop Podcast by London Review Bookshop

London Review Bookshop Podcast

120 Listeners

The Shakespeare and Company Interview by Shakespeare and Company

The Shakespeare and Company Interview

90 Listeners

The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,648 Listeners

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing by Mitzi Rapkin

First Draft: A Dialogue on Writing

179 Listeners

The Paris Review by The Paris Review

The Paris Review

786 Listeners

City Arts & Lectures by City Arts & Lectures

City Arts & Lectures

371 Listeners

On the Nose by Jewish Currents

On the Nose

222 Listeners

Ordinary Unhappiness by Patrick & Abby

Ordinary Unhappiness

201 Listeners

Critics at Large | The New Yorker by The New Yorker

Critics at Large | The New Yorker

563 Listeners