Union Town Spotlights Delivery Workers’ Solidarity — SkimNews
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- Barbara Kopple completed her labor-rights trilogy with Union Town, which follows UPS and Amazon delivery and warehouse workers plus app-based “deliveristas” as they fight for better futures; after screenings in Venice and Toronto, the film is headed to Ji.hlava.
- DoorDash agreed in 2025 to pay $17 million to settle New York claims that it used customer tips to subsidize app-based workers’ wages, a concrete victory Kopple documents in Union Town.
- Union Town was motivated by delivery workers’ post-pandemic sense of being “disposable” despite their risking lives for others, with Kopple aiming to show audiences who they are and prevent them from being treated that way again.
- William was a musician in his home country, but Kopple says he cannot progress further until he becomes a naturalized citizen, a process she describes as difficult under the current administration.
- Tony Rosario, a longtime Teamster union organizer, teaches his children that one piece of kindling can be broken but a stack cannot, using the metaphor to convey solidarity and the importance of not being alone.
- Harlan County U.S.A. and American Dream kept Kopple with striking Kentucky miners and Hormel meatpackers, as well as their families, for years, shaping both her filmmaking and her return to labor stories in Union Town.
- Venice audience members stood and cheered Amazon workers after a Union Town screening, with Kopple calling the moment emotional and saying she saw their excitement at seeing their lives on screen.
Why it matters: DoorDash’s $17 million settlement gives Kopple’s documentary a concrete labor victory to document, not merely post-pandemic grievance. By placing that settlement beside workers’ organizing and immigration barriers, Union Town makes delivery, warehouse and app-based workers visible at a moment Kopple calls another important chapter in U.S. labor history.
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