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

by Jaz Brisack

A leader of the Starbucks and Tesla union movements shares stories from the front lines to help workers organize their own workplace.Only in their late twenties, Jaz Brisack is one of the exciting new faces of the American Labor Movement. Already instrumental in successful union efforts at Nissan, Panera, Starbucks and now tech giant, Tesla, Brisack, a self-professed "labor history nerd" from a very young age, is deeply committed to the path she has chosen. Get on the Job and Organize is a compelling, character-driven narrative of the Starbucks and Tesla unionization efforts, telling the broader story of the new, nationwide labor movement unfolding in an era of political and social unrest. 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 puts everything into the context of America's long tradition of labor organizing and shows readers how they too can organize their workplace, 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.”   Richly detailed with never-before reported scenes with high-profile characters like Howard Schultz, Elon Musk, and the terrifying union-busting lawyers they hired, Get on the Job and Organize will share the long American tradition of labor and organizing and how it continues today.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, History, Labor, Self Help, Business

320 pages, Hardcover

Published April 29, 2025

Reviews

[inês · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book does an amazing job at humanizing every step it takes to unionize a workplace, as well as providing an in-depth break down of all the ways corporations try to stifle these movements, and how to overcome them.

The primary guiding line is that every place can be unionized and how essential that is for a fair workplace, regardless of pre-existing conditions. Jaz Brisack, a key organizer of the unionization efforts in both Starbucks and Tesla, gives us a quick break down of previous campaigns that obviously impacted them, as well as their own beliefs in how the labor movement is essential in ending the dictatorship of the workplace in today's hyper capitalist system. These campaigns would then inform their actions in helping establish the first steps of unionizing Starbucks.

Through a step-by-step narrative of the Starbucks campaign, Brisack provides anyone in America with a clear-cut guide that can inspire future labor movements, and provide hope in a struggle that so often can feel endless and despairing. Personally, I feel like I've learned so much about all the background work it takes to bring about a better workplace that it will be difficult to ever take it for granted again.

The scariest parts of this account are the disruptive actions of Tesla and Starbucks in their attempts at human busting. Their tactics would probably best resemble the Capitol's in the Suzanne Collins' THE HUNGER GAMES. I was shocked at the lengths these companies went to institutionalize psychological warfare against their own workers.

Finally, the attitude of international unions felt very out-of-touch, but was unsurprising. I feel like unions should allow for local autonomy instead of creating hurdles for the people actually putting their jobs on the line to organize. I hope this book starts an internal discussion on ways to ensure that things that happened in the Tesla campaign are not repeated as they almost killed a campaign they were supposedly behind, which could be perceived as a betrayal to their own organizing principles.

I would highly recommend this book to anyone (not just in America), who needs reminding on why corporations are not collectively motivated but rather profit/greed oriented, and how unions are workers better chance at having a voice in establishing a fairer, healthier workplace. This book may be a guideline following American examples, but it could also be used to inspire the labor movement at large.

As we see Europe's tumble into alt right wing, libertarian politics, this serves as a reminder that the unions and workplace checks and balances people take for granted can be taken away-fascism has never been a no-go place for capitalism.

[Dana Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exhilarating, instructive, heartfelt, funny, and motivating as hell. An absolute banger of a book.

I remember following the Starbucks Workers United campaign during the dark isolation days of the early pandemic. It was one of the most hopeful, sustaining storylines of that extremely heavy moment. Everyone I knew was talking about it (even back home in Alabama, where I lived at the time), and seeing the movement catch across the country like wildfire inspired me to dream bigger for our collective future.

As someone from the South where unions are suppressed, and as someone who has never had the chance to work in a unionized workplace, the book was also a really illuminating introduction for me into what building, winning, and having a union looks like. Full of practical tips about effective organizing, quirky asides about labor history, and a cogent analysis of how the labor movement can meet this moment, this book was a deeply persuasive, propulsive, interesting read. I devoured the whole thing in two sittings, and my dog-eared copy is littered with notes.

One of the best & most useful books I’ve read in a long while — good enough that I’ll be getting a few extra copies to pass around!

[Sin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very insightful!

[Bailey Morton · Rating 5 out of 5]

My friend wrote a book!

[Donna Mouser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Trigger warning: the book mentions someone taking their own life and I will discuss it briefly in my review.

I have heard about boycotts against Starbucks and always participated loosely, but listening to this book and all the ways that Starbucks was trying to Union Bust makes me never want to visit their stores again.

This is a narratively-told story from someone on the frontline of Starbucks unionizing during the pandemic. The writer (who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns) walks us through them starting on the job to get to know their coworkers in the buffalo store, where Starbucks first unionized store was.

The way Starbucks tried to break up the union was terrible. From giving raises “but not to those in the union, since they’re under another contract” to finding reasons to fire someone being that they are wearing a suicide prevention pin (because a member of the union committed and it became a symbol of the union).

Starbucks also dead-named employees in the union (despite their real names being in the system) and tried to steamroll the union for standing up for Palestine.

The book also briefly covers Tesla, who the author also worked with unionizing, although that effort was different since it started with the workers begging the author to help them. But Tesla retaliated (“legally”) by not firing the people who were working on the union but 40 people who were close to those people.

If you’re looking for a book that helps you understand the unionization efforts, I would suggest this one. An easy listen that gives the good, the bad, the ugly of starting a union and fighting for workers rights.

[Bri Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book largely focuses on the organization of the Starbucks union, through the personal lens of one of the head organizers, Brisack. It also provides what is probably a chapter-or-so's worth of Labor Movement history scatter throughout, as well as touches on the efforts made to organize at Nissan, Spot Coffee, and Ben and Jerry's.

All in all, I found it incredibly informative about the modern labor movement. I was especially intrigued about the concept of "salting" and the lengthy efforts made to infiltrate a workplace and positively impact it.

Admittedly, I don't know if I came to the same conclusion the author does about the purpose of a union - rather than an important milestone on our journey to overturning capitalism, I still see unions as a check on capitalism's power that allows us to reap its benefits without its oppression. I guess, in that sense, the book's message didn't land (my apologies to Jaz).

Still, I greatly appreciate Brisack's work with grassroots organizing, their breadth of knowledge of the labor movement, and their compassion for real workers (I found their vulnerable portrayal of being disillusioned with not only the companies they were fighting but also the larger-than-life union(s) that did/attempted to take over campaign power from local workers was real evidence of this.)

[Lydia Wallace · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best & most useful books I’ve read in a long while. Very much worth reading. Full of practical tips about effective organizing, quirky asides about labor history, and a cogent analysis of how the labor movement can meet this moment, it was a deeply persuasive, propulsive, interesting read. After i read it I gave it to my 23 year old daughter who is getting her Masters Degree in Architect. Highly recommend.

[Toby Mustill · Rating 5 out of 5]

A comprehensive overview of the Starbucks Workers’ United campaign and some subsequent campaigns which Jaz worked on. Well worth a read for anyone interested in labour organizing.

[Rouen Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this book as a former sbux organizer is really cray. shoutout jaz.

[Derrick Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredibly insightful and thrilling account of the front lines of the new labor movement. Workers unite👊🏼

[Noor Alam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great look at the motivations behind a unique organizing campaign that gave hope to the labor movement for a short time.