JUSTIN ALO, TEAMSTERS LOCAL 542, SAN MARCOS, CALIFORNIA IN WHO MOVES AMERICA
The power of labor organizing seen in a major contract negotiation for UPS
Democracy is fading in America. The main reason for this is the growth of extreme inequality. The gap between the majority who do the work and the minority who own most of the wealth has returned to the level of the "robber baron" era or "Gilded Age" Gilded Age, From 1870 to 1900 so we have returned to the inequality of 150 years ago, or worse. It's possible to earn enormous wealth through the high tech industry and the stock market, and the super rich aren't taxed as they would have been in the post-War era from 1944 to 1963, so they hold onto and accumulate more and more and buy the poliTics they want. Another element is the weakening of labor, the organization of working people trough labor unions, which started to grow in the 1940's and peaked in 1954, reaching an all-time modern low in 2022-2024. But this film shows that there is still some energy in the labor force to exert its rights. This is about a major contract negotiation of the Teamsters Union for a deal with UPS, the United Parcel Service. There is a lesson and a hope here. This is a powerful little film.
The UPS workforce is 340,000 strong. In size UPS is between the USPS and FedX, delivering 18% to 21% of the parcels shipped. Who Moves America follows the six months leading up to the 2023 UPS contract agreement. The sakes were large. A major consideration was the 60% of the UPS workforce that is "part time." This category has come to be a degradation of labor in itself, an exploited class. The last big contract negotiation, when the workers went on strike for 15 days. This time they did not, but took a union-wide vote on the contract and approved it, at the end of a period of negotiation, which the film follows. Given that that last big strike and contract was before many workers were born, this was truly a generational moment.
There are three 'stars' of the film because it follows three main UPS workers: a new California driver, Justin Alo; a 1997 strike veteran in New York, Antonio Rosario: and a part-time Kentucky warehouse worker, Nailah Weller. We also see the stubby, pugnacious Sean O'Brien, the General President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who makes announcements, includingthe one of the voted contract at the end. WE get a few glances at UPS executives or their reps making announces. We don't observe high level negotiations between management and labor. But we do get a picture of the involvement of the rank and file: public meetings, local gatherings, and klatches over lunch or coffee where workers gibve their feelings or describe what iw hapening, or where older workers talk about the events of 1997.
Who Moves America provides a sense of this being specific people by following those three, and Sean O'Brien. It also captures a feel of the mass of brown-uniformed (and some un-uniformed) workers following events tensely and excitedly, organizing and being organized.
Perhaps something new here and a key strategy of the union is a series of "practice pickets" : the film captures rank-and-file workers marching outside logistics warehouses and sorting facilities as a high-stakes rehearsal. This was both an organizational and communication tool for the union and the employees and a device to prepare for an actual strike as well as show UPS that they are mobilized and prepared. They are a demonstration of strength without the sacrifice of a full-on strike. We hear plenty of complaints of how hard it will be to strike because the workers, especially the part-timers, have too little money to pay for basic necessities, starting with rent.
The young California driver gets praise from another, who says he seems great at getting others to speak up and get involved. We get a sense that working in a union when it is being tested is something that has to be learned. Why are part-timers not much in evidence at meetings? Because they are working at three jobs, someone says. Yet crucially, their case was made a sticking point and they had to be given a significantly better guaranteed wage.
The most timely item is air conditioning in the trucks. In a time of climate change there have been drivers who have died of the heat after working long hours in a vehicle withotu A/C. A/C was promised. But all the trucks aren't going to be immediately replaced, and one driver sayis he may retire before he gets to see it.
Hopefully this film will be seen by young people who will learn from it about the powerful force that unions can be in this country, and about work forces, and democracy.
Who Moves America, 87 mins., premiered at True/False (Columbia, Missouri), showing also at DOC NYC, San Francisco, Austin (AFS Doc Days), Middlebury and Vancouver. US theatrical release Sept. 9 (AFC, New York), 2026 limited and Sept. 24 (L.A.) wider.