A compelling, inspirational narrative of many recent unionization efforts, from the leader of the Starbucks and Tesla union movements
Author and activist Jaz Brisack for Get On the Job and Organize, which takes readers inside the fast-paced, high-stakes campaigns to unionize companies ranging from Nissan to Starbucks to Tesla.
About the book
“Here’s the light to illuminate these dark times — an account of how workers take on corporate power and win. Even more inspiring, it’s led by Gen Z. Essential reading for anyone who cares about tackling economic inequality and saving democracy.”
—Robert Reich, former US Secretary of Labor and author of Aftershock and Saving Capitalism
Get on the Job and Organize is a compelling, inspirational narrative of the Starbucks and Tesla unionization efforts, telling the broader story of the new, nationwide labor movement unfolding in our era of political and social unrest. As one of the exciting new faces of the American Labor Movement, Jaz Brisack argues that while workers often organize when their place of work is toxic, it’s equally important to organize when you love your job.
With an accessible voice and profound insight, Brisack puts everything into the context of America’s long tradition of labor organizing and shows us how we too can organize our workplaces, from how to educate yourself and your colleagues, to what backlash can be expected and how to fight it, to what victory looks like even if the union doesn’t necessarily “win.”
About the author
Jaz Brisack is a union organizer and cofounder of the Inside Organizer School, which trains workers to unionize. After spending one year at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, they got a job as a barista at the Elmwood Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, becoming a founding member of Starbucks Workers United and helping organize the first unionized Starbucks in the United States. As the organizing director for Workers United Upstate New York & Vermont, they also worked with organizing committees at companies ranging from Ben & Jerry’s to Tesla.
