Jaz Brisack, nationally known as a co-founder of Starbucks Workers United, has joined the Labor Center as a practitioner in residence. During their year-long residency, Brisack is working on a project to develop the “Inside Organizer School,” which they co-founded in 2018 to train non-union workers and “salts” to unionize their workplaces.

Brisack first started organizing in Mississippi, working on the UAW campaign at the Nissan factory in Canton, Miss, and volunteering as a Pinkhouse Defender at the state’s last abortion clinic. After spending one year at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, they got a job as a barista at the Elmwood Starbucks, becoming a founding member of Starbucks Workers United and helping organize the first unionized Starbucks in the United States. As the organizing director for Starbucks Workers United in upstate New York and Vermont, they subsequently worked with organizing committees at companies ranging from Ben & Jerry’s to Tesla.

At the Labor Center, Brisack is now working on establishing the Inside Organizer School as an independent organization, broadening its reach to teach growing numbers of non-union workers and activists how to organize their workplaces from within. The Inside Organizer School training laid the groundwork for Starbucks Workers United, providing its replicable model that enabled the campaign to rapidly expand nationwide. It brings together organizers, activists, and workers from a variety of industries, unions, and campaigns, creating a community focused on rebuilding a vibrant, diverse, and democratic labor movement.