Get on the Job and Organize: Standing Up for a Better Workplace and a Better World

Summary

A leader of the Starbucks and Tesla union movements shares stories from the front lines to help us organize our own workplaces and “better understand the aims and goals for a resurgent trade union movement and how workers all over the country can join in solidarity with it” (Senator Bernie Sanders).

Get on the Job and Organize is a compelling, stirring 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. Here, Brisack delivers practical advice on how workers can and should stand up for their rights, especially when electoral politics seem to have failed us.

With an accessible tone, a deep love of labor history, and profound empathy, Brisack puts recent efforts into the context of Americans’ long tradition of organizing. In the process, they show us that we, too, can improve our workplaces, from how to educate ourselves and our colleagues, to what backlash to expect and how to fight it, to what victory looks like even if the union doesn’t necessarily win.

A “fascinating insider account” (Publishers Weekly), richly detailed, and with never-before-reported scenes, Get on the Job and Organize is a bold and galvanizing call to fight for the workplaces we deserve.