It’s 2023, and the union representing transportation and warehouse workers in the US is preparing to strike alongside 340,000 employees at delivery company UPS. They are calling for higher wages and better working conditions, including air conditioning—which became an especially contentious issue when a 24-year-old delivery driver was found dead in his truck on an extremely hot day.
The camera remains firmly on the side of the workers, focusing primarily on the personal reasons that lead sorters and delivery drivers to support or not support the union. Wages have not kept pace with the huge increase in workload since COVID, but some workers are still hesitant about joining the strike; those who have to survive on two or three jobs cannot afford to lose income. But, as one driver puts it: “I’m starting to understand what the labor movement is all about.” The discussions among workers in the present are interspersed with archival footage of the historic UPS strike of 1997, when workers walked off the job for several weeks.
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